How has Howard not figured out the ending of The Sopranos yet?

[ClumpyStern]

I work for HBO. I worked on The Sopranos. Almost everyone feels that the ending was meant to show Tony's paranoia. And that being the boss of a mafia family was not worth the stress as every moment you are looking over your shoulder at someone who might whack you. The other popular interpretation at HBO was that the black screen was a panic attack. The show is all about Tony's panic attacks and it starts out with him in therapy because he blacks out. That last black screen could be another panic attack. Odds are Tony is alive. The show was always about ambiguity. The Russian in the woods. Furio going away. The ending is pretty typical of the show.

This isn't consistent with all the previous depictions of his panic attacks. For one thing, they always provided an external view as they occurred to go along with his point of view. For another thing, they always depicted their onset and gradual progression and never just cut to black. In that last scene, he was just eating and not reeling around and blacking out the way he did in every other scene where he blacked out. Your conclusion is based on the theory of consistency and this interpretation just isn't consistent with the entire history of his blackouts.

[ohmicah]

Ohmicah, the reason he won't shut his mouth is because people keep asking him about a Sopranos movie (including as recently as that quote from last month). He's basically trying to say "LOOK, TONY WAS WHACKED. NO MOVIE. THE END." But he can't bring himself to "diminish it" by straight out telling us that, and I admit he comes off badly for it.

So, Tony was whacked? After reading those quotes from Chase I didn't know what the hell to think.

[Charlie Kelly]

I've sat in that booth, as a fan it was pretty fucking awesome and Holsten's has amazing ice cream. - you're welcome for contributing to the convo.

[TelegramSam]

So, Tony was whacked? After reading those quotes from Chase I didn't know what the hell to think.

Well, I can't say 100% because Chase wont, but almost certainly he was. The theme of those quotes is that the key to understanding it is 3 things.

1. The first season 6 episode "Member's Only" when Eugene Ponticorvo whacks Tedy Spiradokis. It is a direct parallel to the way Tony is whacked, right down to the members only jacket and the booth at a diner.
2. The discussion of death with Bobby on the boat, and the idea that you "never see it coming".
3. The way that Gerry Torciano is whacked when he eats dinner with Silvio. The shots are fired and the blood is spraying Silvio before he knows what happened. Also notice that Phil Leotardo is whacked in the same way, he never sees it coming.

Then, last month, he straight out said that in the final episode Tony had to have a life "ripped away" from him. Since Carmela, A.J. and Meadow are all alive and safe, and the final scene is a perfect parallel with the quotes I referenced above, I think it's pretty open and shut.

[CAPTAIN KIRK]

I've sat in that booth, as a fan it was pretty fucking awesome and Holsten's has amazing ice cream. - you're welcome for contributing to the convo.

Yeah they always had good ice cream. The onion rings weren't all that last time I was there. Lotta flies too, if I remember correctly...

[TelegramSam]

I just dug up that quote I was talking about, specifically. Here it is, straight from Chase " “He [Tony] was an extremely isolated, unhappy man. And then finally, once in a while he would make a connection with his family and be happy there. But in this case, whatever happened, we never got to see the result of that. It was torn away from him and from us.”

[cokeen]

If I remember correctly Ralph was the only one who thought it was the brilliant final episode that it was. Artie liked it too. Everyone else (especially Fred) hated it, and time has shown that they are the dumb ones...though I really fuckin hate Ralph and am reticent to pay him any kind of compliment!

As far as Howard not understanding it, all he'd need is the attention span to go back and watch it again. He watches so much TV (including an untold amount of time wasted on dwts-type nonsense) instead of just watching the good stuff with a viable level of focus and comprehension.

That http://masterofsopranos.wordpress.co...on-of-the-end/ website is fantastic by the way...I've gone back a couple of times over the years to read it again.

[LisaGsDentures]

If I remember correctly Ralph was the only one who thought it was the brilliant final episode that it was. Artie liked it too. Everyone else (especially Fred) hated it, and time has shown that they are the dumb ones...though I really fuckin hate Ralph and am reticent to pay him any kind of compliment!

As far as Howard not understanding it, all he'd need is the attention span to go back and watch it again. He watches so much TV (including an untold amount of time wasted on dwts-type nonsense) instead of just watching the good stuff with a viable level of focus and comprehension.

That http://masterofsopranos.wordpress.co...on-of-the-end/ website is fantastic by the way...I've gone back a couple of times over the years to read it again.

It was a pretty good episode but the ending itself was pretty bad. It could have been worse though.

[trojans888]

It's meant to be ambiguous. Not the least of which so they have the freedom to bring the character ($) back.

[TelegramSam]

It's meant to be ambiguous. Not the least of which so they have the freedom to bring the character ($) back.

Goddamnit, not it isn't. Chase has said a million times it isn't coming back, it's done, it's over, people keep asking him about that and he keeps saying it wasn't supposed to be ambiguous. Read the goddamn thread.

“No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God. We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people’s minds, or thinking, ‘Wow, this’ll(tick) them off.’ People get the impression that you’re trying to (mess) with them and it’s not true. You’re trying to entertain them. Anybody who wants to watch it, it’s all there”.

“All I wanted to do [for the end]was present the idea of how short life is and how precious it is. The only way I felt I could do that was to rip it away. And I think people did get it. It made them upset emotionally, but intellectually they didn’t follow it.”

Also, Chase flat out says the end was a 2001 reference:

Chase: Filmically, that show [Made in America] had a lot to do with our favorite scene in 2001 when the astronaut wakes up, that episode was believe it or not sort of based on that.Terrence Winter [writer/producer]: [you mean] seeing himself in the frame.Chase:Projecting himself into his own future.

And finally, to hammer it home:

Question:

Are they wasting their time? Is there a puzzle to be solved?

[to the end]
Chase:

There are no esoteric clues in there. No Da Vinci Code. Everything that pertains to that episode was in that episode. And it was in the episode before that and the one before that and seasons before this one and so on. There had been indications of what the end is like. Remember when Jerry Torciano was killed? Silvio was not aware that the gun had been fired until after Jerry was on his way down to the floor. That’s the way things happen: It’s already going on by the time you even notice it.]

[trojans888]

Goddamnit, not it isn't. Chase has said a million times it isn't coming back, it's done, it's over, people keep asking him about that and he keeps saying it wasn't supposed to be ambiguous. Read the goddamn thread.



Also, Chase flat out says the end was a 2001 reference:


And finally, to hammer it home:

You make a good argument and looking at those Chase quotes are very telling. I just think comes off a bit weak. I have to remember the jacket a hitman was wearing five years prior to properly experience the final scene? Also love how the creator of a show like the Soprano's could chastize the audience for wanting Tony's blood. As if he wasn't getting rich off of that the entire time.

I didn't expect to have to have seen that Belzer interview in order to "get" the ending. Probably all Chase BS. Most of these shows are written without forethough of what will be happening six episodes from that point.

That said the Chase quotes are very telling.

[Mugsysam]

I work for HBO. I worked on The Sopranos. Almost everyone feels that the ending was meant to show Tony's paranoia. And that being the boss of a mafia family was not worth the stress as every moment you are looking over your shoulder at someone who might whack you. The other popular interpretation at HBO was that the black screen was a panic attack. The show is all about Tony's panic attacks and it starts out with him in therapy because he blacks out. That last black screen could be another panic attack. Odds are Tony is alive. The show was always about ambiguity. The Russian in the woods. Furio going away. The ending is pretty typical of the show.

If this was truly meant to be the ending, then this would, to me, go down as one of the worst series endings in history. It already kinda was to be honest.

[Mugsysam]

i hate the suggestion from david chase that people wanted to see him dead. No they just wanted to know what happened. Nobody wanted the "look how much of a genius i think i am" bs ending. .

this!

[CCMaguire]

The viewer was the one to get whacked.

I believe this theory too. They distracted us into this scene thinking that something awful was about to happen and then it was lights out. Just like any good mob hit, we never saw it coming.

[DuckDong]

I hate that Chase asshole... we just wanted a clean fucking ending is that so hard

[slab0meat]

Chase may have said "a million times" it's not coming back, and although it may be true... just look at how many people in the public eye (sports, politics, hollywood) say things, then do the opposite somewhere down the road. Things change. Maybe this will, maybe it won't. He'll always have an out if he wants it, since nothing was shown as far as the death.