Who Killed Tony Soprano? | Ultimate Suspect Guide | The Sopranos Ending Explained

[Laughter] the sopranos follows the life of new jersey mob boss tony soprano as he navigates his professional and personal life throughout the course of the show we see tony having to overcome numerous challenges such as the betrayal of his close friend [ __ ] the suicide attempt of his son aj and enigmatic thieves who steal his low mane in season six new york libertarian crime boss phil leotardo starts a war against tony and his glorified crew and though he possesses the supernatural ability to turn into a house phil ultimately loses the wall with his own underlings betraying him and coming to a deal with tony behind phil's back after this tony and his crew in spite of taking heavy losses are now in the clear though tony still has many issues to deal with like the strong suggestion that his capocarlo has flipped to the feds in the final scene of the sopranos tony arrives at holston's for a meal with his family and selects journeys don't stop believing from the jukebox control at his table one after the other carmella and aj arrive with meadow outside struggling to park her car they eat engage in small talk and just as meadow reaches the diner door tony looks up and we cut to black and so ends one of the most infamous endings to any tv show one that has infuriated fans leading many to think that something was wrong with their tv when they first watched it it is a hotly debated topic even today decades later as to what actually happened with many fans thinking tony was shot dead in that moment in this video i wanted to explore the possibility of tony having died and in particular running down a list of suspects who could have wanted him dead and carrying it out now of course not everyone agrees that tony died i myself do think that he snuffed it in case you're wondering but whether tony died or not and the numerous clues such as bobby bachala's line about not hearing it when it happens is not the point of this video there's so many theories regarding the ending of the sopranos like for example meadow being tony's guardian angel throughout the show and her not making it in time to save tony let's assume he did die and take a look at a roster of individuals who may have done it so first of all let's throw out some alternative theories maybe tony died but no one killed him i.e he had a heart attack or maybe the cut to black wasn't a death but tony having one of his many panic attacks was it causing an immediate blackout maybe the entire scene takes place inside the mind of tony with it being another weird dream maybe it was us the audience that were whacked in any case one thing that is clear from the ending of the sopranos is that tony is finished every which way but loose he is completely morally bankrupt in spite of efforts to change and he no longer attends therapy with dr malphie he has committed heinous crimes such as the murder of his protege christopher and seems content and lacking in remorse most of his crew have been wiped out including conciliary silvio dante who could easily spend the rest of his life in a coma and his list of enemies is so huge by the end of the show that even if someone didn't pop him carlo testifying against him would surely land him a hefty sentence in prison in other words as stated even if he didn't die he's finished but again that's not our concern with this video and before we continue please consider subscribing to the channel and hitting the notification bell for more sopranos videos so who actually pulled the trigger well it's likely the man in the members only jacket the camera takes a particular interest in him he is quite a shady and nervous looking character and he takes a trip to the loo which is a direct reference to the godfather with the famous scene where michael corleone goes to the toilet to grab a gun which has been planted there of course we might question why the hitman would even need to go to the toilet to retrieve a gun surely he'd have one on him but it is a clear homage to francis ford coppola's film and perhaps an indication that this man murders tony if he did come out of the bathroom and shoot tony the angle at which he would have shot him is three o'clock going back to christopher's message to tony supposedly from the other side in this scene at the hospital and it also reinforces the meadow guardian angel theory as if she made it in time she would be sitting next to tony and blocking a clear line of sight for the killer but who gave the order the list of enemies tony has and people he has wronged is incredibly long there's georgie who worked at the bing who tony beat up on numerous occasions leading him to leave the club there's dave scantino who was ruined as a result of his gambling addiction and the debt he owed to tony this is the vipers who tony and chris stole from adriana's mom who is adamant her daughter was murdered even artie bucco who came close to shooting tony after his restaurant was burnt to the ground perhaps carlo's ever building resentment of tony led him to getting rid of the guy who told him to start sucking [ __ ] how about noah the hasidic homeboy who may have walked into the diner and punched tony's [ __ ] lights out maybe christopher came back as a zombie of sorts cleaver style to take revenge on tony but on a more serious note there is still a huge list of characters who would benefit from tony's brains being spattered all over some onion rings is it possible for example much like how bobby bakala thought the new york new jersey wall had ended and was subsequently killed that a new york soldier just didn't get the memo and ended up whacking tony when the opportunity arose unlikely but with the amount of crazy theories there are about the ending of the sopranos this isn't the most far-fetched one possibility i don't see people discuss is lou dimaggio and his crew the old creepy blind hitmen who chris and sylvia approached in season 4 to take out johnny sack this scene is very surreal and the old mobsters give off david lynch-esque vibes they don't appear to be in the best of shape and the photo chris and sylvia show to them of sex includes tony and all silvio says is the guy on the left it's easy to assume the old guys could have gotten confused you can imagine them later discussing was it the guy on the right or the left and this crew isn't really followed up on in the show maybe just maybe and seeing as though they were past their prime they took their sweet time but eventually they or one of their hitmen managed to track down who they assumed was the target a situation which ended up with part of tony's brain slapping carmelo across the face a few years later now with the guy in the diner wearing the members only jacket our thoughts have to go back to eugene who the show makes a point to highlight that he is wearing a member's only jacket and the jacket isn't the only link between him and the guy in the diner they even look similar could this be a relative of eugene a cousin or something out for a revenge after eugene's suicide which was in part due to tony not allowing him to retire after eugene inherited a small fortune either way eugene's wife who didn't appear to have a high opinion of tony definitely had the cash to hire a hitman so perhaps in her school she got a guy to take out the man who she blamed for her husband's suicide another possibility is slava the head of the russian mafia in new jersey and a business associate of tony why well the botched debt collection by paulie and chris converting slava's friend valerie which results in the duo trying to assassinate the russian but ending up losing him the fate of the russian is something i've discussed in a previous video but tony is shown to be concerned at the event in pine barrens as things could go very bad if valerie ended up surviving going back to slava and telling him what happened we're told that slava loves valerie like a brother a brother-in-law if you will and it's feasible that he may have thought that tony was attempting to perhaps muscle in on his business or he was so distraught after finding out what happened to valerie so he okayed a hit on tony it is suggested in a later episode chasing it that slava and tony are still on good terms but you never know maybe slava learned what happened to valerie later or the russian boss simply abided his time another person who went missing in the sopranos and someone who had reason to kill tony and even tried to in a temporary moment of madness is furio an efficient mobster who works for tony but ended up falling in love with his wife and then mysteriously goes incognito tony claims to come out that he has people looking for furyo to kill him which i've always thought was a bluff and it's likely fury returned to italy where he would be safe and tony's word has little influence now why would furious want to kill tony well he wants carmella plus in his love sick mind he will feel he's performing a just act by freeing carmelo of the abusive tony could he have built support for himself using his contacts back in the old country or could he have gotten a local hitman to take out tony and a wild plan involving him knocking on the door of a grieving carmelo and sweeping her off her feet with the two living happily ever after hey crazier things have happened could it be possible that junior sitting in a mental facility alone and confused in a rare moment of clarity managed to contact someone in the mob and had tony taken out after having his season 1 hatred of tony reignited by his mistaken memory it's a stretch and junior was pretty much shut out of the mob life at the end of season six but who knows i don't think anyone suspected he would be the guy who okayed a hit on dickie maltesanti until they saw the many sins of newark one theory i've seen circulated is that rhiannon the friend of aj who got to know him in a mental facility and went on to become his girlfriend was somehow involved in the hit either by being a plant from the lupitazi family or someone who was asked by the louboutins about tony's location in the final episode and she answered thinking the whole thing was innocent rihanna knew where the sopranos family would be as she is in the house when carmela says they are going to wholesomes tonight and she even looks up when carmela says this showing that she has registered what has been said she's also in the final episode a lot being given an unusual amount of screen time in the season finale for such a minor character and some feel a picture on the wall of the louboutins main place of business is of her which is a stretch but if you buy into the theory you could argue that she did do some modeling so there is a link there personally i've never thought much of this theory in spite of its popularity though i can see there is evidence for it there are issues that rise though like the probability of new york using an underage high school girl as a plant and the fact that tony wasn't in hiding when the lupitage conflict even began so they wouldn't need her at that point when she met aj and by the end of the final episode the war was over so he wasn't hiding then either tony's movements wouldn't be a secret and a top secret high school spy wasn't necessary i also don't like this theory because it gives prominence to a minor character in such a major talking point of the show when we think who killed tony soprano we think of names that played big parts in the show but rhiannon who even is that i imagine of sopranos fans would say another possible mastermind behind the tony hit is little carmine who may have seized on the fractured state of new jersey to swoop in decapitate and do business with what's left a popular fan theory suggests that carmine jr was actually some kind of secret mastermind who buchi was reporting to by the time of the season finale and he had manipulated things to escalate the war between phil and tony what with the whole whatever happened their line which sends phil irate during the meeting of the mines this is an interesting theory one i've discussed in great detail in a video of mine called why you're wrong about little carmine and it does have merit but ultimately i don't buy it as mentioned in the other video i think there are some major holes in the theory and plus i think it does a disservice to carmine junior's entire arc you know who else had an ark this guy butch di consign butch is someone who was actively pushing phil to go to woo but then all of a sudden gets cold feet and makes a deal with tony butch's evolution is really interesting and it's something i've explored in a video of mine called why did butch turn on phil and there is a suggestion that perhaps butch was playing the long game and wanted phil to get whacked so he could take the top seat and then he could take out tony who he never liked and whose murder he advocated for numerous times in the show either that or while he was in the trenches he just wanted the war to be over so everyone could go back to doing business and an added byproduct of ending the war would mean he becomes boss butch ordering the hit on tony is my favorite theory on tony's death one that i see working that or poorly or patsy or more to the point a combination of all three this really should have a detailed video all on its own and maybe i will do one one day to stop this video from being too long but to summarize during the chaotic new jersey new york war butch turned on phil this we know once the war was over and phil was dead butch sanctioned tony's murder because a she hit me i mean a tony threatened butch at gunpoint was an overall unpleasant character was emotional and the key reason phil's murder was done in front of his family and the lupitazis would have been expected pushed even by the commission to have tony punished with a similar fate we can assume only a few people outside of that secret meeting know butch turned on phil so it looks like the head of one of the five families was murdered in front of his grandkids with no provocation whatsoever and butch would look weak if he didn't react against this move from this pygmy thing and it's a clean slate it's wiping away the bad blood the old feuds a start of a new era though i don't think butch is boss material and i can see the cycle of bloodshed continuing it's also worth mentioning that in the original ending envisioned by soprano's creator david chase tony was supposed to go to a meeting with new york and be killed there in this theory butch would have infiltrated the sopranos family and got people namely paulie and patsy to betray tony this isn't even necessarily just a theory sylvia tells tony that people have been squeezed hard by the wa and are being swayed to new management but gervasi among them and it's easy to see why both paulie and patsy might accept that tony needs to go one thing the sopranos establishes about paulie is that he's a survivor and if he was approached with the opportunity of being allowed to live and work under new management with tony gone he'd probably take it especially as though he thought he might get killed by tony on the bolt and that previous history like his dealings with johnny sack show that he definitely wasn't loyal to tony and was always looking after his own interest when new york is deciding who needs to go butch specifically mentions not to go after poorly which works with this theory paulie is also paranoid he has dreams about [ __ ] who ended up betraying the family and in paulie's final scene the eerie cat walks up to him and stares and bearing in mind tony's lying about there possibly being a rat behind the wall that the cat often stares at maybe the show is telling us here that paulie is betraying tony poorly being a threat to tony is also referenced in one of tony's fever dreams fans may also want to note that paulie only shakes butchie's hand after the secret meeting in season six with patsy his motivation for betraying tony is obvious the murder of his brother he already tried to drunkenly murder tony as revenge before instead settling for pissing in tony's pool in the scene where tony forces patsy to say he's over his brother's death tony mentions patsy's son low-key threatening him if an opportunity came years down the line for this man to get revenge for his brother and also the fact that he is often passed over i think he'd definitely take it and it won't be cinematic there's a lot of weird scenes in season six ones that can be interpreted in numerous ways like poorly grimacing all the time as if he's a bit remorseful at betraying tony after tony has offered him control of the aprilia crew there's the cold awkward exchanges during the parisi sopranos family meeting and by the way patsy's son is marrying meadow so patsy is coming closer and closer to the throne in other ways not to mention meadow might have told patsy's son that they were eating at holsters that night other weird scenes include the part with paulie and patsy in the bathroom with poorly saying it's all yours and then the camera lingering on patsy and another between the two shortly after the part where silvio tells tony about underlings possibly being swayed to new management poorly saying to patsy you'll be fine don't worry about it and saying don't discuss this until we're in the pisces it doesn't quite make sense that patsy would be worried and they would be having this kind of conversation if they were simply talking about the hit on phil leotardo in the scene where paulie says to tony that he thinks the april crew might be cursed he only accepts the offer to take over it with an alarmed expression i might add when tony says he might give it to patsy as if paulie has panicked thinking that patsy might decide against killing tony if the man is offering him a promotion so there you have it a huge roast of characters that could have wanted tony dead with my personal favorite theory of the lot being that butchie paulie and patsy were all involved who do you think killed tony soprano are there any theories i've missed let me know in the comments below and thanks for watching

Channel: CineRanter

Views: 453,407

Keywords: the sopranos, tony soprano, who killed tony soprano, what happened at the end of the sopranos, the sopranos ending explained, the sopranos final scene, did tony soprano die

Id: 89zpyHenWZw

Length: 17min 42sec (1062 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 08 2022