Ten years later, I finally know what happened to Tony Soprano
And he's right. It really is.
Yesterday I came across multiple sources which walked us through the final scene, which you'll find below. Previous episodes had prepared the way, and if we'd remembered incidents earlier in the season (and in some case even before), that scene gives us several very broad hints. In addition, there is a pattern in that last scene which, even without those hints, should have told us everything we need to know. All in all, if you simply know what to look for, what happened in that final scene is as plain as if it had played out right before our eyes.
On at least two occasions in prior episodes, we were told that when someone is shot at close range he doesn't know it until afterward- or at all. In the case of a headshot at close range, the bullet is traveling faster than the speed of sound. The victim is literally dead before he knows that he's been shot.
And at on three separate occasions, hits were successfully carried out by men wearing a distinctive "Members Only" jacket.
Got that? Ok. Now, the pattern: in the final scene, every time we hear the bell on the door and someone else enters, we see Tony look up- and in the next shot, we see what Tony sees. The first time, when Tony himself comes through the door, there is a brief establishing shot of him standing inside the diner before we see through his eyes, but every other time, we see Tony look at the door, and the very next thing we see is what Tony sees. That isn't true when people enter the diner and the bell doesn't ring. But every time it does, the pattern holds.
I didn't notice that the first dozen or so times I saw the scene. But once you realize it, everything falls into place.
Tony opens the door to the diner and enters. The bell on the door rings. As the door closes, we see Tony standing inside. Next, we see the inside of the diner through Tony's eyes. Oddly, he's already there, sitting at the table with his family. One of the sites suggested that Tony is doomed to play the whole scene out over and over in purgatory and that what we're actually seeing is one iteration of that temporal loop, though purgatory seems an unlikely destination for Tony Soprano and that seems a bit of a stretch. But who knows? It's an interesting detail, and I don't have a better explanation.
Well, actually I do. It just hit me at this very moment that what we could be seeing is Tony, surrounded by his family, as the central figure in a Cosa Nostra version of Da Vinci's Last Supper. But that could be kind of a stretch, too.
In any case, there's a foreshadowing scene involving a repeatedly ringing bell in a previous episode. On that occasion, Tony was aware of his surroundings and reacted by looking behind him. This time, he does not. His guard is down.
When A.J., Tony's son, arrives at the diner, he's preceded by a man wearing one of those "Members Only" jackets. Tony doesn't notice him because he's focused on A.J.'s arrival. The man in the jacket sits down at the counter. Several times, both when the camera is on him directly and when he's in the background, he looks over his shoulder at Tony and his family.
When everyone but Meadow has arrived, the man in the jacket gets up and goes to the bathroom. A tracking shot follows him, both signifying his significance and establishing that when he comes out of the bathroom he will be behind Tony. Apparently Tony has never seen "The Godfather," because he remains heedless.
Finally, after having considerable trouble parallel parking, Meadow enters the restaurant. The bell rings for the last time as we see Tony's face- and for the last time, in the next shot, we see what Tony sees.
Here's that last scene. As you watch it, knowing what you know now, it ought to tell you what happened as clearly it possibly could. It's all there.
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