Tony is looking at daughter coming to table, dude from barstool
is really out to kill tony but daughter gets killed in the
process as she see this and saves tonys life. Perhaps his son
gets killed by a stray shot after daughter gets hit and tony reacts
and kills barstool dude. Rest of movie is revenge from tony.

The two coloreds try to rob restaurant and take tonys
daughter as a hostage, dude from barstool try to kill tony
but is foiled by robbery. Tony kills barstool dude or the coloreds
kill barstool dude as barstool dude pulls out gun. Either
way some innocents killed in restaurant, perhaps daughter, son
or wife. Tonys out for revenge.

Tony does get wacked in restaurant, rest of movie is spent
on son or daughter getting revenge.

Tony doesnt get wacked, barstool dude or coloreds are no
threat. Rest of movie is anyones guess.

So whats your take on the ending for the restaurant
scene???

Tony was wearing the same clothes, no different shirt or
jacket. Thats just the way it is. He even wears the
same clothes in the scene previous to the final scene.
Dont believe it, turn up your contrast and brightness
and see for your self. Dreamstate or death dreamsstate,
no I dont think so unless he gets wacked from behind
as he enters the restaurant. I tried to see this, no clue
given there. Could be dream from dude in hospitol though.

Now Chase gives more shots of dude at barstool. The two
coloreds that enter, one guy looks to be pulling his jacket
back some as if checking for a gun, but no gun is seen.
This guy then moves his left hand from pulling his
jacket back.

The dude at the barstool looks at tony, the scene shifts
from a view with tony sitting with family and dude at
the barstool still looking at him. Kinda strange that Chase shows
that. This is the second time that the dude at the barstool
is looking at tony. He either is checking out the bathroom
to see if he can use it or is looking at tony.

Now you gotta think that tony would recognize the dude
at the barstool and evaluate the threat, espicially if he
is Phils relative looking for revenge.

Kinda stange that both the dude at the barstool and the guy in the
ballcap are both drinking coffees, not really there to eat dinner.

Anyways the dude at the barstool gets up and walks near and past
tonys table, I didnt see any gun hiden behind the jacket as he
went by. I saw nothing no clue given there. Tony does
give him a second looksee as he goes by though. Tony doesnt
do anything so I think he doesnt see the barstool dude as a
threat.

No in the final shots it gets a bit more interesting.

The waitress passes by and makes a gesture with her
right hand, kinda like making a gun gesture. Cant really
tell, but she is definitely making a gesture with her right
hand, looks like a gun but cant really tell. Could that be a signal.

If you notice all the people around tony’s table, one would think
that some one would react verbally if they saw someone with
a gun. And that never happens.

But tony and family are looking at each other and not what
is going on on either side. So this leaves left and right open
to who knows what.

Well daughter is the jingle you hear and tony is reaching for
a napkin or the mini jukebox. He then pull his right hand back
and then with his left hand reaches down for something and
is starting to pull up his left hand when the scene goes black.

Most folks are keyed in on his face. His position is looking
slightly to his right not directly to his right which is the
direction of the bathroom. From the angle he is looking
he could be looking at his daughter coming in but probably
not looking at the dude who may have come out of the bathroom.
The bathroom is to his direct right and a little behind his direct right.

If the barstool guy is coming out tony’s angle doesnt match the
angle to see him.

Now tony is definitely reacting to something but I think its
his daughter walking through the restaurant and not the
dude that went to the toilet.

The song is playing and the scene goes to black.

I think that tony lives. The whole final scene has the viewer
in suspense cause its the final scene in the final episode.
There are some suspicious people in there for sure. Barstool
dude is the primary suspicious one and gets most attention
by chase.

Watch it again and again till the movie or the series is
picked up. If it doesnt then thats it the fade to black
is us getting wacked and the series is dead.

Thats my take on it.

The show was always about two kinds of narrative practice: psychotherapy and film-making–carriers of the exemplary fictions we use to come to terms with reality. More specifically the show was about genre: the mob drama, the family drama, the epic.

Tony Soprano is himself a great questioner. The thing about Tony is that he is someone who cannot merely gaze passively at what passes before him. Instead he interrogates, analyzes, makes choices, and acts. This is what I think gives him the aura of an heroic figure as a protagonist. But his vision comes at a cost – thus the therapy.

It is interesting as the story progresses that you see AJ starting down the same path, as he begins to question – as he does at Bobby B.’s wake – our culture and the violence and preditory behavior it is predicated on. And of course he becomes a candidate for therapy himself. But it is not his father’s business that is bothering AJ. It is just business. Corporations and governments behave no differently than mobsters, and we are all implicated in the brutality and absurdity they promulgate.

It is therefore ironic that (reading the mob drama as a “morality” play) we condemn Tony for the world of crime he fosters and inhabits; but AJ seems to us naïve and ham-fisted at his bridling at Iraq, Afghanistan, his gas guzzling automobile, etc.

But Tony Soprano is not a negative exemplum. On the one hand he is a kind of everyman – an intensified version of everybody’s beleaguered father just trying to get through the week without any more tribulation than necessary. On the other hand, he doesn’t accept the narrative he has been given at face value. He spills over. He is more than a father and businessman. He is more than a mobster. He reaches out beyond himself. The underworld serves for him, in epic terms, as the Underworld. The last trip to Vegas was about just this: the journey into the unknown, into sexuality, into himself, into the mysteries of Fortune, into the other – perfectly captured by the peyote sunrise. The mobster as flower child, as the man of discovery.

So in the end Malfi is wrong. Tony is not a psychopath—a convenient misreading of people and narrative. And although she does betray her own ethical code (would a heart surgeon have dropped Tony because of his line of work? –Tony is correct when he tells her she is behaving immorally), Tony does come away from his encounters with her a better human being. No more panic attacks. His handling of the situation with Phil is exemplary – the least violence possible - everything seemingly (although one never knows for sure) back on track (nice touch in his negotiations with Paulie). If we could all be so frank about ourselves and our world, maybe we could at least do away with the senseless violence.

are americans finally reading sartre’s existentialism ? “i’ll make references to sartre or some other insipid european, i’m all surface and mainly about appearances periphery imagery, after all.”

i do approve of Reading, however. i encourage that in your ilk. you know who you are.

yous guys hav a bad reputation, didjas know?

read more often, perhaps?

Listen to the words of the music.
Dont stop believing,another message.

They all were finally getting their shit together Sopranospoil makes the most sense.
The fade to black is definitly a representation that someone got killed.And It was tony.But did it really happen or was it maybe sills dream?Or tonys?
Who knows?
Just like His father,History repeats itself ,but could have been a dream.

Aj was gonna get out and do the right thing,but he got talked into leading a life like his dad so he got it too.Or could have.Like the guilt ridden mother who squirreled blood money into accts and all that.
Meadow was gonna do the right thing,so she wasnt in the dinner in that”type of life”circle.For the drama.

It was a representation of how tony thought it would happen.The black guys,the truck driver the other guy. That was his conscience or fears .

This freak really should have commented or spoon fed it to us about what it all really meant man,This is bullshit.
Maybe it was made so we would order it 15 times and try to figure it out?
Or would buy the whole dvd collection to try to figure it out?
Its all buisness people.It all boils down to dollars.
He wont comment on what he really meant about the ending,so when he makes a movie,its open to whatever idea he comes up with.

Basicly………HE LEFT THE ENDING up to the viewer.
You got to have it whatever way you want it.

Do you want them to live? You can draw a conclusion that leads to that.
Do you want them to die? You can draw a conclusion that leads to that also

It was a shitty ending.But if you watch it about 50 times.And watch the whole collection another 40,maybe the picture would be as clear to you/me,as it is to sopranospoil? No thanks.

2 Things can happen
The writer will blow up in the industry and become so well known he wont be able to piss in private.
Or
He will be criticized for being a self serving idiot and everyones gonna hate him and no one is gonna want to touch anything he writes.

If the heat gets too hot,I bet he has an out…
Maybe we will get lucky and one of the cast or someone will pop on here as a secret and tell us thereal deal.

What a pale of trash.

Just kidding.

Entertaining thread, I learned a lot. Or I didn’t. I still think the cat staring at the framed picture is a metaphor for people who watch tv. I could be wrong though.

Let’s assume that Tony was killed–Lord knows he had it coming, and I can live with that. What upsets me is, if that’s the case, then what happened to Carmella, Meadow, and AJ in the diner? Killed in the crossfire? Escaped? Went into witness protection? Was the family initially saddened by his death, then perhaps somehow at peace with the fact that the man at the center of their lives, who they loathed almost as much as they adored, is finally gone? Who takes over the mafia family? Paulie? Maybe AJ?

The fact that we’re forced to imagine these scenarios doesn’t make the ending brilliant or amazing, it only makes it incomplete. And exceptionally frustrating.

The reason why so many people are upset is simply this: every great story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And the story of our beloved Tony Soprano will never, ever have an end.

Imagine watching the first 90 minutes of Star Wars, and just as Luke Skywalker fires his torpedoes to destroy the Death Star, the screen goes blank and the credits roll. Wouldn’t you feel cheated?

Or Jaws, when Roy Scheider aims his shotgun at the shark, squezes the trigger and…………cut to black! Holy crap! The story has no end!

The comments I’ve read disdaining our need to have a story’s resolution spoon-fed to us are absolutely right: we DO crave a resolution to the stories we’re told. What they fail to realize is that that’s only natural: a well-told story MUST HAVE a definitive, satisfying ending. We all know the Sopranos creators could have easily provided one that was thoughtful, riveting, creative and memorable. The fact that they did not is what’s so damned disappointing.

R.I.P Sopranos!