Spoiler Warning!! The Sopranos — I'm satisfied (unlike the rest of you)

I, unlike many (as it seems reading the blogs), am completely satisfied with the ending of The Sopranos. Like so many of you out there, I too was watching last night, waiting, biting my nails, wondering if Tony, or Paulie, or anyone else from the Soprano crew would get whacked. The episode was brilliant, you have to admit. With all of the buildup to this one episode, plus seven years on television, the directors and producers really knew what they were doing. They convinced millions of people last night at 9:57 that the cable suddenly went out (they convinced me, that’s for sure).

The episode last night was like many others — it had some conflict, and some resolution. It had a hit, an explosion, some therapy, and a family dinner. At 9:45 I found myself smiling, knowing that they probably wouldn’t reveal anything after all. This would be the kind of show that ends, but that no one ever stops talking about. 9:54 rolled around…9:55 and I found myself watching the Sopranos gather for dinner. First Tony, then Carmella, and A.J. “Ah, so I was wrong,” I thought. “Here it comes.” I looked with suspicion, along with Tony, at everyone who entered the diner. With Tony’s jukebox pick of “Don’t Stop Believing” and Meadow’s difficulty in parallel parking, I thought for sure something was going to happen. And, I believe, something did happen.

The last scene is as follows: there is a suspicious character at the bar of the diner, glancing over at Tony and the rest of the family. The family is eating onion rings, smiling, A.J. has just reiterated his fathers words to “focus on the good.” Meadow is still outside, frantically trying to parallel park. The suspicious character (wearing a “members only” jacket) stands up and begins walking to the bathroom. Tony glances up at him, and then back down at the table as the man doesn’t stop to shoot Tony, but instead continues to the bathroom (and we ALL think to that infamous scene. We think of The Godfather, of Michael and the gun behind the toilet — am I right?). “Don’t Stop Believing” is still playing at high volume. Flash to Meadow, who has finally parallel parked and is running inside to meet her family. She gets to the door and pushes it open. The bells on the door chime. Flash to Tony, who looks towards the door. We hear the words of the Journey song ” … don’t stop –” and… scene! show. done. There was a good 20 seconds of black before the credits started rolling. That moment when the screen went black was when most people (at least the ones I’ve talked to) changed the channel, frantically hoping their cable would fix itself before the final shot.

A theory: I saw this theory on one of the many blogs today, as I looked around at various theories for why the show ended the way it did. Throughout the show, most of it has been from Tony’s perspective. Consider the last scene — when someone entered the diner and Tony looked at them, so did the camera. We saw what he saw, and that’s the way it was through the entire last scene. Lets go back to the second to last episode (last weeks). In it, we saw a flashback to a conversation between Tony and Bobby. “I wonder if you hear the one that gets you.” They talk about the finality of it all — the fact that there could be no warning, no nothing, just STOP. Just like the song. So, my theory? Tony did get whacked. He got popped. He’s done, and his family was there to see it. And don’t get any ideas folks, a family never gets touched, ever. The family is still there, and maybe if the producers feel like it, in a few years we’ll see “The Sopranos” Series 2 (or a movie?), and A.J. will be in charge. Or Meadow. I think both are likely candidates. But I stand by the theory that Tony is dead. (In addition to this theory, there’s the possibility that the family was touched. Maybe A.J. and Carmella were shot along with Tony, and Meadow’s inability to parallel park saved her life, and will allow her to inevitably run the family. But that’s another theory for another time.)

So, why am I okay with the ending? True, it was a bit disappointing. We don’t get to see what happens to Tony, we don’t know for sure how it “ends.” But if it had — if we had seen things happen, would we be happy? If Tony had been whacked, and Meadow had taken over the family, and credits rolled, would we be satisfied? If Tony wasn’t whacked, and instead of a sudden ending we had seen the entire family sitting peacefully at the diner, would we be happy? If Paulie had turned, had the FBI raided the Bing and Tony’s house, etc, would we really be okay with that?

In addition — had any of those things happened, had anything actually been “resolved,” given the ever-changing world of The Sopranos, we would still have no clue as to the real conclusion. And I think that with a show such as The Sopranos — a show that has an extremely large and loyal fan base — any ending would have brought disappointment. This ending definitely brought some disappointment, but it also created conversation, debate, and brought to light how many people have followed and care for this one fictional family, and I imagine this result is the one producers were going for.