Okay, this is a big one. One of the few reviews that will receive a perfect score from me.
I don’t think people remember just how big this show was, it dominated that era of tv. I remember watching it with my dad when I was younger, I fucking loved it. Who didn’t? Is there even one person out there talking shit about The Sopranos? Im sure there is actually, some people are just like that.
But listen, the writing for this show, the performances from the cast, the dialogue, its just so dam fuckin good. I can not say it enough, going back and watching this for ONLY MY SECOND time, it makes me miss the fuck out of James gandolfini, and makes me wonder what we could have seen from him if he hadn’t passed so young. This show explores many themes of the human experience, with Gandolfini at the helm, and Jesus Christ no matter the scene, he fuckin kills it, he was no doubt made for that role.
Something I noticed, my first watch through I hated the Chris character and the actor and everything about him lol. On my second watch through I still hate Chris for fuckin up so much, but now that I’m older and can appreciate this stuff, that dood fuckin killed that role, to me, and I could honestly say this about every actor in the show, some of the best acting comes from Michael Imperioli.
This show, is #1 for me, with Breaking Bad following very close behind, its actually pretty hard for me to decide which one comes out on top, but I gotta pick sopranos just for like overall story/dialogue and my enjoyment of the series, Im a sucker for anything mafia, theres many things breaking bad does better than sopranos, but I think it shouldn’t be lost on anyone that breaking bad had the advantage of sopranos coming out before it.
THE CONTROVERSIAL ENDING
I remember sitting down with my dad and watching the finale not knowing what the fuck was going to happen. I remember feeling a bit overwhelmed that a bigger event didn’t take place, like a big gun fight or something, but whatever, they figured it out and alls well ends well, at least thats what we think when we sense a wind down coming in the diner. Tony sitting waiting for his family to join him, one by one, members of his family join him at the table. When Meadow walks through the front door, then blank.
The screen goes black. Me and my dad both thought the tv went out and we were pissed, cursing up a storm, then we realized that was it, that was the end. And we were almost even more pissed than when we thought the tv had went out.
So what happened?
Well, supposedly the man in the members only jacket that came in to the diner while Tony was waiting on family members who had briefly sat at the bar then went into the bathroom, came out of the bathroom, and shot and killed Tony in front of his family.
INTERESTING NOTES RELATED TO ENDING
Tony’s POV, Chase sets up a series of shots in sequence, where Tony hears a bell, you see a shot of Tony from the doors POV, then you see a shot of tony’s pov looking at whose coming through the door…. When meadow finally parks her freaking car after trying 100 times, she comes in and you see her seeing Tony, the next shot should be Tony looking at her, but instead the screen cuts abruptly to black and waits a few seconds to show credits, different from the usual fade to immediate credits. People have noted that had Meadow known how to park a car, she would have been sitting next to Tony and blocking the hitman’s shot.
The hitman was wearing a members only jacket, “Members Only” pops up quite a few times through the show, its the title of an episode, the episode in which Tony gets shot and almost dies, members only can be seen as a reference to being in the mob, and a big link to Eugene who was yet another rat in Tony’s crew, the man who killed himself after Tony denied his request to retire to Florida, he often wore a Members Only jacket and was called out by Vito for wearing said jacket. Many fans claim the “members only” represents everyone Tony has ever wronged in his life. Many of the other patrons in the diner represent an event from a previous episode that involved killing someone.
The bathroom was directly to Tony’s right, or the “3:00” position on a clock. After Christopher was shot and was lying in the hospital, he informed Tony and Paulie about a dream he had in which a dead man told Chris to tell Tony and Paulie, “3:00”. Its important to note the members only man came out of a bathroom just like in the movie “The Godfather” which was tony’s favorite movie. Tony is also seen peeling an orange, another nod to The Godfather.
Throughout the entire show it is alluded to that there are only two endings for Tony Soprano, jail or death.
In conversation Tony, Jr and bobby talk about what its like being killed “I mean, our line of work, it’s always out there. You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?”
REASONS FOR TONY TO BE KILLED?
“Patsy Parisi at one point in the series pointed a gun at Tony Soprano through his home’s window overlooking his swimming pool and considered shooting him to death, as revenge for ordering Gigi Cestone to kill his twin brother Phillip “Philly Soons” Parisi. Even in his drunken stupor, Patsy decided against it and instead urinated in Tony’s swimming pool. He had the motives to kill Tony and may have also seen it as a way to stage a coup d’état of the DiMeo crime family and take over as boss. Patsy Parisi may have hired the hitman to kill Tony.
Silvio Dante was shot several times and left in a coma by a man wearing the same “Members Only” jacket who was part of the Lupertazzi family hit squad sent by Phil Leotardo. It is unknown if this is the same man or merely someone associated with him who has similar taste in clothing. Patsy Parisi shot back at the hitmen but may have intentionally missed his shots to set Silvio up to be killed as part of a larger revenge mission and coup d’état against Tony Soprano.
Despite the hit on Phil Leotardo being sanctioned by the Lupertazzi family, the job was done very messily with Phil being killed in front of his wife and infant grandchildren, and then having his skull crushed by his moving SUV that was stuck in drive. Tony may have been shot to death at the diner in front of his family to send a message that if you perform a messy hit like that, you’ll die in another messy hit as punishment.
https://sopranos.fandom.com/wiki/Man_in_Members_Only_jacket
Relating to the above, Tony may have been considered a loose end to the new leadership of the Lupertazzi family, and killing him was likely considered severing the final link between them and the Phil Leotardo hit.
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MY THOUGHTS ON THE ENDING
I agree with this guy
when its left to the audience, to me, thats not a definite answer… open for interpretation really means it could go either way you like….
this is the case of tony soprano being whacked at the end of sopranos
a big chunk of the fan base is very adamant about the fact he was killed, while another big chunk is just as adamant on the fact that he lived….
the thing is, none of these people are right cuz there not the creators, the creator/writers have been consistent in keeping it open ended to try and keep everyone happy it seems, tho i dont think anyone was happy with how it ended lol, chase did call it the death scene in one interview, but i think he simply was referring to it as such cuz so many others have been….
in my mind which could be totally wrong, im just trying to put myself in his position, the creator couldnt decide which way he wanted to lean, so he chose this scenario, i think the correct answer to the question of, did tony soprano get whacked? is whatever you decide lol.
people want an answer, but sadly to me, it seems we dont have a definite one, more than likely because the creator was scarred of pissing off a big chunk of the audience, so he made this open ending that could go either way so audiences would be debating it 14 years later. Genius move in my mind.
heres my thing, throughout the series, theres give or take around 10 people who at different times want to kill tony soprano for different reasons, AND WE SEE THE DISCUSSION HAPPEN EVERY SINGLE TIME
so if like many claim, and the new york bosses decided to take tony out after he killed Phil due to his greediness and all thats transpired, why wouldn’t we see that discussion happen? — also this doesnt make much sense to me, as they were looking for peace and decided thats what was going to happen after phil went away… killing new jerseys family boss would surely get the new jersey outfit looking for retaliation and the conflict would continue, to me, it would make more sense to kick janice some money for bobby then let the peace and money making continue between the families…. taking out tony doesnt seem to have upside other than not having to pay janice a lil bit of money
I could understand the bit about the messy hit and New York being mad, I mean look at Tony not giving up the other Tony to Phil cuz they said it wouldn’t be quick and discreet. But again, they had more upside to keep Tony alive in my mind.
I’m gonna make ppl mad with this so let me just say it does seem like tony gets whacked, I’m not saying FOR SURE that he did or did not, but for the reasons i said above, to me it doesn’t make sense and doesn’t match patterns of the show, fuck all this speculating and guessing and talking about how I or this guy saw the scene, i want an answer from the creator or writers lol.
Lets say he got whacked, for me, it wasn’t the members only jacket guy, I agree with Anthony Teska lmao. It makes the most sense.
