There has been many, many, many discussion about the last episode of The Sopranos that ended as unexpected as it possibly could. For those who didn’t see it:

### SPOILER WARNING ###
The final scene starts with Tony walking in to a diner on Bloomfield (according to Wikipedia). He sits down and starts the song “Don't Stop Believin” by Journey on a “mini jukebox” or whatever it is. Then Carmela walks in and sits down and then AJ and then Meadow is having trouble parking outside so she is the last one in. Anyway, she finally manages to parallel park and runs across the street, opens the door, the doorbell rings and you see Tony’s mug and cut to silence and black screen and then the credits starts rolling after 10 seconds.

Now those are the basic and most obvious events in the final scene. Now I want to dig some more, but before I do that I would like to point out that I do not have the answer to why the final scene was cut as it was and what actually happened to Tony but I will sum up some of other people’s comments from YouTube and various forums that I’ve read, and some I will agree with and some I will try to prove are false.

Now the first thing that popped into my head was that Tony was shot, but since then I’ve had my doubts. But here are some facts that may lead us to think that Tony was shot. The first one is a quote from Bobby, when he and Tony sit in a boat and talking about killing another person (“Soprano Home Movies” episode). There have been many quotes out there, of what Bobby said, that are wrong! The real quote is:

“…in our line of work it’s always out there.
You probably don’t even hear it when it happens right?”
(Talking about what happens when you get shot).

This may lead us into thinking that Tony was shot since the screen cuts to black and silence. But that would also mean that we have followed this show through his eyes (as many have claimed in posts). But then how could we follow other situations when Tony wasn’t even in the scene? That would only suggest that we’re watching people’s life stories (or at least some part of it). Then some claimed that the VIEWER(S) got whacked in the diner and not Tony. I mean come on! That’s just a plain dumb ending with no imagination whatsoever (but we still can’t leave out that fact that it’s possible). I mean then the viewer would actually be an unnamed character not even mentioned once in dialogue (therefore it’s not very likely).

Ok so then the people, who had decided that Tony got killed, tried to figure out who did it. So they pointed out the Trucker hat guy, a guy wearing a Members Only jacket and two black guys.

I’ll start with the black guys.

Many have claimed that the two black guys in the diner are the two hit men that tried to kill Tony in season one episode “Isabella” on orders from Junior Soprano. This is just a case of people not knowing the facts.

Look at the scene where Livia and Junior watch the news report of the shooting (in the “Isabella” episode). The reporter will say that Tony got away with only minor injuries and that one of the attackers survived and that the other attacker was “fatally wounded” (quote) which means that he died right on the spot (he got shot in the head by mistake). So it would be impossible for one of the guys to be reappearing in the final episode, set almost 6 years later. The other guy, who survived, could bring a friend to help him kill Tony, but why wait 6 bloody years then?

Now I’m going to discuss the “Members Only” jacket guy.

The first thing you might think about is “The Godfather Part I”. Since this “Members Only” guy walks into the bathroom in similar fashion to how Michael Corleone walked into the bathroom to get a gun so he could kill Sollozzo and McCluskey. This lead people to think that the "Members Only" guy went to the bathroom, picked up a gun, went out and shot Tony. Ok, first thought, WHY the hell would he stash a gun in the bathroom? The quickest way to get it over with would have been to just walk in, shoot and get the hell out of there. Michael Corleone got searched before he met with Sollozzo and McCluskey, that “Members Only” guy wasn’t searched, he had no reason to stash the gun in the bathroom. However, he could have made up his mind about shooting Tony or not.

There is also the possibility that the writers referenced to season 6, episode 1 “Members Only”, where Tony gets shot by Junior. Therefore the jacket might imply that he got shot, just like in the episode that bares the jacket’s name.

Then there has been some people claiming that the “Members Only” guy is, as a matter of fact, Phil’s cousin, Nikki Leotardo (Nikki might be spelled wrong, I found this spelling on a forum). They also claimed that it says so in the credits. This is all wrong; if you have other proof, please publish it.

Here’s a credit list of all the people in the diner from IMDB.com

Paolo Colandrea ... Man in Members Only Jacket
Jimmy Spadola ... Man in Diner
Carol Scudder ... Diner Waitress
Du Kelly ... African American Man #1 in Diner
Sharrieff Pugh ... African American Man #2 in Diner
Patrick Joseph Connolly ... Truck Driver in Diner
Patti Karr ... Old Woman in Diner
William Severs ... Old Man in Diner
Adrianne Rae Rodgers ... Young Woman in Diner
Henry O'Neill ... Young Man in Diner
Peter Riga ... Diner Patron (uncredited)

And also on IMDB.com’s full list of cast & crew of the Sopranos there is no Nikki Leotardo to be found.

Geraldine LiBrandi ... Patty Leotardo (7 episodes, 2006-2007)
Frank Vincent ... Phil Leotardo (31 episodes, 2004-2007)
Chris Caldovino ... Billy Leotardo (9 episodes, 2004-2007)

That’s enough out of that guy, now on to the Trucker hat guy.

I saw a video on YouTube, where a guy claims that the Trucker hat guy is the brother or cousin (or something) of the driver, whose truck Brendon and Christopher hijacked in season one (the one with the DVD players). Proof would be nice? Until then this is just stupid.

I noticed a resemblance between this guy and another guy which was an FBI informant. He gave Tony a picture and always had a cap on (since he had the microphone there). But he was also killed if I remember correctly, so it’s impossible.

And then there are the people who claim that Tony is still alive and that his life in fear lives on. Most people like to think this because of the song’s lyrics, “It goes on and on and on…”, and then some people have also claimed that it’s up to you to decide the ending, “Don’t stop Believin” and the song below it on the jukebox “Any way you want it”. However I have also read, in an interview with David Chase, that they choosed the music after they wrote the script (possible rewrite?).

Here are some more interesting facts from interviews.

One of the writers said that the “Tony got killed” guess is legitimate. But he might have said the same thing no matter what the interviewer had asked.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler (Meadow Soprano) said that you have to decide for yourself what happened (You can find this video on YouTube).

Matt Servitto (Agent Dwight Harris) said that the script version was actually longer than the aired version. The guy in the Members only jacket would walk up to the table and then it would cut to black or something (same video as above).

And finally I would like to point out that the number “three” did have a lot of appearances in the final scene. The number three has been used several times in The Sopranos and this is well known by fans. The first time was when Christopher thought he had gone to hell and met Mickey Palmice and he had told him to tell Paulie and Tony “Three o’clock”.

(Alot of these notes below may be irrelevent, but I only tried to find as many as I could!)

In the final scene it’s starts with Tony entering and then Carmela and then AJ (Three people). Carmela enters as the third person in the diner (not counting Tony). First they order in Coca Cola and they all have one (three). Then they order in Onion rings and they all have one (three). When Meadow is trying to park her car she tried two times before making it on the third time (three times). I also noticed that there were three boy scouts in the diner. The time is not given, but I noticed this: Sometimes you may refer to hours when you want someone to look somewhere like: "Sniper at 3 o’clock” (or whatever) which would mean “Sniper to your right”, with this in mind I noticed that the bathroom is to the right of Tony and that led me back to the “Members Only” guy. Maybe the warning from Christopher/Palmice was actually correct. Maybe he referred to that Tony should look out for his killer at “Three o’clock” in other words “To his right". It may be far fetched since the episodes are far apart but I kind of like it.

I noticed the number three when I watched a video on YouTube. A guy claimed that Meadow’s parking gave us a hint that Tony was killed. The total number of assassination attempts on Tony adds up to two (before the final episode) and we know that they both had failed. When Meadow parks, she fails on the two first tries but she makes it on her third try. And therefore Tony would get killed on his third assassination attempt (which was supposed to be the final scene). It’s very far fetched but it’s a good observation, I’ll give him that. But since, we didn’t actually see a third attempt on Tony’s life, we can’t make that connection. Because the third try would then not take place until moments after the parking.

Here are my last words:

Personally I can’t decide if I like the ending or not. I wouldn’t have minded if Tony was killed, it would just be about time that someone did it. But he could just as well live on as the boss. What REALLY happened we’ll never know, since David Chase probably doesn’t know it either? He cut it to black for a reason and he states that it was because the viewer should create his/hers own ending. Since we can’t squeeze anything out of anybody, it’s time to give this up. Watch another show like I’m doing now. The Sopranos have ended, the series is over, the final episode has aired and David Chase and the crew have spoken. Get over it.