Posted on 06/11/2007 4:33:46 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
I have been perusing the message boards tonight to see the reaction to the series ending episode of The Sopranos and it seems the natives are restless. Many seem to feel it is a cop out and that all the creators of the show did was set it up for a possible feature film or a "to be continued" at some other time. They say they are disappointed with this "non-ending."
I can't disagree more.
In fact, I think it is a brilliant ending that befits the entire series.
What made this series is that there was always a sense of foreboding, a sense that violent death could occur at any time. It pervaded the series through and through. At the end of some episodes, when nothing bad happened, you never felt a sense of relief. Maybe a tad bit of disappointment, but never relief. No relief was ever in the offing because there was more to come and the violence and shock was always just around the corner. The tension never let up.
Tony seemed like the lovable rake until he snapped and strangled someone with his bare hands his friends were never safe from either his ire or the ire of those he crossed. This is one of the few series where major characters died in every season. From Big Pussy, to Chris' girlfriend Adriana, to Christopher himself, among so many others, major character's lives were never safe during the run of this show. Just like that of real gangsters who's lives dangle by a thread because of their unsettled and dangerous avocation.
(Warning, spoilers are here. If you have not seen the episode do not read further)
The whole last show was replete with warnings of death. Talismans of death and harbingers float in and out of frame. It swirls around Tony like a whirlwind. Yet, as the show progresses, we come to think he and the surviving members of his crew might be out of the woods.
We maybe even get the haunting feeling that doomed Uncle Junior is still on his game as Tony confronts him at long last in the mental ward. Joon gives a slight, sardonic smile during Tony's questioning. Is he still in there? Playing at the mental case to escape his fate? Maybe, maybe not. We never get a full answer, but doubt remains. Hope remains that he isn't lost to the mists of mental degradation.
AJ seems back on track, Meadow, Tony's daughter is doing well, Sil is not, but at least he's alive. Things might be OK at long last?
The family has all come out of hiding sure that they have made nice with the bosses in New York. It all went too far, they say. It's done. Even the Fed that has occasionally slipped Tony intel over the years accidentally let's his relief over come him in front of another agent. "We WON!", he yelps, only to become self-conscious by the outburst.
Still, as Tony sits down with his family to eat in a highly public, family styled restaurant, we aren't sure it's over. There's that tension still. Something still seems unresolved, something unsettling is still hanging over us. Tony sits with his back to the doors to the bathrooms. A goomba looking man has been staring at Tony from the counter since he entered. What is this guy's problem? Why does he keep glancing at Tony. He seems smooth, not worried. What gives him this sense of resolve? Is he not aware that Jersey and New York have made up? What is his deal?
The goomba lurches past the booth where Tony sits and disappears into the darkness of the doorway that is situated at Tony's back. We see him no more in these waning seconds of the episode.
Meadow is having trouble parallel parking, but finally gets the chore done. She runs across the street to join her family at the booth inside the restaurant. Will she get hit by a car as she hurriedly crosses the street? What seems so uncomfortable? We hear the bell of the restaurant door opening.
Tony looks up with that affable expression.
Then...
The screen goes black.
No music plays as the credits roll.
End series.
WHAT??? THAT'S IT??? Scream these disgruntled fans on the message boards. "This is ALL there is to the ending?", they carp.
Yes, that's it. And I'll tell you why it is brilliant.
This series wasn't really "The Sopranos", this series was Tony Soprano. It is and was all about him. From the therapist's office to the Bada Bing to the kitchen getting coffee to the occasional bloody murder, this show was all about Tony Soprano.
Now, remember a few episodes back when Tony and his doomed brother in Law, Bobby, were talking in that boat on the lake? Remember how they were saying that no one hears or sees the one that ends up getting you in the end? Bobby sure didn't. He turned around in a toy store and two full magazines of 9MM bullets from two New York thugs snuffed him out. He didn't even have a chance to say a word. One minute admiring a toy train the next split second cast into the great here after.
Boom, boom, boom. Over. There was no indication he even realized what was happening.
So, here we have that last scene of the series. A goomba looking man enters a black doorway behind Tony. Tony looks up to see Meadow enter the restaurant at the tingling of the door bell.
Then blackness.
You see, Tony neither heard nor saw the "one that got him".
And, since the show was all about Tony Soprano, when he ceased to be... so did the show.
Blackness.
No more music.
Into the great here after.
Brilliant.
And at long last, the tension is over. And we all get our just rewards in the end.
Yeah, I get that a lot from liberals and other know-it-alls. If you want somebody to tell you how stupid you are, ask the guy who thinks he’s a “genius”. ;>)
So now we are one step from liberalism if we liked the ending to the Sopranos. I label you an intemperate philistine. I spit in your general direction. I evict you from the salon. Your inner vision needs corrective lenses. You would label Monet's vision bourgeois. You would correct Lincoln's grammar. You would heap aspersions on Shakespeare and take Twain to task. Ptttoui! I say it again, pttoui. I spit your opinions from my mouth.
The Prisoner takes the cake for vague show endings. Probably because so little of the show made sense in the first place, there’s real hope going into the last episode that at least something will be explained, instead not only are none of the primary questions going into the last episode explained the last episode goes out of it’s way to raise MORE questions (the biggest of course being “what the hell did I just watch”). And it’s amazing to me how steadfast McGoohan has remained in refusing to explain anything about the show, of course by this point he’s probably to senile to remember the answers that were only in his head. But he’s been very dedicated to providing only vague answers to every question about the plot of The Prisoner, while actually being pretty open and thurough in discussing the creation of the show.
Thanks for mention Butch Cassidy. I’ve had this niggling feeling in the back of my head since last night that this ending was somehow familiar but I just couldn’t place it. Now with your post it’s placed.
In retrospect, so obvious, but the onion rings...
Remember how they showed each Soprano in turn taking a full onion ring onto the tongue then into the mouth? Did it feel a little odd?
The onion rings symbolized the last rites for the Sopranos at the table. It was the Eucharist before death. The manner they took the rings is startling when remembered in that light and is another hint that they were killed.
“Best onion rings in New Jersey,” echoes the line, “Best veal in the city,” in Godfather when Michael goes to the bathroom, brings back the gun, and kills the guy.
I think you may be on to something with both the “best onion rings in the city” and the “onion ring eucharist.” Now I’ll have to replay the ending . . .
“It’s a stupid interpretation. The last scene was looking at Tony. If he was shot we would have hear a blast, seen a flash, or seen a gun. None of it happened.”
WRONG!! Meadow walks in, Tony hears the noise and you see him look up. Now ask yourself what the next scene should be. You’re right, it should be shot from Tony’s perspective as he sees his daughter walk in. And what do you see? A blank screen and silence. Tony has just been whacked and he didn’t hear the shot that got him. Check and mate.
As it was no elegance, no satisfaction. But then that's Hollyweird where a whole season can turn out to be a dream.
No. If it was through Tony's perspective, but we are looking at Tony....you would see a flash or hear a gun shot, before the end of Tony, since bullets travel slower than sound or light. This is unless the gun was right up against Tony's head, but it isn't since we are looking at Tony and do not see a gun.
Bottom line: Tony is living and Chase is a wanker for such a horrible ending.
In the second to last episode Tony has a flashback to when he and Bobby were out there in the boat and Bobby tells him that you never see the one that gets you. "Everything just goes black".
David Chase is rewarding fans that pay close attention to detail. This is sort of like a "murder mystery" in reverse : you to follow the clues to determine if the suspects did in fact carry out a death sentence.
I especially liked how Chase left the black screen black long enough to con us into thinking either the cable went out, the TIVO stopped recording too soon, or the station went off the air. If he had started the credits rolling immediately, the effect would not have been sufficient.
The scene that I’m saying is through Tony’s perspective is the blank screen. The camera focuses on Tony looking up in response to the front door opening. Typically in TV or movies the following scene is shot from the perspective of the person who just looked up. The following scene in this case is a blank and silent screen. To me, that is Tony’s perspective as he is dead. Remember when he was talking to Bobby in the boat and they mentioned that you probably don’t even hear the shot that gets you.
Bottom line of what I’m saying: The final blank screen is what Tony sees as Meadow walks in. He has just been killed.
Did anyone actually see BOTH endings...??? Chase is playing games with us here.
So basically the onion rings were to the Sopranos, what oranges were to The Godfather?!?!
I don’t know. But they were used as communion wafers are to a Catholic.
I wonder if you slow down the video and look frame-by-frame, if there isn’t a clue in the final few frames, which of course would go too fast for the eye to detect.
You're right. I think they could be seen as something of a metaphor.
What ending did you see : the one that showed Tony’s face or the one that showed Meadow as she came through the door...?
I don’t remember seeing Meadow come through the door...
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