When The Sopranos series finale aired in 2007, the abrupt cut to black left many viewers wondering if their cable had gone out... until after ten seconds of a silent black
screen, the credits began to roll. Some people think the ending of "Made in America" is one big cop out, while others believe it's absolutely brilliant. What matters is we're still talking about
it more than a decade later, arguing over whether Tony Soprano was whacked or simply finished his onion rings and went home with his family. So let's make some sense of that final scene and decipher what the ultimate takeaway was in The Sopranos. Before we go on, be sure to hit subscribe, and click the bell to get notifications on all of our new videos. Show creator David Chase has insisted there's no definitive answer to whether Tony
lives or dies in the series finale. But Chase has also said that "If you look at the final episode really carefully, it's all there." So what evidence does "Made in America" give us as to Tony's fate? First there's the man in the Members Only
jacket. Many people think is Tony's killer. From his seat at the counter, the man seems to look over at Tony twice. This immediately makes us hyper aware of his presence and raises our suspicions about his motives. Later in the scene the man goes to the bathroom
-- that puts him in position to get a clear shot at Tony. And it's reminiscent of the scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone goes into the restaurant bathroom to retrieve the gun hidden behind the toilet. This happens to be Tony's favorite movie scene
ever. [Every time we watch Godfather when Michael
Corleone] [shoots those guys at the restaurant,] [those assholes who tried to kill his dad,] [you sit there with your (beep) bowl of ice
cream] [and you say it's your favorite scene of all
time!] So it would be a dramatic irony if Tony met his end this way. The man's outfit could be a reference to Eugene Pontecorvo, who also wears a Members Only jacket in the first episode of season six -- which is titled "Members Only". [Look at this guy -- Members Only?] [How long you been wearing that?] In this episode Eugene shoots someone in a fast food restaurant on Christopher's
orders. So the implication is that something similar could happen to Tony here. The other thing is that Tony ruins Eugene's
life by refusing to let him retire to Florida like he wants to. [Your Florida thing. Tony asked me to speak to you.] [That's a no-go.] So Eugene eventually kills himself. In other words, the man in the Member's Only
jacket automatically reminds us of how badly Tony treated Eugene, and more generally how many terrible things Tony's done to all kinds of people, which could come back to bite him. Finally, the "Members Only" episode ends with Tony being shot by his uncle Junior. So it would be fitting for the series finale to also end with Tony being shot. In the finale scene, there's a close up on Tony's face as he stands at the entrance of the diner, then the camera cuts to him in a booth, in a way that makes it seem like he's imagining himself there before he sits
down -- or like we've fast-forwarded in time without seeing Tony move, it feels a little disorienting and surreal. Chase was actually trying to recreate the ambiguous feeling of 2001: A Space Odyssey in this finale, and he's said that this shot is a reference to the ending of 2001 when Bowman sees an
older, aging version of himself sitting down to eat. In 2001 the shot might make us reflect on the future of humanity -- here, it makes us think about the future of
Tony -- could there be a more evolved, new version of Tony Soprano in some future
time? The moment also sets up the use of point of view shots in the scene. We get a POV shot each time the bell at the diner entrance rings -- we see Tony's face look up at the door, and then we see his perspective as someone enters the diner. This happens four times. The fifth time, we only hear the bell as Meadow enters and see Tony looking up, then it cuts to black -- so based on the previous point of view shots, the implication is that we're seeing what Tony is seeing: and that's black nothingness, which suggests that he's dead. And something about the pacing here makes us picture Meadow arriving just in time to see her father get shot, Tony dying right before he gets to see her walk through the door. The fullscreen of black is also the opposite of the visual we get when Tony wakes up from his coma earlier in season six. There the screen goes completely white, symbolizing light and life. The sudden silence that cuts off Journey's song is another clue. [Don't Stop Believin'] It's in line with something Bobby Bacala says earlier in the season about what he imagines it's like to be assassinated. [You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?] Tony flashes back to this moment in the episode before "Made in America," [You probably don't even hear it when it happens, right?] so that puts even more emphasis on it. The silence also reminds us of Silvio's experience when Gerry is shot across the table from him. In this moment the sound lowers and Silvio doesn't even seem to hear the gunshot or understand what's happened until he sees Gerry's blood sprayed all over
him. So this idea of "not hearing it when it happens" seem really significant when we look at the final moment of the series. "Made in America" is also full of death symbolism. The episode opens with a shot of Tony from above as he lies sleeping, so it looks like he's in a casket. He's woken up by organ music that sounds like it would be played at a funeral. A few minutes in we see him peeling an orange, which could be a reference to The Godfather using oranges as a bad omen. Later in the episode, there's a spooky orange cat who is staring at a photo of Christopher, who Tony killed a few episodes before. And in the diner scene, there's an image of a tiger on the wall behind
Tony that reminds us of that cat. So all of this haunting imagery represents tha Tony can never escape the many murders he's committed, and the death that will come for him sooner
or later. Then there's the context of what's happening
in the plot. We have to consider how likely it would be that Tony would be assassinated at this point
in time. The second to last episode of the series is
a bloodbath as Tony's crew basically goes to war with the Lupertazzi family Ultimately the conflict is resolved when the Lupertazzis turn on their boss Phil, meets with Tony and his crew, and all but gives permission for the Soprano crew to take Phil out. [Do what you gotta do.] [Phil!!!] So it would seem that Tony's out of the woods... but it's also possible that the Lupertazzi
family got Tony's guard down so they could eliminate him as well, especially now that he's been weakened by losing some of his men. If Tony does die without us seeing it happen, this is in keeping with how The Sopranos defies the form of the traditional mafia story
onscreen-- in one of those classic mob movies, the hit would be a suprise, then we'd get the satisfaction of seeing what's happening from the outside, understanding the plot against the character. [You fingered Sonny for the Barzini people.] [Ahhh that little farce you played with my
sister.] [You think that could fool a Corleone?] But since the show is putting us in Tony's
head, we experience it as he would... If Tony were taken out he'd have to not know
it's coming, he'd never understand the why or the who or
the how, his life would just be over without warning. So based on Chase's statement that "it's all there" in this episode, the evidence does make it seem like Tony was killed in the final scene. But it's not certain... and Chase has repeatedly refused to confirm that Tony dies at this moment. This very intentional ambiguity is an artistic
choice to force the viewer to decide for themselves. Even if Tony isn't killed in "Made in America," it's pretty clear that ultimately things won't end well for him -- and he knows it. [There's two endings for a guy like me.] [High-profile guy. Dead, or in the can.] [My estimate historically,] [80% of the time it ends up in the can] [like Johnny Sack or on the embalming table at Cozarelli's.] All through the series we see the tragedy that strikes people connected to the mob, characters go to prison, become informants, despair over how the mafia has wrecked their
dreams, or get killed by people they thought were
friends. We know that even if Tony isn't whacked, he's likely going to be indicted. [80 to 90% chance you'll be indicted.] [That (beep) gun charge,] [I get sick when I think of it.] [Plus interstate fraud and if Carlo starts
talking,] [homicide--] The FBI team trying to build a case against
him are really racing against time, trying to put him behind bars before he gets himself killed. So either way Tony won't escape the inevitable end of mob life. Regardless of what happens after the cut to
black, Tony will live his remaining moments on earth in the shadow of dread. He seems relatively relaxed in the diner scene
-- but we as viewers are holding our breath, even though there's no concrete reason to
feel afraid. It's sort of amazing how Chase gets us so invested in Meadow's attempts at parallel
parking. This is such a memorable aspect of the scene... it's a perfect example of the mundane tension we feel throughout The Sopranos. On one level drawing out Meadow's parking it's Chase's way of playing with us because he knew millions of people would watch the
finale, waiting for something big and terrible to
happen. And as we watch, we find ourselves worried that each member of the family is in danger until they arrive at the diner. So part of our anxiety is that we want to see them all together one last
time, and we never get to. Meanwhile, the tension we feel is also a testament to how successful the show has been in putting us in Tony's shoes. [You eat and you play,] [and you pretend like there's not a giant
piano] [hanging by a rope just over the top of your
head] [every minute of every day.] That worry we feel on his behalf is what he lives with every day. [When you're Tony Soprano,] [even going out for ice cream with your family] [is fraught with looking over your shoulder.] [This is his own personal hell that he lives
with,] [who knows, it could've been that, maybe not.] There's another theory that cutting to black doesn't represent Tony's death, but the viewer's. The moment cuts us off from the protagonist we've spent so much time with and just leaves
us hanging. [I think what David was saying on the one
hand] [is ‘there's no more TV. TV's over. Goodbye.] Chase has said that many viewers went from getting catharsis from Tony's bad
behavior, to having a perverse desire to see him brutally
murdered. In his words, "They wanted to see his brains splattered
on the wall. I thought that was disgusting, frankly." So part of the rationale for the ending was to deny us that feeling of being somehow better than Tony, even though we've been identifying with him
all this time, not letting us derive some twisted satisfaction from seeing his end. The final scene includes the viewer in an experience of death, to remind us that this final, mysterious moment is the same for everyone. Tony's uncle Junior is the outlier, the exception to the rule that mob life has to end in jail or early death -- Junior actually lives long enough to waste away in an old folks home -- but we see this exchange in the series finale. [You and my dad. You two ran north Jersey.] [We did?] Even if you somehow make it out of the mafia
alive, no one escapes aging and death. As Chase has said, "Whether this is the end here, or not, it's going to come at some point for the rest of us." So what's the meaning of the episode title "Made in America"? Well, many classic mob stories are really commentaries on the American dream. [America has made my fortune.] [And I raised my daughter in the American
fashion.] And The Sopranos adds its own layer of commentary to that American Dream question. Tony fits the image of a good All-American
dad who mans the grill at backyard get-togethers
-- he's provided his family with all possible material comforts -- [Spend $5,000 on a set of drums, SAT tutor,
coffeemaker...] but he's done that through being a cold-blooded
murderer. So the version of the American dream he's
achieved is familiar and "normal" on the surface, but dark and corrupted at the center. AJ gets at this truth early in the series
finale, when he's upset over what he sees as the false promise of America. [This is still where people come to make it.] [It's a beautiful idea. And then what do they get?] [Bling? And come-ons for shit they don't need and can't afford?] Chase has explained that he went with the
episode title "not only because Tony's a made guy, and all these guys are made guys, but also because it was about the extreme amount of comfort Americans have, especially people with money." He was thinking of how the war with Iraq was in fact "made in America," and how in the episode Tony and Carmela are able to stop AJ from signing up for the military like he wants to, simply because they have money. [We don't feel joining the army is in your
best interest.] So in some ways, the episode is an indictment of America's materialism and the darkness we're willing to turn a blind
eye to in order to preserve our comfortable way of
life. The diner scene mirrors the ending of the season one finale, when Tony and his family also had dinner together at Artie's restaurant. This was a genuinely warm, happy evening that inspired Tony to raise
a toast. [Someday soon you're gonna have families of
your own.] [And if you're lucky,] [you'll remember the little moments.] [Like this. That were good.] But when AJ references this moment in "Made in America," Tony can't remember it. [Focus on the good times.] [Don't be sarcastic.] [Isn't that what you said one time --] ['try to remember the times that were good'?] [I did?] So the contrast between these two scenes is really striking -- it shows how far Tony's declined spiritually over the course of the series. And while the first scene presumably ended with the Soprano family heading home together, this one may well have ended with Tony shot
to death in front of his wife and kids. Still, the song that Tony chooses on the jukebox is very significant -- "Don't Stop Believin" transforms these mundane moments between him and his family into a subtly uplifting and affirmative portrait. The hopeful song imparts the idea that in
the end, this everyday, non-descript, even boring family time might be what matters the most. So even in its final moments the show veers away from the traditional mafia
story which presents a romanticized, glamorous view of family. By setting the final scene in a classic diner, playing an all-American song, and making the Sopranos look like a very regular American family, the show does end up affirming the value of
family. Chase has said that for him, the song really holds the ultimate message
of the finale. He says, "There are attachments we make in
life, even though it's all going to come to an end, that are worth so much, and we're so lucky to have been able to experience
them. Life is short. Either it ends here for Tony or some other
time. But in spite of that, it's really worth it. So don't stop believing." In a sense, what Chase is saying is almost an extension of Tony's "remember the good times" philosophy, even if Tony's forgotten his own wisdom. So while the ending of The Sopranos seems far from optimistic, the whole point is to make us value life more by showing us how quickly it can be ripped
away. If you're always in danger like Tony is, all you can ever do is cherish the good moments before they're gone. [In the midst of death, we are in life.] [Or is it the other way around?] It's Debra. And Susannah. And you're watching ScreenPrism. Thank you guys so much for watching, If you like this video, please subscribe for more insights about all of your favorite movies and shows. down there!
