The Sopranos ending was pure genius, and if you follow closely, you know exactly what happened.
I know what happened and I didn’t have to “follow it closely” to do so. It was deliberately obscure and deeply unsatisfying, a betrayal of the expectations of its loyal audience.
The Sopranos ending was pure genius, and if you follow closely, you know exactly what happened.
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I’ve read that the Sopranos ending borrows from 2001, which many people find to be infuriating. I love it, though.
The statement was made "when it happens you won't see it coming." The hit man entered and exited the bathroom BEHIND Tony and his field of vision: when Tony got wacked, he never saw it coming... immediate, permanent "fade to black" because Tony was dead and could no longer see anything in this life.
They tried to kill Tony in the series THREE times and as the saying goes: "The THIRD time's the charm". Just before the hit takes place Tony's daughter symbolizes this fact: she is seen trying to park her car outside the restaurant. She fails the first two times and finally succeeds on her THIRD attempt before entering the restaurant.
Before getting hit, Tony says the restaurant "has the best onion rings in the city" ...harking back to the police chief's remarks from The Godfather before he gets wacked saying "this restaurant has the best veal in the city". In both cases, the hit men came out of the bathroom to do the deed.
These are but a few of the facts/hints the creator of the series and director of the final episode sattered throughout the episode to prove, without a shadow of a doubt that Tony Soprano was dead and wasn't coming back.