Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, but there seems to a fair amount of interest in the Members Only guy. "Members Only" was also the name of the first episode (#66) of Season 6 -- the episode that started with a reading "Seven Souls" by William S. Burroughs. The final scene of the finale seemed to focus on seven people entering the diner: (in order) 1-Tony; 2-Random woman (looks like a skinny Janice?); 3-Man in USA hat; 4-Carmela; 5-Members Only guy; 6-AJ; 7-Meadow (though we never see her enter).

I feel like there should be a connection -- first and last scenes of the season, Members Only, 7&7 -- but I'm not bright enough to figure it out. Any thoughts? The seven souls are as follows:

Top soul, and the first to leave at the moment of death, is Ren, the Secret Name. This corresponds to my Director. He directs the film of your life from conception to death. The Secret Name is the title of your film. When you die, that's where Ren came in.

Second soul, and second one off the sinking ship, is Sekem: Energy, Power, Light. The Director gives the orders, Sekem presses the right buttons.

Number three is Khu, the Guardian Angel. He, she, or it is third man out ... depicted as flying away across a full moon, a bird with luminous wings and head of light. Sort of thing you might see on a screen in an Indian restaurant in Panama. The Khu is responsible for the subject and can be injured in his defense-but not permanently, since the first three souls are eternal. They go back to Heaven for another vessel. The four remaining souls must take their chances with the subject in the Land of the Dead.

Number four is Ba, the Heart, often treacherous. This is a hawk's body with your face on it, shrunk down to the size of a fist. Many a hero has been brought down, like Samson, by a perfidious Ba.

Number five is Ka, the Double, most closely associated with the subject. The Ka, which usually reaches adolescence at the time of bodily death, is the only reliable guide through the Land of the Dead to the Western Lands.

Number six is Khaibit, the Shadow, Memory, your whole past conditioning from this and other lives.

Number seven is Sekhu, the Remains

There's more to "Seven Souls" at the web site linked to my signature.

I think Marklev is in the ballpark.

Tony did not get whacked and Tony did not NOT get whacked. The ending is what it is. It is up to us to write our own ending.

During the final (dual) season, David Chase made it increasingly clear that the show was not just about mob guys in Jersey. It is about us.

For example, it is about how easily we look away from moral horrors, distracted by our bloated, hedonistic lifestyles. Compared to most of the rest of the world we are fat and rich and whiney.

The show has been about us and now the ending is about us. It is up to us to write the ending that we feel is appropriate, all of us and each of us.

Is an interesting one... The first shot of Tony in this episode is of his sleeping face (or is it dead); he is either in a coffin or a bed, we can't tell; funereal organ music, which turns out to be rock and roll from the clock radio, plays. Opening message: Tony is on his death bed.

Then there is the warehouse scene where Tony, Paulie and the New York guys meet up for their "reach out." As they begin talking, the loud, mechanical noise of the garage door going up howls in the background; curiously, no one acknowledges the sound. Next, there is a fierce change of perspective, and we are suddenly looking at the whole table from farther away--the garage door noise is gone. Very surreal and dreamy. Could this be where Tony's hit happened?

Another moment I found unnerving and surreal: Tony and Paulie sitting outside Satriali's on the sidewalk, chatting, open to any menace. Is this scene a dream? How else could he sit there, so vulnerable? How could Paulie then close his eyes and sun his face? Also, in that scene, we see Meadow's car drive by (or a car just like Meadow's).

Finally, this whole episode has Tony going from place to place trying to tie up loose ends. He is making sure AJ is in the clear, and Meadow. He wants Janice taken care of. Carm? She can fend for herself.

Okay, I think we've all come to the tentative conclusion that there is no real answer to whether Tony was shot: Chase deliberately left the show a blank slate so we can reach our own conclusions. But just to illustrate this point, let me propose a counter-theory--that the person who opened the door to the diner and jangled the bells just as the show ended was Agent Harris, or some other FBI agent, coming to place Tony under arrest. Not for whatever Carlo copped to, mind you--for the murder of Phil Leotardo.

Why would/how could they be arresting Tony for the murder of Phil Leotardo? Because Agent Harris had set him up, you see--he already had the FBI monitoring Tony's phone lines at the time he "leaked" information to Tony about Phil's plans to have him whacked. Then, he "leaked" information again about Phil's whereabouts on Long Island. He incited Tony to have Phil whacked, monitored all phone communications, and then, when he found out that Phil had, in fact, been popped, burst out, "Damn, we're going to win this thing!" "We" refers to the FBI/government, and "this thing" refers to their struggle against organized crime. He had been tracking Tony for years hoping to take him down--why would he suddenly feel loyalty to Tony at Phil Leotardo's expense? He was elated because he finally had some hard evidence to tie Tony to an actual murder.

I'm sure you all can poke holes in this theory, but I would submit that it is neither more nor less a definitive theory of what happened after the show "went dark" than the apparently prevailing current theory that Tony was whacked.