Good fiction leaves things open to interpretation. The creators of this show have done just that and, as said before, will capitalize on it. I was pregnant with my first child when Sopranos began and have watched every episode (as well as Oz and Six Feet Under, which was my favorite)so I have just a couple teeny things chime in on. The cat is Tony's conscience, which is something that he can rationalize his way around; something he can live with. When one explanation for the cat staring at Chrissy's picture falls through, he's right there with a backup. "He's a good guy."

Is Junior really demented? If not, the scene with Janis was perfect Soprano passive aggression. They are all vindictive. They all have the familial personality disorder. Janis in the most obvious way, but Junior is a close second. Just a thought...

Paulie, I have always said, will do anything. ANYTHING. He is the coldest, most self serving of the cold selfserving bastards. I think he's in with NY and that cat lounging his fat belly on the sidewalk, at ease with the world, was the last straw for him. From his perspective he has suffered countless indignities, and for what? That dude in the diner had on a Members Only jacket. Who the f*^k exactly wears a Members Only jacket besides mafia? Paulie finally did it, before Tony could do it to him with that job.

Meadow is pregnant. That's why she went to the OBGYN. That's why she had a wreck last week and why she couldn't park to save her life. She (if thay guy didn't kill'em all) will become Carmella and little AJ will become... never Tony. Chrissy maybe. He has always just wanted a way to rationalize his life, their life. It just gets hard sometimes when you aren't bright enough to tie it all up in a nice little package of delusion like Tony and Meadow. Chrissy had his addiction to numb out his conscience, AJ has depression and pussy. 23 MPG highway is actually pretty bad, but hey, was that car bad-ass or what?

And did you see Carmella's face when a $170K starting salary for Meadow was mentioned?! Pediatricians struggle (relatively) for years and most never make that kind of cheese.

I'm just sorry Carm and Furio didn't get to do it.

Like millions of other folks I hit that rewind button after screaming at the ending, but I thought it rocked. The possibilities are endless.

I said in my last post about the end...Tony rules, Tony continues, Tony goes on and on and on; yeah he lost some of his crew, but such is his life; I haven't read yet all the posts but I think Tony is happy in some respects that he and his family, fianlly, after all these hours, are at one table sitting down communicating without too much havoc over trivial things. His mob life will continue, he drops back, regroups, and comes out the "winner" as usual; he and Carmela are closer, he and the kids and Carmela are closer, AJ has grumbles of course, AJ will always whine, ditto Dad right...Meadow will earn $170 big ones as a starter lawyer, did you see Carmela's eyes light up about that, and she's involved with TOny & Carmela's financial person and that makes both parents delighted; AJ at least has a non ethnic girlfriend and that makes the parents happier; the entire family unit is functional in its dynsfunction. I still cant understand all the tearing down and apart of these various episodes, its a tv show for gosh sakes, remember that; again kudos to the casting person(s) who did this series, wonderfully believable characters that we all loved and/or loved to hate. And the restaurent scene last night, I dont recall any of them eating at this particular restaurant thru the entire series but I could be wrong; a new restaurant for a new beginning of the old ways. Did you expect the place to blow up as Meadow crossed the street? You didnt really expect Tony to get plugged did you, really? Nah, the Tony guy survives. And just think Mr David could do a redux down the road could he not?

Tony walked away from Jun with the thought I've been thinking since I started reading these responses full of strained parsings, with people wringing more 'symbolism' out of what is already an extraordinary work than any true sociopath could possibly imagine : it was all just bullshit. That's Chase's genius - what kept us enraptured for so long, overthinking episode after episode, calling on our intellect each second of each scene to find A DEEPER MEANING, when maybe Tony knew it all along - a true hedonist doesn't have depth, it just is. That's why he screwed girls by the dozen, that's why he was fat, that's why he was good at his job, that's why Carm left, that's why she came back, and that's why Melfi finally dumped him. He just was, and we all have to live with that.

Just like I said, the Teflon Don goes on and on and on. He gets his way, he slips through and has a moment of contentment while raking the leaves as if to say, "If it all ended right now, I'd die happy- for once!" His kids were fine, Carm was satisfied, all of his nemisises were gone- he was golden! As he stood there, staring at the sunset, I actually was expecting the sun to flash again like in the desert. Perhaps he was remembering that morning? Was Chase giving us a gift of at least he dies happy?

Because, I also feel that the ending meant that he was whacked.

Meadow distracted him. He was looking at his daughter walk in the room and the Russian, or the Ukranian? walks out and shoots him. The biggest hole for me is who called the hit? Little Carmine? The Arabs (for ratting on them?)? Coco? The Russians? I have to watch the whole thing again. Also, the only person who knew they were there besides them was AJ's girlfriend. Hmmmm...

So much to digest. Thank you, Heather, for your excellent commentary all these months. I'll miss you all! *sniff,sniff*