Hardly anyone flinched, raged, gasped, or wept for the terminated mafioso.
Do you know why?
Because hardly anyone myself included even knew that it had happened.
Now that, my friends, is the definition of a perfect mafia hit.
Hes Dead?
Nor did I think of cutting to black.
I had a scene in which Tony comes back from a meeting in New York in his car.
That requires further analysis.
Meadows a bit late, and seems to be having trouble parking her car.
Just as Meadow reaches the diners door and pushes it open, Tony looks up and… blackness.
This was the ending …
This was the ending?
It took me a while to realize that Tony was a goner.
Theres noDa Vinci Codeat work here, people.
Its more like a Magic Eye drawing.
Tony Soprano was shot.
You just have to concentrate to bring it all into focus.
It Goes On, and On, and On, and On?
You probably dont even hear it when it happens, right?
We already knew Tony spent his life looking over his shoulder.
Hed been arrested multiple times, and had a gun charge hanging over him that wouldnt go away.
Many of his guys had flipped.
Some had been seduced by the allure of Johnny Sacks former family in New York.
People had tried to kill him.
You already got shot.
Now you wont even go down to get the paper.
Who is out there?
What are the million other possibilities?
The FBI waiting to take you away?
What Really Happened
They wanted to know that Tony was killed.
They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know?
And now you want to see him killed?
You want justice done?
Youre a criminal after watching this shit for seven years.
David Chase in 2021.
There is anarticleonline called The Sopranos: Definitive Explanation of The END' that reads like a university dissertation.
This was the tome that opened my eyes to Chases master-stroke.
Tony selects Journeys Dont Stop Believin' from the jukebox.
Heres where Chase starts to get clever.
The bell establishes a pattern of shots and elicits from us a Pavlovian response.
Ding, raised brows, eyes, ding, raised brows, eyes.
We know somethings wrong, but we dont know what.
The entire scene is a rising, silent scream of tension.
Every moment and movement is pregnant with dread.
We know we just know that something big something bad is going to happen.
Tick, tick, tick.
Ding, raised brows, eyes.
This is Chases way of saying: Watch this guy.
I wouldnt be imbuing him with this much significance if he was just going for a piss.
I knew there was something more to it.
And, boy, there was.
Meadow finishes parking, and we see her dashing towards the diner.
Dead or in the can.
Big percent of the time.
In fact, those two scenarios were the only viable options open to Chase, and he knew it.
So what could Chase do?
Oh, the boss of a criminal organization has ended up in jail.
What an unexpected and clever twist.
How, in the end, maybe its only the moment that matters.
Or maybe the little moments… that were good.
But theres no question about the meaning of those final seconds.
Just a little more literally and finally this time.
