So, over at Vox, Martha P. Nochimson got Sopranos creator David Chase to spill the beans about the fate of Tony Soprano. If you recall, HBO's flagship drama (and almost inarguably the best television show ever made) ended with Tony and Carm and AJ sitting at a diner table eating some onion rings when, all of a sudden, the screen went black. The question henceforth was whether or not Tony got whacked. A plausible argument could be made for both cases. But now the arguments over whether he is dead have been settled:
"No he isn't."
Fair enough! Over at the Post, Alyssa Rosenberg notes that this is a fitting demise:
it strikes me that Tony’s particular story is exceptionally well-suited for this sort of punishment. When Tony terminates his therapy with Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), the relationship comes to an end in part because Dr. Melfi has become convinced that by making Tony a more functional person, she has helped make him a more effective criminal. But I think it is undeniable that she has also made Tony more aware of himself and his feelings. In a sense, she has created the perfect condition for Tony’s ongoing punishment: an ability to continue committing bad acts while seeing them with increasing clarity.
This is in line with my thinking on Tony's fate, in a way.* That last sequence is brilliant, but not for the reason people often think.
I contend it's brilliant because it's a perfect encapsulation of the way Tony will have to live his life, however long or short it may be.
To wit: He scans the room when he enters, looking for threats, before being seated. He takes his seat, confident in the choice he has made. But then the camera cuts to the kitchen, an area that Tony can't see, can't examine for danger. It's important to keep that in mind every time Tony looks up when the door chimes—and the camera cuts to him looking up almost every time we hear the chime before the POV switches to Tony's, staring at the door. He will go through life forever scanning for danger, forever keeping both eyes on every exit, forever wondering where danger might come from, forever wondering if that rando in the bar area who keeps eyeing his table is a hit man or just a guy who saw him on the news and is a little bit star struck.
But Tony, being just a simple man, can't keep his eyes on all the exits all the times. There will always be blind spots. Due to his life of unrepentant violence, Tony will be forced to spend however much time he has on the planet—be it four minutes or four decades—unable to relax, unable to take a moment's peace. That's what the finale means. It's the summation of the show: He's a family man trying to have a simple family dinner. For Tony (and Carm and Mead and AJ) nothing is simple, however. The threat of horrific violence looms over every outing, every get together.
So great, Tony Soprano lives. If you call going through life like that "living."
*I could've sworn I'd written a version of the following elsewhere, but I guess not. So, apologies if this is duplicative of my work. It's not self-plagiarism, I promise!