'The Sopranos': Fade to black

It was an ending that, if nothing else, had millions on their feet. In what may be the first case of finalus interruptus, David Chase, faced with deciding between a bang and a whimper, chose neither. Instead the creator of “The Sopranos” decided to fool millions of Americans into believing their cable had gone out for possibly the most important moment in the history of televised drama.

The final scene of the final episode of “The Sopranos” had all the elements of traditional climax down to the benign plate of onion rings Tony “ordered for the table.” As the Soprano family gathered in a diner, the light was mellow, the talk was mundane and Tony (James Gandolfini) kept one eye on the door, watching any number of possible assassins or smug federal agents as they poured sugar in their coffee or visited the men’s room (possibly to retrieve, à la “The Godfather,” their weapons cache). Then, just as Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) joined the group, and the tension became virtually unbearable — szzzz. Blank screen.

For several agonizing moments, America was united ... in uttering every profanity known to man as millions of hands reached for millions of remotes, while partners and friends yelled, “No, no, don’t touch it!”

Then, silently, the credits began to roll and somewhere Chase was, no doubt, having a pretty good laugh.

Not a predictable way to end what is now constantly referred to as the most significant television show ever, but then Chase has reveled in his unpredictability from the start. Certainly the show’s setup — a depressed mob boss seeks solace in psychotherapy — was a bit off-template. And through the eight years the show has ruled cable, Chase has consistently refused to bend for dramatic convention; the creation of characters and situations that rose to shuddering heights only to disappear two beats before climax has become one of his hallmarks. The Russian mobster simply disappeared into the snow; this season Little Vito seemed primed to “go Columbine” only to vanish from the scene. In the previous episode, Chase summarily dispensed with the beloved Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) through a rat-a-tat series of ridiculous events that had the psychiatric community in an uproar last week  — no self-respecting shrink would allow herself to be conned, at a stupid dinner party, into believing that all those years were worthless. And fans wondered  whether Chase and his writers had forgotten what it was they had loved about the show in the first place.

So after the initial heart palpitations have slowed, the surprise ending does not seem quite so surprising. The episode that led up to it, that alleged final episode ever, was workaday “Sopranos.” Or as workaday as it could be with Bobby dead, Sil almost dead, and the Feds apparently working a turncoat. and Rapt viewers analyzed every detail, from the look on Paulie’s (Tony Sirico) face after Tony asked him to take over Carlo’s operation, to the songs on the jukebox in the final scene.

Chase wrote the episode alone, and he was clearly enjoying himself, playing on the fact that people had their own expectations — odds were Tony would get whacked — and would bring to these details what they wanted to bring. He even managed to insert a little lecture about the downtrodden scriptwriter through an old “Twilight Zone” episode playing in the background of one scene.

Much of the narrative dealt with the state of that interminable whiner A.J. (Robert Iler). As he prepared to commit statutory rape (his girlfriend is a junior in high school), his car caught fire and he experienced, he told his therapist, the thrill of destruction. Tony, of course, was furious because he had already told A.J. the danger of parking the SUV in leaves — “you could grill a steak on that convertor.” The things that haunted Tony for the last eight episodes were suddenly nonexistent. Christopher’s death had improved his gambling luck (though he had picked up a stray cat that did nothing but stare at Chris’ picture). He even came to some sort of terms with Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), a man bitter even without his memories. “The two of you ran north Jersey,” Tony told Junior. “Did we? That’s nice,” Junior answered before gazing blankly out the window.

With the exception of that scene, and the fact that Tony’s operatives were finally able to locate and whack Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent), it was as if none of these people realized this was the final episode of “The Sopranos.” (Except the cat. The cat seems to realize.) In one scene, as Tony managed to turn a conversation with A.J.’s therapist into a conversation about him — “My mother was a very difficult woman. I didn’t have a very happy family life” — the look on Carmela’s (Edie Falco) face was priceless. And for a moment it was as if Tony’s years in therapy, his entire character arc, the entire show for that matter, had never happened. People were trying to kill him, his son had just attempted suicide and was now joining the Army, and again it was all about him and his mother. All that hard work for nothing.

Which may be exactly what many people were feeling as Journey sang “Don’t Stop Believin’.” while the Sopranos sat in a diner, and it was then that the television went dead.

Chase is possibly the only man in America who could get away with such a thing, and maybe he shouldn’t. While it is one thing to flout the conventions of television, it’s another to flip dramatic tradition, not to mention your audience, the bird. No, he didn’t owe us any neat endings, nor some sort of final word on the nature of good and evil. But after eight years, he did owe us catharsis, some sort of emotional experience that would, if not sum up the entire eight years, leave us with something more meaningful than instant panic and lingering irritation. In the end, the art of writing is the art of making choices. Ending a series with the social weight of “The Sopranos” is not an enviable task, but end it must, and not with the sophomoric gesture of a blank screen.

Yes, people will be talking about the show tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, but they probably won’t be talking about Tony Soprano or any of the work the very fine cast of actors and writers has done over the years. They’ll be talking about how frustrating the blank screen was. In fear of tainting the legacy of “The Sopranos” — if Tony really was just one more truly bad man, some viewers would feel betrayed; if he went from antihero to hero, others would feel the same — Chase has offered us instead an epic novel with a do-it-yourself ending.

And, of course, the distinct possibility of "The Sopranos: The Movie."

-- Mary McNamara

Update from Mary:

The blank screen.

In less than 24 hours, it has become the obelisk from “2001,” the Rorschach blot, Stonehenge and “Ulysses” all rolled into one. The sudden blank screen that marked the final moments of the final episode of “The Sopranos” is the new dark mirror in which viewers see the reflections of their own dreams and desires. In hundreds of responses, to my personal mailbox and in the comment area here, readers have deconstructed that image with the passion and alacrity of literary theory post-grads on an espresso bender.

The blank screen signified Tony’s death (exactly as he described it to Bobby on their fateful fishing trip), it was David Chase literally “pulling the plug” on his creation. It represented the paranoia in which Tony lived his life, Uncle Junior’s descent into Alzheimer’s, the repressed panic of the female characters. The sudden darkness symbolized the demise of the Italian community, the corruption of the American soul, of American television or (my personal favorite) Chase’s commentary on the country’s dependence on cable TV.

The theories are bountiful and boundless and reveal a level of sophistication that, while not surprising among fans of such a multi-layered and literate show, seems to contradict the conventional wisdom that television kills creative thought, if not actual brain cells, among viewers.

Nobody would call these “Sopranos” fans couch potatoes.

Obsessive, perhaps—here’s to the one reader who looked up the entire “Twilight Zone” episode and the other who matched the songs Tony passed over on the jukebox to the stages of his life—but then isn’t obsession one requirement of intelligent analysis?

But there is an overall awareness of how television, and the writing process, works, of what the show stood for, both philosophically and within the entertainment industry.

It all goes to prove one point: that it didn’t really matter how Chase chose to end his legendary series. Whacked or not, arrested or not, somehow suddenly heroic or not, some people would have loved it, some people would have hated it. In today’s world, it turns out, one does not go out with either a bang or a whimper, but with a thousand e-mails.

-- M.M.

(Photo courtesy HBO)

Comments

[Stephen Hunt]

It was not a satisfying ending. Maybe you can analyze it into being a smart ending, but it was so not satisfying! Maybe that's what life's like. Your loved ones die before you get to say all the things you meant to say to them, but this is television! This is where everyone gets to say all those things! This is our stand-in for life! It feels a little like the Seinfeld finale--OK, we get it. That's funny. But not funny ha-ha. Too clever by half.

That said, what a ride it's been.

[Pam]

I thought the ending was great! Looking at my husband almost saying, "Please tell me you paid the cable bill. When the credits started to roll, we both stood up and said 'NO WAY!' I am a fan for life. Hail Tony, Carmela, Meadow, AJ and Chase. Thanks for such fun over the years.

[mf tillman]

Chase didn't know HOW to end the series so he didn't. Six Feet Under's
closing episode was brilliant. Chase provided no closing episode. This is considered creative? What hogwash.

[Peter]

It was boring, as boring as last season. Like being addicted to fast food.

[Chris Rice]

Here's the deal with the final episode, which was, by the way, very, very, smart.

Women are left out of "being made in America"--Tony's sister Janice will not inherit Bobby's money and Meadow, though being the more accomplished of Tony's kids, will not sit at his power table. AJ, the weak, insipid, materialistic dreamer (AKA, American) will reign.

More importantly, the sudden blank screen, reminds that art elicits repressed emotion. We, the viewers were left with a panic attack.

[mark thisius]

The ending was a classic and I feel whether Chase picks it up again or not it was perfect. The suspense and anticipation kept me on the edge of my seat and everyone I watched it with was okay with the blank screen. Tony was whether you loved or hated him the man. To whack him or have him cower to the fed's by turning himself him would have been way to predictable and unsatisfying. Bravo to Chase for leaving us with Tony alive and letting us anticipate the movie. I was not let down and I enjoyed the show as much as anyone. Nothing in the history comes close to this. HBO built an empire on the back of Chase and his ending will never be forgotten.

[Karla]

I thought the final episode was perfectly constructed. And, I am not going to use a thousand words to say why. Karla.

[Tom Gorman]

If you think about it (and aren't we all?), David Chase finishes the series with the ultimate whack job. Like a painless shot to the back of each viewer's head -- bam, it's over -- The Sopranos ends with each of us getting whacked. Now, ain't THAT an appropriate ending?

[Louis Graham]

The final episode of The Sopranos was a perfect end to this entire last season. There was no dramatic point to it, no emotional point to it, not even a philosophical point to it. Just another hour of meandering. The only point of this entire season was financial. It was another case of "We have no ideas left, but they want to pay us a boatload of money, so what the heck--do a few more episodes." How disappointing.

[Mike B.]

Chase left the ending up to people's own interpretation and imagination. Soprano's rewarded those viewers who paid attention to detail. I remember earlier in the season when Tony and Bobby were in the boat discussing being whacked and Tony said it would happen out of no where and you would not see it coming. I think thats what happened in the final episode.

[John]

Anyone who thinks that the open ending on the finale doesn't mean there is going to either be a feature film or a return of the series at some point in the not-so-distant future is crazy. The cast has all said if the right script hit their desk they would be open for a feature length movie. Don't count out Tony Soprano just yet. It might be a few years, but he isn't going away anytime soon.

[Jason]

I've been a loyal Sopranos viewer since episode #1 and it was coming out on the heels of "Analyze This" and I thought it was coat-tailing on the mobster in therapy theme that materialized out of thin air. But I still watched. When they took almost 2 years for a hiatus that would no doubt extinguish any other series and then came back with a season of laurel-resting lameness...I watched. I think because people love this show so much that they defend it entirely. Well I love it, but I'm not going to defend it. To end the project like this and the "life goes on" mentality, says nothing. There in effect was no story arc...our protaginist takes this long journey only to arrive back to life as usual. It's a farce...it's the easy way...it's the end. Shame on you.

[Katy]

There are only two explanations for that show last night. Either one: That was an intentional giant FU to the audience. Or two: There were a lot of people yes-ing David Chase into believing that finale was great. Anybody who believes the last episode of Sopranos was genius needs to read the Emperor’s New Clothes. That show stunk. Plain and simple.

[susan morrison-vega]

I loved the Soprano's last episode ... in that five second fade to black, I swore up and down at Comcast's lousy cable service, and when the credits rolled, I screamed at the deadly silent screen, "God damn you, Dave Chase. God damn you." And, l Iaughed like crazy at his brilliance ... leave 'em wanting more ...

Highlights: Phil was dead, his head squashed like a pumpkin. Good call and a moment of victory for the good bad guys. The irony of Tony's prospective son-in-law, with Meadow at his side, landing the case that could send Tony to the Big House. Or the big question: Is Tony dead in all that blackness; maybe Carmela, Meadow and A.J. along with him? ... or Tony alive and alone, stuck with Paulie Walnuts and Patsy as his go-to guys like the mob's AA farm team. Most of all from this season, I'll remember the cold indifference in Tony's eyes when he killed Chris-ta-pha. The horror of it matched Adriana's scramble across the ground in her mad attempt to escape certain death. Hey, these guys really are sociopaths!

Sunday nights will never be the same at our house. Thank you, David Chase.

[OW]

I'm not clear why all the people whining about the show's closure bothered to watch the show to begin with. Seems like they missed the entire point all along.

And frankly, when I read this:
"It seems a lot of writers in television really just have a weakness of knowing how to actually end things. I really find this to be the ultimate cope out of smart television. I really wish the writers of tv series would rise to the challenge of creating a true ending to a show."

I'd really like to know what the writer had in mind. You think it's that easy to create "closure"? Do tell?

[neelie]

What was up with that creepy cat? What do you think that symbolized? Chris re-incarnated??

[Ironskull]

No I didn't think my $10,000.00 Mits HDTV blew up at the end. I simply thought like another reader, that the ending was lame and anticlimactic

[Mark]

No Tony didnt DIE!!!!!! For those that have followed the series from the beggining, The Sopranos was just that... The SOPRANOS!!! Of course Tony was a Mob Boss, but at its core, the show focused mainly on the complexities of "Family" Tony's mom, Uncle JR, Carm, Meadow and AJ. Did anybody else notice how( with the exception of his Mom) the final scenes featured "Sopranos" ? The scene was meant to be mundane, tense and normal. The apparent dangers all around Tony which the viewing audience was obviously privy to, is actually no different from his day to day life. Its just this time Chase let us see through the eyes of Tony. Yes, Tony and Bobby's talk about what happens "right before you die" Silence, then it all goes black.. was significant. After being the proverbial "fly on the wall" and watching the dysfunction and murders take place with firsthand information for 8 years.. Life went on as usual for the Soprano family.. that fade to black was US, the viewer.. that was Our shot behind the back of the ear.. We got clipped... LoL

[Mr. X]

It was crap...

[Bonzo Bunn]

The show goes on. We got whacked. Never saw it coming.