So much for family values. We all saw how Tony's family, especially his wife, acted as enablers. Maybe that was the secret to his survival: to the end, his family enabled him in his criminal enterprise. None of the other crooks in the story had as close a family as Tony. They mostly got whacked.

The ending was realistic: we all know how strong families survive. And probably the most immoral person of all was Carmela, the chief enabler who kept it all together.

Tony said it to Melfi early on..."guys like me either end up dead or in jail." Which is it? Does it matter? Not to Chase and not to me. Both possibilities are in place. Like all of us, Tony and family live with a sword of disaster over their heads. A hit? An indictment? Whatever. We get together for dinner, get frustrated over parking problems, focus on little things, ignore the fact that in the long run we're gone. That's how it goes.

The brilliance of the ending is that it raised tension to a point of paranoia where anything could have happened. Then it just stopped. This series didn't end. It just stopped. Chase left us in the middle of the Soparano lives. They are not dead. They are not over. They are just no longer living out their lives in front of us, whatever that life is. I don't think I've ever seen anything on television as powerful or affecting as this episode.

Chase's greatest talent and curse is that he created art that appealed across a wide spectrum of tastes and interests. Finally he just presented art as he saw fit and did not care who he left unsatisfied. What a way to go.

Made in America. Yes indeed.

Nobody home? or Brilliant ending? I admit, I was a bit miffed last night (although I enjoyed listening to my wife continue to laugh 10 minutes after Phil was crushed). Thanks to Heather and my fellow Salon readers, I have come to appreciate the ending a lot more.

The black out theory is an interesting one and makes sense given the circular nature of the show. Meadow whacking Tony is also interesting but completely unrealistic and out of character. However, I do think Meadow survives and watches the rest of her family get whacked. I've always thought Chase was setting up Meadow to eventually take over the family (who else would it be? Whiny A.J.? Whiny Janice? Whiny Paulie? Um, I don't think so). The whole show has been about the emasculation of men and the power of women (Livia, anybody?) -- hell, even the show's title is a castration joke. So, I vote for Meadow as new head of the family who solidifies her position by avenging her dead mother, father and brother (she's got the brains, just like Michael Corleone). Of course there'll be a great power struggle with Janice. Looking forward to the movie...

The cat? Hated the friggin' cat. I like the letter's that explain it as Schrödinger's cat (which also helps explain Tony seeing himself in the diner booth), but, except for maybe during the show's dream sequences, since when did the show delve into anything approaching quantum mechanics? And if it's not supposed to be Schrödinger's cat, since when did the show delve into the supernatural and/or reincarnation? I thought it was a cheesy device.

Finally, hats off to Heather for writing another brilliant TV essay and kudos to the copywriter or editor who came up with the headline. A great television inside joke (when a show ends or goes on hiatus, it "goes dark") for a show filled with inside jokes.

Heather Havrilesky asks, "Is Chase brilliant for so thoroughly subverting our expectations, or ... is he just an asshole?"

I'd like to think that Chase didn't give up like Lynch did with "Twin Peaks" but put in effort and thought behind this episode for himself and not just to be contrary to audience expectations or give us a blank slate to write our own ending.

So, ignoring the Chase commentary about Bush and the War on Terror (FBI acting immoral, etc) and other tidbits (Chase waves goodbye to the audience: " A.J.: Isn't that what you said one time? Try to remember the times that were good?), here is my take on the final episode:Tony is the star of this morality play and it is dying. Like a real star, his universe begins to collapse. His extended family members are killed or dead (June is effectively dead), his captains are comotose or informants, NY is wounded with Phil's death.

[Note the double Decker tour bus passing announcing, "Little Italy used to be 40 square blocks and now it just one row of shops," and Phil's henchman talking to Phil in Little Italy and then when he hangs up, he's run out of room and sees a wall of Chinese faces--because Chinatown has overrun Little Italy.]

So, at the end, they go to a place we've never seen or heard of before. As Tony sits alone, Carmela, Meadow, and AJ are all satellites unable to escape the gravity of Tony and one by one they fall back into him after almost escaping. Carmela, still as contemptuous of Tony and his life when they split, (see her face as Tony usurps his son's therapist for himself) loses her moral battle and gives into the wealth (Meadows success is measured in money not sacrifice) and (false sense of) comfort Tony provides. And there she sits down.

AJ for all his attempts, active and passive, to not be like Tony, rejects the Army and "Arabic" culture (his view of a noble goal), and becomes his father: in therapy, coming downstairs in his robe, and bought off with new BMW and blond girlfriend, soon, to run a nightclub bought with mob money. And there he sits down.

And Meadow, the least like all of them, trying to fit in (parallel parking --- which is an homage to a classic movie scene which was itself copied in the Untouchables designed to create tension), decides not to help babies, not to help the poor but to make lots of money defending criminals. She is her mother, deluding in thinking that Mobsters are just Italian-Americans being unfairly hounded by the government. And, just before we cut to black, she's being sucked in.

The last satellite.And what black hole is she being sucked into? When I saw the last scene, it looked familiar to me. The American banality of it all (complete with a horrible Journey song ... I can't believe Chase wants us to be reading into these crappy lyrics. Although, it's not coincidence that he ended to series on the line, "Don't Stop.") gives a sense of safety but one by one, in comes someone who you think will be the one to shoot Tony and kill him. The trucker, a disgruntled victim of Mob abuse? The man who comes in with AJ, a paid him man? The two black youths, ready to rob the place and "accidentally" kill Tony? The safety of Tony is an illusion because everywhere, no matter how "safe" it looks, he faces danger. What did the cafe, where we've never been in before, remind me of? A cafe from any number of "Twilight Zone" episodes, which theme song happened to be used in last night's episode.

Tony's universe collapsed like a dying star and sucked his family into his hell; a dingy dinner with danger in every form.

Like Heather said in her column today, "Goodbye, Tony. Looks like you won't go to prison (not yet, anyway), and you won't rat, and you won't finally get your comeuppance, dying in a bloody heap. You'll be immortalized eating onion rings, chuckling, focusing on the good times."

"Just like the rest of us. Going to hell in a red leather booth, with Journey playing in the background. "

But of course, I could be wrong. So, when does Big Love start up again?