Grid Effect

We just wanted to debunk a few myths about the end of Sunday’s Sopranos finale, because there are several of them floating out there. We do not have a direct line to Chase or anything, but some of them are so preposterous that we wanted to acknowledge them as such, so to avoid any misconceptions:

“The two black guys who walked into the diner at the end of the episode were the same two carjackers from season one.”
This is an internet rumor. But for those who don’t remember the series vividly, or haven’t watched it recently, one of the carjackers accidentally fatally wounds the other while they have Tony in a crossfire in the two front seat windows. The other carjacker is sent falling from a speeding vehicle and we are never given an update on his physical status. So unless someone produces a convoluted theory about how Tony actually died in “Members Only” and that Costa Mesa wasn’t a dream or a metaphysical experience but rather Tony’s reality, just two random guys grabbing a bite will have to do.

“The guy at the counter who later went to the mens restroom is somehow related (fill in actual relation here) to Phil Leotardo”.
This, sorry to say, is unfounded. There is no one credited as such and it was intentional he was wearing a Members Only jacket for the sake of looking conspicuous. Contrary to popular belief, not every Italian in a cheap 80’s jacket residing in New Jersey is in/associated with the mob.

“The first guy who walked into the restaurant is related to a truck driver that Chris hijacked in one of the first two seasons”
It’s this kind of over thinking that concerns me. How could this ever be proven from casual viewing? What resemblance or information could possibly be revealed in those split seconds that this random individual is seeking vengeance for a related, unnamed character from seven years ago that Tony isn’t even responsible for? Theories like this and how they are formed continue to baffle me.

All these conceptualizations are suggestive to David Chase’s point, that ultimately Tony Soprano, for the rest of his life, him and everyone around him is unsafe. Meadow’s struggle to park her car, her running inside (for whatever reason), invoked concern that she may be the target of retaliation for Phil or one of a hundred other things Tony has done. That’s why everyone in the restaurant was so disconcerting, they could be a threat to him, not that they necessarily are.

I am more open to the theory that he was murdered when the series cut to black. But I still dismiss it on the fact that The Sopranos was never a first person narrative. We were privy to plenty of happenings that Tony was unaware of, so I don’t think everything fades to black for us, simply because it might for Tony. However, because Tony did hark back to his conversation with Bobby in “Sopranos Home Movies” before lying down in “The Blue Comet”, I am not ruling out the possibility that he was murdered. But I still think that moment of reflection was more his concern for Bobby and his own fears than it was any sort of foreshadowing. I’m certainly not going to assume he was killed then and there.

More later on Janice, Junior, Paulie and the cat.