'Sopranos' End Defies Expectations

Jun 11, 11:18 AM

Current Headlines: By Christopher Borrelli, The Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Jun. 11--As Tony would say:

"End of story."

Last night, the final episode of HBO's The Sopranos, the 86th hour of the longest movie ever made (in a sense), came to a fitting conclusion, with arguably the classiest end to a long-running series in television history. Now you may not agree -- it wasn't the bloodbath predicted, or the arrest of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). It was much more, well -- ambiguous doesn't begin to describe it. But poetic does.

Here's what happened, and if you have it on TiVO and a DVR and yet to watch, please STOP READING THIS NOW.

It began with Tony waking up in a safe house with a machine gun in his lap. Phil, the boss of the New York crime family, had ordered a hit, and Tony's men were hit hard. Tony reaches out to the Feds; ever the opportunist, he begins offering information about a terrorist cell to his FBI contact, who tells Tony he's overreaching and deposits him back into the snowy New Jersey night.

Meanwhile, Phil's No. 2 guy is making signs that the war has gone too far. But it's too late -- for Phil. Tony's FBI contact sells out and leaks Phil's location to Tony, who has one of his guys shoot Phil. One in the head. He's done. And since creator David Chase directed and wrote this last episode, his sardonic streak was on fire: Phil falls beside an SUV that is rolling and it rolls over his head. Ouch. Tony never comments.

Tony's family is more pressing: His daughter, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) will get married, become a lawyer. His son, A.J. (Robert Iler), starts the episode listening to Bob Dylan and nodding at the lyrics and ends the episode deciding he should go into the military because "this country is in crisis." His wife, Carmela (Edie Falco), looks for a new kitchen. Tony, meanwhile, learns one of his guys is cooperating with the Feds, which is probably why he is still alive, but Tony's lawyer says it doesn't look good -- there's an 80 or 90 percent chance he'll be indicted.

But it doesn't end there. In the final heart-pounding moments, Tony meets his family for ice cream. Outside, Meadow has trouble parking her car. Inside the restaurant, a man keeps looking over at Tony. The family will be whacked but Meadow, out of dumb luck, will survive, we assume. The man goes to the bathroom. The jukebox plays Journey's "Don't Stop Believing." We tense. And in the final shot, Tony looks up at the sound of a door opening. Then the screen goes to black, and THAT. IS. IT.

What happened?

Exactly. We don't know. The man could be no one. The family could have been hit right then. Or Tony could be looking at a vision of his future, where every shifty-eyed guy is a threat from the past. Regardless of what happened, he made his bed, Pauly got the family, and Chase, who is more concerned with making something for the ages than a quick easy pay-off, makes his point: a way of life has ended.

The key scene, it's important to remember, was not the ending, but the scene immediately before it. Tony finally goes to visit his Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), who shot him a season ago and now sits and stares out the window of a nursing home. Tony wants to clear up an issue with the money Junior has stashed away. Tony talks to him through gritted teeth, and talks, and finally he realizes Junior's memory is shattered. Bits and pieces come to him but everything is erased. "You don't know who I am do you?" Tony asks. Junior stares. "This thing of ours," Tony whispers, meaning this clan, this mob, The Mob.

"I was involved?" Junior asks.

"You and my father," Tony says, "you two ran North Jersey."

"We did?"

"Yeah."

"That's nice."

And it was.

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