The Final Episode of The Sopranos

Sorry for the bulk-posting, but I was asked to write an opinion piece on the final episode of The Sopranos. I was asked to analyze the most infamous aspects of the final episode, which I basically assumed was the enigmatic ending. So here it is, hope you enjoy.

Tony Carmella and AJ die
and it's not looking good for Meadow...

In the final episode of David Chase's far-too-long-running series the Sopranos (I assume you've seen it...but in case you haven't i'll give the basics) Tony, Carmella and AJ sit at a diner we've never seen before eating onion rings. Meanwhile, Meadow struggles outside with parallel parking, and she enters the restaurant just as Tony looks up from the table--then the screen goes black. All the while conspirators seem to be looming around the Sopranos as they eat. The most telling of these characters is the man in the "member's only" jacket walking into the bathroom, which stands out distinctly as a mafia-movie reference. We all remember the scene from The Godfather in which Michael Corleone enters a bathroom, then exits soon thereafter to kill his father's enemies. The fact that "members only" (the "member" is a somewhat phallic reference to the secretive nature of the mafia) walks into the restroom as the oblivious Sopranos dine on fried food is perhaps the biggest clue to the audience that yes, indeed, the Sopranos were taken out mafia-style. The overly enigmatic end to the episode however, which was essentially a fade to black just before anything really happened, left the viewers feeling abandoned and confused--and in some cases checking their cable boxes. The ending provided no distinctive end to a television series (Seinfeld anyone?) which classically aggravates television audiences to no end.
So what were David Chase's intentions in creating such a critically panned finale? I like to think that the ending was slightly tainted by a case of I'm-David-Chase-and-I'm-a-genius disease. David Chase is infamous for creating over-metaphorical webs of storylines and BS that have confused Sopranos fans throughout the series. The most glaring of these was a 45-minute dream sequence where nothing really happened, but every image used was shocking and awe-inspiring. So to me, it makes sense that a guy like David Chase would end his most famous series with the artsiest, edgiest cut-to-black ending that he could come up with--complete confusion.
But all David Chase-ism aside, the ending as it stands leaves some very interesting material for thought for us, once it has been analyzed for what it really is. The Sopranos have been doomed from the very beginning. All of Tony's immediate family are irreconcilable in their flaws, a fact which never goes unresolved in mafia films. Infamously, the best deaths in mafia films are of those characters who deserve their death, who have it calling for them. Tony, AJ, Carmella and Meadow have, time and time again, been presented with situations in which they could completely redeem whatever transgression that had committed. Yet systematically, every last one of them chose to continue on the path of immorality and wrong-doing, as long as they didn't have to suffer the consequences. Though yes, this is an awfully moralistic way of looking at things, we are talking about a mafia-based television series. The mafia itself is an organization that is centered on religion and family, two of the most morality-reverent forces in life. So for the Sopranos, it seems that vengeance is only seconds away, when suddenly the screen cuts to black. This ending practically guarantees the death of the Soprano family, while at the same time doesn't incriminate anybody.

~arrivederci