A lot has been made of the Journey anthem ending abruptly with "Don't stop..."

Unless my ears are playing tricks on me, I think the song playing faintly on the radio as Phil's SUV pulls into the gas station is a cover of the The Supremes "Keep Me Hanging on," a down-tempo version, with a male voice singing:

get out my life, why don't you babe?

'cause you don't really love me

you just keep me hanging on

now you don't really need me

you just keep me hanging on

*pop*

...with the cap to Phil's head coming precisely as that last line is crooned.

We all gotta go sometime. If it has to be instantaneous (and who wouldn't want it to be?) then at least both Phil and Tony went out smiling. Phil saying "bye-bye" to the grandkids, and Tony hearing from his son how A.J. remembers his father telling him, "Try to focus on the good times."

I was ok with seeing Phil's head crushed like a pumpkin. I don't need to see Tony face-down in a plate of onion rings.

If anybody needs the closure of viewing Tony in a coffin, rewind your TiVos to the very first shot of the final episode: an overhead Gods-eye view of Tony peacefully resting on a single small pillow. There's even funereal electronic organ music playing in the background -- until we realize it's the intro to a classic rock song on the clock radio.

I think it's just really hard to face -- and we should appreciate David Chase being gentle with us -- but Tony was shot by the thug in the Members Only jacket, gunned down in front of his family. Serendipity (or Fate) had a little mercy on Meadow and gave her some trouble parallel parking so she wouldn't have to get her dad's brains splattered on her.

Who needs to see Tony blown away? David Chase has a little mercy on the viewers too.

I'm also tuned in to the color symbolism, because in an finale this important you have to think that no detail was overlooked. In that diner scene the color palette is obsessively monochromatic -- all blacks, browns, and shades of gray. Absolutely the only flashes of color are Carmela's red jacket (which she takes off before sitting down) and after that the occasional glimpse of a red dress of a lady in the booth behind them, this patch of blood red seen directly in the middle of the frame between Tony and A.J.

Not a single bit of peaceful blue or natural green in the entire last sequence -- except for the distorted ethereal (heavenly?) reflection of a blue neon sign reflected in the windows of a building hanging over Meadow as she parks the car.

Laugh if you want, but colors signal meaning in art. I can't believe these production design choices were accidental. It's not all about the script or dialog. Every aspect of the visual medium is the message.

Black silence.

I don't think David Chase is playing loose or vague with that.

Do I have to drink the whole carton to tell that the milk is sour? Do I have to eat the foul-smelling meat to know that it's rotten?? And do I really have to sit through 80+ hours of horseshit to realize that it's horseshit? If you believe that I should, then you've obviously never shoveled out a barn much less learned to differentiate between genuinely great art and...well, horseshit.

Like many here I've been reading message boards all over the place (except HBO's, which is spastic). I can't believe how many people never watched the show, or haven't watched it in 5 years, and yet they "read" about the episodes online, so,think they know it all. YOU need to get a life, not try to jump in on the social bandwagon we're all on. You contribute nothing based on not even watching the show. I love the power of the internet, allowing us true Sopranos fans to share our thoughts and passions on the show, literally the moment it ended.

Everyone has theories about who was in the diner. Why on earth would David Chase put characters that we never would recognize in there: the dudes who tried to kill Tony for Junior, the brother of the guy that Brendon (who worked for Junior, not Tony) killed in a truck hyjack, Phil's other brother, who was at a sit down in an old episode, and like Tony wouldn't recognize him at the diner? Makes no sense.

I don't believe Tony got whacked. I think David Chase has put us inside Tony's head (via therapy) from day one, and now it's over, we're not privy to his thoughts anymore, Melfi tossed him out and he's tossed us out. Fade to black. Life goes on.

I am happy with the ending. I would have found it hard to go back and watch the early years of the show if I knew in the back of my mind that Tony was dead.

I doubt if there will be a Sopranos movie (if so, it would be on HBO, not at the theaters), Gandolfini has put 10 years of his life into Tony and at his late age has one more shot to make the movies he wants to make, and he has to go for it. I would never watch a movie with AJ or Meadow, some kind of "the kids run the family now" crap. I wouldn't mind a prequel of the early years of Tony's Dad, Mom and Junior etc. Once again they should use unknown actors, but is there every going to be another actor like James Gandolfini?

Did anyone notice that Sil's wife was rubbing his feet, as if he was paralyzed from the waist down and she kept hoping he'd have some feeling or response to her touch?

Also, who even knew the family was eating at the diner? It was a last minute decision. There were no hitmen in the diner. Tony just had to put on his "keep an eye out" face. He's lost Sil and Paulie is going downhill mentally. Tony has to look out for Tony. He was just hanging at the diner waiting for his family to all arrive, like he waited for his ducks.

Tony is a survivor, notice how he happily sat with AJ's shrink and even flirted with her a bit. Melfi didn't destroy him, no one can, he believes he's a General in the gang wars. And he is. He just has to rebuild his troop numbers and he will. That's how I look at the end of the series, life goes on. AJ will still be living at home when he's 40. Meadow will quit work and have babies, as why should she work when she will have enought money to shop all day like Mom does?

Sorry for the rambling....this show just makes you care so much about the family...though I liked Tony's mob family more then his wife and kids....LOL.