It ends; it never ends
The final episode of “The Sopranos” aired 15 hours ago. If you haven’t seen it, don’t read this.
I agree with Scott Lemieux:
The concluding sequence was brilliant, and I’m baffled by people who would prefer a neat, tidy, Friends-like ending. One can read the ending as assuming that the guy won’t come out of the bathroom with just his dick in his hand, with the fade to black reflecting the recalled warning that you don’t see it coming. Or the bell ringing that concluded the show could suggest that the killer (or the FBI) just walked in. Or to represent the fact that Tony, despite Philly’s killing, will be looking up at every bell for the rest of his life. Would just choosing one of these endings be more satisfying? Of course not. The ambiguity is more appropriate.
My neighbor had texted me 15 minutes before the end to say her cable had gone out, so my antennae were tuned that way when the screen cut to black (it was not a fade, as Scott says; that would have stripped the moment of its urgency).
After it became clear that the blackout was, in fact, the intended conclusion, the “looking up at every bell for the rest of his life” read was my immediate interpretation. It’s exactly the sort of non-resolution resolution that will characterize every remaining moment of Tony Soprano’s life, whether it lasts another five seconds or another 40 years.
Killing Tony at the restaurant would have pulled the rug out from under the tension that defined the show; sparing him definitively would have had only illusory permanence.
max wrote:
Nah, I just thought it was arrogant and unoriginal. David Chase wanted everyone to talk about for weeks. And, also, possibly, he just wants to make a movie.
Posted on 11-Jun-07 at 8:24 pm | Permalink
Will wrote:
a) I don’t understand this (widespread) idea that the ambiguous ending came from Chase being an asshole. Everyone was going to talk about the ending regardless of what it was.
b) It’s going to be difficult to make a movie without James Gandolfini, who has repeatedly expressed his relief at being finished with the character.
c) The other options for Tony’s fate were Tony dies and Tony will be all right. How are they more “original”?
Posted on 12-Jun-07 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
max wrote:
They aren’t more original. I’m just not impressed with his non-ending. I think its a “gotcha” moment more than anything. Its possible that the ending would have been talked about regardless, so I’ll give you that.
Also, it really does bother me how nearly everyone I’ve read in print or seen on TV have called it a fade to black.
Posted on 12-Jun-07 at 7:27 pm | Permalink
max wrote:
Also, even if the guy wasn’t there to shoot Tony, he wouldn’t “be all right,” for the reasons you cited above. It would be one thing to build that suspensful seen and then have it end, seemingly, with yet another disfunctional family dinner. No more tragic than its always been. But we know Tony’s trial is likely on the horizon, and clearly there are those in Brooklyn who might feel he took it too far, so the tension still remains. But to have nothing is not only a “gotcha” moment, for it may simply be that Chase had no idea what to do, and therefore chose to do nothing.
Maybe it wasn’t brilliant is all I’m saying.
Posted on 12-Jun-07 at 7:31 pm | Permalink
Sarah wrote:
I really enjoyed the ending, but I think Max’s criticisms are totally valid. When faced with two possible choices, choosing to avoid either of those options comes across as looking either pompous or totally lazy (perhaps both). It definitely wasn’t a brilliant choice, but I don’t know what would have been. I guess I appreciated the ending for being brilliantly constructed, if that’s a fair distinction to make.
To be honest, though, I was more impressed that the shot of the dude walking toward the bathroom could make us all think of “The Godfather.” It’s a guy walking into a bathroom. While Francis Ford Coppola could achieve that sort of lasting fame, I kind of wonder how memorable the ending of “The Sopranos” will be even six months from now.
On another note, I wonder if Journey made any money on iTunes this week.
Posted on 13-Jun-07 at 11:27 am | Permalink
Stephen wrote:
I didn’t see the ending or the episode I’m about to reference. Therefore, take my analysis with salt.
Apparently in an early episode this season, some guys says to Tony that he thinks when you die, you “just see black”. In a later episode, Tony has a flashback to the moment when the guy said this.
Sounds to me like it was a definitive ending that was David Chase made a point to hit you over the head with through foreshadowing. I think the Sopranos audience thinks they’re a lot more clever than they really are. David Chase isn’t an asshole, he just made the mistake of writing about gangsters, which inevitably attracts a certain amount of illiterates & retards.
That said, I don’t want Will to think I read his blog for fun. I’m just really bored at work and I’m going through a lot of depression right now. And not because I moved out of Carlin Springs.
Posted on 22-Jun-07 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
Stephen wrote:
*Sounds to me like it was a definitive ending that David Chase made a point to hit you over the head with through foreshadowing.
Journey sucks.
Posted on 22-Jun-07 at 2:17 pm | Permalink