Everything Just Goes Black

Everyone's still talking about that Sopranos ending the other night. As with everything else in this country, you either loved it or you hated it. You're either with us, or against us. Like everyone else, I was on the edge of my seat for the last three minutes. I knew the end was near. Watching Tony flip through the song selections on a jukebox that reminded me of the ones they used to have at all the Papa Gino's back in the Shire. He passes over "Any Way You Want It," by Journey and settles on "Don't Stop Believin'," which, Steve Perry informs us, is not the actual A-Side to "Any Way You Want It." DSB is one of my absolute favorite songs, and I got goosebumps when it came on, the lyrics perfectly timed to flashes of Carmela walking in and sitting down with Tony. David Chase is a notorious music hound (Indeed, I've discovered many a new favorite song on The Sopranos myself), so his choice of DSB to close the series was a big deal. Most people wonder why that particular song was chosen. I think Perry has it right in his Entertainment Weekly interview:

I don't know. I guess he saw something in the song that resonated with what he wanted to do. I'll tell you what I did see: I think he tried to grab the normalcy of family in the midst of any chaos or fears. I think that all families have fears and chaos, and I think the Sopranos have their share, but man, underneath it all is this, like, foundation of life. Life goes on and on and on. ''Movie never ends, it just keeps going on and on.'' And I think that the song has a lot of that in it.

Right on, and who would know better than the singer himself? There are also some interesting lines at the end of DSB that mesh well with the storyline and with Tony's life and times:

Working hard to get my fill (Leotardo/money),
Everybody wants a thrill (ending to the show)
Payin anything to roll the dice,
Just one more time
Some will win, some will lose
Some were born to sing the blues
Oh, the movie never ends
It goes on and on and on and on

That passage pretty much captures Tony, Carmela, A.J., and Meadow, with a couple of inadvertent double entendres thrown in.

The poignant hopefulness of DSB contrasted starkly with the incredible tension that slowly mounted in that last scene. Meadow's frustrating attempts at parking and all of the suspicious people walking into the diner made my blood race. Was the skeevy dude in the Members Only jacket going to whack him in front of his entire family? Were all of them going to get shot while downing onion rings? What about those black dudes who walked in? Who was going to do it? Then the paean to The Godfather when Members Only Guy walks into the bathroom just like Michael Corleone. Was he going to fumble for a gun above the toilet just like Michael did (or maybe under the sink, now that those old tub toilets are history)? And then the music builds and builds, Steve Perry, God love him with that melodramatic wail hitting a crescendo, A.J. that idiot chomping on more onion rings while Tony's glancing around the diner nervously, keeping an eye on things, watching every single person who comes in the door, the door bell ringing each time, just like the ringing bells in It's A Wonderful Life when the angels get their wings, Meadow still can't park that fucking car, what's her damn problem, okay she finally did it, jesus, now she's crossing the street, shit, she nearly got hit by that car, this is such a mindfuck, is she late on purpose, so she's going to be the only one NOT killed, okay, she's walking in now, what's going to happen, the show's almost over, where's the Members Only Guy, the bell rings again, one final time, now Tony's looking up, he sees Meadow's anxious, semi-smiling face, just as Steve's singing "Doooon't Stop!" and then.....

Blackness.

When my screen cut to black, like everyone else, I was like "Awwwwwww, what the FUCK now???" I thought that Time Warner screwed me (again) at the worst possible time. Even when the credits came on, I thought I missed the real ending and was standing up with my stupid remote in my hand walking around the room like an angry old man who didn't get his tacos on Taco Night.

Then I realized that no, this was actually the ending. At first I was confused, then slightly annoyed, but after I kept thinking about it, which I've been doing for three days, analyzing the final scene moment by moment, like the FBI with the Zapruder film, I have decided that it was a great ending. Sure it left questions, but so fucking what? Consider it a gift from David Chase. Every person gets to interpret the ending the way they want to, and there is nothing wrong with that. I hate traditional endings, and at the same time, I did not want to see Tony, or anyone in his family get killed. The show made you struggle with caring about these characters -- particularly Tony -- who are unsympathetic in so many ways. For me, that was the most compelling thing about the show. All these flaws, he's a killer for God's sake, and still I cared about his character. I wanted him to succeed, because he was so damn human. You could almost, ALMOST, forget that he was running a Mafia family and living off the misery of others. During the series, most of us were Carmela, ignoring the bad things about him, and focusing on the good, or at least the sympathetic parts of his character, dealing with betrayal at every turn, depression, and just trying to survive. Aren't we all doing the same on some level in this world we're living in? And the reason the ending scene was so amazing IMHO, is because at the end of the show, in the very last scene, we BECAME Tony. Nervous, fearful, anxious, perpetually looking over our shoulder, trusting no one, seeing trouble in every face, wondering from which direction a hit was going to come. Sudden death.

As Bobby Bacala told Tony in an earlier episode, which was repeated in a flashback a couple of weeks ago, when you get whacked, you never see it coming. Everything just goes black. Tony may not have gotten whacked last Sunday -- you decide -- but when the screen went black, we all felt like WE did. We experienced it ourselves, minus the dying part. Brilliant.

P.S. Journey kicks major ass.