Did Tony die?
June 11, 2007
No.. not me, Tony Soprano.
If you didn’t watch the Sopranos’ final episode last night, stop reading.
Like about 80% of America last night I watched the final episode of the Sapronos and thought that my TV went stupid on me. I couldn’t figure out what happened and it left me pissed beyond belief. “Did he die or not”, was the only question on my mind.
Luckily I read Slashdot and the comments that are posted because they are brilliant.
So if you’re wondering if Tony died last night, the answer is “yes he did” and below is the reason why:
“It was pretty clear to me that he died. Remember the flashback in the previous episode, where Bobby says “You never even hear it when it happens, do you?” Implying everything just goes black – you’re dead before you even hear the gun being fired. Well, that’s exactly what happened. The last thing Tony say was Meadow walking in the door.
Earlier in the episode, he was eating an orange, which is a reference to the Godfather files that has been made before in the series. They signify death, don’t they?”
June 15, 2007 at 2:31 pm
I don’t agree with that actually at all… The ending was done like that to leave some people thinking that, but if you really watched the episode, you would understand a very different ending – one that Tony lives for sure…
Really, if you look at the entire last episode, you will realize that it was built around tony living – not dying… The whole point was that Life Goes On… The shit can hit the fan for everyone in the family, but then things end up the same as they were – AJ almost killing himself and then just turning back to his normal self after a little depression. Tony goes to a new shrink to talk about AJ, but just ends up being himself the entire time and reverting back to complaining about his Mother (like usual with Melfi). Medow goes through her stage of not being driven and not caring about her doctor career, but then she reverts back to being driven as a lawyer. Carm cares about her family and Medow’s well-being the entire time – she is very upset about her not being a doctor or good lawyer, but then you see her perk up when they start talking about her salary. Everyone came full circle and are just themselves at the end of the day.
From the perspective of the Mob, the crazy killing episode happens the one before, with Bobby being killed and Sil ending up in the hospital. But the last episode shows that the mob balances itself out – they talk it over and fix the crazy killing situation (that doesn’t work in the mob) and the big thing is Killing Phil. Now, no one wants Tony dead… The fight is over and business is back to where it started…. The Mob came full circle too..
In the restaurant at the end, it is all about the family – that is all. And how they are exactly the same as when they started – together… The focus on the sketchy guy was on purpose, to show that Tony is always looking over his shoulder, has to be sketched out by anyone – to give the audience the perspective that anything could happen… And the anticipation that he will kill Tony – but he doesn’t.. He just goes to the bathroom, that is all… He actually isn’t sketchy at all, just another guy… The ending was one of “Just because this is a TV series about the Mob doesn’t mean we need to kill off the main character in the last episode. Actually, you are all wrong, this show was about family, not the mob, and they all ended up together, exactly as they started.”
If you think that Tony actually dies there, you are discrediting the entire show – because Tony can only die if someone high-up wants him dead, and no one did, Phil was dead.
June 16, 2007 at 12:44 am
I have to go with Mike G on this one. Many people like to say the conversation with Bobby about dying proves that Tony died when the screen went black. However, this episode mirrored previous season finales of the show. By this I mean that it focused on the family coming full circle and things returning to normal. As for the “sketchy guy,” he wasn’t in the room when the screen went black. The thing with the oranges as well as the atmosphere of the last seen were meant to play with the audience a little and keep them guessing about what was to come. I would point out more about the tone of the episode showing that life was the theme rather than death but Mike G summed that up pretty well. Lastly, (and this is just a personal opinion) if they were going to kill Tony believe me we would know for sure it happened and not have to look for hidden clues. The Sopranos was never shy about killing someone off and wouldn’t start with Tony.
June 16, 2007 at 2:59 am
Tony Soprano is dead. He was a mob boss and a family man and an archetype of men that are masters of a secret world. But in the end he was just a man. His death was a statement about life- here one minute and the next the world goes black. We don’t hear the chaos or the screaming or even the gunshot. When we die we die. Maybe no one put a hit out on him, maybe it was a grudge or a robbery. We saw Tony’s life end through his own eyes. Mob boss, president or king we all die.
June 19, 2007 at 3:16 pm
tony soprano didnt die. tis whole movie was based on his and his families life. His son finally came back to his senses and everyone was going back to normal and reuniting. Why would the director have the main character killed right in the end. theres no meaning to the movie if tony ever dies
June 29, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Personally I don’t think there is right or wrong answer, the black out ending was done to leave the question of whether Tony dies to the viewers interpretation. It also leaves the director’s options open for the future.
I wonder what ever happened to the russian ex commando that Pauly & Christopher tried to kill in the season 3 Pine Barrens episode. I remember he got away by taking their car whilst nursing a gunshot wound to the head. I guess it’s irrevelant now but I thought the writers would follow up on it at some stage.
July 4, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I think Tony got clipped. The story with Bobby etc and when you watch the episode Tony looks for a seat and then the camera shows Tony sitting like he is being watched by someone (or having an out of body experience) Watch it again!!!
July 5, 2007 at 1:51 pm
I dont think he died, and here is why. Right before the final scene we are shown how all of the characters lives will continue. Pauly taking the job, AJ back to “Normal”, Meadow moving on, Carm looking at her next Spec House. I think that this show started with a bang, all of a sudden we are watching this families life, and bang, now we are done watching. Their lives go on, we just wont be there to watch it.
August 28, 2007 at 11:06 pm
He’s dead…..the writers wanted an ending that everyone would talk about!!!! Mission accomplished.
August 31, 2007 at 10:49 pm
He lives. Just like the other guy said it’s all about the ‘family’ and I do mean the family. The mob was the hook but the show was about Tony as a father and a great father who deeply loves his children. No it ends happily ever after Thank the ‘Creator’. I love that show like I love my heart and so do you and that is why he dosent die. We dont and neither do they. Capeesh?
September 7, 2007 at 5:41 am
Capeesh my ass….
Tony Soprano is dead,
All the signes were there, but some people are blind. The man with the gray jacket was there for a reason. Phils family wanted a revenge, so they hiered two black men to kill tony and the man with the gray jacket who went to the bathroom was there to give a sign for the black men that this is tony….They didn want to kill the wrong person like what happened with phil.
People who claim that tony is a live, dont really know how the itlaian organized crime goes. Mafias try really hard to avoid family wars, because they are endless.
Phils fmily are behined Tony ’till the end. In my opinion, this will be a great end for the boss “TONY”. we all dont want to see him get old like his fucked up uncle or forced by the feds or go to prison like salk. being Dead is a great end for a great worrior
September 17, 2007 at 11:23 pm
I really think we are doing what the writer of the show wanted…arguing without any of us having things for sure.
The only thing sure is NOBODY can be 100% sure Tony is dead, why?….because the writer wanted so, even if the logical mind goes towrds that. We all can list here 100 reasons why Tony is dead, but reasons are not FACTS.
personally i think he was wack, but that is MY point of view, and i think all are valids, but i say it again, NOBODY can be 100% sure he is dead.
October 21, 2007 at 11:57 pm
La Cosa Nostra will NOT murder a boss out of “revenge.” There are examples of this throughout the recent history of the mafia. (Carlo Gambino, murdered Albert Anastasia etc…) Not to mention that murdering Tony in a public place with witnesses is insane.
I have to agree that Tony is alive for the same reasons that MikeG stated farther up.. but then again, that is just my opinion. there is no concrete evidence either way.
October 28, 2007 at 9:16 pm
WELL?
Who knows wot happened, the fact is no one.
But i will say this, at the end of the credits R.I.P came up in soprano style writing……………….
October 29, 2007 at 7:52 am
Tony didn’t die – the black screen was just done to make us think he did. But work it out. Even Butch wanted Phil dead and when he got popped the war was over. Carm was sitting opposite watching the bathroom door so she would have yelled a warning. Meadow was just coming in the room and looking at Tony; so would she. I can just visualise a scene where Carm gets hit by accident maybe, but no hit was set up. The bathroom bit was clever and I think a reference to when Mike whacks Solozo and the cop in GF1. Just because it refers to that though does not mean it has to play out the same. David Chase is too clever to steal a scene like that and anyway, his show mocks the GF by having the characters model some of their actions on it, thereby showing how shallow ‘wise’ guys are. This is just another reason why the show is the one thing that justifies the entire existence of TV. It’s the best show that ever was on TV and the best show that ever will be on TV. Now this show and NYPD Blue have both finished I have contemplated taking the TV to the dump but instead have decided to ration myself to one repeat a week from DVDs, and that way pretend it never ended at all!!!
October 31, 2007 at 8:53 am
imo I don’t think he was whacked. I agree with the arguments supporting this. Too many ppl are going into the godfather mould, and I agree with the above post that Chase isn’t going to ‘copy’ it! That would be lame. Also bobby says to Tony ‘you probably don’t even hear it, do you?’. Nothing about it all going black! When Tony refers to that flashback, its because of the situation he is in, in a safehouse, defending his family and life, going to sleep with a shotgun and he’s saying to himself ‘woah this is what it has come down to’. I think we the viewer got whacked, he eavesdropped into the Soprano families life and are now told to move along!
November 24, 2007 at 2:31 am
My honest feeling is, Tony is dead. The focus on that guy in the grey jacket is there for a reason, and for that reason to be “just a trick or lead-on” is not the Sopranos’ way of doing things. The entire show was from Tony’s perspective, and the last episode especially. The last thing Tony sees is the way the show ends. The show started with Tony, walked with him through it all, and ended when he did.
In reference to the comment on the “No Revenge Policy” of La Cosa Nostra, you couldn’t be more wrong. The entirety of The Sopranos just goes to show that these laws and ideals of the mob are empty and as upheld as the laws of the playground. Throughout the show we witness constant examples of the breakdown of their traditions. From the homosexuality, to the psychotherapy, Tony’s drug use, and the inbetween. The modern mafia is not the same mafia.
In addition, in reference to the comment on Butch having no beef with Tony that also holds little ground. Butch has never liked Tony and has likened his attacks on Phil to the 9/11 attacks and protested the fact that Tony had balls very fervently. You should also remember his discussion with Phil just prior to scheduling the hits on the entire Jersey mob infrastructure. He and Phil both talk about, “Five fucking families, and we have this fucking pygmy thing over in Jersey. There’s no scraps in my scrapbook.” as well as, “Historically, the Sopranos are nothing more than a glorified crew. We decapitate, and we do business with whatever’s left,” Butch may have eliminated his old boss, but does that mean his memory is wiped clean. After everything that has happened it would pay for him to eliminate all of Jersey and take over.
And lastly if he did not die, and things continued with his family the way we wished they always would, the abrupt ending and blackness would not be there. You can say that it leaves the ending open, but I doubt it. It is symbolism to its deepest core. It represents the fact that Tony’s last living moment is also that of the show.
I’d like to end this with a question. What would it have ended like if he did die? His blood splattered all over Carmella and AJ and the onion rings while the paramedics arrive and try to resuscitate him? No, never. The Sopranos ended it as Tony deserves and as Tony felt. I can’t imagine a better way to show Tony dying in the end, can you? Nothingness is all you are left with at the end of his road. Crime doesn’t pay. That was the resounding message to me at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading, leave me a comment if you’d like to debate further.
January 28, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I don’t think Tony dies. I think the whole purpose of using Don’t Stop Believing was the words go with what’s happening. The movie never ends, it just goes on and on….. Also, the arguement over Bobby’s statement about death contradicts what happens to Tony earlier after Junior shoots him. If you remember, Tony actually dies for a few moments before they bring him back. While that happened, he was walking up to a house, his dead cousin was out front, and he could hear all his dead family members in the house, including his parents. His cousin says they’ve been waiting for him. Obviously, not everything went black when he died for those few moments.
February 9, 2008 at 7:35 am
If the point to this ending is to show that: ‘Never stop believing’… I think the ending goes depending to whatever you believe in. Pick a ending happy or sad, up to you. It’s your choice how this sweet sexy show finishe’s.
April 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I have been going back and forth with people on this for awhile now. Tony didn’t die. Think of one time in the show where they left it up to the viewers imagination. They killed people in every season. Even in season 5, when Tony B shot Phil and his brother, they showed it, Even though it didn’t show while it was happening. I can’t think of one episode where they used inuendos to tell the story. As for the morality of the whole show, it was never about morals, it was a fictional show about the Mob. The whole show was dark. This is what made the Sopranos better than any other Mob movie or show, it was like no other. I’m sure David chase knows that. To think that the show was going to have the same kind of ending as all the other Mob movies would be an insult to David Chase.
December 12, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Tony ends up blowing Vito in another booth of the resturant, you can see that on HBO’s new series Mob Boss Blows. Who cares if he lived or died the ending sucked period.
December 17, 2008 at 1:36 am
Pay attention…when someone walks in the front door, Tony’s head tilts slightly to the left. The bathroom is to his right. In Tony’s last scene, he was not watching someone walk in the front door. Notice the tilt of his head before everything went black. He was looking to his right. His left shoulder and upper arm were moving from his lap as if he was goin for his gun. (watch it in slo-mo) Everything went black for a reason. Foreshadowing; ie. conversation with Bobby on the fishing boat. Of course he is dead. Pay attention to details!
December 17, 2008 at 2:37 am
In response to Ram’s April ‘08 comment:
Everything about the way the mob communicated with each other was based on innuendo!
“The other thing” or “our friend” – mob code, the hypocrisy behind every funeral, references to “uncles” & “cousins” who weren’t blood relatives, Jewish/cultural stereotypes, therapy and the associations with mothers, the dreams, criminals attempting to raise children from a high moral perspective and clueless when all that nuturing produces an onion, consistently reacting to situations based on the “perception”, an active or inactive response (Tony said it, Christopher said it…”The truth doesn’t matter. What matters is what people think”.) – All good examples of innuendo.
The Latin origin of Innuendo is “a hint by signaling, to signal, to nod”.
No need to know what happened after Tony got shot. David Chase made sure his audience was familiar with that. Honestly, name one instance where a bonafide mob boss, beside Bonnano (died at 97 years old in Arizona) lived to experience a happy ending! The ancient Roman curse…the bosses die tragic deaths. You know, the sins of thier forefathers.
My advise to you; forget about it! Tony Soprano is dead.
January 8, 2009 at 10:22 pm
If you ask me, i would say russians from the pine barrens episode has cought up with tony. no dought in my mind, tony got whacked
February 5, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Who knows?
That’s what David Chase wanted, it was left open ended, like many story lines in the Sopranos, it was the style he used right to the final seconds.
As for the Music & the build up, it was an excellent ending & just what I wanted! Something to make you scream because you thought your TV was on the blink, but then smile when you realised, hey that’s the Sopranos for you……
February 26, 2009 at 11:39 pm
If it were “life goes on as usual”, they should have faded out to black instead of the sudden blackout. There was nothing artistic about that at all. It was like ripping out the last five pages of a book and still trying to pass it off as a masterpiece. If he didn’t die he was obviously going to prison. Carlo flipped in order to help his son so he was going to give the Feds the ammo they needed to wrap up the R.I.C.O. case and Carlo alone knew enough to put him away for 300 years. And once he started naming other names, the dominos fall and the last would be Tony.