I've been holding off on doing a post on this one, but finally decided to give in and throw in my two cents.I loved the ending, and I may be the only one who thinks it was clear-cut. Immediately upon watching it, I thought "Holly shit, they killed Tony." I actually jumped in my seat when the screen cut to black. Since he WAS the show it just makes sense that there would be nothing left to watch once he was gone. I've had some time to think about it, and I stand by my initial reaction. He's dead as Di dropping downers at a disco.
Earlier in the season when Tony was in the boat with Bobby he had said something to the effect of "I don't think you ever see it coming, All of a sudden everything just goes black" - I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point. They also did long black holds last season when they were cutting between his "everyman" coma fantasy and the waking world, so after the 5 second ending of blackness you could legitimately insert Heaven, Hell, Tony stuck in a hotel as a businessman without his wallet, reincarnation as a cat, or an eternity of nothing - Insert afterlife here.
I'm not placing any bets on who got him, I think that's the point. Death could come from anywhere at any time - In Tony's eyes, everyone is his potential executioner. It doesn't really matter who pulls the trigger - You're dead.I was really hoping that Tony would make it all the way through without any comeuppance. I would have preferred to see it end with him giving Meadow a hug and sitting down for a malt. It seemed too hackneyed to end it with a judgement (death, jail, descent into madness, etc.), but I appreciate how Chase wrapped it up with five seconds of ambiguity rather than a bombastic climax.
For me, Tony died at the end, but the ending is wide-open to other interpretations. The greatest aspect of the cut to black is that everyone is left to fill in the blanks for themselves - To think. No wonder so many people are pissed.
8 comments:
Exactamundo. Nothing is left to the imagination these days. Looks like Keith Olbermann had the same thought: The News Hole
People are pissed because they don't like to work - they don't like to be challenged. My take (here) is a little different, but I liked the ending just the same.
I thought about it the next day and come to pretty much the same conclusion. He probably got done, likely by the guy who went into the bathroom. But, it doesn't matter. Even if he didn't, I'm OK with imaginging that things just kept going on in any of the ways that you could imagine.
Just the fact that everyone is still talking about the ending proves that David Chase accomplished what he was trying to do. I doubt he could have come up with another ending that would have caused this much thought, discussion, anger, and adoration. It will likely be talked about for years to come.
By the way, did anyone else check out JOHN FROM CINCINNATI? It didn't really grab me until half way through the first episode, but then I found myself on the edge of my chair.
It is a bizarre show with mysteries that will likely add up to nothing--all smoke and mirrors. Still, I found it strangely intriguing. Just the fact that much of the language and story structure had a similar feel to DEADWOOD will keep me hanging on for a few episodes.
Yeah, I'm all about John From Cincinnati.
I was gonna do a post on it (or tie it into this one), but decided to give it a couple of more episodes before doing so.
DC Liar, your new avatar picture thing is making you look like the white Miles Davis...well, actually the blue Miles Davis
I said my thing about the last show -
all that's left to say is I'll miss it.
while i disagree (i think the blackout was more of a "and then things continue" than a first-person death perspective, although i'm probably wrong) with your interpretation, i think we'll agree: this episode clearly delineates all of humanity into two groups: smart (liked it) and stupid (didn't like it).
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