YOU ARE GRASPING AT THINGS FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS, TABBY.

THE BELL RINGS.... THEN IT GOES BLACK.... SOPRANOWNED!

The instant before it goes Black there is something that tells yu its on its way...movement, surprise on the face of Carmellia, sound of steps towards u..somthing...also unless it directly to the head you know your hit...

Now if they had shown the guy at the table to Tonys side getting up, or the guy come outa the Mens Room, or the Black guys start to rush Tonys table....then I could BUY your TAKE 100%.

All those things I think were part of the multiple endings of the show...but they just left everybody hanging , letting the audience come to its own conclusion.

Nope, wasn't that David didn't want to spoil it for the West coast time zone.

I have a feeling that this is going to turn into a Beatles White Album/ return of Elvis sort of thing..

If U look at the last scene you see a Grey Haired guy in a grey suit (with his back to the audience) lean over and talk to the guy with the Baseball cap on at the table to the side of Tony That was probably from another take of the ending.

The last thing U see is Tony looking up and hearing the bell on the door ring as Meadow is entering the Restruant. Then Black...

I have to give it 95% that Tony was hit...it comes out of the blue when your least expecting it to happen.

Only thing there is why wasn't there a White Light at the end of the tunnel bit, as it was when Tony had a near death experience?

The person who wrote that episode wants you to ruminate about it exactly the way you are doing it...

Got to hand it to them; that was well done. Clever boy-

Its very true it was left open ended.. but no matter what the series is dead anyway.

They should have at least played "Painted Black" during the credits.

Maybe you do not need to come to a conclusion anything happened in the restaurant, maybe it was ment to drive home the point that Tony NEVER gets to relax for the rest of his life, he will always feel like he, or his own, are going to be hit at any moment. This is what the rest of his life looks like.

No music during the credits was very interesting too.

While the episode itself sucked, I thought the ending was good. Especially the build up in the last few minutes. Im sure everytime that door opened you said "ok here it comes!"
Now everyone is going nuts analyzing what happened. Which was probably what Chase wanted to happen.

The main question..... The cat??

Was watching with a friend, whose occasional F-buddy is this pretentious twit.... who tried to sell us on how "enlightened" or "creative" the non-ending was.

Which, unfortunately presaged what has been the pattern. Those who regard themselves as deep thinkers will herald this as creative or "thought-inspiring". Feh. Keep the mental masturbation to yourself. Chase chickened out with this "ending."

... Like there wouldn't be anything to talk about if we'd actually had an ending?

I think Bell's take is a great attempt to redeem what was otherwise a feeble, feeble finale, but I don't agree. It's not as though the entire show was "seen through Tony's eyes", so without him there is nothing going on.

I thought the Paulie/Tony dynamic was great; loved the cat (and its effect on Paulie) and otherwise grooved on the episode a bit. But, in the end, it was


JP

OMFG!!! that was the greatest post ever!!!! did you notice how he left us hanging, with nothing, right there at the END!!!!!!

What a Genius! I love BUILD UP without RESOLUTION!!!!

I'm sooooo deeep for understanding and appreciating and fellating this kind of artistic genius, and all of the rest of you are Cretins!

JP

Early in the show the cat caught a rat. It kept appearing in scenes with Paulie.

Hence, Paulie is the rat.

Capisce?

Actually , the cat was Christopher, reincarnated. Getting back at Paulie for all his abuse!:D

It caught a mouse. And the cat would have to be a kitten to be Chris reincarnated; but it was great watching Paulie squirm.

Two favorite scenes -- Paulie with the broom; and the Fed saying "Yes! We're gonna win this!" (or words to that effect) when told that Phil Leotardo had been killed. Tony corrupts everyone he touches...

JP

It really pissed me off. What a shi**y ending!

I was a bit pissed last night. As I was working today I thought about it a bit, we entered into the show, season 1 episode 1, while Tony Soprano was going about his life, and we just exited the show while he goes about his life. We got a glimpse of the life of a mafioso and its not all that great.

Will there be a movie, reunion season etc..? I doubt it the reason they took a break 2 years ago was due to Gandolfini getting tired of the role.

Hopefully he does not go the way of Al Bundy and never be able to play another role in a movie or TV show again without always being Tony Soparno.

Maybe he will loose a bunch of weight now and get in shape and transform himself.

Oh, and how much did BMW pay to place their cars in the show last night?? Wow! talk about obvious product placement it was almost cheesy.

The Cat kept staring at a picture of Christopher...Cats can hear the Electomagnetic sound in wires as electricty passes through them...So the BUG WAS IN CHRISTOPHERS PICTURE.

OK here is the real ending of the show...

The camera lense has acted as a narrator for the Soprano saga, in other words the camera does not see things through Tonys eyes. Tony as we left him heard the ring of the bell on the door as Meadow came through it, Tony looked up and was smiling. AT THAT INSTANT IN TIME TONY WAS ALIVE AND WELL. There was no flash of a gun, no sudden movement, no sign of a gun that would indicate otherwise. However that is not to say that within the next few seconds after that, that Tony was shot, arrested, some sort of gun battle erupted or Tony just went on with his life. The Director decided to stop the saga of Tonys life in that instant, what happens with the rest of Tonys life we just don't know?

In a sense it was a pretty good ending, because we don't know what will happen in the next instant of our lives. We live in the moment.

When the movie comes out, this will all have been a dream.
Tony will wake up from his gun shot induced coma to an entirely different dynamic several years later. He will awaken to be surrounded by Christopher, Carm, Adriana, AJ, Meadow and Sil. Phil will be alive and working in harmony with NJ until Tony gets back in the action and harbors some sort of resentment. AJ will be running the Bing by then. Sil will be the defacto leader of the family until T was able to return. Bobby will have that $8,000 train set.