Let the Sopranos theorizing begin

(Sopranos spoiler alert - and we really mean it.)

Many of us thought the cable went out when it came to the last few pivotal seconds of last night's series finale of The Sopranos. Between the final scene and the credits, the screen didn't fade to black, it simply went black and stayed that way for several seconds.

Newspaper reporters, given only a few minutes to process the ending of the HBO series before they filed, were left wondering, as Tony Soprano himself might say, "what the f---?" 

But online, amidst complaints that this was the worst episode ever of The Sopranos - including one woman's note that she'd like to send series creator David Chase an invoice for her years of cable bills - and postings of the lyrics of the Journey song "Don't Stop Believing,"  which Tony (James Gandolfini) picked to play on the jukebox in the diner where Carm, A.J. and Meadow were meeting for dinner, another  theory emerged:

Tony Soprano was dead.

To justify this theory many fans, including some on televisionwithoutpity.com, went back to the first episode of the season, at the cottage, where  Bobby and Tony are in the boat. They're talking about what it's like to die. Tony's brother-in-law thinks you don't hear anything; it just goes black.  A flashback to this scene was included in the penultimate episode last week.  Tony was dead, they posited, shot by the suspicious-looking guy in the USA cap last seen entering the bathroom.

There were also a few dream theories: when Tony walked into the diner, didn't he see himself sitting in the booth, waiting for his family? Or was that just a quick jump-cut?

One TWP poster, called DCRob, summed it up this way: "What better way of showing us that Tony's life always hangs by a thread, that everybody and everything around him is full of peril, that the end could come in an instant? And that until that moment arrives, he goes on with the quotidian business of life."

- Tanya Workman

Got your own theory? Use the comments link below.

Comments

[Stac]

Picking Journey "Don't Stop Believing" to close the show was amazing! I foudn a list http://collegecandy.com/buzz/3398 of all the songs on the series finale from last night. worth checking it out...

[Jeff Cohen]

It is a testament to the quality of the writing on the Soprano’s that millions of people watched it, enjoyed it and yet never had any idea what it was about. The vast majority of viewers never understood that this show was not about mobsters at all, it was about a mid 40’s successful business man in America and his family and how he deals with his life. And in that life we all have very strong survival instincts. All successful businessmen do things that are cruel and mean and sadistic and could easily be classified as sociopathic behavior. We all have dysfunctional families. We are all Tony. We don’t kill people but we do fire people from their jobs, disassociate ourselves from colleagues, friends and family to their detriment and do bad things to other people, like humiliate them. So we do these bad things, we are remorseful and then we move on. Vito had to be eliminated just because he was gay. Tony wanted to keep him but the peer pressure was too great. Tony’s Psychiatrist wanted to keep him too, but peer pressure caused her to have to let him go. The FBI agent who told Tony where to find Phil was sleeping with another woman not his wife at the time. He set in motion events that caused the death of Phil, Why? To ultimately catch Tony and further his own career. Is he a better man than Tony because he works for the FBI? But ultimately like every family no matter the tragedy or the bad things we do, our instincts are still to survive. Son AJ did not want to drown in the pool, he wanted to survive. Tony constantly took mental vacations to get out of his world that was too ugly to bear: Sleeping with other woman, gambling, taking drugs. But as ugly as the world is we must not stop believing because then we really do exit, like Uncle JR. His mind is out, and will never come back. So the lessons of the Soprano’s is three-fold 1. “let he who as not sinned cast the first stone.” 2. We ultimately chose life over death and seek to survive and overcome no matter how disgusting the world is that we have made and have to live in. 3. We all want to be nice, loving, giving people but the damm reality of our world gets in the way and we have to do what our environment tells us we must do; to survive. So instead of being unhappy that this show is over we all need to observe these life lessons and learn from them. Is your family a Soprano’s?

[Pat Kelley]

I can't believe how many people got sucked into Chase's intention to believe Tony got whacked. The guy in the diner, the one who want into the bathroom, was the same guy who was recording Tony's conversation in the van just before the sit-down scene in the warehouse. He was the new FBI agent assigned to tail Tony after the other FBI guy went to Terrorism. Life goes on, the FBI continues to tail Tony and his family and nobody got whacked. For those of you who taped it, go back and look at it and tell me I'm wrong? I got a reality check from one other person and he agreed with me.
It's just another way David Chase manipulated us at the end. He wanted us to believe Tony was going to get whacked and many fell for it.
I like the idea that it was the audience who got whacked.

[David Noonan]

The person sitting at the bar in the coffee shop was Nikki Leotardo (Nephew of Phil). The trucker sitting alone was the brother of the guy who Christopher robbed and killed in season 2. The two african-american guys who walked in were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear in season 3.

[Phil Kaminsky]

The fellow at the counter that ominously walked past Tony to the bathroom, was not wearing a USA cap. That fellow was shown sitting at a booth in the diner. Jeesh, one of the posters here claims to know who they are. Un-friggin-believable !