Sopranos Finale - Last Scene Poll ***SPOILER***

[kidcolin]

there is no shot of meadow's face.

[kkcountry]

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there is no shot of meadow's face.

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what was the last thing on the screen before black?

[Michaelson]

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Its the greatest ending in TV history and no one gets it. TONY DIES THERE IS NO OTHER REASONABLE WAY TO INTERPRET THE SCENE. It doesnt fade away with all 4 of them sitting at the table. It cuts to black MID scene before they are all even seated. Tony got hit there. We dont know by who, but we know 100% that he is dead.

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6 hours later, i really really really agree with this. does anybody have any screen caps of meadow's face before it cut to black?

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You never see Meadow walk through the door, only approach it. The doorbell rings and the final shot is of Tony looking up and, presumably, seeing Meadow enter. Then it abruptly cuts to black.

The fact that it is Tony's face on screen when it cuts out is, I think, the strongest indication that he does not, in fact, get shot.

[kidcolin]

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there is no shot of meadow's face.

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what was the last thing on the screen before black?

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close up of tony's face, from the front, looking up toward the door as he hears the door jingle.

[kkcountry]

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there is no shot of meadow's face.

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what was the last thing on the screen before black?

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close up of tony's face, from the front, looking up toward the door as he hears the door jingle.

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oh. for some reason i had it in my mind that it cut out as meadow was crossing the street, while we were in tony's seat. now i'm pretty sure he wasn't capped.

[kmak]

I am more of a casual Sopranos watcher so forgive me, but what leads you to believe in the storyline that Tony gets hit? I thought the main theme of this episode was revolving the conflict with Phil's group and it had been done. I thought that if he got hit it would be random, and the point of the last scene was to show you the "life of Tony" - never at ease, always looking over his shoulder, always at risk - even when out to a casual dinner with his family.

I voted no.

[sublime]

i am amazed there needs to be a poll about this.

i mean they eliminate the force that wants to kill tony...THEN he gets killed. makes sense.

[Triumph36]

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You're all wrong. ;-)

The answer is that it does matter but we don't know.

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i'm curious why you think it matters. after the initial shock of death, who would be seriously affected - whose life would be worse off or significantly different? haven't these deaths this season served to show that in the end all these people will be who they are regardless of what transpires around them?

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At least ever since Tony got shot, and especially in Season 6, the Sopranos has been a pretty damn existentialist show. So I think that's where Chase was trying to go with the ending.

If you ask an existentialist whether God exists, he won't say "it doesn't matter." Instead, he'd say something like: "God exists to the extent that you believe in his existence", or "I don't know. Does it matter to you?". The fact that there is not a definitive answer to the question does not render the question moot; on the contrary, the lack of a definitive answer might be thought of as liberating in certain ways. Existentialism does not equal nihilism, it's just that it takes the locus of truth and places it within the individual, rather than outside of him.

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In this sense just about every piece of art is existentialist. It is always up for the viewer to interpret it how he or she sees fit. While Chase plays around with this more than most, and I think your interpretation is certainly interesting - I guess I think any direct interpretation have some elements of falsity to them. And there are certainly less existentialist endings that could've come from this, but all stories end with some element of guesswork.

What we made of Tony Soprano was always left up to us, but we will receive no more information about him.

[Cry Me A River]

This is the meaning of The Sopranos final scene.

David Chase is [censored] with you.

He knows you expect a Big Surprise Ending. He knows you expect something That Everyone Will Be Talking About.

So he presents false cues and phony suspence.

The Big Suprise Ending is that there is no Big Surprise Ending!

Tony doesn't change. Tony isn't redeemed. Tony doesn't die. Tony doesn't pay, not any more than he always does.

Tony Soprano spent six seasons struggling to choose the path of enlightenment over the path of brutality.

And failed.

There is no resolution to Tony's inner conflict. He will never find true happiness, true contentment. Only fleeting glimpses such as sharing onion rings with his family.

And so the story does not end, it merely stops at an arbitrary point.

[JuntMonkey]

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can there be an option for 'it doesn't matter'?

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QFT. If your making this poll you just don't understand the Sopranos.

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Get over yourself.

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"'Get over "myself"', what does that mean now?"