ไม่สามารถเล่นวิดีโอนี้
ขออภัยในความไม่สะดวก
The Sopranos Ending- Explained Once and for All
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2021
- A deep dive into the meaning and interpretations of the famous Sopranos final scene that I hope will close the book on it.
/ bloodoftheland
/ rickworley
It's sad to think that Bobby's last thought was that his son didn't want to hang out with him anymore.
I disagree. I think that Bobby's last thought was excitement about the train component he was about to buy.
Didn't he look up and see the shooters? His last thought was probably "Oh shit"
Perhaps Bobby’s lament about his son not wanting to hang out with him anymore was his realization that he wouldn’t be alive when his son eventually came around to wanting to be with him. He foresaw his own demise.
@@icu22dayno
I never got the controversy. My first thought was "Oh, homie came out of the bathroom and capped Tony from behind." I mean... "It won't be cinematic," was literally a line in the show. Perfect ending.
Many moments in life will draw you to the conclusion that many americans are dumb or ignorant.
Right at Tony's "3 o'clock"
I agree. I thought it was pretty self-explanatory myself. I think the "controversy" comes from people that just don't want to believe Tony is dead.
Homie? You want to talk like that we'll send you to slip and fall school.
“You probably don’t even hear it when it happens”
is the most minimalistic and classy way to show the fatal end of the main character; I love it.
Bobby's and Patsy's lines "you probably don't even hear it happens" and "it won't be cinematic" are the best way to explain the show's ending
Bobby had the most important line in the entire show and there lies the actual key.
“You never hear it when it happens.”
Can't believe there's literal children watching Sopranos though
You probably don't even hear it when it happens***
It's so important that you misquoted it lol
They even replayed that line in the last episode. Unbelievable that so many people didn’t get it
"Everything just goes black." Boom.
If it ended in a bloody mess that scene would have overshadowed the whole series. The show was about Tony and when he ended, the show ended.
Perfectly put!!!!!
Yup he died but people are insisting he lived but nah karma came back to him
@@protohass cheap, lame interpretation of the show that no writer/editor would ever approve of. The silly Easter egg hunt for Tony death clues is doing to this show what people did to the Shining.
The show isn't about karma, or bang bang who wins the war, it was a psychological character study of a repugnant man who pushes away every connection in his life, and ends up trapped inside one of the most evil and broken minds we've ever seen.
Killing him frees him from the prison that the show worked so hard to put him in.
Maybe he dies a week later. Maybe a month. But thinking the final scene was a veiled death scene is just really, really bad critical thinking on all of your parts. Even the creators laugh at the Easter egg hunt and obsession with the final episode being a live-or-die hunt. You have actively made David Chase dislike sopranos fans.
Let that sink in.
@@davemccombs Then why the foreshadowing convo with Bobby and Tony at the lake?
@@davemccombs Lol all the ‘clues’ and shit that you can find in that scene and in earlier scenes/episodes are obviously intentional because it was a well written show and that’s what a well written show does it makes you think. And they made us think throughout the whole series and that last shot was no different, chase shot the last few frames in a way to make us debate for 14 years whether he was or wasn’t whacked. So I hardly believe he hates us for going over his work with a fine tooth comb when he put so much emphasis on not knowing what happens after the cut to black, obviously intending to create that sense of ignorance for us to fill in the gap by how we perceived the show and the characters. No doubt the ending has achieved its intended purpose
The cut to black was a master stroke. For years the show pulls you into Tony's world, and into his mind, who he is as a person, his strengths and failings and the vicarious power trip you get from watching him throw his literal and metaphorical weight around in the mob scene. It's all deliberate, to make you identify with Tony, view him as a kind of role model and forget, underplay, excuse and ignore the fact that he really is a vicious, selfish, amoral monster that you would never want to be within 100 yards of. And after you've been fully immersed, you get hit with smack-dab in the face with a dose of reality. The end for you was exactly the same as it was for Tony. Banal, meaningless, empty, unsatisfying, hollow. As he was as a person, and ultimately his time on this Earth was too, and your own fake admiration and misplaced envy too is hollow & nihilistic.
beautifully written. Well done
But, we can still miss James and his role
Yup, you got it. Chase showed us all how we are tricked into identifying with the villain.
Great comment
I know I'm not the only one that was screaming and cursing cable, that night!
Its probably worth to mention how Meadow is described as a guardian angel. This could somehow relate to the theory of Tony dying at the end because the Guardian Angel being Meadow was late to the diner making them unable to stop Tony’s death.
Yup. Had she been on time or a bit earlier Members Only doesn’t have a shot on Tony because she’s blocking it. And family doesn’t get hurt, we’re reminded of that two episodes before right after Bobby
Did anyone ever stop to think maybe Meadow was packing a small pistol maybe in her purse where she went and she truly was his guardian Angel because maybe she sees members only jacket creeping out the bathroom with a gun and as Tony looks up the doorbell rings which means she enters and then maybe pops members only? Hey that’s just as valid a theory as any for a cut to black. That’s the beauty part! 😊
@@gregthegroove haha i was literally about to shitpost about meadow and carmella being strapped and being on top of it (while aj just exists inconsequentially) but after watching this video i think it would be hilarious if they got silly with the ending and dropped all the metaphors and went literal. if the show spent 2 seasons foreshadowing the looming threats with an epic parade of tragedy and meadow is some sort of guardian, it's plausible that no one's taking chances and ready for some charles bronson shit.
Paulies last words of the series were..I live but to serve you my leige...The guy that said was a man history who overthrew his freind/ General...
Another act that proves your theory is when Tony bet on the Golden Meadow (horse racing) and the horse loses by such a small gap. further proving that Meadow, the guardian angel, was unable to save Tony by a few seconds because she was struggling with parallel parking.
What really made me sad and gave me chills is realizing that Junior outlived so many people and probably doesn’t even remember them….being all alone and probably doesn’t realize it.
It's interesting to think about Junior's fate in comparison to Frank Sheeran's (Rob De Niro's character) fate in The Irishman. Both confined to nursing homes to live out an anti-climactic ending. However, while Junior slowly forgets, Sheeran has to live with the guilt of the broken life he created for himself.
Junior deserves worse.
Loved the use of music in the series too. The end of the episode where Junior gets his ass kicked by his Asian friend and is sitting alone in the yard with a cat on his lap and Benny Goodman’s Sing Sing Sing is playing always gets me.
Just think bout artie who seen all of them and knew all of them b4 they all got killed
loved the program and the ending TrImackasywack.
Damn this is so well done. You definitely have the makings of a varsity athlete
Haha thanks!
Ya, this is insanely detailed. Dude should be teaching film or something lol
@@Empty_Eeyore poo poo fart
Junior was such a great character & this definitely was 1 of his best lines 😂
I don't know about that. I think he likes eggs a little too much.
I don’t even think the ending matters to be honest. Tony’s fate is basically shown to us constantly. He’s been given the chances to turn back, the visions of his fate, feeling the heat of hell, he is Tony Soprano. The shows end really starts from the beginning, the mob in general is kind of coming to an end. It’s largely a shadow of what it was and with advancing laws and technology the game is changing too fast for anyone to be ahead of the curve. Tony starts realizing that this shit is all shit and although he makes some attempts to change, it never is enough to really break down what he is at his core. To me this absolves the ending of needing resolution because we’ve been shown for 6 seasons what mob life will bring. We’ve been shown that it doesn’t matter who, everyone’s bad when built off the back of things like murder robbery and taking advantage of people. Whatever happens to Tony it won’t be good, but at the same time there’s not much that can be done to Tony that would or could change him. He’s too deeply Tony Soprano. It makes you look at what happened during instead of what the climax was, because the during already told us the climax. Like really what could’ve happened to Tony, he either goes to jail, or dies. He wasn’t a man who lived a long life, he essentially decended so far into darkeness that every moment in his life was just getting over the next hill, and the next hill always had the possibility of someone being there ready to gun him down. If it wasn’t today it’s tomorrow. He’s fucked. He’s aleady a dead man walking. He has no room to grow because Tony Soprano is not a man that grows, not because he can’t but because it’s not in his nature to do so.
It is shown to us, constantly. It's all about the slow failure and death of Tony's soul, and the prison of his mind being built around him, brick by brick.
Of course, fans will never stop cheapening David Chase's work and turning it into a children's easter egg hunt for "clues" about what happened. Totally missing the point of the show.
Glad to see at least some folks are able to scratch the themes out when they watch it. I've seen these theory videos regurgitate old psych 101 hat year after year claiming they "finally!" figured out the ending. I say, the video analysis itself proves they missed the first and most obvious point of the finale.
Cheers
@@davemccombs It's not an "Easter egg hunt". It's art. Art is your interpretation with an answer that's there. Examining art does not cheapen the work.
Exactly. It doesn't matter one bit whether he caught a bullet right as it went to black, or a few seconds after that, or a few minutes later, or later that night, or the next day, week or month. Even the guy in the jacket is just there to represent possibility and inevitability. It doesn't matter if he is even the guy who ends up killing him or not. Because someone will, and it's coming sometime soon.
Which makes the last scene so out of place. It's the only one where the whole family is out to eat without any associats around. Also, no bodyguards?. That is strange considering Tony just got over a mob war and he's behaving like a normal citizen. The whole scene has a dream like quality. As if this is the prototypical all American family outing that Tony always craves but hardly ever gets. Maybe what Tony wants but never gets as the blackout contends.
I think uve nailed it 👌
I like the detail that the actual Holstein’s Diner has different decorations on the inside than what we see in the last episode. The show specifically chose all the set details including the mural behind Tony. Two football players wearing 38 and 22 which are both calibers of bullets. An orange tiger mascot which reminds us of Adriana who frequently wore cat prints and was murdered at Tony’s order, and the big school in the middle which has an eerie resemblance to Green Grove and the Inn at the Oaks.
Woah! Great points I never noticed before
Dude, you’re on acid lol
“The raising of his left hand clearly means that he’ll never be at peace with god and is about to be sent into oblivion”
@@manifestgtr
Very observant. The sacred and the propane.
@@Dushmann_
LOL
Kubrick did this too often, hand placing props he had fabricated into his shots to control every image.
Lots of stories in Sopranos never wrapped up like Furio or the Russian. I remember hearing an interview with Chase earlier in the series saying not everything in life has a definitive ending. The cut to black was the end of the viewers part of story and that’s fine by me.
Pretentious cop out
@@R1ck_Ryder cry about it
Wasn’t the Russian supposed to be expanded upon according to Chase? I remember hearing him say the Russian was supposed to reappear with amnesia or something. That does sound like a cop out lmao
@@R1ck_Ryder sounds like a skill issue.
I mean you could say those stories wrapped up just not satisfyingly.
All these years later and the ending of The Sopranos is still being is still being debated, discussed, and analyzed. Suffice it to say the showrunners made the, exact, right call. My two cents of course. Good stuff regardless.
That's a good point, also. If you can make something that people can debate and find new meanings in for decades- and not in a negative way, many people like the ending more and more the more they think about it- that's quite an accomplishment.
Just watched it for the first time and I have hours upon hours of extra sopranos content to enjoy from creators on TH-cam and stuff it’s pretty cool
@@asleepcorn3391 isn’t that just such a great feeling?! I actually started watching sopranos because I saw Michael imperioli and Steve schirippa on Joe Rogan’s podcast and really wanted to listen to it. So after listening to five or ten minutes I thought, damn I should just go watch the series first before I hear this podcast, this sounds awesome lol. Fast forward a few months and I did finish it and immediately turned on that podcast lmao.
Also, if you don’t know already, those two guys (Michael and Steve (Christopher and Bobby B)) have their own podcast where they literally go through the scripts of each episode in the series and comment on them and give behind the scenes looks at stuff, so that in itself is like probably 60+ hours of top notch sopranos content as well!
@@STSGuitar16 It's mostly confused ad reads for products both actors clearly have never even heard of, and to be fair, they spend a lottttt of time shitting on the notion that there are clues to be found that prove what happened during/after the final scene.
Cheapens Chase's work to no end, to treat it that way.
I was just discussing it with my
buddy today, regardless of the meaning of it it was a fantastic ending.
When Tony walks into the diner from outside two red lights briefly appear on him (one at his temple, one on his chest). There's no source for these red lights and they don't appear again when everyone else walks into the diner. I believe Chase is letting the audience know that not only does Tony die in this diner but he will get one bullet in the temple (with his guardian angel Meadow not there sitting on his right to protect him - that's why her inability to parallel park the car gets so much attention) and one in the chest. As Chase has said, what happens to Tony is all there in the scene.
While the source of the red light seems to be a neon sign in Holsten's window that reads LUNCHEON, the strange red dots that appear only on Tony seem unnatural and intentional. Never noticed this.
No it’s not. The two red lights are the tail lights from a van. The driver side tail light and the center tail light on the top of the van rear doors. You can clearly see the back of the white van with its lights on as Tony walks to the front door.
The two red lights are the tail lights to a white van you can clearly see parked outside the front door. The bottom red light is the driver side tail light and the top red lights is the third brake light. They go out at Tony walks in the door and you can clearly see the back of the van.
@@UghDroppingLoads yeah but there’s a reason why they kept that shot and didn’t take a new one to hide that light defect. It’s intentional because it signifies Tony’s ending.
Big stretch, just stop
I loved the ending. It was pure art on screen. But my favourite thing about the ending was how it highlighted how people can feel anger at, or feel let down by not getting what they want. The feeling of entitlement that somehow they are owed something.
It was masterful.
You have it reversed -- you are not entitled to the audience's appreciation no matter how high or pure you think your art is. And yes, the audience is owed something -- they are owed a good show, as they have paid for it.
The audience is not "entitled" for having basic human desires, expectations, standards, etc., for their entertainment, and using "high art" apologia for a flop of a tv show ending is nonsense. The Sopranos ending sucks, it still leaves genuine enjoyers of the show confused and disappointed by it (first clip of this video), the audience at the time didn't like it, it was the butt of many jokes for years after... why? It was a bad ending, simple as that. You can enjoy it for your own reasons, but, no offense, you're not a genius for thinking it's good, or for gloating over other people disliking it. People are returning to the show for many reasons, all in spite of the show's awful ending, not because we now understand the ending is actually very good.
i didn't realize it was the last episode when i watched it so i assumed there was a next one
@@Real_Bad_Guy or maybe some people are not as narrow-minded as you 😊
found the the last jedi fan
@@Real_Bad_Guy more like real fat guy
Seeing the way people reacted to the ending is baffling to me. I was so overwhelmed by it the first time that I started crying. I don't remember ever thinking "what happened", because a) it always seemed obvious given the sheer weight of clues the show gives you, and b) it doesn't matter. The point isn't that he dies, it's that he hasn't changed. They're all trapped in limbo, going on and on and on and on.
Until they aren't.
We keep watching these essays on The Sopranos because the truth is, we just can't let it go.
Don’t stop believing.
Alright, but you gotta get over it
@@cobysmith3096 maybe not . I heard Chase just inked a deal with HBO fir a Sopranos prequel series
@@middlesexomar7765 ( it's a tony quote)
@@cobysmith3096 oh yh, to furio
Hahahahaha. Literally laughed out loud.
The ending got me man. Well done. Great video.
Thanks!
Got me too! Thought the power went out on my laptop. Perfect execution Rick
I haven’t finished it yet lmao. Did Rhiannon get him killed? XD
Me too! I sounded like Vincent Price at the end of Thriller! Fantastic video Mr. Worley!
Literalptsd lmao 🤣 but perfect analysis
David Chase is a true genius. How do you write something like that with that much complexity and that level of dialog?
I dont think it was all him, look at what he did with Many Saints
Writer’s rooms
Terrance winter.. landress did big things with casting.. ECT... A group effort... Master craftsmanship in it's purest form
@@nicolasclermont893many saints isn’t that bad. I believe it will have a semi-reversal of opinion the same way the Star Wars prequels did
@@nicolasclermont893also it’s okay if you don’t like it so long as it isn’t for some trite “wokeness” argument
22:56 The positioning of it looks like he’s in a coffin too, definitely intentional - this whole last season basically can repeat itself at the ending, so I totally agree with you about him dying and coming back basically like he’s been dead the whole time and we’ve already seen what happens to the remaining characters - is exactly what would happen after the diner; like the hospital, the power grabs, the money hold out, etc. so regardless if people hated it, we had already seen what happened after Tony dies. It’s brilliant. Great video man, this was definitely the most thought out analysis I’ve seen on the ending. Also sidebar I feel like AJ being Tony’s devil is another portion, juxtaposed to Meadow being his guardian angel. Meadow always saves him from danger and AJ usually puts him in danger (unintentionally by him but just a bad omen). AJ coming into the diner is bringing his death, Carmella is the remains, and Meadow getting there late is his guardian angel missing the window to save him. Tony’s perspective ends when it goes to black this is over aka it fades to black. Even the shot of him looking onto the final scene before it happens suggests he was dead from the beginning of the season, hence the coffin. Meadow was at the doctor, she’s pregnant and marrying into the family, and Tony’s journey is over. it’s the circle of life
omg this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The opening scene of the final episode with Tony asleep in his safe house was intended to resemble Tony in a casket
Ask yourself this question... did you really want to see Tony's brains splattered all over his family and the onion rings after watching him all those years? Chase simply spared us all the trauma. In the new movie he shows the protagonist getting shot in the head just for all you fans who needed to see Tony get whacked.
Absolutely right!!
But it had to end that way especially after phil ended up getting murdered in front of his family. I think Butch would have accepted Phil being killed,,but not like that
Difference is, we knew Dickie was going to be shown getting killed. Most people for years didn't know what happened to Tony after the last episode (hence the reason many people called the cable company to report their cable went out). It took years for people discover Tony's fate. Even a few of David Chases interviews were confusing. Shortly after James Gandolfini died, David Chase was still asked about the ending and he said "Tony lived on". In another interview, he called it "the death scene".
@@S3P7 Dude, it very obvious that Tony got whacked. Just because some people are clueless doesn't mean it was difficult to comprehend for most.
@@S3P7 chase just confirmed he died. Read one of the many articles about it. There is finally no more "ambigious" nonsense
@@tyler-bb6el Yes, I'm glad it's confirmed 100% officially. I actually saw an article earlier today about it, and I'm glad there is no more confusion.
That was a first class job Rick....from start to finish you had me, a professional and highly intelligent breakdown of the world's greatest TV series. Love the fade to black at the end... I loved the Soprano"s because each character was so well acted and the scripts were pure gold. Thankyou David Chase for a fantastic journey (pun intended) thru the life of Antonio Soprano
This video is just brilliant, i love how you tied everything in with the Seven Souls poem which i loved since im a big William Burroughs fan. The ending to this series is just pure perfection.
Brilliant work! Love that you referenced Burroughs' _The Western Lands_ so much in your analysis. The spoken word performance of "The ancient Egyptians postulated Seven Souls..." is used so brilliantly in the series, thematically - I always felt it was the key to understanding the final episodes.
Season 5 thru 6b are the pinnacle of television, imo.
A lot of "fans" of the show seemed to never understand what show they were watching, and liked least the things that made the show most meaningful and unique.
I agree about season five on... It was already the greatest show on TV, but with season five they leveled up several times again.
I agree. The show was funny and entertaining enough for a mainstream appeal but the majority of casual fans are unaware of it’s more subtle themes.
@@Elevenbravo_ABN I just finished watching the series will rewatch the series with all this in mind as I completely missed the clues. The multuple storylines per episode and cliffhangers take up a lot of mental bandwidth lol.
The Sopranos social media community have opened my eyes to a new way of watching/analysing film!
@@ejaganjac7085
Yea, the hidden meanings are pretty deeply buried. You could easily watch the entire series and not pick up on any of them; I’m sure a majority of the audience hasn’t.
"I hAtEd ThE dReAm SeQuEnCeS...."
Rick Worley and the Sopranos? Maybe life ain’t so bad after all, going to enjoy this with a nice cup of tea
Only an amzing show can have people digging like this years later! Good job bro! Long live The Sopranos!!! I've watched the entire series at least 6 times and was one of the many who seen the series finale live and stared at the end credits in awe!
The perfect ending to a show that absolutely relished in not giving people closure, just like real life.
Look, man. I've been listening to and reading and watching analysis of The Sopranos since I was 14 - and this is by some distance the best thing I've come across. You deserve millions of views for this. Fucking hell, lad.
Right ! I’m mid 30s and this is one of the best analyses I have seen as well
100/100 video! My mom is a total Sopranos fan and we've watched the series so many times since the original airing. We've both switched stances on the fate of Tony throughout the years and watched a lot of videos about the ending. I can't wait to watch this vid with my mom because I think it is the most well done and well examined explanation. Also loved the ending of this vid~
I’m a big Sopranos fan. I’ve watched every episode at least half a dozen times. I knew Tony died at the end because of Bobby Bs comment about not hearing the shot and everything goes black. I almost didn’t click on this but I’m glad I did. Wow. I now have a new found PhD in Soprano Science. If you’re right about half of this David Chase is a genius!! Excellent analysis!!
here is what i noticed:
you see when they order the onion rings, they eat them like its like holy communion, idk like a last supper kind of thing, the last meal. also, right before meadow comes into the diner, you see a ford explorer, SAME MAKE AND MODEL the one phil got shot right outside of, also the members only guy looks really tense tapping his fingers
The ending just by itself deserves a thumbs up. Great video, I really appreciate your channel
This was great. This is exactly what Chase says about the ending.
I see so often comments that just treat it as a given one particular interpretation (the one where he's killed) and there's no room for any other interpretation, and they go on to develop these elaborate elaborate conspiracy theories about who and why, then treat those as a given also.
Great breakdown and love how you ended it, To me, in the scene when Bobby told Tony when they were on the boat, " You probably dont even see it coming" is when I realized the fade to black was Tony being Killed, but your breakdown was fantastic and it explained a lot and The fade to black was classic.
You didn't realize it. You saw it in a video and it was the wrong conclusion.
It was a hard cut to black, not a fade.
@@mattjindrak Thank you... I can't believe how many people still make that mistake. A fade to black would've given the ending a totally different feel. The straight cut to black is what gives the greatest indication of his death. If It ended with a panic attack, or life-goes-on, _that_ would've been a fade to black.
Everybody in the restaurant killed him. Case closed! 😁
Here's something interesting that adds to the death evidence: Chase wanted there to be no credits... just black and silent for the amount of time the credits would have been there. He was not allowed to do it... laws were apparently in place on the production side that make it mandatory for people to be credited. This info comes from Michael Imperioli who played Christopher... he talks about it during the last episode of his podcast about the Sopranos
I had the ending spoiled years before I even watched an episode of the show and I think that actually helped a lot. When the ending finally came, I was like, “oh ya, that’s it.” It is an oddley satisfying ending.
Same here. I really only knew the show for that final scene. Had seen it in clips here and there. But getting to it felt like the end of a legend.
i am a sopranos superfan, proud of it. currently half-way through your video, by far the best series and finale explanation online. will comment more when done...thank you Rick for putting in so much time and thought into this project.
That really was a brilliant ending to the series. Legendary, even if it was initially disappointing.
I love it. It was powerful the first time I watched it and I enjoy it more each time I watch the series.
Imagine how we'd feel at the moment of sudden death. That's the lasting impression that I've gotten from the show and it's the reason why it resonates so deeply with me even as we speak. Great show.
What struck me as interesting in the final scene is the way they ate the onion rings. They ate them in the fashion of a communion wafer, but priests give a wafer at last rites, too. I found that symbolic of death. But death of what, I don’t know. A character? Old school America? The mafia? The whole series?
That's a bit of a stretch
@@furtvvanglerr8296 The wafer thing is actually a popular theory. How they eat them all is also very unique, without biting.
Bravo Vince!
Idk what it means but they certainly eat them particularly strange and it’s obviously intentional
The writing of this show is fucking genius I LOVE watching a show and going back and someone explaining all the symbolism, its almost like every single scene has a deeper meaning and always forcing the viewer to question things in their own way and I appreciate that more than anything on the show I could only wish to be a genius writer that these people did with this show and this now makes me appreciate the ending more than ever it tells me that everything in life is always seen differently depending on how much you question or catch the constant symbolism in life that's in our faces but us as materialistic humans we fail to see most of the time
I think in general the best stories' endings leave it open to imagination. For example: the matrix had captivated me because it opened a world of imagination about the simulated world being real in real life. It did not do it with the ending itself but it left that door open; in a sequential show like The Sopranos showing them totally dead would be the end of possibility and the same would be true if they showed it ending with them being happy and free from all trouble.
Also in twin peaks too (season 3)
After the initial shock and confusion….the ending proved to be the most genius move ever. It took a bunch of digging, which I love, to find out that Tony was definitely whacked. Shot in the head- ordered either by the rest of Phil’s crew or Paulie and Patsy. Another wild theory is the Member’s Only guy was Eugene reincarnated and getting revenge lol. It’s also very interesting that the hot chick AJ met in rehab was a plant by Phil’s crew- evidence of her picture being in the salon owned by them. But I can’t for sure say that’s her in the photo, but she was right there when Carm said they were eating at Holsten’s that night.
He wasn’t whacked, the writer’s said it was meant to be ambiguous….
@@jonnybirchyboy1560 Use that thing in your head for once and look at it. David Chase trolls his audience, and you were trolled. Tony got killed, and you have to examine to learn that. Not just read a tiny blurb from a writer in a People’s magazine.
@@jakepayne2985 You seem smooth-brained, the writers admitted that the ending is ambiguous. Get over yourself, looking for things that aren’t there.
@@jonnybirchyboy1560 Dillweed, David Chase said the answers are all there, numerous times. We just have to look for them. Some of us looked, unlike you. Their goal was to make something people are still talking about years later, and now look….
@@jakepayne2985 Yeah, and by answers are there he means it’s ambiguous.
I saw the ending to your video coming, and still laughed when it happened 😂 well done!
The ending of The Sopranos is how I personally think about questions like "what is the meaning of life" in general. We can go on and on and on analyzing everything along the way, but in the end, we can't know everything.
You are all missing the most obvious answer. He was killed by a couple of black guys. That has been the ongoing line all through the show to explain everything and now the irony bites Tony right in the ass.
I was into this review because I’ll consume anything related to The Sopranos, but the moment you made direct reference to William Burroughs I was hooked (pun intended). Great work!
Thanks!
It was hilarious the way he kept bringing up the tree branch through the baby car seat to everyone in that episode.
Carm saying how bad she felt that ever even considered that Chrissy could have been involved in Adarinna disappearing is a great example of the way our perceptions of a person we love change when they pass away.
My father was a real piece of work and made alot of my life very difficult. However he passed away suddenly when I was 25 and even those our bad times out weighed the good ones ten fold , I didn't think about how relieved I was that i wouldn't have to deal with the bad stuff anymore. I only thought about how I was going to miss the good.
Well put. Surprisingly, it is often harder to accept the death of someone you've had a difficult relationship with than someone with whom you've always been close. Not only do you focus on the good times, but grieve the fact that there's no longer a chance to resolve the issues between you.
@@Jimmy1982Playlists in the end? Fuck Santa Claus.
My father cut himself off from everyone the worse his lungs got. Suddenly I get a phone call that he's in the hospital fighting for his life. That was two years ago of which he died that week. He and I weren't on speaking terms for some reason or another and the one time I called him and he actually picked up the phone I had no idea what to say. It was the last time we spoke and I don't know what to feel about it.
Sheeeesh
@@Choopytrags Some guys tend to withdraw socially the older they get. I see it happening to myself to some extent. Just close to my immediate family and really have little interest in other social events.
Some men also don’t like people to see them in a weakened state and don’t want to perceived as a burden. Maybe your Dad was doing that?
the finale will be remembered for the ending . you’re a freaking genius
I love this show! I just finished rewatching it the other day and I could see why people were upset at the time but in hindsight it's a perfect ending. I personally liked the ending the first time through and had so many arguments about it.
Iconic ending. DONT STOP
This one was a beautifully elaborate analysis, well put together....
Thanks!
Great analysis, Rick. This was utterly, utterly excellent. The tree shots also relate to the monk's comment about turning to trees after we die. When Tony lies back to look at the trees, he's also seeing all the people he's killed. As viewers, we see trees as peaceful things of beauty: together, this shows us that Tony's life is not only surrounded by death, but it is also incompatible with the peace that we seek in our daily lives.
Rick, This was a fantastic examination, a kind of post-mortem of the series in general and the last "season" in particular. I found nearly all of your conjectures very compelling indeed.
When the Burroughs 7 Souls started playing when I saw it when it first aired, I was knocked out. Not only because Uncle Bill is my favorite author, but also it FITS SO WELL. Thanks for the best thing I've seen so far on the infamous Cut to Black.
Wow. Glad this came up for me this morning. What an analysis. I've watched many times but never put things all together like this. Amazing stuff man.
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is just exceptional. Thank you. I have been a fan of this series since it originally aired and have watched every episode at least a dozen times. I know, I know....sad, huh? But I love this show. Still, watching your evaluation taught me a number of new things. So, my compliment is completely sincere. Thank you for all the work that went into this.
You are not alone my friend. I’m embarrassed to say how many times I have watched the series. It never gets old!
The Man in the Members Only Jacket in 2020: th-cam.com/video/E3rD3Azg0LY/w-d-xo.html
This is an incredible video. Hands down the best video essay on the subject I've seen, and I've seen quite a few.
This is an amazing analysis! One detail I loved in the show is that along with Carmela's line about Tony walking around with a piano over his head, they create that image in the episode where Tony walks away from his visit with Hesh for the last time.
No they didn’t
The ending was only disappointing to the people that didn’t understand the true meanings in the show but you could interpret things differently but this video is pure perfection love it
Thank you!
This is such a pompous and arrogant statement....
@@muppetpaster But is true ;)
@@muppetpaster it's literally true, people who didn't think Tony dies at the end are mouth breathing cro magnons.
@@pintolerance785 that doesn’t mean you can’t understand that daft and still be dissatisfied with the ending. I loved how it ended but I can still understand why some people felt it was disappointing.
I Think that the ending has a dual meaning. One of the main themes of the show is the therapy. We hope that Tony could get better and evolve as a character in some way through this process; We even have sympathy towards Tony thanks to this desperate trial of psychological( and maybe even spiritual) rebirth . But in the end the therapy is helpless. After 6 season he didn’t get any better. The ending could hint that life as a journey for self discovery is ended for him. It represents a spiritual ( and maybe a physical death) as he isn’t even aware of the ending of thisspiritual journey of character developement . as his friend bobby said to him previously: “when it happens you don’t even hear that”
15:58
You're welcome.
Incredibly well researched analysis. Thanks so much for putting this together.
After rewatching the scene where Chris and Paulie kill the waiter I noticed that they kill him in the parking lot of a seafood restaurant. This ties in nicely with your analysis and it sounds like there are wave sounds in the background after Chris hits him with the brick. When Tony lectures Chris abt the importance of paying for dinners, he says "those guys killed me at Benihanas" which makes me the think that Chris was getting killed figuratively, before literally killing the waiter. The associations between food, the sea and death in that scene really jump out now after watching your analysis.
⁹
And the name of the restaurant in the final scene, Holsten's, technically translates to another sea-related image: holmr: "small island", steinn: "stone".
I hated the ending when it first aired, but over the years I’ve come to see it for what it was, Tony was alive and in the blink of an eye, he wasn’t. His life ending was literally like flipping a light switch from on to off… just as fast. If somebody came up behind you and shot you in the back of the head, that’s exactly what you would see or not see as it were.
There is plenty of facile or superficial Sopranos content online, but this is excellent. Thanks very much! I really enjoyed it.
That is the greatest analysis of soprano's ending ever. You should do a Twin Peaks analysis. I have just one thing to point out, and it's the ending of the video tho, you've could have just let it go black screen, and also, THERE IS an explanation about the eggs. I've read some interesting articles talking how the eggs as a form of "outside gestation" can relate to the fact that the
I do have a video coming soon where I'm going to talk about Twin Peaks, but not a full-on "Twin Peaks Explained" video or anything like that. Maybe some day. I only got into Twin Peaks a few years ago and some of it I've only watched once, so I don't feel like I'm enough of an expert to explain it to people.
Twin Perfect has a 4 hour Twin Peaks analysis that this reminds me of. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
@@Lionheart2814 actually, I've already seen it. But I always enjoy watching people theories and optics about the complex symbolism about the series.
@@Lionheart2814 The conclusions the guy comes to are pretty mind blowing, but still exactly what you'd expect from David Lynch.
LOL very clever Gustavo, I think in despite of all the
Paulie Walnuts not dying like everyone else, he talked about being in Purgatory, not Hell, with Christopher in the hospital after his NDE. Think there's a connection there even though Paulie isn't really any more redeemable than the rest of them. He was tough and a survivor though, so makes you wonder....
👍
He was committed to his life!
Paulie's life is his introduction to purgatory.
@@histguy101 wym
Truly one of the best Sopranos video essays I've ever seen. Thank you!
Good one. I thought my kitten had knocked the power cord out. And I was definitely too engrossed to handle it. I never had that with the original finale airing because I'd paused the recording DVR a few minutes for my ex to get something for my daughter. I did however immediately catch the Godfather reference and knew why his screen went silent black. My ex was immediately angered by the ending. I even checked the DVR play bar for her, before the credits finally rolled.
I remember talking to your ex about that when we started hooking up.. she said you totally doubled your territory of the house 🏠 and then we had some more people in our lives and then you could have been there in the park
I don’t get what all the fuss is about, his daughter came in the diner then they sat down and ate dinner.
Thank you ❤
I was fully convinced that Tony was killed after the scene in Many Saints where young Tony references seeing someone shot from behind. All that being said, I HATE, HATE that Bobby Bacceleiri's "everything goes dark" theory on death was the big answer to everything. That "Calzone with legs" knew the mysteries of death???
Didn't that Mootadell used to drive Junior Soprano
He didn’t know the mystery of death, it was just a common thought that people have about death. He didn’t even say “everything goes to dark” he said “you probably don’t hear it when it happens”, which is actually true. Tony just remembered that moment when he was in a vulnerable position that could’ve killed him. It just happened to be right, he never heard it
Best ending of any series. Super thought out and reached back to previous episode. The show was so iconic and beloved that it was shocking on how abruptly it ended. The fact that we are still talking about the ending years later, makes it the greatest ending.
BRAVO! it's nice to find someone who appreciates the details and depth that this show has! Keep creating! ... I loved your ending! 🔔
Yes, he died. The groundwork for understanding this ending was provided in the clips you showed. You don't see it coming. You never hear the gunshot because it's over before your brain can process that information. I get ambiguity, but this ain't it. Sometime people try to extend a story by providing theories that bend the actual story. He died. And it was a great ending to the series.
Did Bobby hear the gunshots that killed him?
nah he lived
@@histguy101 yes💀💀😂
had to watch the whole video before I made a comment. thank you for posting, excellent explanation of the integrated cohesion in the Sopranos and what it's trying to convey.
Thanks!
Best sopranos video essay I’ve seen on yt. Great ideas here.
From having just finished it for the first time knowing the ending was coming, the real genius of that ending is it makes Tony’s dream sequences feel like a break in the rerun of his purgatory if you go back and rewatch it. To me it cuts to black because it started where it ends and if you rewatch it now, you are rewatching Tony’s life as he is in his dream sequences and now that large chunk of the show that seemed esoteric now seems very literal. It’s almost like Tony’s fate between the void of nothing and purgatory is left to you the viewer based on if you continue watching or if you let it go.
Yeah you got it.
i have no fucking clue what you just said
Makes it more likely that this was a dream. He is literally looking himself at the booth. People just ignore that.
No
@@swisserty yes
Oh shit, I never picked up on the Carm’s spec house thing. That’s wild!! Man, this show was something else. Never ending stuff to discover
Absolutely incredible video. I can’t thank you enough for this wonderful, incisive commentary.
What an excellent essay. Loved the ending cut to black followed by the philosophy of Little Carmine. I just finished watching it for the third time. One of the things that I really appreciate was that David Chase gave every single viewer of the show license to the ending that they wanted. For me, Tony shares the same fate as Schrodinger's cat.
In my ending Tony was murdered on the orders of Little Carmine who consolidated his New York family with the Soprano crew. Little Carmine is a sandbagger playing the fool letting the ambitious men kill each other off until no one was left but soldiers.
Excellent, simply brilliant. Love these videos that go more in depth, other Soprano TH-camr's simply do not go this in-depth into the subject. Enjoyed every second of it.
I was off work sick and watched it all back to back in about a week. Terrific show from start to finish
Same, this is how I got here
holy shit
My mom saw dead relatives as she was passing on. They nailed the Johnny Sac death scene perfectly.
Tony didn’t die on screen because the producers were holding hope he’d return for them to continue to print money. The writer has been aloof when asked because he doesn’t know what happened himself.
I've seen many Sopranos ending explained videos, this is my favorite one. Great work!
Aj is the devil or the escort to death at beginning of season when William Burroughs is reading his book - at the end of season aj walks in to holstens with death aka members only jacket ...showed meadow as his angel when she called him back
Wow!!!!
And Meadow makes 3 attempts at parking. She has saved Tony's skin on two previous occasions. Once when the rat spots Tony coming out of his motel room, the next is when she snaps Tony out of his coma dream, but she, most likely, fails to save him the 3rd and final time in the restaurant at the end.
Wow..
For me personally, I felt it was pretty obvious that Tony was killed. They foreshadowed Tony’s death quite a bit in the last season. I get why people were upset though. I feel as if this show came out today audiences would b
more open to this ending
Tony wasn’t killed, the writers admitted the ending is meant to be ambiguous. End of discussion.
@@jonnybirchyboy1560 yeah, but that’s why I said me personally. It’s all up to interpretation as you know. David chase knows what happens and said he left clues all over to tell us the ending without telling us(I’m paraphrasing what he said but I read an article)
I dont care what anyone says. David Chase is a genius
A lot of people say the members only jacket guy came out and shot him that's why it went black. Now the place Tony is sitting at the shooter or whoever is NOT at his three o'clock. That side would be nine. So if anything was done it was by someone we never saw or just didn't realize.
Rick has a duty: to attain a PhD and remind people what legitimate criticism is
He's got the makings of a varsity professor.
@@choueriito2548 Lol.
A phd would make him among the brainless crowd. The dumbest people I know are the phds.
I always go back to that scene where Chris asks Paulie "You ever feel like nothing ever good was gonna happen to you?" and Paulie responds "Yeah, and nothin did"
It was Chris wanting to know his arc and his worry...but that speaks to the ending. Nothin good was gonna happen to Tony...that was his arc. We got 7 seasons of proof that the life he was in didn't have an arc that was going to change....so it doesn't matter....his ending and his fate was sealed. Melfi was our window into his life....but she accepted that an episode earlier. The finale had so many great subplots...but they were just gonna lead to new problems. We asked the question if Tony could be redeemed or changed...he had chances....we got out answer.
Did you ever think Tony had a point where he could change? "Yeah and nothin did change"
Man... this is spot on with my thinking. Season 6A was essentially this examination. From episode one, he was shot and given a 'second chance'. Nothing changed. As a viewer, we had a better window than Melfi, we actually saw the truth and lies. It's strange though because from us seeing his behavior, we care about him more. We turn a blind eye on all of them really. When Melfi gave up on him, I was upset and thought it was unjust. But really, we should have made like her and I think that was Chase' way in telling us that we SHOULD have given up as well.
2 words "members only" Tony was killed for not allowing gene pontacorvo to retire which resulted in him commiting suicide
This had a lot of great insight and was very complete. Thanks for the deeper understanding.
22:45, you're literally saying " the end " and
Tony is looking up and between the legs of the statue,not to be vulgar, but it's the spot we all get our beginning. Brilliant video and concept. Thanks for the Burroughs heads up
I was confused when I first watch the ending because I was too young to see the clues. But now without a doubt the best endings of a TV series. The shield is probably my favorite ending of a show.
I know many people crave for simple answers... but after all this years and the many, many times I rewatched the series, finding in this video-essay, small details, wich perfectly make sense, but I had always overlooked, what just lets me in a philosophical manner think about the show again is fascinating. So even after the many times of rewatching the show, the show still finds in a new way for me to entertain me again is mind blowing. It just makes me happy how sometimes finding a new perspective on it, can make it feel for me, it so much so much more rewarding, than the typicals types of endings, al lot of people would have wished for.
This is the answer to the ending: IT WAS NOT AN ENDING.
The authors wanted to keep things open in case of a movie deal, new series deal, or future projects.
It is now obvious because everyone is doing it.
exactly
Has anybody considered the fact that the ending isn't shown because it was a way of killing Tony but not showing it so if they want to reboot later they theoretically can? Gandolfini has now passed on, but really as of that episode they could recreate that scene where he DOESN'T die and the show continues on at some point in the future.
Hes dead how can they recreate it?
Even if he didn't die, his career as a mob boss was coming to an end. He wasn't going to beat the gun charge and Carlo was going to testify. They practically killed off all of the main NJ family characters too. Another season would've been terrible.
IRL the person Tony Soprano was based off of testified against his own.
@@donniepatt9514 Well when they did it he was still alive. At this point what is done is done but in theory some theoretical future reboot would use some new actor anyway and they could continue from that point.
The cat staring at Christopher’s picture is Schrodinger’s.
To me the ending was Tony Realizing He's In Hell , for the audience its our first time seeing it but the moment Tony walks in the restaurant it's almost like he's been there before with an expression on his face of pure despair like not this again and then he see's himself sitting at the table meaning he's watching himself get killed again .
What backs up this theory , in the episode where christopher moltisanti had got shot and woke up in the hospital he told tony he went to hell , and that's where they're going after they die to relive the same way they got killed over and over for eternity . Chistopher also mentions they told him to tell tony and paulie 3'oclock. The direction the suspicious "members only " jacket man enters the bathroom also presumably where he shot tony from upon exiting .
When I saw that the director, referred to the ending as, off the top his head, as ‘Tony Soprano’s death scene’ but then later had to try to correct it to continue the bullshit confusion enthusiasm, I understood that the reality of the story was he was murdered and we witnessed the blackness of his death. Makes perfect sense.
that's not what the director said though, he said he had "that death scene" (referring to a previous one) in his head for years. in actuality it was left open-ended for money purposes