Don’t stop.
Well there you have it. The Sopranos is done. Finished. Dead to me. Swimming with the fishes. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m into all things mafia so it’s no big secret that I’m a big fan of this show. For those of you that haven’t seen the finale yet for whatever reason I’ll spare you the in-depth until after the jump. I will say that in the 48 hours since the episode aired I’ve read everything from hate to praise on the internets about the way that David Chase chose to end the series. I even read a blog where the writer suggested that everyone cancel their HBO subs because of it. At first I found the ending to be pretty lame but the more I think about it the more I realize that it was probably the best (and only) way to wack the series. If you didn’t like the ending, watch it again and you will appreciate it more, trust me. Click MORE to find out why.
I’m not going to recap the whole episode, Entertainment Weekly does a better job at that than I ever could. In the end we find out what that ice cream parlor was needed for: a final sitdown with the Family. Not the mafia family but the Soprano family. They all met at this location for a family night out.
Side note: If you go back and watch all 10 of EW’s picks of the Best Soprano Episodes of All Time like I did last weekend, you’ll see that the series has always had family at its core. And for the record I’d recommend you watch those 10 episodes. They did an excellent job picking them.
Anyways back to the diner. Tony arrives first and queues up Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing on the jukebox which continues to play in the background throughout the scene. He is joined by his wife Carmela and then their son AJ. They all chit chat as a family while waiting for the daughter, Meadow to arrive. All the while Tony is ever vigilant in the diner sitting facing the door and watching everyone in the place. Everytime the bell on the door rings, Tony looks up to see who’s coming in. Meadow is seen trying (and failing) to paralell park out front of the diner. She finally parks and runs to the diner. The door bell rings, Tony looks up, the song sings Don’t Stop! and the screen abruptly cuts to black. 10 seconds of silence and nothingness follow.
My immediate reaction was “What the?!” as I hastily checked my DVR for signs of failure. I felt as if I was missing something and indeed I was. I was missing the Sopranos. I was yearning to find out what happend next as I always was. Some people think this was a cop out from Case so that he didn’t have to close the series. Others think that he set up a movie by not ending the series. I personally feel that the Sopranos saga lives on except now we don’t get to watch it unfold. It’s almost as if the viewer was wacked. In a way we saw it coming but did we? Tony’s brother-in-law forshadowed this moment in the first episode of this mini season when he discusses death with Tony and says “when it happens, you never see it coming.” We witnessed the death of the Sopranos series Sunday night and I can honestly say that I didn’t see it coming. It was quick and painless. One moment it was there and the next it was gone. To sum it all up after watching the episode a second time: Brilliant!
Even Journey guitarist Neal Schon feels the ending was perfect. John Cain, the original songwriter for Don’t Stop Believing said to Schon:
It was great — wait till you see it! They played the whole song. It stops on ‘Don’t stop!’ And then it goes black.’
We all need to move on with our lives. The show is over. Nothing more to see here, move along. Start the mourning process now. And for all of you yearning to learn what happened after the abrubt ending, one thing’s for sure, series creator David Chase’s lips are sealed.
Comments
Unfortunately they finished it… did you notice how they left it so there could always be room for another season? 
we can only hope.
The show creators still don’t know will it be another season, It’s all about money, unfortunately :/
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