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Now revised and expanded including a very revealing radio interview with David Chase in April of 2008!

INTRODUCTION:

    

     “If you look at the final episode really carefully, it’s all there.”* These are David Chase’s words regarding the finale of the Sopranos. He is right, it is “all there”. This is the definitive explanation of why Tony died in Holsten’s in the final scene of The Sopranos. The following is based on a thorough analysis of the final season of the show and will clear up one of the most misunderstood endings in film or television history. Chase took almost 2 years to construct the final season of the show after the fifth season ended in June of 2004. The ending was orchestrated years in advance and is the culmination of an artist in complete control of his vision. Part 1 will show how Chase directed, edited and scored the final scene of the Sopranos to lead to the interpretation that Tony was shot in the head in Holsten’s and how this ties into the “never hear it happen” concept that Chase hammered into the viewer before the show’s final scene. This explanation will be supported by words from David Chase himself, including a very revealing, largely unknown, radio interview of Chase in April of 2008. Part I will also discuss (and debunk) the other theories about the end including the “Tony always looking over his shoulder” interpretation. Part II will concentrate on what Tony’s death means and how his death was thematically constructed throughout the final season. Part III will focus on the use of symbolism in Holsten’s. Part IV will focus on The Godfather influence on the final season and Tony’s death. Part V will focus on how the final episode and final scene are linked to America’s war on terrorism. Part VI will concentrate on the “fun stuff” created by Chase and his creative team to foreshadow Tony’s death. Part VII will discuss the possible inspiration of two films on the ending of “The Sopranos”. Part VIII will speculate as to who may have killed Tony. Part IX will discuss Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 influence on the POV pattern and the final scene. Some of these topics will overlap but the ultimate conclusion is the same, Tony’s death is the only ending that makes sense.

 

*Note: Chase’s original quote to the NJ Star Ledger the day after the finale aired is “Anybody who wants to watch it, it’s all there”. Chase’s subsequent quote regarding the finale “If you look at the final episode really carefully, it’s all there” was published in a UK newspaper on September 9, 2007 as the final episodes were set to air in the UK. The modified quote strongly suggests Tony’s death since there is essentially no reason to look at the final scene “really carefully” if Tony lived as he is clearly alive the last time we see him.

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 

Part I: How David Chase killed Tony Soprano: A look at the directing and editing in the final scene and the “Never hear it Happen” concept laid out by David Chase. Plus a closer look at why the other theories about the end just don’t hold up.

Part II: What does Tony’s death mean?  How the themes of the final season and all 86 hours of the show lead to a family dinner in a small diner in New Jersey.

Part III: The Symbology of Holsten’s.

Part IV: The final season and “The Godfather”.

 

Part V: How 9/11, terrorism and the U.S. war in Iraq unlock the keys to the final scene in Holsten’s.

 

Part VI: Miscellaneous “Fun Stuff” that could only be created by David Chase.

 

Part VII: “The Public Enemy” and “Goodfellas” influence on the end of The Sopranos.

Part VIII: Who Killed Tony?

Part IX: Kubrick’s 2001 influence on the POV pattern and the final scene.

 

PART I: How David Chase killed Tony Soprano: A look at the directing and editing in the final scene and the “Never hear it Happen” concept laid out by David Chase. Plus a closer look at why the other theories about the end just don’t hold up.

 

I. THE FINAL SCENE IN HOLSTEN’S IN “MADE IN AMERICA”:

     Mr. Chase, through the use of certain shots and edits creates a pattern to show us when we are seeing things from Tony’s perspective. Here is a basic definition (from Wikipedia) of establishing a Point of View shot (POV):

“A point of view shot (also known as POV shot or a subjective camera) is a short film scene that shows what a character (the subject) is looking at (represented through the camera). It is usually established by being positioned between a shot of a character looking at something, and a shot showing the character’s reaction (see shot reverse shot)”

    

     Chase uses this exact traditional way of establishing a POV shot to create the pattern as explained above (Character looking at something/cut to a shot of what the character is looking at from the character’s POV/cut back to a shot of the character, usually for the reaction). According to this pattern, the last “shot” of the series (10 seconds of black and silence) is from Tony’s POV. The implication being that Tony sees “blackness” and “nothingness”. Tony is dead. So how exactly does Chase do it?

 

A: Tony walks into Holsten’s. We hear a bell ring. The door of Holsten’s has a bell that rings every time someone enters the restaurant. We start with a straight-ahead full shot of Tony looking at something in the diner. We then cut to a clear Tony point-of-view shot (hereafter Tony’s POV) establishing the geography of Holsten’s. Tony sees the whole diner which consists of mostly booths and a counter to his left with stools. We then cut back to the prior angle but Tony’s face is shown in close up (still looking straight ahead). We then cut to the Tony POV shot of the inside of the diner as we just saw previously except Tony is now sitting down at one of the tables in the middle of the frame. This awkward series of edits and cuts ties our POV with Tony’s because the viewer now gets the same POV shot that Tony just had previously. We now see exactly what Tony sees. This readies the viewer that they will be seeing certain things from Tony’s POV. It also shows us that Tony’s POV will be straight to the door (this will be critical).

B:THE PATTERN THEN BEGINS:

(1) Bell rings, We cut to a shot of Tony’s face looking up to see who is coming through the door (this shot is about 1-2 seconds). We then see who is coming through the door from Tony’s POV. It is a tall woman with dark hair who enters Holsten’s. We then cut back to Tony’s face to see his reaction.

Tony hears the bell, looks up and sees…

(2) Bell rings, We cut to a shot of Tony’s face looking up to see who is coming through the door (this shot is about 2-3 seconds). We then see who is coming through the door from Tony’s POV (same shot as (1)) It is an older man wearing a “USA” cap who enters Holsten’s. We then cut back to Tony’s face to see his reaction.

Tony hears the bell ring, looks up and sees…

 (3) Bell rings, We cut to a shot of Tony’s face looking up to see who is coming through the door (this shot is about 1-2 seconds). We then see who is coming through the door from Tony’s POV (same shot as (1) and (2)) It is Carmela who enters Holsten’s. We then cut back to Tony’s face to see his reaction.

Tony hears the bell, looks up and sees… 

(4) Bell rings, We cut to a shot of Tony’s face looking up to see who is coming through the door (this shot is about 1-2 seconds). We then see who is coming through the door from Tony’s POV (same shot as (1), (2) and (3)). It is “Man in Member‘s Only Jacket” (hereafter “MOG”) followed by AJ who enters Holsten’s. We then cut back to Tony’s face to see his reaction.

Tony hears the bell, looks up and sees… 

(5) Bell rings, We cut to a shot of Tony’s face looking up to see who is coming through the door (this shot is about 2 seconds). According to the pattern, we should then see who is coming into the diner from Tony’s POV (this should be Meadow as we see her about to enter the diner a few seconds before the bell rings). Instead, the screen cuts abruptly to black mid-scene (at the exact spot where we should see Meadow from Tony’s POV) and the audio cuts off. All the viewer sees is “blackness” where Tony’s POV should be. This is Tony’s POV because he is dead. We no longer hear Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” because Tony no longer hears it. If this was a normal ending we would see a fade to black followed immediately by the credits and we would probably still hear the music. Instead, the blackness and silence lingers for 10 seconds before we see the credits. This emphasizes the blackness, nothingness and eternal nature of death. Chase originally wanted no credits at all and the blackness to last all the way to the HBO logo (this was revealed by David Chase in the Ultimate Sopranos HBO book released in October of 2007). This would further emphasize the eternal nature of death. Tony is dead. He was shot from behind in the right side of his head. How do we know this?

Tony hears the bell, looks up and sees…

 …Nothing, as Tony is killed in an instant   

 He was shot by MOG (Members Only Guy) as he exited the bathroom. Just before (5), MOG gets up and walks past Tony’s table. Tony gives him two looks and MOG eventually enters the bathroom. Chase uses a tracking shot to follow MOG and to make sure that we see MOG enter the bathroom. To further emphasize the shot’s importance, Chase continues the movement of the camera even after the bathroom is clearly seen (the bathroom moves from the corner of the frame to the left and consequently is more noticeable when the camera finally stops). This is only one of two tracking shots in the final scene (the other is when Tony enters Holsten’s) as all the other shots in the diner are static.  Chase’s direction is clearly meant to convey the importance of MOG entering the bathroom. The purpose of the shot is to show that MOG will have a clear shot at Tony once he exits the bathroom. More importantly, the bathroom is behind Tony. Tony will not have a chance to react.

      MOG is deliberately framed as a threat to Tony once he enters the diner and Chase goes out of his way to indicate that MOG is different from any of the other patrons in the diner. MOG is the only patron ever seen outside of the door of Holsten’s before the bell rings (we see him opening the door just before we cut to Tony and hear the bell ring). However, the pattern set out above in (1)-(5) is never disrupted because once the bell rings we then cut to Tony looking up and then the pattern continues accordingly. Chase also has MOG and AJ enter at almost exactly the same time (they almost touch). This may imply that MOG followed AJ to Holsten’s. Once MOG enters he seems to be looking straight to the back of Holsten’s (looking for Tony?). This seems strange in light of the fact that he immediately sits down at the counter to his left (which we would think he would have seen right away when he walked in). Once AJ sits down we then see MOG in the background sitting down at the counter. MOG is seen in “soft focus” in the background between AJ and Carmela. We then get a full shot of MOG apparently looking in the direction of Tony’s table. This is confirmed when we cut back to the shot of AJ and Carmela and we see MOG looking in their direction in the “soft focus” background shot between them. Later in the scene, we get a second full shot of MOG looking over at Tony’s table. Finally, we get a full shot of MOG getting up to go the bathroom. MOG is looking down as he gets up from the counter to avoid eye contact with Tony. He also walks awkwardly as his head looks to the left while his body seems to stay straight. He seems to be going out of his way to avoid eye contact with Tony. He is clearly not oblivious to the presence of Tony Soprano. Also note that none of the other patrons (including the man in the USA cap) are ever shown looking at Tony (more on this later). Chase makes it clear that we should be paying special attention to MOG over any of the other patrons.

     Meadow’s problems parallel parking and being late for dinner also confirm MOG’s actions and Tony’s subsequent death. Practically, it creates suspense in the scene. However, it has much more meaning than we might initially think. If Meadow was on time then she would be sitting next to Tony in the aisle seat. In other words she would be obstructing MOG’s clear shot at Tony from outside the bathroom (Chase clearly shows this when MOG walks to the bathroom). Secondly, her lateness gives the excuse for Tony to look up at the door one last time which Chase needs to make the last shot of blackness from Tony’s POV(as explained earlier). It also serves the purpose of distracting Tony to give MOG an easier shot.

     Mr. Chase covers all the angles and his POV pattern and Tony’s murder hold up under close scrutiny. There are other Tony POV shots in the scene. We see Tony POV shots of the songs on the jukebox, Tony POV shots over his shoulder when AJ talks in the frame (the point-of-view taken over the shoulder of a character (third person), who remains visible on the screen is another traditional POV shot in film).

Chase reinforces that we are seeing things from Tony’s POV by using separate POV shots of Carmela and AJ walking towards Tony’s table.  Tony’s eyes follow them as they come toward him.  Carmela walks screen left as she enters from the front door and, in Tony’s second POV shot of Carmela, is shot at an angle  illustrating Tony looking at her slightly to his left as she walks past the desserts.   The second Tony POV shot of AJ has him already much closer to Tony’s table at an angle illustrating Tony looking at him to his right.  Since we know Tony’s straight ahead view is to the door, (established by the early “jump cut” when Tony walks into Holsten’s and the subsequent close up’s of Tony looking straight ahead when Tony hears the bell ring) the camera must move at an angle to illustrate that Tony continues to follow them as they approach him (Carmela and AJ can’t continue to walk straight towards Tony to reach him as they would have to walk directly through the tables in front of Tony). These shots occur after (4) and (5) respectively. However, they never disrupt the pattern set out above. What matters is that when Tony hears the bell ring, Chase always uses the traditional technique to establish the Tony POV shot. After Tony looks up at the door, we always cut to the same shot of someone entering in a clearly subjective “tunnel vision” (from a character’s eyes) shot. Also, POV shots are usually not 100% subjective (as clearly we would see some of the tables block Tony’s vision if they were). Here is another important point about POV shots (once again from Wikipedia):

“A POV shot need not be the strict point-of-view of an actual single character in a film. It makes little sense to say that a shot is “inherently” POV; it is the editing of the POV shot within a sequence of shots that determines POV”.

    

     Chase also deliberately differentiates when we are not seeing things from Tony’s POV to reinforce when we are seeing things from Tony’s POV. The scene of the young black guys is not from Tony’s POV (and the door opening behind them is somebody exiting the diner) as Tony is shown looking down at his menu just before and just after the shot of the two black men looking at the desserts (the black men are also shown at a different angle then the normal Tony POV shot that we saw earlier). Chase also uses sound to tie our POV to Tony. Tony gives MOG two looks as he walks past Tony’s table. However, Tony returns his attention to his menu. The next scene is the black men looking at the desserts as it appears they just entered Holsten’s. They seem to have entered as MOG was walking past Tony’s table. This explains why Tony (nor we) did not hear the bell ring when they entered the diner as Tony had turned his attention to MOG. Also, Chase has a second shot of the teenaged couple. During this shot Chase pumps up the audio so we hear them laughing. At the exact moment they laugh, a muffled sound of what appears be a bell is heard. The very next shot is the second close up of MOG staring in Tony’s direction with the door closing in the background (which could confirm that the bell did ring). The next shot cuts to Tony looking down. Apparently, if the couple did not laugh, Tony (and us) would have heard the bell and looked up. Had Tony looked up at that moment, he would have seen MOG staring right at him, a delicious irony that could only be orchestrated by David Chase. It also illustrates how Tony is able to get hit. We only clearly hear the bell ring during the Tony POV pattern (besides when Tony walks into the diner himself). We do see two background shots of the door opening. However, they are never shown from Tony’s POV and only show patrons exiting Holsten’s. The first is when we see the door opening behind MOG as he stares at Tony for the second time (clearly not the standard Tony POV shot and, as explained previously, follows a second or two after the young couple laugh). The second shot is a patron, only slightly opening the door, (which may explain why the bell isn’t heard) exiting Holsten’s seen behind the black men (not a Tony POV shot as explained earlier in the paragraph). Also, we see Carmela and AJ looking down at their menus just before Tony looks up for the last time. This is Chase telling us that they had no chance to warn Tony when MOG comes out of the bathroom.

The very last shot of Carm and AJ, they’re looking down. No chance to warn Tony:

We then cut to Tony looking up (the bell is heard) for the last time:

      The closer look of the scene shows exactly how Tony is able to get hit and dispels the other most popular theory about the ending, that the scene represents Tony’s paranoia and how he will have to live the rest of his life. The scene actually suggests the exact opposite, that Tony is too relaxed and too comfortable. First, Tony takes a table in the middle of the restaurant, leaving his back exposed (which sets up “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” easy kill from behind). Tony looks up when the bell rings because he is expecting his family.Tony goes right back to the jukebox after the first women enters and the trucker in “USA” cap enters. In fact, trucker in “USA” cap lingers by the door (perhaps checking the desserts) and we cut back to Tony going back to the jukebox.  The direction and editing clearly establish that most of the other full shots of the patrons are third-person shots and not meant to be seen by Tony. We get one full shot of “USA cap guy” stirring his coffee and reading his paper (he doesn’t exactly look dangerous or interested in Tony or anybody else in the diner). He is never shown looking in Tony’s direction and is never seen again after this shot.  More importantly, Tony is never shown looking at him.   The shot of  “USA Cap Guy” stirring his coffee is directly in between shots of Tony looking down.  Thus Tony cannot be “eyeing” him (further refuting the “Tony’s paranoid” theory).   Tony is not “eyeing” the grey haired man with the boy scouts because they’re seen behind Tony’s left shoulder. Tony is never shown turning around to see them. The laughing teenage couple are in front of Tony to his left as they’re seen behind Carmela’s right shoulder.  They’re never shown looking at Tony or vice versa.  Besides, the grey haired man with the boy scouts and teenage couple in love can’t be seriously considered threats to Tony.   Tony isn’t exactly “looking over his shoulder” as many fans believe.     

    Chase’s direction of “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” further proves this point.  “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” enters with AJ directly behind him. Chase does this so Tony’s eyes will naturally go to AJ. This is confirmed by the cut back to Tony who smiles when he sees his son. “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” hasn’t registered with Tony. However, he’s registered with us because he is the only patron seen outside of the door before the bell rings. The first full shot of “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” looking at Tony comes immediately after Tony is looking down while he grabs AJ’s hand. Just after MOG’s first look at Tony, Chase does not cut to Tony seeing him. Instead, we see a medium shot over Tony’s shoulder (suggesting Tony’s POV) of AJ checking out the menu while “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” is seen out of focus in the middle of the frame. This exact same shot is repeated several times when AJ speaks and MOG always lingers at his stool directly in Tony’s point of view, but he apparently never registers to Tony as he talks to A.J. “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” looks over again, and Chase cuts to Tony looking down at his menu. Again, “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” does not register with Tony. Chase has at least 6 shots of Tony (with only his face in the frame) looking down at his menu (you would think Tony was studying scripture!!). This does not include multiple shots of Tony looking down at his menu in shots that also include Carmela and AJ. The directing screams that Tony is not paying enough attention. There are multiple shots of Tony smiling and his expressions are of happiness, not paranoia. Finally, we get a full shot of “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” getting up from his stool. He walks towards Tony’s table and finally Tony looks up at him. Tony then looks back down to his menu as “Man in Member’s Only Jacket” heads towards the bathroom behind Tony. Tony then gives a quick glance at MOG behind him as he is about to enter the bathroom but then goes right back to looking down at his menu. The very next shot is 2 young African American men looking at some desserts. The shot then cuts to Tony looking down at his menu. Tony never sees them, once again dispelling the myth that Tony is eyeing everybody and is paranoid. The editing suggests the exact opposite. Chase has given the audience more information than Tony has. Tony is not aware MOG looked twice in Tony’s direction before he got up to go to the bathroom. If Tony knew this, would he so easily go back down to his menu after MOG enters the bathroom? The scene suggests exactly how a normally wary Tony is able to get hit. The “Tony’s paranoid” theory is a fallacy, it is actually the viewer who is paranoid because of all third person shots of the other patrons and MOG staring at Tony (not to mention that this is the final scene ever, but Tony doesn’t know that). Also, the giggling teenage couple and the grey haired man with the boy scouts cannot seriously be considered threats to Tony (both of whom are given a couple of full shots although they are never shown looking at Tony or vice versa). Even Chase’s words seem to rebut the theory. Chase in the HBO Ultimate edition Sopranos book says he had the idea for the ending for years and also says:

“As I recall [the end], it was just that Tony and his family would be in a diner having dinner and a guy would come in. Pretty much what you saw.”

    

     Chase’s words suggest one threat, not numerous threats symbolizing Tony’s paranoia.

These boy scouts and young couple in love don’t exactly seem threatening:

“USA Cap Guy” is minding his own business:

Young black guys checking out the treats. Not the classic Tony POV shot and between two shots of Tony looking down.  Tony isn’t exactly paranoid:

Chase gives us a multitude of shots of Tony just looking down.  Tony is content as he grabs A.J.’s hand:

     Furthermore, from a storytelling standpoint it doesn’t make much sense for Chase to make “this is how Tony will have to live the rest of his life” point at this moment. The viewers know Tony will always have to look over his shoulder. The viewers have known this since the beginning (Tony is mafia boss!). Chase could have created a Tony POV sequence to convey this message in any of the other 86 episodes. It makes much more sense that the Tony POV sequence was created to put the viewer in the eyes of Tony at the exact moment of his death. Remember, Tony Soprano is the main character the viewer has followed all of these years. We have been inside his head in multiple dream sequences and have intimate knowledge of his personality and fears through his visits to Dr. Melfi. It makes sense to put the viewer in Tony’s POV at the time of his death. Once Tony is dead, there is no show. If Tony was to die it had to be the last moment of the series. The show ends where Tony’s consciousness ends.

      So the last shot is from Tony’s POV. Tony may not hear the bullet if it is shot from close range (the bullet traveled faster than sound). Tony never heard it coming. No chance to reflect or react. The bullet shattered his brain and there was instantaneous death. Just a void of blackness and nothingness. Worse, his family was there to be bear witness to his murder. The viewer experienced death through Tony’s eyes and it was jarring. Upon further inspection we see that Chase set up this moment by deliberately planting the “never hear it concept” into the viewer throughout the final 9 episodes.

*One last note on the POV sequence/Blackout. Just after the finale aired, blogs on the internet contained numerous posts from viewers swearing they saw Meadow walk through the door just before the abrupt cut to black. The question arose whether Chase had two different versions of the final scene shown across the country. One with Tony’s face as the last thing we see before the blackout and the other being Meadow walking into Holsten’s before the famous cut to black. We now know that there was only one version shown. Surely someone would have recorded this alternative version if it existed. There is actually a simple explanation for this misconception and it all has to do with the POV sequence explained above. The POV pattern caused the viewer to expect to see who was coming through the door from Tony’s POV. When the bell rang, Tony looked up. Our brains were conditioned by Chase to think that we were going to see Meadow . In a sense this was a Pavlovian type response. The fact that so many thought the last shot was Meadow is a tribute to David Chase and how effective his POV pattern really was.

      By putting us in Tony’s eyes in the last shot we know that Tony never heard the bullet. However, Chase has already told us what to expect from first-person death. Most significantly from a scene originally shown in “Sopranos Home Movies” and repeated via flashback in the penultimate episode “The Blue Comet.” In “Sopranos Home Movies,” Tony talks about how most mob bosses either end up dead or in jail. Bacala asks Tony “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens, right?” At the closing scene of “The Blue Comet” Tony has a flashback to that moment. The show rarely uses flashback so this seems to have major significance. Chase sets up the end of “Made in America” with this flashback. Bacala asked a question that Tony can now answer. Tony never heard it coming. Bacala’s words corroborate Tony’s experience at the moment of his death.

     The final season episode “Stage 5” also foreshadows Tony’s death and furthers the “never hear it concept” with the murder of Gerry Torciano. Gerry is having a sit-down with Silvio at a restaurant. Both characters have their “goomar’s” at the table with them. At one point, we see a shot of Silvio talking to his goomar at the table. The shot is an over the shoulder “goomar” POV shot of Silvio talking to her. Suddenly, we see blood on Silvio and the sound cuts off and we hear a low ringing while Silvio continues to talk to the goomar.  The scene also seems to slow down.  Silvio looks down and sees blood on himself and seems disoriented and confused.  Finally Silvio looks up and we cut to a hitman blasting Gerry in the side of the head. Both goomar’s are holding there ears as the guns blast (the sound cutting off and the low ringing may be the experience of someone being so close to the gun blasts). We seem to be getting the POV of a witness at the dinner table (Silvio’s goomar). Silvio never heard or saw it coming. This scene sets up (1) Tony’s POV in Holsten’s and (2) another unexpected murder in a restaurant in which the victim nor anybody else “heard coming.”  Later, Silvio tells Tony about the Torciano murder and says “fucking scary thing was I didn’t know what happened until after the shot was fired. Fucking weird.” His words echo Bacala’s “never hear it when it happens.”  The follow up scene where Silvio relays his experience to Tony has no practical significance. We know Silvio didn’t know what happened until after the shot was fired, we saw the scene. Chase’s purpose for Silvio’s explanation to Tony (just like Bacala told Tony) is to hammer home the “never hear it concept” into the viewer because it will pay off in the final scene. Also note that Silvio’s words correctly predict the viewer’s reaction to the final scene. The fans of the show would not know what happened until after the shot was fired at Holsten’s. Chase was setting us up the whole time. David Chase is an interview for the HBO Sopranos final edition book confirmed the significance of the Torciano scene.

“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.”

    Also,  from as “Air America” radio interview of David Chase conducted by Richard Belzer on April 14, 2008:

Richard Belzer:  “I was working with Steve Schirripa recently, we were judging “Last Coming Standing” for NBC and we were talking about a lot of things and he was saying he heard all of these theories for the show that had nothing to do with your intention and wasn’t anything the actors thought, like little hints along the way, like a word, like when Tony and Steve are on the boat at the lake and they say “‘you never know its gonna happen” or “you never know its gonna hit you”

David Chase: “That was part of the ending.”

Richard Belzer: “Oh, it was? see, what do I know? Were there other things in previous episodes that were hints towards it?”

David Chase: “There was that and there was a shooting in which Silvio was a witness, well he wasn’t a witness, he was eating dinner with a couple of hookers and with some other guy who got hit and there was some visual stuff that went on there which sort of amplified Tony’s remark to Baccala about you know “you don’t know its happened” or “you won’t know it happened when it hits you”. That’s about it.”

 The “never hear it concept” is expressed by Chase throughout the final episode. Phil is killed in almost the exact same way as Tony. Phil is shot in the side of the head and presumably “never heard it coming.”

      Tony’s vulnerability from behind (MOG shoots Tony from behind) to set up Tony “never hearing it happen” is consistently foreshadowed in “Made in America.” Chase does this in 2 separate scenes. The first scene is the sit-down with NY where NY Boss “George ” is the mediator. George asks Tony if he wants water which is behind Tony. Tony then does a fast “spin around” to see what is behind him as if he is vulnerable. In the very beginning of the Tony-Junior scene, Tony is staring at Junior. An orderly behind Tony (behind his right shoulder, where MOG would be) asks Tony twice to move out of his way and raises his voice (Tony “never heard” him). Finally, Tony looks behind him and seems to be surprised to see the orderly. At the family’s safe house, Carmela asks Tony if he’s being careful. Tony looks away and never gives Carmela an answer.  In the previous episode “Blue Comet,” Tony tells Silvio to have “eyes behind the back of your heads” when he is referring to Phil’s possible retaliation against Tony’s crew.

     Chase also makes explicitly showing Tony’s murder superfluous through the use of POV in the previous murders of Phil Leotardo and Gerry Torciano. In the Torciano murder Chase shows us the POV of a witness at the table (see above). This suggests what the experience may have been like for AJ and Carmela in the final scene. A few seconds before Phil is shot, the camera is placed behind Phil just like the killer would be. Walden’s (the killer) arm and gun then enter from the side of the frame and shoot Phil in the head. The shot suggests the POV of the killer. This suggests what the experience may have been like for ”Man in Member’s Only Jacket” in the final scene. Also notice that Phil’s wife has a delayed reaction to Phil’s shooting (she doesn’t start screaming until a second or two after Phil is already on the floor even though she should clearly see the gun pointed at Phil’s head), this echo’s Silvio’s delayed response to the Torciano murder and our delayed response to Tony’s murder. Finally, the last scene puts us in the ultimate POV, the POV of the victim, Tony Soprano. In a sense though we have already seen everything. We already know what Tony’s murder would look like for MOG, Carmela and AJ.

     So why did Chase illustrate Tony’s death in this way? Here is a key quote from Chase that may provide the most insight:

“There was so much more to say than could have been conveyed by an image of Tony face down in a bowl of onion rings with a bullet in his head. Or, on the other side, taking over the New York mob. The way I see it is that Tony Soprano had been people’s alter ego. They had gleefully watched him rob, kill, pillage, lie, and cheat. They had cheered him on. And then, all of a sudden, they wanted to see him punished for all that. They wanted “justice.” They wanted to see his brains splattered on the wall. I thought that was disgusting, frankly. But these people have always wanted blood. Maybe they would have been happy if Tony had killed twelve other people. Or twenty-five people. Or, who knows, if he had blown up Penn Station. The pathetic thing- to me- was how much they wanted his blood, after cheering him on for eight years”.

     

     The quote suggests that Chase directly objects to the image of Tony’s death(not the idea of his death). This may explain the genesis of the POV pattern and the idea that we would experience death through Tony’s eyes. Chase is disgusted by the inherent contradiction that the same people who cheer on Tony also want to see his brains splattered all over the place. He rails against fans for cheering on Tony and just wanting to see blood. By using Tony’s POV, he denies the fans of the thrill of watching his bloody murder. More importantly, by putting “us,” the viewer, the same people he calls pathetic for cheering on Tony, in Tony’s eyes at the moment of death, he is indicting all of us. Most telling in the quote is that he calls the fans Tony’s “alter ego.”  Chase doesn’t allow us to be removed from Tony’s death (by seeing him shot and bloody) but gives us the same abrupt, disorienting feeling of sudden death and nothingness. We are Tony at that exact moment and it is jarring and more importantly, we deserve it for rooting for this guy. Chase was making a statement about us as well.

     Some believe David Chase was just playing with the audience and nothing happened. The argument being that Chase ratchets up the suspense in the scene just to “play” with the audience but in the end there is no payoff. This is David Chase’s way of “messing” with the audience. This argument is not consistent with the way Chase has done things on this show. Chase seems to dispute this theory himself in his earliest post-finale interview.

“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”.                                                                                                                                           

 

      To believe that “nothing happened” or “Life goes on” is in direct contrast to the structure of all six seasons. The show was, while complex in the amount of detail and depth of character, pretty classic story-telling. When Chase did wallow in ambiguity, it was only for peripheral matters or the ending was there but the audience just failed to see it. Take the famous Russian Valery in the “Pine Barrens,” the episode wasn’t really about him or his ultimate fate, it was about Paulie and Christopher’s deteriorating relationship. Interestingly enough, after that episode, Chase cites the missing Russian three times after that episode throughout the rest of the series. All three scenes imply that the Russian  never surfaced. Chris mentions the missing Russian during his intervention which causes an angry Paulie to angrily shut him up. Paulie and Chris relay the Pine Barrens story to other crew members in the Season 5 opener. When Patsy asks what happened to the Russian, Chris replies “Who the fuck knows?” In one of the final episodes, “Chasing It,” Tony relays to Bobby, Paulie, and Chris that he has to go see Slava to get some money. Logic tells us that if Valery survived there would’ve been major consequences given Valery’s close relationship to the Russian Boss Slava. However, those three scenes imply that Valery never surfaced and Tony has continued doing business with Slava. If Chase was so invested in narrative ambiguity he would have  no reason to include these three follow up scenes. Many also cite there was no follow up regarding Dr. Melfi’s rapist as an example of Chase’s perverse pleasure in leaving storylines dangling. Once again the ending is there, if you want to see it. Once Dr. Melfi took her moral stand not to tell Tony to avenge her rapist, the story was over. That’s what that episode was about. The answers have always been there on this show. Chase always liked to hammer a point home, always artful but never clear until the end. Each episode of each season was like 13 separate pieces, each with its own storyline and themes that ultimately coalesced into the season’s ultimate themes, that all become clear by the finale. Only in retrospect can the viewer  see that the arrows were always pointing the way toward the end (in part 2 of this essay, you will see, with the benefit of hindsight, why Tony dying is the only ending that makes sense). It makes no sense that Chase would abandon this style in the final season-all just to say “Life goes on” or to leave the viewer hanging. Whether or not Tony died would not be a peripheral matter to the show, it is something Chase would not leave hanging. Chase just decided to show Tony’s final fate in an artful way that required the audience to work a little bit, but the answer is there. The true identity of Tony’s murderer, and the motive, is really the ambiguous part of the finale and probably only a peripheral concern to Chase. Below is an illustration of how the first 5 seasons have a clear narrative drive that ends conclusively. Each season has its major themes and storylines that pay off by the end

Season 1: The major thrust of the season is Tony’s struggle for control of the “family” with Uncle Junior and Tony’s relationship with his Mother. The season ends with Tony defeating Junior to become boss of the family. Junior’s crew is wiped out. Tony comes to the realization that Livia is not the loving Mom he thought she was and attempts to kill her at the hospital.

Season 2: The 2 major plotlinesare 2 separate threats to Tony Soprano. Big Pussy, Tony’s best friend has flipped to the FBI and may bring Tony down. Richie April returns from prison to challenge Tony and rekindles his old romance with Tony’s sister Janice. These storylines are resolved neatly. Richie is killed by Janice and Pussy is killed when Tony discovers he is a traitor.

 

Season 3: The 2 major plotlines involve Jackie Aprile Jr. and his attempt to break into the Mafia (and Tony’s attempt to keep him out) and the introduction of Ralph Ciffaretto, a new thorn in Tony’s side. By the end of the season, Jackie Jr. is killed on Tony’s orders and Tony resolves (at least temporarily) a season long feud with Ralphie.

 

Season 4: This is probably the least “clean” of all the season’s endings. Tony and Carmela separate in the finale (although the separation was a natural conclusion to their relationship during this season). Junior’s trial ends with a hung jury and Junior avoids prison.

 

Season 5: A season long Civil War in the NY Lupertazzi family is the thrust of this season. Tony’s cousin Tony Blundetto is also introduced and gets involved in the NY war. By the end of the season the NY war is resolved when Little Carmine surrenders to Johnny Sack and Tony kills his cousin Tony Blundetto(to avoid Tony’s family having it’s own war with NY). Also, Tony and Carmela are back together by the season’s end.

      Consequently, for Chase to have this big buildup in the final scene of Season 6 and to end with “nothing happening” or “Life goes on” violates the shows basic structure. Why would Chase and his team of writers leave the viewer to “choose their own ending”? Why would Chase introduce the prospect of Tony’s trial in the final few moments of the final episode? Would Chase not consider this major event in Tony’s life worth seeing? The answer is simple, Carlo’s flipping and Tony inevitable trial become a moot point once Tony is killed. That’s why Tony’s impending indictment is mentioned again in Holsten’s. It’s meant to distract us from what’s really coming.

     Some believe that The Blackout represents the “viewer getting whacked.” This argument also violates the basic structure of the story. When has the viewer ever become part of the show? This would make the ending a complete gimmick. It would be the “cop out” that many fans complained about after the finale. Did Chase take nearly 2 years off to come up with that?

     Some believe Chase was simply making a commentary about storytelling; that Chase simply stopped the story to undermine the idea of closure. This was his bold critique of the arbitrary structures of traditional narration and a refusal to comply with expectations and norms. This would certainly be a confrontational way to the end the series and would be more in line with the “audience was whacked” theory. This view seems contrary to Chase’s own words that the ending was not a slap in the face to the audience. This theory also assumes that the ending was about the Sopranos as a television series or cultural phenomenon distinct from the Sopranos as a group of characters within a narrative. This arbitrary type ending would be nothing more than an adolescent and defiant stance by Chase and would run counter to everything that came before it. If you choose to follow Chase’s words-“it’s all there”-then we are only to look within the narrative itself to find the meaning. To think that Chase simply wanted to piss off the audience is to ignore the artistry, depth, commitment, and creativity Chase and his team has shown throughout the entire series. Chase has been on record as orchestrating the ending for several years. To think he meant the final scene to be a “fuck you” at the last moment strains credibility. This excerpt is also from the HBO Sopranos final edition book:

“I saw some items in the press that said “This was a huge “fuck you” to the audience. That we were shitting in the audience’s face. Why would we want to do that? Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger? We don’t have contempt for the audience. In fact, I think The Sopranos is the only show that actually gave the audience credit for having some intelligence and attention span. We always operated as though people don’t need to be spoon-fed every single thing- that their instincts and feelings and humanity will tell them what’s going on.”

     Many believe that Tony survived because there was nobody left with a motive to kill Tony. This is certainly debatable. Tony Soprano has directly and indirectly ruined so many lives that he must have dozens of enemies. This may be reason for the “Member’s Only Guy”/Eugene Pontecorvo connection (I will get more detailed with this concept later on in the “What’s Tony’s death mean?” section).   The man who kills Tony is credited as “Man in Members Only Jacket”.  The first episode of the final season is titled “Members Only”.  The title refers to Eugene Pontecorvo  (a member of Tony’s crew) who wears the jacket in this episode.  In the same episode, Eugene commits suicide after Tony will not let him and his family retire to Florida after he receives a 2 million dollar inheritance.  Eugene is another life that Tony ruined. Maybe that is Chase’s point. Tony’s death was inevitable given all of the lives he has destroyed and all of the potential motives of unknown killers. Mr. Chase was not interested in the identity of the killer or his motive but in the inevitability of Tony’s pre-mature death. This argument may be supported by Alik Sakharov, ASC, the main director of photographer for The Sopranos. Mr. Sakharov has shot 39 of the 86 episodes. More importantly, he shot the final episode. Mr. Sakharov’s words seem to rebut the “nobody witha motive left to kill Tony” argument which is especially relevant because he is discussing the final scene in Holsten’s. The following quote is from an audio interview with Mr. Sakharov for American Cinematographer Magazine just two weeks after the finale. Once again, Mr. Sakharov is discussing the final scene in the context of the people in the diner who may or may not be a threat to Tony:

 “Tony Soprano revolves around the people, many of whom he has hurt indirectly and directly. He is a very vulnerable character. The hit (on Tony) could come from anyplace, anytime, anywhere, and (by) anyone” .   

     

     Also note Bacala’s own words about death as a way of life in the Mafia in the now crucial scene in “Sopranos Home Movies”:

“Our line of work, it’s always out there. You probably don’t even hear it when it happens right?”

    Many also believe that if Chase wanted us to interpret that Tony died, he would tell us who exactly did it and why.  However, a huge part of this show has always been the surprises.  How would Chase accomplish this task with scenes setting up Tony’s murder?  Worse, how anti-climatic would it be if we find out the details after Tony is killed?  Once Tony is dead the show is over (more on this concept in the next paragraph).  More importantly, the “never hear it” concept and blind sided nature of Tony’s death would be disrupted by scenes setting the plot to kill Tony in motion.

     It is also plausible that the hit could have been at the orders of Butchie. There appeared to be an agreement between Butchie and Tony but the exact way that the Phil Leotardo hit went down may have changed everything. Phil being killed right in front of his family and not being able to have an open casket (his head gets crushed by his SUV) may have crossed the line and embarrassed NY. Butchie has never been shy about killing Tony and the final season made it clear that the NY family has no respect for the NJ family. It is certainly plausible that there was a double cross. Butchie may not be able to adequately lead his men by letting Tony kill Phil without retribution. Chase even hints at the possibility that there could have been a double cross. When Paulie calls Tony to tell him Carlo is missing he suggests that perhaps Butchie took him out and the sit-down was a ruse. Later we learn Carlo flipped to the Feds but the idea of a double cross was certainly possible to Paulie. Also, it is the perfect retribution for Phil for Butchie to have Tony’s death occur right in front of his family. It’s simply a “A Boss for a Boss” and the slate is wiped clean. NY can now do business with the remnants of Jersey. In any event, Chase leaves us with an abundance of evidence that Tony is killed but only small crumbs that may suggest the identity of his murderer. Consequently, the identity of the killer and the possible motive for it are clearly not important to Chase. Chase left this point as the great mystery of the series and perhaps Chase himself has no answer. Remember the “never hear it” concept. Chase wanted us in Tony’s eyes at the moment of his death. In achieving the ultimate vicarious experience of Tony’s death, Tony himself would never know who killed him or why, so the viewers shouldn’t know either.

Some are resistant to the idea that Chase showed us Tony’s death through his eyes because the show has never been told strictly through Tony’s POV. This may be true, but it doesn’t preclude Chase from crafting the POV pattern in the final scene to express Tony’s death. Once again, this show is primarily about Tony. Through Dr. Melfi and his dreams, we have become incredibly intimate with Tony and his thoughts. Also, just about every other plotline on the show relates to Tony or informs his character on some level. Practically, it would be impossible for Chase to shoot every scene of the series from Tony’s POV and even the final scene only shows Tony’s POV in certain instances. Chase makes this point on his DVD audio commentary (with Peter Bogdonavich) of the first episode. What’s intriguing here is that Chase had thought about doing the entire show from Tony’s POV. The genesis of the POV pattern seems to have derived from his original conception of the series. Chase, while talking about the scene early in the first episode where Tony chases down a degenerate gambler with his car, explains that the scene is meant to show Tony’s POV through an over the shoulder shot. He then explains:

“I originally had thought of maybe doing the whole show-it’s ridiculous-like that, as an over [the shoulder shot], [doing the show through]Tony’s POV”

     Many believe that Tony wasn’t killed because MOG’s actions don’t indicate that he was a Professional Hit-man. This is pure speculation. There could be dozens of reasons why MOG took his time in the diner. He may have needed to positively ID Tony before moving in for the kill. He may have wanted to sell to Tony that he was just a regular customer. More importantly, by going to the bathroom he is now behind Tony, a much easier shot. We are also assuming he is a professional hit-man. He may just be a man with a grudge who may have followed Tony to Holsten’s or just happened to discover Tony there and decided to kill him at that moment. Others argue that MOG could not have known that Tony and his family were at Holsten’s. This argument assumes Chase cares about relaying this information to the audience. However, Chase never explained how Bacala or Jackie Jr. were found by their killers. Mr. Chase is not primarily interested in the realism of the scene. He is interested in created the most effective and suspenseful scene that he can make. There are dozens of other whacking’s on the show that are not entirely realistic.  Phil is shot dead in front of a half dozen witnesses (and most gas stations now have camera’s).  Silvio is shot in daylight in front of witnesses as dozens of vehicles drive by on the highway adjacent to the Bada Bing.  As far back as Season 1, Tony actually shot and killed Chucky Signore in broad daylight by pulling a gun out of a dead fish!  Chase’s  primary purpose is to entertain the audience. The whacking of Bacala by two hit-men is an example of this. The hit-men can just as easily kill Bacala outside the toy train shop. We can assume the shop has camera’s (Bacala’s dialogue explains how expensive some of the toy trains are) and we know the shop has many witnesses including children. Yet, if they waited to kill him when he came outside then we would not have witnessed a spellbinding sequence contrasting Bacala’s death with the derailing of a model train (not to mention the irony of Bacala dying in the context of his childlike, innocent love for toy trains).

     Another argument against Tony dying in the end is that Tony “paying for his sins” isn’t David Chase’s style. However, take a look at the history of the show. The bad guys “get it” in the end. Although not in the way we would expect. We usually do not see them getting justice in the traditional way (i.e. prison). It is usually premature, violent death-Richie, Ralphie, Tony B., Mikey Palmice, Eugene, Vito, Phil Leotardo, Christopher, Big Pussy, Jackie Jr., Bacala(notice this is right after his first killing) and many others. Silvio is near death. Other characters end up abandoned (Uncle Junior) and dying alone (Livia). Some do get sent to prison (Johnny Sack and Feech LaManna). Notice Chase goes out of his way to show us Paulie is not long for this world after being made capo of the jinxed Aprile crew. Chase himself seems to have offered his own insight into this argument. Chase was asked by Entertainment Weekly how the show would resolve about three months before the final 9 episodes aired. Chase of course wouldn’t give anything away but offered this insight:

“It is in our interest (for the show) to show that there are certain ways that we all spend our lives, and that as adults, we decide our fate, we make our own bed, and we lie in it. That to me is not the same, hopefully, as saying crime doesn’t pay, or bad people are punished. Free will exists”.  

      

     Here Chase expresses a concern that his ending will be perceived as a simplistic “crime doesn’t pay” message (His key words are “hopefully” it won’t be perceived as such). The quote seems to all but give away that something very bad will happen to Tony by the end of the show. It also expresses Chase’s concern that fans will miss the big picture, that Tony’s fate will be a consequence of the choices in his life. Chase lays this out with Tony’s coma-trip and his chance of change which will be explored fully in Part II of this piece.

     Chase clearly wanted the ending to be initially ambiguous and open to interpretation. However, Chase wanted us to engage the material and find the answers ourselves. The very ending itself is much more consistent with Tony dying than living. Chase could have simply ended the show with a fade to black and immediate credits if he wanted to create a “life goes on” impression. Instead, the scene cuts abruptly to black mid-scene while the audio cuts off mid-lyric to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing.” David Chase correctly predicts the reaction to the finale by inserting Journey’s “Anyway You Want it” in the jukebox in Holsten’s. Chase does give the viewer who wants to see Tony live some solace. Here is another excerpt from Chase from the Ultimate Edition HBO Sopranos book:

“This wasn’t really about ”leaving the door open.” There was nothing definite about what happened, but there was a clean trend on view — a definite sense of what Tony and Carmela’s future looks like. Whether it happened that night or some other night doesn’t really matter.” 

    

     Here Chase explicitly speculates that Tony could have died that night (“it happened” suggest an abrupt event, like a shooting). Chase also ties Tony and Carmela’s “future” directly to “that night”. Chase here suggests that it really doesn’t matter if Tony literally died in Holsten’s because the end also represents Tony’s symbolic end. The final scene represents what Tony’s death will look like in one form or another (i.e. a violent pre-mature death). Since Tony’s death is never explicitly shown on screen the final scene is always open to interpretation. However, Chase, later in the same interview, drops the “Gerry Torciano” reference to suggest Tony’s death(see above). He later, in the radio interview, mentions the Bacala “never hear it happen” line as “part of the ending.” Chase is suggesting that Tony’s death was orchestrated early on in the final season narrative to clear up the ambiguity of the end. Logic tells us that Tony’s literal death is Chase’s personal interpretation of the events in Holsten’s, otherwise he has undermined his own narrative.

      Another popular argument against the idea that Tony was killed in the final scene is that Chase would have shown MOG shoot Tony if he wanted us to believe Tony died. After all, any death of a major character on the show has always been explicitly shown to the audience. However, Tony is not just any other character on the show. The viewer has been primarily following his story and has been inside Tony’s head. Tony Soprano may be the most famous gangster in television and film history. Millions of fans havewondered what his death would “look like”. For this reason Chase cannot kill him in a cliché manner. A quick bullet to the head just doesn’t work for Chase’s purposes. It’s an ending not worth the character. Besides, we have already seen Tony shot on two previous occasions. Consequently, Chase crafted a way to show Tony’s death without showing anything explicit. More importantly, he avoided any of the clichés of a gangster’s on screen death. He created something no one could have predicted, a POV sequence that puts the viewer in Tony’s eyes at the moment that he is shot. David Chase had no interest in showing Tony dead and bloody and his family screaming in horror. Besides, David Chase already showed you what that would look like just a few scenes before when Phil Leotardo is killed right in front of his family. Instead, Chase creates a jarring cut to black through Tony’s eyes that is far more satisfying intellectually and emotionally. More importantly, it has never been done before and could not be predicted by anyone upon the first viewing. It is one of the great deaths in cinematic history. It is the anti-Scarface ending. Instead of a bullet ridden corpse we get to experience death as Tony would experience it. Tony Soprano and us never saw it coming.

As Part I ends, I leave you with these words by David Chase discussing the ending from a December 2007 GQ magazine interview that encapsulates his thinking about the final scene:

“In a certain way, I think [the controversy over the ending] revealed some of the problems that we have. We’ve been fed so much ham-handed, overly explicit storytelling, particularly in television over the years-tell them what they’re going to see, show it to them, then tell them what they’ve seen. And some things are beyond words, actually.”

David Chase didn’t show us Tony getting killed. He did what great artists do, he made us feel it…..

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