INSIGHTFUL, PROBING ANALYSIS OF THE FINAL EPISODE OF THE SOPRANOS

Hmm.

Comments

[fivver]

Dave. the only ones getting uh 'probed' was the audience. IYKWIM

[Siouxie]

Never seen it. No probing needed, thank you.

[the "24" Writing Staff]

Told you we would land on our feet!

[Bãrön vønKlýff]

What? There was a show about high-pitched singers and I missed it?

[Eleanor]

*zips in*™

Hmmmph, my whole post was deleted as spam because I said ch@t, but the shoe and power guys get through with no problem at all. Sheesh.

Anyway, (take two), my thoughts exactly Dave. I would only add
....And they lived Happily Ever After.

At noon EDT today the Wash.Post is having an online ch@t about the finale.

[Siouxie]

So, am I to guess that Tony didn't get whacked???

[Used to be addicted to 24]

8 YEARS FOR FRAKING ONION RINGS!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow It is almost 12 hours later and I am still mad as hell.

[Meanie the Blue]

Manual, Digital Critique Of Last Night's Final Episode of The Sopranos.

[Dr.Rickenstien]

Apparently they left things open for a possible movie later on. Or they could have just been lazy and left you to your draw your own conclusions. Either way...phhhttttt! Narf said!

[Siouxie]

So..Addicted...time for another name change??? ;-)

[Hammond Rye]

I, like 20 million other viewers, went "WTF?" and dove for my remote. Then I started cursing. After about 5 minutes, I started laughing. Very unexpected outcome. (Kinda like an embolism).

[otis wildflower]

MMmmmmmmmm.... Onion Rings......

*drooool*

[Layzeeboy]

We were experiencing a thunderstorm at the time and when the screen went to black I thought my satellite went out. I nearly burst a blood vessel in my neck screaming at the TV. I thought for sure the diner was going to blow up (the daughter What's-her-name struggling to parallel park was a clever ruse to allow her to survive, you see). Next thing I know the credits are running.

WTFBBQ? WhoreBox can kiss my ass.

[The Dread Pirate Chris]

I figure Tony got whacked.

They've been hammering the "you don't even hear it if you get shot" theme for a while. I guess the final scene was through Tony's eyes.

And was I the only one dialing the cable company to scream at them when the credits finally came up?

[Trouble]

The key moment of suspense was finding out what Tony was going to order. Onion rings. Good choice!

[Layzeeboy]

DPC, interesting take. I hadn't thought of that. I guess I was still too pi$$ed to think about it. Either way I still hate HB0 for doing that to us.

[ken in jax]

Prediction: In three years we get Soprano's the Movie and it earns something like a zillion dollars. Very smart move by David Chase not to kill off Tony. That being said, I too screamed at my TV.

[Eleanor]

Me too, Layzee.

Very unsatisfying, even if you put some metaphysical meaning to the end.
Doesn't help at all.

[Dr.Rickenstien]

At the rate things are going in TV writing land, I fear for fans of The Shield when it reaches the end of it's run.

[Siouxie]

Hey...at least they didn't do a "shower scene/it's all been a bad dream" ending...

[Suzy Q]

I thought it was brilliant. After an initial "Huh? That's it?" moment, I realized that the final scene was beautifully choreographed to create tension and rife with possibilities as to how it all ended. It pandered to both fan bases; those who wanted Tony whacked and those who didn't. Neither side wins nor loses because we don't know what happened next. So, everyone gets to believe that their interpretation is the right one.

My interpretation is that the family had dinner and life went on as usual. With Phil out of the way, Tony is once again king.

[Mot the Hoople]

We're about halfway through the last season so anything you guys say will be serious spoilers. *closes eyes on this thread*

[fivver]

Mot, Rosebud was his sled.

[queensbee]

never watched it, dont care. i just LOVE italian stereotypes. pffftt.

[Layzeeboy]

Mot, Tony's plane went down over the Sea of Japan. There weren't no survivors.

[Use to be addicted to 24]

I figured who the true victim in this is. It is John from Cinncinati. Everyone who was watching Tony and the gang turned the TV off and went bed saying WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!

[Cheesewiz]

John from Cinncinati deserved to be a victim.

[sadsoprano]

I sat on the edge of my seat throughout the entire episode.... for NOTHING.
So sad....

[Clark Kent]

The only final episode of a series to totally give the viewer closure was the one for "Six Feet Under' a few years back.... It will be hard for anyone to top that anytime soon.

That being said, I thought the Sopranos finale was OK. I'm not a huge fan of the show but watch enough to know the major players and I thought it basically meant things would just keep going the same as before only we won't be around to watch it.....

Kind of ironic that in Seinfeld's last episode they all end up in jail and the Sopranos they're hangiing out in a diner..... Maybe the scripts got reversed.

[fivver]

Cheesewiz, I watched the first half hour and realized that a bunch of self absorbed, drug addicted, foul mouthed (had to be a land speed record for f words per minute), California surfer dudes just wasn't going to catch my attention.

[Sammy Dungbeetle, Jr.]

TOP NOTCH observation, Clark!

But I still think the Newhart ending was the best in showbiz history.

[otis wildflower]

Mot, the chick is a guy.

Also, the dude has been dead all along.

(and what popped into my head after watching John from Cincinnati:

We lost _Deadwood_ for _THIS_?!!?!

)

[fivver]

My favorite is still Rome. I really want to be Titus Poullo when I grow up!

[Meanie the Blue]

The Walrus is Tony.

[AFKAT]

Mot:

I hate to be a spoiler but I have already posted the ending on another thread so I'll repeat it here.

Remember how the ducks in the pool were more than a little pi$$ed when Tony started locking up the feed to hide his money? Well, turns out the ducks whacked him...after getting weapons training from the squirrels...

And then...to quote Don Corleone...the ducks now get to "dip their beaks" in some of the action from the gambling and the Bing...

[Guin]

Meadow ran into the diner just as the truck driver emerged from the men's room and, in sync with the 2 black dudes at the jukebox, took out Tony, Carmela, and AJ. Not to mention the onion rings.

[the Yearning Heart]

Mot, Tony turns out to be his own mother in drag.

[Mot the Hoople]

I'm not reading this

[Eleanor]

I just couldn't watch John from Cincy right away, even though it was filmed here in San Diego County, Imperial Beach.

So, it wasn't very good???

[Richard the Weasel-Hearted]

"But I still think the Newhart ending was the best in showbiz history."

Amen to that, Sammy.

[Wes S.]

Good thing I'm not a Sopranos fan as well as a "24" fan; I'd be sorely disappointed in the anticlimactic outcomes of two shows this season.

Matt Drudge said last night on his radio show that so many people e-mailed HBO to complain about the Sopranos finale that HBO's website crashed.

[lizzypoo]

Why did the FBI help Tony out?

[jt]

Wow, I NEVER GUESSED that all through the series, Tony had been dead since the very first episode...

Oh, yeah, and my friend Amy played the hot FBI chick. Blink and you missed her.

[SippiFoxHntr]

I don't think he died - who was gonna whack him? He'd just made peace and gotten rid of his enemy.

I wonder why the FBI fellow helped him and later made the statement, "we're gonna win this."

Any ideas?

[fivver]

jt - I didn't blink! YOWSAH!!!
*mutters something about taking the law into his own hands*

[Eleanor]

The first time I watched it I thought the last scene was Meadow just inside the diner and T looking at her, but when I watched it 3 hours later on another HBO channel, the last scene was Meadow just outside the door, and then it went to black.

I'm pretty sure about what I just said, but not positive. :)

[SippiFoxHntr]

I just read somebody's column from Fox News and he said the family got killed by the guy going into the restroom.

[Eleanor]

Lots of people in lots of places are saying that.
And others are saying other things.

It is what it is.
/end Zen for the day :)

[jt]

Hey, now that he's unemployed, could James Gandolfini take over for his identical twin, who just left "The View" a few weeks ago?

[William Tweedle]

The ending was how Tony saw it. You never hear it when it happens to you. Tony was shot in the back of the head. I'll bet "Entourage" has a better ending.

[OtheU(manity)]

Y'all mean to tell me it wuz merely a really strange dream ... ???

[Layzeeboy]

I think if Tony got whacked from behind (the whole "ya never hear it" theory) the last shot would have been from his perspective. In other words, just Carmella and AJ in the shot happily eating their onion rings and - screen just goes black. That would have let us know what happened.

[Brian Monroe]

In the end the judgment of Tony’s came which he worried about. But it came from himself long before the show started and it was fulfilled at that final (beginning) moment. By letting go of the psychological grip of his ego-’made’ reality he submits himself for sacrificing. He affirms his true identity and reaches towards being truly awake. Truly alive within his son. And thus we finally see the real Tony, his true spirit. It is as if he sacrificed who he thought he was to fulfill his ultimate true purpose as a father. Its kind of like the movie that was playing when Tony visited Sil in the hospital: Little Miss Sunshine. You know, the movie with the little girl running to get on that big yellow car (Almost like trying to get back on the bus our mother’s are driving. Hint, Hint). You know, the movie where all the hopeless and depressed family members find their purpose by sacrificing their lives for that little girl. And thus the great metaphors continue to point us to the ultimate reality.

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[Yelwrose]

Dead Pirate Chris said <

And you never did, did you? We got whacked. Carmela, AJ and Meadow are once again comfortably numb and Tony goes on and on and on...watching every doorway, looking over his shoulder. Until it's his turn.

It's so obvious.

[Yelwrose]

Ummm..screwed up the quote on above post:

Chris said >>They've been hammering the "you don't even hear it if you get shot" theme for a while. <<