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**CAUTION: SOPRANOS SPOILERS AHEAD**
Sarah and I huddled around our TVs last night to watch the last episode of HBO's landmark, The Sopranos. I'm sure we weren't the only ones to wonder if our cable had cut out at the end. Having survived the latest assassination attempt (but still facing federal indictment), the series ends with Tony meeting his family at a neighborhood restaurant. Tension builds throughout the scene as Tony scans every new patron as they come through the door. Most look innocent enough. His daughter, Meadow, has trouble parallel parking, and we wait for the inevitable accident. One suspicious man walks to the bathroom, perhaps echoing the famous Michael Corleone sequence from The Godfather. Yet nothing happens--the biggest surprise is how the camera cuts to complete black just a Meadow enters--the bell rings, we see Tony look up, and then nothing.
To be fair, this episode had a good deal of closure. We got to revisit most of the main characters (at least those still alive) and say goodbye. Death hung like a cloud over the proceedings--both Junior and NYC's Little Italy seem in their final hours. Yet I was surprised how upbeat this episode seemed in the end. Tony makes it through, and everyone in his family seems reasonably happy. As Alan Sepinwall points out, there is some irony here--the characters' happiness could be seen a simple denial of the deeper issues they choose not to fully address: the violence that sustains them, the threat of terrorism and war, or an impending federal arrest. But still, I was left liking Tony more than I thought I would, almost despite myself.
As for the ending, it was common knowledge that David Chase, the series' creator, dislikes tidy endings. In his reflection, Matt Zoller Sietz describes this as a kind of "snuff the viewer" moment. Like so many characters on the show, our time in this world ends abruptly. We never reach full closure, and some characters' stories will always outlive us. Will Tony ever really change? Probably not. He may end up in jail or dead before his time, but we'll never know. In the end, the characters of the Sopranos rarely choose change over the status quo. Those who do (for good or bad) often end up dead.
After eight years, the Sopranos last season was certainly one of its best. It was a fun ride, and it now continues on (at least in a figurative sense) without us.
Image: http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/img/episode/season06B/ep86/ep86_02.jpg