I think it was a weak way out. Fans wanted an

ENDING. Have some guts. Blow away the whole

family or blow Tony away IN FRONT OF THEM (like Phil died in front of his wife). But the weak,

BLANK of an ending, thinking the cable went out was infuriating.

Better to have taken a damned stand.

What a way to end an era. Like a European movie, leaving us alone in our living rooms, wondering. The lyrics I'd not really thought of in that way were so perfect. The glaring man walking self-consciously into the bathroom and meadow narrowly escaping the perils of parallel parking and jay walking. Blindly loyal "4evah" sits Carm. AJ's outrageous commentary and ignorance about how it is.

Pass the Onion rings! So many loose ends.

One could alomost forget we are voyeurs and not players in NJ. Isn't that the goal of good entertainment?

While the local NY tabloids gripe that fans were cheated, thus demonstrating the utter, oh so American, lack of ability to digest artistic, understated, ambiguous moments in pop culture, those of us with appreciation (and superiority complexes) rejoice over what was one of the more brilliant hours of television ever to air. David Chase's genius lies in the fact that he's able to be completely heavy handed and completely subtle at the same time and the deep intelligence of the finale was the way in which it captured his entire philosophy about This Mob Life in one perfect hour's story.

The title of the episode says it all--"Made in America." Think of Tony's wistful look when speaking to Junior and referring to "this thing of ours," (La Cosa Nostra--ah, the sentimentality of it all.) Think of the tour bus guide loudly proclaiming that Little Italy was once a 40 block spread, now reduced to one street, followed by the New York goon looking around, disoriented, after accidentally wandering into Chinatown. Think of Meadow's ridiculous statement about Italian Americans and civil liberties. Think of the mounds of penne a la vodka and chicken francese in the chafing dishes at Bobby's funeral dinner. Think of the juxtaposition of tacky excess along with the ever present threat of terrorism, rendering said excess almost laughably hollow. This is the American Dream in the most perfectly twisted manifestation possible, as interpreted by a bunch of misguided Italian criminals who operate like denial junkies. Tony's blood money buys the big tacky house, the gas-guzzling SUV (which explodes to the strains of "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" in a sickeningly hilarious turn), the onion rings...and in the end what does any of it mean? How long can you live under the pretense of some owed lifestyle born of a deluded ethnic pride and a work ethic that would be admirable were it not tied up in an utter lack of morality and the inconvenient byproduct of lots and lots of dead bodies?

What did the disappointed fans want? Some trite shoot-out? I guarantee that those bemoaning the lack of grandiose Hollywood action would've felt even more let down had it occurred. It would have been beyond anti-climactic--it would've been downright stupid. We got the only ending that made sense. The nuclear family gathering in a cozy Jersey diner with boy scouts in one corner, a happy couple and their milkshakes in another, a corny, "inspirational" Journey song blasting from the jukebox and an overall sense of immense tension and dread blanketing the entire twisted tableau. Crown thy good with brotherhood, baby, and then raise a glass to David Chase.

The ending was simply Tony bringing the curtain down on the public's voyeurism as his expense in a sort of misplaced revenge for Melfi's firing him as a patient. Has Tony been killed by the guy in the bathroom? No way. In response to the weeks we've spent figuring out how Chase was going to finish off Tony, in the final few seconds Tony kills off all of us, the viewers, and maybe our TV sets, too! If Melfi won't listen to him any more, than none of us get to keep our perch on the window into his world.

For all its novelty, the ending did one many series "endings" also do -- it left Chase free to resurrect the franchise at anytime, not a hair out of place on the head of his hero. Chase being Chase, he did this better than most, causing millions of people to simultaneously curse out their apparently screwed up cable service or TIVO's.

Brilliant.

Initially I was really disappointed in the episode and saw the indeterminate ending as a cop-out, but my fiance pointed out the scene that gave the ending just enough meaning:

Paulie tells Tony he's seen the Virgin Mary, then whines that Tony's not taking him seriously. "Look, I'm not saying there's nothing there," Tony tells Paulie about his interpretation of the vision, "but you gotta live your life." Or words to that effect.

Here David Chase seems to be saying, there's may be meaning here in what you've seen--there may be lots of meaning here. But ultimately, I am just a writer and this is just a TV show and there's life out there to be lived--THAT's the real deal. Not art, which Tony lauded at Christopher's movie premiere, saying, "People are going to be watching this after we're all gone."

I'd been predicting the death of Carm, AJ, and Meadow, leaving Tony to suffer the loss of everyone he loves, knowing he is responsible for it. What could be worse than that? It says a lot about my tragic imagination, and you can imagine my let-down when the screen went black (although I sensed far earlier in the episode something fishy was going on).

After thinking the episode over for a while, though, it was enough for me.

I agree CW:

"What did the disappointed fans want? Some trite shoot-out?"

That ruined The Departed!

Enough said.

Tony Soprano's character is resolved in the penultimate scene when he visits Uncle Jun and sees with depressing clarity his future: sitting in a wheelchair, alone, staring into a corner, unaware he was the boss of anything. A big nothing, a fate worse than death. End of story.

The Twilight Zone reference in the safe house means more than meets the eye, perhaps reflected in the final sequence.