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« Today's News: Our Take
Sopranos Clan Hails Ending; Plus: A Big Finale Clue
The Sopranos courtesy HBO
The Soprano family finally agrees on something: the way David Chase wound up the series was criminally good. "It was a great ending.... Exactly what it should have been," James Gandolfini tells the New York Daily News. Adds "daughter" Jamie-Lynn Sigler, "I can't think of a single better way to have ended the show" — though she cops to being befuddled by Meadow's spastic parking. Also deeming the finale "great" is Edie Falco: "I have never second-guessed David Chase, and I'm not about to start now."
As for what happened after the screen went black, Gandolfini says, "You have to ask David Chase. Smarter minds than mine know the answer to that." Maybe a film will give answers? "Don't look at me," shrugs Gandolfini. "All I know is that it's over."
Perhaps very much so. After speaking with Chase, an HBO spokesperson tells Reuters that a scene from an earlier episode — in which Bobby and Tony speculate on what happens when you die — "is one of the most legitimate things to look at."
For more on the possibility of a Sopranos film, see Interviews & Features.
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Jun 15, 2007 9:09 AM
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Ok, then that's the answer. Tony was shot in the head. Brilliant stuff.
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Jun 15, 2007 10:37 AM
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Can't find an email address for you, Matt, but need to let you know Today's New: My Take isn't showing up on the list of Recent Blogs on the TV Guide Editors' Blogs. It's been gone the past two days.
That was the easiest way to navigate here, before, although now I have this bookmarked on its own. Still, this and the new blog by the News Staff isn't showing up there, so for others who want to see the lastest from everyone, or newbies, the list isn't reliable any more.
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Jun 15, 2007 10:57 AM
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Ok, then that's the answer. Tony was shot in the head. Brilliant stuff.
If I were to subscribe to the "Tony's dead" theory, I'd say the whole darn ice cream parlor went kablooey, with Meadow blown back into the street Nicolas Cage/Con Air style.
Today's New: My Take isn't showing up on the list of Recent Blogs on the TV Guide Editors' Blogs. It's been gone the past two days.
Yeah, we're in the midst of some fine-tuning here (see the kicky new News & Views page?), but that will be fixed. (I also hear this blog will be listed in the nav bar.)
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Jun 15, 2007 11:22 AM
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Thanks for posting this Matt! I remember after the scene went to black, I stared at the TV for like 2 minutes before I jumped online and went to a board that a bunch of my friends were on. Without even thinking about Tony and Bobby's scene, I said 'well, maybe he got whacked?'. Glad to see that most of us are on the right track! Take that Matt Roush! 
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Jun 15, 2007 11:25 AM
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I think it was the audience that got "whacked". That's how the show ended, just like Bobby and Tony were talking about and it referenced the audience not Tony.
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Jun 15, 2007 11:43 AM
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Whew! Thanks, Matt! I had one panicky moment of withdrawal before I went to Trivial Matt'rs, clicked on the link to your bio and then on to Today's News. Your "take" is the first thing I go to when I hit the TV Guide site. You bring the funny and gentle snarky to the party.
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Jun 15, 2007 12:28 PM
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Here's my way out there theory, kind of on the lines of Matt's "all went kablooey" thought. It wasn't a mob hit at all. It was one of the terrorists or both walking into the restaurant on a suicide bombing mission. Remember: Tony kind of "narc'd" them out by giving the bank information. And we all know terrorists are a crafty lot (and surprisingly have great intelligence gathering methods) and will stop at nothing to achieve their means.
I know this bomb theory is WAY out there but doing a mob hit in a crowded restaurant is not plausible - too many witnesses, the hitman could easily be caught or shot himself, etc. And the family going to the restaurant was a last minute thing. Tony would have KNOWN something was up the moment he walked into the place if there was a henchmen or two sitting in there; he lived by his instincts and was a survivor. And if David Chase is as brilliant as some are saying he is - the guy in the bathroom is right out of the Godfather - why would Chase be so obvious with that scenario?
But realistically, I'm kind of on the "the audience got whacked" bandwagon!
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Jun 15, 2007 1:05 PM
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Ok, then that's the answer. Tony was shot in the head. Brilliant stuff.
Unless David Chase himself says that is just speculation no matter who else says it. Look it's in HBO's best interests to say something like that. A lot of people were so upset at the cliffhanger ending that they were cancelling HBO subscriptions. The way I see it HBO put out that statement to essentially try and stop the bloodshed from irate viewers.
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Jun 15, 2007 1:22 PM
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I still don't buy Tony being whacked in the final scene. I will give Chase some credit. I can't see him copying The Godfather so blatantly like that. If he did, then the final scene was even worse than I thought. I think the Members Only guy would have shot him passing by him, then doing all that extra stuff. I buy that the final scene was a perspective of Tony's world. How he has to always be on alert and can't let his guard down.
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Jun 15, 2007 1:25 PM
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Chase definitely "whacked" the audience. We were watching Tony watch the events going on in the diner and then suddenly it all goes black....for us...
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Jun 15, 2007 1:36 PM
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I am with all of you who think that we as the audience got whacked and what we don't see is that life goes on, always a little more dangerously, for the clan. Maybe Tony got whacked that night at the diner, on his way home, picking up the paper the next day, a couple of years later or never. What I do see is diminishing monetary results for the clan, more arguments, and new stories that we won't see as we only got a window into these lives.
Anyone think that there is to Meadow's parking "issues" than creating even more tension. I remember a while back Meadow running out of a restaurant and it looked like she had been hit by a car. For some reason as I watched that last scene, I kept coming back to the previous Meadow car danger. Re-reading this last part of my post, it looks like there is going to be more fun speculation than almost any event in real life. Lond live the Sopranos, even bone-headed AJ who will probably never reach an old age as I see him winding up OD'd somewhere like uncle Christophah.
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Jun 15, 2007 3:59 PM
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The Soprano's from day 1 has been all about Tony.
As Meadow enters the restaurant, Tony hears the bell indicating someone is entering. He looks toward the door as he has done in the previous few minutes. He gets shot in the side of the head.
End of story! Fade to black.
Makes sense to me!
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Jun 15, 2007 4:08 PM
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OK, let's try this. Someone with a tape of the last episode & a big screen freeze on that final scene where Tony looks up from his food in recognition of someone. Then zero in on his eyes & magnify them UNTIL WE CAN SEE WHO's REFLECTED IN THEM. Maybe that'll show an assassin?
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Jun 15, 2007 4:26 PM
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As Meadow enters the restaurant, Tony hears the bell indicating someone is entering. He looks toward the door as he has done in the previous few minutes. He gets shot in the side of the head.
End of story! Fade to black.
Makes sense to me!
The whole problem with that idea is if Tony really was whacked it would make a lot more sense if the last thing we saw was Meadow entering the diner from Tony's perspective when it went to black. Instead we were looking at Tony. I don't buy this arguement at all. It's something HBO made up to try and calm down irate viewers so they don't cancel their subscriptions.
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Jun 15, 2007 4:30 PM
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