I don't think David Chase was being disrespectful to us with his ending. In fact, I feel that he was being very respectful to his audience by not being condescending spoon feeding us a simple, tidy ending that leaves no need to continuing thought and dialogue.

With the open ending, we as viewers are free to "go on and on and on" with the show and our lives, the story lives forever even if we believe Tony got murdered because David Chase gave us the gift of leaving as many possible conclusions to the story possible for us to choose from.

I think the endings we all would choose for the Sopranos reflect on us individually, how we believe the American Dream can or should be achieved, and in the end if there is really any judgment or resolution of it all, or if the American Dream is all a big illusion, a big nothing.

Also, I think a statement from David Chase comes out here - Should we as Americans think about the good times we have, or constantly live in paranoia of terrorism (AJ), losing faith or trust in family members and friends (Tony), money (Charm), or the rights of the people vs. government (Meadow), especially when at any minute it could all go dark in an instant?

I could be completely wrong, I don't follow these things that closely (and perhaps this has been covered already in the thread, I can't figure out how to search it), but wasn't Tony's father killed in a restaurant, with young Tony there to see?

The fade to black sure seemed like a gunshot to me, just as Tony was looking up toward the opening door. One thing Tony was deprived of was a last chance to see his daughter.

Through a friend of a friend of a friend who works for Chase Films, I was able to score 3 alternate endings that were shot for the season finale. Perhaps these will clear some things up:

http://www.vimeo.com/clip:211043

Speaks volumes to the state of cable TV service in the US that the first supposition for many of us was that the cable went out. So low expectations of TWC somewhat diluted the impact of initial viewing. Followed up with the left coast feed a few hours later.

Still think it was a perfectly fabulous ending. Not red herrings at all, but a taste of what Tony's life really is - always wary, always on guard. And ongoing to whatever end finally comes even though out of our sight.

I like that the ending was ambiguous, and I don't mean this to settle the issue of whether Tony was killed or not. But some here have argued that Tony couldn't have been killed because he had settled the conflict with New York, so nobody had a motive to get him. May I point out that in that last scene Tony informs Carmela that he is under indictment-- a mobster is never in greater danger than when he's under indictment. Everyone he's ever dealt with (which would include NY) will do anything to keep him from turning in a bigger fish (again, NY).

I like the ambiguous ending because the story, such as it is, is pretty much resolved: Tony won the battle with Phil but lost the war-- his power is on the wane and all his lieutenants are gone (except the one he can't stand). He's about to be indicted and some of his own guys are talking, so he's likely to go to jail (or worse). Businesswise, things are bad and getting worse. Do we really need to see the gory details? It's all over but the shouting. I like this ending because it tells us pretty much all we need to know, and lets us fill in the final blank for ourselves.

Disclaimer: I've never seen the Sopranos. But I was interested in what Salon had to say after seeing some media reaction to the finale. (I really enjoyed this essay.) Now acknowledging that I am a naif on this subject, isn't it possible that Tony offs himself -- maybe not in the restaurant, but later at home? I mean, Journey? Steve Perry? Clue?

has more to do with the original article (remember that?), and maybe AJ's hypocritical tell-off than with the ending, which I like the more I think about it. It's fair to criticize an episode if characters say and do things out-of-character, like Tony's all-of-a-sudden gambling problem, but the fact that the final episode shows that characters are going to be living pretty much as they have been, and the life we have been observing will continue, with expected ups and downs, I think goes more to the notion that we are the ones being "taken out" - there we are, expecting Tony, or maybe the whole family, to go down in a hail of bullets, and then BAM - we experience the sudden cessation of sounds and images, while we were looking the other way. It's a more interesting interpretation, to me, anyway.

And maybe it's Chase's little joke on/with us - the price we pay for being part of "the life."

I don't understand why so many people feel so entitled to having the "loose ends" wrapped up or are so obsessed with being "respected" by the auteur.

• Have we become such creatures of convention that we can't stray out of our comfort zones at all?
• Are we so lacking in imagination that we get upset when we are not force-fed "closure"?
• Do we need to be led by the hand and told what to think?
• Are we really offended when not explicitly told how to feel about what we watch?
• Are we really such a bunch of sheep that we actually accuse Chase of giving the viewers an "eff you" or a "cop out"?

Pretty soon the FCC will add a "tying up loose ends properly" rule and we won't have to worry about this again. :)

When a writer creates characters and a story line and the audience "buys in" -- well, that's as good as it gets -- the audience isn't "stupid" or unobservant ...

Fwiw, I've been firmly of "tony got capped by the guy in the member's only jacket" school and I NEVER wondered if my cable had gone out ... and that ENDING is fine with me ...

Honestly, I would have been just as fine or even "finer" if the series had ended at the end of the previous episode -- remember that scene ... big old sweaty tony in his nighshirt, secreted up in that ice blue top floor bedroom of that old house, cradling his machine gun like it was some carny stuffed animal, with only that "second string" plus Paulie downstairs, the dregs of his "team" -- dreading whatever lay behind that ethereal gray-blue door ....

Hell, I could have lived happily with a send-up "to sleep perchance to dream" final episode ...

Just too much thrown together, out of character and extraneous bullshit in the finale ... not respectful to the story, the characters or the viewers, imho.

Hell, "Bobby Ewing in the shower" might have worked better ...