The open ending of The Sopranos is not really that open.
Not only did The Sopranos become one of the most critically acclaimed shows in history, it also ushered in a new era in television, the third in a row that is still going strong.
The staple of this era is the anti-hero cable drama that explores in detail the complicated lives of bad people, and Tony Soprano is the progenitor of all these anti-heroes.
Although the iconic series ended more than fifteen years ago, fans are still wondering – did Tony die in the finale?
The final scene is a gathering of the Soprano family in a diner. Tony arrives first, waiting for his wife, son, and then daughter. As she approaches the cafe, we see Tony’s face. And that’s it. Black screen for a few seconds. Titles. At that moment, many people thought their TV got broken.
And then they waited for explanations, but never got them. Series creator David Chase once said that there is an answer to the main question in the final episode.
And if you watch closely, you can understand that it is definitely there.
There are many different techniques in the cinematic language that allow to show rather than tell a story, sometimes they are obvious, sometimes they are not. One such technique is editing.
There are clear editing rules in the final scene. Tony is sitting in a diner waiting for his family. First we see Tony’s face, hear the bell ring, and see from his point of view who entered the diner.
In the final seconds of the show, the same pattern is at work: bell, Tony, but instead of the daughter, we see darkness. The show repeatedly touches on the idea that a person will not even hear his own death.
Tony is told this by his subordinate and sister’s husband, Bobby. The show recalls this idea in the penultimate episode when Bobby is shot by Leotardo’s men.
So in the last frame we should have seen what Tony saw. And if Tony sees darkness, then one conclusion is obvious – Tony is dead.
The creator of the series has said many times that he did not want to show the death of the protagonist directly, but he never answered the question of what actually happened in the final scene.
If you believe that Tony really died, then the black screen can be considered one of the most ingenious endings in television history.
A great show like The Sopranos just couldn’t end with vulgar scene with a bullet in Tony’s forehead. Instead, the creators used the magic of cinema to end the fate of television’s main antagonist.
