…to a nation of whiny babies who didn’t know “up” from their mothers’ rusty buttholes; and thus, made pouty faces because The Sopranos didn’t end the way they wanted. Of course, those of us who actually paid attention the whole time had to hear conspiracy theorists write alternate endings instead of basking in the sexy afterglow of THE most groundbreaking series in the history of television.
Dear Casual Dumbass Who Cried So Much That This Was Somehow National News,
If you believe Tony died, this would be your strongest argument…
Earlier this season, Tony asks Bacala what he thinks death is like. To which he replies, “You probably don’t even hear it when it happens.” Foreshadowing? Of course. But for whom?
It’s all about the POV (point of view) shot at the end. It’s THE absolute final shot in the entire series and therein lies your answer. The last shot IS NOT Tony’s POV. It’s OUR POV of Tony. Then, everything goes black. Credits roll in silence. Series over. If you were going to off the main character while clearly establishing his POV of the people in the restaurant, it wouldn’t make cinematic sense to NOT see his POV before black because that’s what the writers defined as death. In the end, “it’s all a big nothing” as Livia Soprano used to say. If you ask me, that’s some epic fuckin’ consistency and brilliant cyclical writing.
So, the key to the fate of Tony depends on whether or not you respect the writers’ definition of death. If you do, you’ll know that in one ironic shot, we THE viewers are dead to Tony. And somewhere in Make Believe, he’s alive and well, balls deep in Garry Shandling.
