Notice the giant paintings of those football players on the paintings behind Tony? Tony’s entire dream, the recurring dream, was his coach pointing down at him and telling him how he was unprepared (”You’re not prepared! You’ll never set me up!”). See also the last 15 minutes of that episode, where he talks about the dream on the phone with Carmella (Carmella: “Were you unprepared as usual?” Tony: “I’m sort of a coach now.”).

Tony’s dream is an allusion that he’s unprepared when his destiny comes. Tony’s statement that he’s “sort of a coach now” can be read to be that he’s a boss.

The far-left picture above Tony is a tiger. What’s the tattoo on Tony’s shoulder? Yes… a tiger. “Tony the Tiger”?

a few other things:
season 1, episode 1 - Tony walks behind Uncle Junior in Vessuvio and pretends, with his hand, to point a gun in the back of the head and says “dont move”. (about 13 minutes, 30 seconds into the episode)

season 6, episode 2 (”join the club”) - during tony’s cosa mesa visit, tony says, very plainly, “there’s always a faster gun.” (a little less than 10 minutes into the episode)

Looking at the dvd box set of season 1, the tagline reads “If one family doesn’t kill him, the other family will.” Thinking about it, over the course of the show, Tony’s lost his entire mafia family one way or another. By the end of the show, even Silvio is in a coma. The ending of the show can be read to be that Tony’s about to lose his other family.

season 5, episode 12 (”long term parking”) - this has nothing to do with the last episode, but i noticed that the same “fancy luggage” (its actually written on the luggage tag - see s04e01 about 10 min. 45 sec. into it) that christopher throws in the field after adriana dies is the same red luggage he brings home on the episode where the fbi agent “danielle” first shows up at his place. So literally and figuratively he’s getting rid of baggage.

season 4, episode 10- The jacket that the bum is wearing (about 19 min, 30 seconds into it) when he brings Christopher home is the same jacket that Richie tried to give Tony back in season 2, episode 8 that Tony ended giving to the maid.

So the point would have been that life continues and we may never know the end of the Sopranos. But if you pay attention to the history, you will find that all the answers lie in the characters in the restaurant. The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear (was that season 2 or 3?).

Absolutely incredible!!!! There were three people in the restaurant who had reason to kill Tony and then it just ends. This was Chase’s way of proving that he will not escape his past. It will not go on forever despite that he would like it to “don’t stop”. Not the fans!!! Tony would like it to keep going but just as we have to say goodbye, so does he. No more Tony and I guess we are supposed to be happy that Meadow didn’t get clipped as well (she would have been between the shooter and Tony) since she is the only one worth a crap in that family.”

Now to what I think about the ending. I think it could
not have ended any better. Another great idea by the
makers of the show. We all have though about over
the years how will this show end. Tony in jail or dead
right. Well its just another stuning move to make it that
much better.

I hope they make a movie or bring back the show. I
think a movie will come out once the money starts to
run low. Everyone got fat off this show but the only
person I have seen in anything else is Paulie. Thats
in some tv commercial.

Did any of you watch the get together on HBO with
all the cast? They are talking about how most of them
didnt want to do the show any more. Medow and Tony
where the big two that wanted out. Tony said people
really started to look at him like he was a mob boss
in public. I guess he didnt like that and who knows
what Med. wanted to do.

I know one thing for sure is this show will go down as
the best ever on tv in my book. I would love to get
a last veiw of them all in a movie. It would be great
if it was like the godfather.

People who see a concerned look on Tony’s are just seeing what they want to see, subjective reality. If you pay close attention he is facing the entrance to the restaurant, you can distinctly hear the chime of the door opening and that directly coincides with his daughter entering the restaurant from the previous scene.

He does not get shot, but rather we are lead to feel that everyone coming in is a potential killer, so we think that they kill him, but the man at the counter has a name tag, the man behind has a hat on. Would Tony look to where his daughter was coming in and get shot by someone there? We would have seen that person get into position or be able to see them from the previous scene. He is watching his daughter come into the restaurant and nothing more.

If only one man has a gun having two men is pointless, they don’t check for guns at a restaurant before you enter, we’ve all seen the godfather, but in this situation hiding the gun in the toilet is pointless. We can rule out bathroom guy. If we can rule out one suspicious guy we can say that they are all there just to look suspicious. Either they both walked in carrying guns or they both hid them in the toilet, so we can remove any connection between the two men.

Before he sees his daughter come through the door he places his hand on top of the music selector, as if he is ready to pick another tune. He sees his daughter come in and internally thinks saying hello to her takes precedence before picking the next song so he withdraws his hand to make small talk with her. Because his attention would have to be directed towards the selection of the song otherwise. If you look closely thats what happens. He takes his hand off and looks up to see his daughter come in.

It is left up to interpretation so that we can continue his story in our imaginations. The story should really end where the individual wants it to, make him die if you want to, let him live, whatever you want. Its actually a pretty common ending and not at all a bad way to end a story, its actually my favorite. Its like saying who really knows these characters, they are different to all of us, and we all feel they should meet their end a certain way so why not let us all see what we want to see. Uncreative and boring people tend to get angry with these types of endings.

And it is over, the author obviously hasn’t written it yet, so a state is not reached, the ending does not exist. He can bring them back or kill them. Then again so can you or I wherein lies the beauty of this type of ending.

JPJ

Anyway, I think the whole episode was a bit disapointing.

By the way, what do you think about Chris Moltisanti´s death?
Tony murdered him, wich really shocked me. Chris was always loyal to Tony, and that is how Tony paid him? I mean, even though Tony Soprano is a ganster, he is not a betrayer with his own people. That is why that scene really surprised me.

Btw: If you win so much awards , and its the best serie ever made.
Then its hard to quit it.
Also the ending isnt brilliant , The serie deserves a much better ending.
Coz alot of questions are still there : Sil,meadow,carmelo,Aj,Paulie, not tot mention all the others.
The ending looks like: ” A hell lets quit guys , wrap this scene with a black screen , and lets call it a day”
Poo really Poo!
89 episodes isnt that much for 8 years , and still u can build some seasons.
With pain in my heart i will put my boxes to the shelf , to watch it once in the 6 months!
Knowing that the end isnt the end.
But hell … all these producers and writers doesnt care about fans apparantly !!

“Anyone who says Tony wasn’t killed and isn’t dead now, either did not watch the whole episode, did not watch the whole season, wasn’t a Sopranos fan or is just plain ridiculous. Tony is dead… he was shot in the head. How do they whack you and what happens? They come from behind, you don’t even see it coming, and then it just goes black.

Did it really need to be spelled out this much for that many people this long after the episode aired? I mean, why do you think Tony and Bobby had that conversation? Why do you think just a few eps after having the conversation, the EXACT thing they discussed happens?

This isn’t up in the air here people… come on now.”

Also the Orange Cat is a symbol of pending death.
Any Godfather fan knows that the colour Orange signifies death.

I admit I was dissapointed with the ending but all the clues have been building up.

The conversation with Bobby on the lake
The orange cat
And when they were sitting in the restaurant at the end if you look on the back wall there is a big Orange Tiger
This isnt usually there when other scenes have been shot there.
Also they changed the womens and mens toilets over so that the man in the “Members only” jacket could go into the toilet next to Tony as usually this is the womens toilets in other scenes and in real life.

June 11th, 2007 at 5:57 pm

Everyone is wondering who could have killed Tony. Easy, Phil Leotardo was a made NY guy. The rest of NY was going to find out that Tony killed him and take revenge. Tony is still NJ and just like Phil said in the previous episodes, there’s 5 families controlling NY and then this motley crue in Jersey.”

That’s a reasonable point. Don’t all the heads of the other four families have to ok a hit on a head of a family? Only Phil’s own Capo’s ok’d his hit.

Did it really need to be spelled out this much for that many people this long after the episode aired? I mean, why do you think Tony and Bobby had that conversation? Why do you think just a few eps after having the conversation, the EXACT thing they discussed happens?

This isn’t up in the air here people… come on now.

Throughout the entire series, T was a mobster living pretty much the high life at all times with the exception of a few low periods in his life. But all in all…. he had it good.

Him getting whacked at the conclusion of the series goes to show you that the mob life can be amazing while your on top but eventually and surely but slowly it will catch up with you one way or another…… you either get indicted or caught up in the mob greed/struggle for power and get popped…..

Any type of organization that has a strict heirarchy has this inherent flaw….. there will always be someone somewhere who is willing to do the extreme in order to move up the ladder…. the man on top being the most vulnerable.

Just my thoughts summed up VERY briefly