Farewell Anthony

I spent my Sunday like a lot of people - counting the minutes until the final Sopranos episode. And of course, I used the occasion as an excuse to bake a Dutch Apple Pie. With Ice Cream and Pie in hand, I settled down in front of my 61" HDTV at 8:55 EST ready to close another TV chapter of my life.

50-ish minutes later, I wasn't quite sure what to think. At first, I actually thought my cable had gone out - it couldn't possibly end like the!!! Then anger set in. If I wanted to choose my own adventure, I'd be a script writer. I tune in to TV to be entertained, and in most instances I want closure, and I thought I had none.

At the end of the day, this show has always been about Tony. All the other story lines are great, but the one question everyone had last night - What is going to happen to Tony? I watched the last scene again this morning, and I have one word - Brilliant.

Why was it brilliant for me? Throughout the entire last scene, I was on the edge of my seat. Each time Tony looked up when the door opened, was this going to be it? No, just Carmela. Is Tony going to get whacked in front of Carm.

Is Tony going to be indicted?

Who are those 2 guys coming in. Oh, just some guy and A.J. Wait a minute, that other guy is very shady. Who is that other guys sitting alone drinking coffee. Oh wait, the onion rings are here - things are good again.

Who are those black guys. No doubt hired to kill Tony?

Why can't Meadow park? Why is it taking her so long? What is going to happen to her? Okay, she parked. Is she going to get hit crossing the street? Oh, that SUV almost hit her.

Then the door opens and Tony looks up.

In my ending, Tony lives. He has the joy of his family, but the tension and anxiety that I felt during the final scene is exactly what Tony feels everyday of his life. So, while he goes on living - is he truly living?

I have also seen a few other theories out there. Earlier in this season Tony and Bobby Bacala are talking about being shot while they are fishing. They speculate that "you probably don't even hear it when it happens right?"

Then, last episode at the very end, Tony is holding the gun Bobby gave him in that episode and flashes back to that scene of Bobby, again saying, "you probably don't even hear it when it happens right?"

If you remember a while back, Silvio is having dinner with someone, who gets shot, and in that scene things go in slow motion and all we see is Sil getting blood splattered on him.

The theory out there, is that Tony is actually shot and killed. Every time the door opens up, we see Tony look up, and then the camera shifts to his perspective, as we see who is walking in the door.

The final time though, we are led to believe Meadow is walking in. We see Tony, with a strained look on his face. Then, as the camera shifts to his perspective, we see a black screen with silence. He has been shot and killed. He never saw it coming.

Adding to this theory is that the guy at the bar is also credited as Nikki Leotardo. The same actor played him in the first part of season 6 during a brief sit down concerning the future of Vito. Apparently, he is the nephew of Phil Leotardo's nephew.

And if you pay close attention to the show's history (I do, but not close enough to know this - I saw it somewhere else) - The trucker was the brother of the guy who was robbed by Christopher in Season 2. Remember the DVD players? The trucker had to identify the body. The boy scouts were in the train store and the black guys at the end were the ones who tried to kill Tony and only clipped him in the ear.

I have tried to confirm all this through looking at casting lists, but have not been able to verify yet.

Similar to this line of thought, another theory I saw, was that the audience has actually been whacked. I can see Tony being killed, but cannot really see this one.

I truly think things are left for us to decide what happened. We are left with a lot of things to consider, but the set up and the final scene is fantastic.

Consider the 2 Journey songs that were on the jukebox - "Don't Stop Believing" and "Anyway You Want It."

Baba Ganoush, OUT.