In my opinion, I found this episode truely brilliant. Like it has been said, this isn't supposed to be wrapped up in a nice package, that's not how life really is. The show is simply a slice of Tony's life, not his definate rise and fall.

Another idea that hasn't been mentioned yet is that the way it was filmed and the way Tony looked at those men in the restaurant may be to show that Tony, the rest of his life will never be secure. He will always suspect that man going to the bathroom, or the two guys at the counter.
I really enjoyed the ending and you have to face it, no matter what Chase did, he couldn't please everyone...and I doubt he wanted to..

Watching it again, and Tony def sees himself at the end. Nobody talked about this, but what does it mean?

Is he really who he thinks he is?

That'd be about right.... she was a few years behind me in school (I graduated SBHS in '69).

Valid point. If every loose end were tied up in this last episode, it would have come off as unrealistic and unbelievable.

Still, I felt that the end sequence was leading up to something, and by not getting much of anything after all that build-up, I couldn't help but feel that I was left high and dry.

Signor V.

That was "Angie", on ABC in, like, '81 and '82. She was this waitress who married a doctor (played by the male lead from the AIRPLANE movies) and had an overweight sister with "man problems." It was a hit sitcom when I was 11 or 12, I think. The overweight sister went on to become some sort of bodybuilder/HOT girl, and I don't remember her being in much after that...good eye, guys! ((My old lady spotted her immediately--"That's John Travolta's little stalker girlfriend from SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, isn't it?"))

Maybe along with all the other people he has to watch out for in the restaurant, he is one of them. His own worst enemy at times, etc.

Oh, and a question...

Is Carmine Jr the boss of NY now? Seemed that way to me, since he's always at these meetings and Butch and the other guy ain't boss types.

Since this was the last episode, Nobody is the boss.

NY may be hanging now.

So if Paulie was talking about those who previously held the position he finally agreed to take (Ritchie, Ralphie, Vito, Gigi) -- are you telling me those guys were Tony's Consigliere?? Nah. They led a specific (and unlucky-in-leadership) construction crew.

At the same time, I, also, cannot believe how that's a higher position that what Paulie already had....

the diner scene needs to be put on youtube.

Screw youtube, and screw David Chase.

I watched this episode again, closely, and there are no clues, and there is no payoff, and they just failed to come up with anything climactic, whatsoever.

In TV-talk circles, people mention "jumping the shark," in reference to how stupidly bad and unclever "Happy Days" got, as a TV show/sitcom. What David Chase (the writer AND director of this "momentous, final episode") has done is to FAIL TO JUMP THE SHARK. What a ripoff. And any of you guys who praise Chase for fucking up to this extent are little fanboys for doing so. Yes, indeed. What sorry, weak BS this is. Selah.

Okay,
Bobbo

In that case, you should be happy!

I'm sorry J, but I am NOT happy; what a letdown. What a ripoff. What a FAILURE TO ENTERTAIN. "You should be happy!!!!!!" Man...are you high, right now?!

Sir, no-sir, I am not happy. This was no way to let this fall. Last week, we were commenting on how weak-and-inept the Jersey crew were, and then--BINGO!!! That's because the show's creator is a fuckin' ASSHOLE!!!!! Well, in the words of John Lennon, "Congratulations." And you're on defending this tripe, eh? I'm losin' respect, and FAST, old buddy.

You talkin' to me? Are you talking to ME??

Sauseege his own, of course - we all have opinions...

And, what I fail to say, is I could be wrong in my prediction that the whole world (meaning the audience from last night's finale) will wake up in the morning JUST AS PISSED AS I AM at the lack of conclusion and/or closure of this episode. One little fanboy said, "Chase played this one superbly!" Give me a fuckin' break, please. And I'll shut the Hell up; agree to disagree, okay?

Okay,
Bobbo

I loved the ending!

It didn't need any closure... life often doesn't get it, why must a show??

Here's a rather good article on last night's finale. Its copied from Eonline.com:

The Sopranos Neither at Rest nor Peace
by Natalie Finn
Sun, 10 Jun 2007 11:59:37 PM PDT

(SPOILER ALERT: This is a recap of The Sopranos' series finale. This is spoiler central.)

Was that supposed to mean lights out for Tony Soprano? Or did the crew just run out of film?

No, the picture and sound on your television set didn't cut out at the most inopportune moment possible. The Sopranos brain trust intended that the last thing you hear, after six spread-out seasons and 18 Emmys, be the words "don't stop"—as in, "Don’t Stop Believin," the classic Journey tune that played in the background as the final moments of the revered HBO drama played out Sunday night.

No matter that a shady-looking possible assassin who had been eyeing Tony all night (immediately making you think, Are we supposed to know who that is? Is he from season one?!) had just gone to the men's room, or that Meadow was breathlessly running through the door at Holsten's (best onion rings in the state, Tony says, a foodie 'til the end), after having had a randomly tough time parallel-parking outside, to meet up with the rest of her family.

And so what if Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri looked suspiciously troubled in all of his scenes—we're left wondering why. Was he ratting out his longtime crew to the Feds or, almost as bad, to New York? All we know is that he's the same crude, wily-eyed egomaniac that he was on day one.

Even Journey didn't make it all the way to the credits, which uncharacteristically rolled by silently after a completely abrupt fade-to-black as Tony looked up, ostensibly to see Meadow coming in. The point is, he'll spend the rest of his life—however long or abbreviated—glancing up to see who's walking through the door, and with what intention.

But that's how The Sopranos creator and executive producer David Chase envisioned the ending to one of the most smartly written, well-acted and layered TV series in history. So that's what we got.

The series mastermind has said that, when he was shopping his idea about a depressed mob boss with mother issues who's trying to maintain his grip on two types of "families," he was more concerned about maintaining creative control than about winning a pickup.

Thanks to HBO, however, he got both—bloodthirsty viewers be damned. In fact, Chase told the Washington Post recently that he pretty much had tonight's episode all figured out in his head about three years ago.

"There were not many changes from what I originally envisioned...It has all been planned out, we always knew exactly where it was going, but within that framework, we left a lot of room for each episode to have its own character and to invent stories that would fit in with the continuing story—if that makes any sense," Chase said.

Critics may have been divided over whether Tony getting whacked was the only way this series could conceivably end (meaning, most assumed that Tony was gonna be eating vinegar peppers with the fishes—or in prison). But, running over the long list of possibilities for this series' swan song, the more melodramatic options seem almost silly now, considering Chase's penchant for mining the seemingly mundane for humor, violence, irony and universal truths.



The show—so rewarding and simultaneously frustrating to watch at times—wasn't groundbreaking because of the graphic sex and violence, the liberal use of profanity and the head-in-a-bowling bag moments—although none of that ever hurt as The Sopranos became the most all-around successful show in premium cable history.

It was the combination of shock, awe, dark comedy, tragedy, suspense, normality and abnormality and sheer absurdity mixed with eerie familiarity that won Chase comparisons to Dickens and Shakespeare.

So, despite the fact that The Sopranos' 86th episode didn't feature an elaborate Godfather-style revenge sequence or prove that what goes around comes around, as far as our murderous yet beloved antihero is concerned, or otherwise mete out a lot of heavy-handed poetic justice—minus Phil's literally mind-blowing demise—the ending was, in fact, as producer Brad Grey told the Hollywood Reporter, done "elegantly and probably exactly the way it should" have been done.

Try telling that, however, to the thousands of disgruntled viewers who reportedly swarmed HBO's Website afterward, most of them complaining about the lack of closure, not to mention the dearth of rolling heads.

Of course, the public's demand for nonstop action of the whacking variety is understandable, after having been made to wait nearly two years for season six to begin, and then another 10 months for the final nine episodes to kick off. That's just mean. People were peeved enough that they had to wait a mere four months to see what was in the hatch on Lost.

But, once you stop and consider these, none of them seem quite right when you think about the direction the show has taken in the last couple seasons:

* [Insert name here] blows Tony away—karmic, yes, but luckily Chase knew that we didn't really want this to happen, even though it would have been a real gut check.
* One of the other Sopranos is killed accidentally—too Godfather: Part III. But it almost looked as if A.J. was toast when his SUV caught fire, didn't it? How could he miss the leaves!
* Tony has a massive coronary—see above.
* Tony goes to prison—this isn't Seinfeld.

Instead, we got the type of episode that closed out the first half of season six, way back when on June 4, 2006. Subtle, brilliantly acted and somewhat discomfiting, with a healthy dose of signature Sopranos payback.

With the deaths of the characters nearest and dearest to our hearts having occurred in the last few episodes, giving us more time to ponder the moral implications, Chase left a fan-friendly slaying for the finale: Phil Leotardo's exit harkened back to the days of Ralphie's beheading and Richie Aprile's Hefty bag burial.

After being whacked in the traditional sense by one of Tony's goons, the increasingly power-hungry newly minted boss of the Lupertazzi family ended up as road-kill when the SUV he had been riding in, with his grandchildren strapped into their car seats in the back, rolled over his head after his wife jumped out of the driver's seat to call for help.

The camera panned away, but the sound effects were enough. That, and the fact that a random bystander meekly said, "Oh, s--t," and another young man standing there projectile-vomited.

Vintage over-the-top Sopranos gross-out.

Meanwhile, the past few weeks gave us plenty of people to mourn. It's okay to admit if you shed a tear or two when one of the following met his maker.

Christopher Moltisanti's unheralded murder at Tony's hands was a fittingly pathetic end for this brutish yet uncomfortably endearing aspiring filmmaker. Bobby "Bacala" Baccalieri's death was plain sad, considering he was an alright guy who had only just made his bones at the behest of Tony, and only because his boss was trying to get back at him for whipping his butt in a fight. Silvio Dante, while always likeable (but maybe that's only because he looked like he had walked out a Dick Tracy comic strip), was still a murderer, and he is now lying in a coma, his gravity-defying pompadour ignominiously deflated. Paulie, meanwhile, was just too all-around nasty to die.

So, with Tony's crew whittled down to nothing already, Chase left The Sopranos' finale wide open for more what-ifs and even more philosophical musing.

In other words, the series ended as it began. There are problems still to be solved; Tony is still a dangerous, paranoid sociopath who might go to jail (we did find out that Carlo has turned rat and an indictment is imminent); Carmela is still stoically burdened by what she knows and yet still doesn't know enough, such as the truth about Adriana (Edie Falco will have to settle for a fourth Emmy for turning in one of the most complex small-screen characters, ever); A.J. is still a spoiled brat (the Army would have eaten him alive); and Meadow is still looking for the normal person's way out, which currently comes in the guise of constitutional law.

Hence, Tony Soprano's story continues. Unfortunately, we don't get to be a part of it, but, as A.J. reminds his dad in the series' dwindling moments, sometimes you just have to look back and focus on the good times.

SEE! PAULIE WAS WORKING FOR NEW YORK!

I have watched the show from day one and can't believe what we saw last night. I thought that I lost the picture on my TV as well until the credits rolled. I wonder what Chase was thinking. That was the WORST ending to a series that I have ever seen. Phil gets killed and then run over, his head must have looked like a watermelon after it is dropped. Sil is still in the coma. I thought he was going to make a recovery. It was nice to see poor Uncle Junior once again. Why did Chase ruin this magnificent character with a pathetic storyline. One of the senerios I read stated that it was suppossed to be Phil leotardo who shot Tony and not Uncle Junior. Michael Imperoli knew last year that his character was on the way out.

And who says that they were actually hitmen? They just as easily could have been bodyguards for Tony and his family. We;ll reallly never know.

PERSONAL INTERPRETATION! That's what makes Chase so smart and what made this ending so good.

They were Captains.

Gigi was a Captain. Ritchie was a Captain. Vito was a Captain. Ralphie was a Captain. Paulie was promoted to Captain a few seasons ago, when he and Tony meet in front of the Lou Costello statue.

So all Tony was doing in this episode was turning what was lastly Vito's crew over to Paulie.

Silvio was actually Tony's Consigliere and Bobby was thrown into the position as underboss. Both were put out of commission in this little war, so Tony turned to his captain Paulie and used him as his consigliere/underboss in this episode.

A dis-service? This show , if anything, gave a handful of wannabe actors a chance that they probably would have never gotten again. For the most part most of these actors would have went on with their bit part appearances in B movies. Some may have never even been given a chance to appear in a TV show, let alone a movie, if it weren't for this show.

This show gave many of them their 15 minutes of fame.

Even Mike and Mike in the morning are discussing The Sopranos finale. Golic thinks it will go down with Seinfeld as one of the worst series finales ever. Greenley is comparing the ending to the story "The lady and the tiger".

I heard Frank Rich of the NY Times this morning who said the ending was great!!! Then again, they showed some fans who said the opposite and it was a big disappointment.

I re-watched the ending again last night when it came on the second time (didn't get to see the whole thing again), and gotta say this much, it "was" suspensful as we wondered what would happen. DC is right, the men in the diner weren't necessarily hitmen, but we were led to believe so. We wondered who would get hit in Tony's family, and even if everyone would get hit while eating dinner. Then, fade to black and the let-down.

The very good thing IMHO, I think Chase & Co will be more inclined to make a movie or a few continuing tv episodes to satisfy all the disgruntled fans. Until then, lousy ending and all, this will remain one of my favorite all-time tv shows.

TIS

I really doubt that Chase is concerned about disgruntled fans.... he isn't interested in tying up the storyline for the sake of those who feel it necessary. Why doesn't everyone get that????

BTW - It wasn't a lousy ending... it was a GREAT ending!

*IF I COULD JUST GET A WORD IN, PLZZZZ*


I do NOT think this series is anti-climatic!!!

Chris, Aide, are dead. So is Sil...uhm, kind of. So is Pussy, so is Bobby. Yet Junior, Tony, and Paulie are still alive. THAT'S the show. Why did Sil not make the "cut" yet Paulie did? "Who's going to get whacked" has been one of the running themes of the series. Enjoy thinking about it - PLUS - Tony and Carmela STAY TOGETHER! THAT'S the show. How the hell did that end up happening!? Enjoy thinking about it...

Pussy and a regular job will do that for you.

Another review calling the finale brilliant!
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/10/sopranos.finale.ap/index.html

This one called it a "perfectly imperfect finish:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/arts/television/11sopr.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

By ending it this way, Chase gives EVERYONE what they want.

If you want to imagine Tony and his family murdered at the table, you can.

If you want to imagine Tony getting indicted and Carlo's testimony sending him away, you can.

If you want to imagine Tony completely victorious in his battles with depression AND against his mob cohorts, you can.

If you want to imagine AJ as the next Spielberg, ok that's just stupid.

The only thing I had any problem at all with was Melfi's dismissal. The character AND Lorraine Bracco deserved better.

Bottom line, it's only a tv show. I think that's what we all get out of this.

I never watched the show and last night was NO exception, though all the recent hype did make me curious about the finale. Since they've been discussing it all morning on Curtis & Kuby (77-WABC) I figured I'd check in & see what all you BB-ers thought.

Ron Kuby referred to a past episode where Tony asked someone what they thought 'the end' was like. That person answered that you don't hear the shot that gets you. One of Kuby's theories is that the sudden cut to black (or blue) indicates that unheard 'shot' that finally gets Tony.

Kuby also continually compares this finale to the ending of GFIII where we do see Michael Corleone dropping dead after losing literally everything that meant anything to him...either directly or indirectly through his own actions. By the time the credits roll, we KNOW it's over. He (Kuby) would have preferred a more satisfactory closure to The Sopranos instead of everything being open to speculation. I think that's a fairly reasonable expectation for a fan to have.

Take care,
AppleOnYa