The Fat Man Sings: Goodbye Sopranos

One last SOPRANOS post, now that the series is over. There will be SPOILERS, so feel free to skip if you do not want to find out what happened (although good luck at avoiding the thousands of other stories out there.


Spoilers...


Spoilers...



You have been warned...


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Anyhow, like everyone, I was wrong about how the series would end. Although count me among the people who really loved the ending. Confusing, sure, along with frustrating, surprising and more, but I still loved it. But what does that cryptic cut-to-black ending mean? As I see it, there are two possibilities:

1) We were seeing the world through Tony's eyes, his constant paranoia that he lives with. He once again "won" a power struggle, his family is together and safe, but it is a Pyrrhic victory. Tony knows he is never really safe, and lives in constant fear of it being taken away from him (by being whacked, arrested, whatever). Or,

2) Tony was killed. At first, I thought (1) was the more likely meaning of it all. But the more I think about it, the more I think (2) is likely. The Bobby flashback at the end of "The Second Coming" really supports this view, I think. As do the hints that New York was not entirely satisfied with the post-Phil situation.

However, the great thing about the episode is how open-ended it was. I am sure once people go through each frame, it is possible they will be able to work out a more definite theory. But either way, I thought it was a great end to a (usually) great show. (I am, however, disappointed to hear the Dante's Inferno theory of the last nine episodes was wrong).

Also amusing to learn that superstitious Italians think about cats the same way Koreans do. Although I did like the mysterious cat in that episode (which I think could have been Adrianna).