THE SOPRANOS – Made in America

TELEVISION There was so much going on in the finale of "The Sopranos," you could write a book about it. But after doing a lot more thinking and reading and talking about that final scene, and almost everyone was buzzing about it today, here is a summary that makes sense to me. It seems that Tony would be dead. My initial thought was that he is now paranoid, always looking over his shoulder and never knowing who will shoot him as he has shot and killed others. That was the life he would have to live. But the editing tells the story. Everything in the diner is from Tony’s point of view. He sees who is coming and going and where everyone is. And just before the screen goes black, we see him – it’s our view of Tony. When the screen goes black, it’s his POV again. He sees nothing because he got whacked. It's like Bobby mentions a few episodes earlier that you probably don’t hear it when it happens. We heard nothing.
There are many suspicious people lurking around in the diner. In the credits, the anonymous man at the bar in the diner is listed only as Man in Member's Only jacket. It’s been pointed out that the African-American guys were the ones who had tried to shoot Tony in the first or second season. There was also another suspicious looking guy wearing a USA cap (who someone referred to as the truck driver with a bug in his hat).
A scene that was nerve-wracking was Meadow trying to park the car. She had a hard time fitting into the parking space because, like the car, she didn’t fit into the family. She’s going to take up criminal law and work for those who try to bring down people like her father. If there were to be a happy ending, we would have seen Meadow join the family for a nice dinner.
The reason they were at the diner instead of at home eating Carmela’s manicotti wasn’t just because she had meeting, but because they are an Americanized family, eating hamburgers and onion rings. This is also why AJ gives up his idealism of wanting to fight the war on terror, so he can have the material things that are so important to his parents. [Carmela is out of touch with her children it was funny when she makes a funny face as she walks out of Meadow’s bedroom after hearing that Hunter, who had partied a little too hard, was in her second year of med school.]
The cat has several references. It could be the ghost of Adriana, staring down Christopher, or even represent Big Pussy. In any event, the cat unnerved Paulie who sat watching as he was sunning himself at Satrialle’s.
Songs like "You Keep Me Hanging On" and "Don’t Stop Believing" are telling us to set me free, get out my life why don’t you. And Carmela is certainly just a small town girl, living in a lonely world…
In the end, "The Sopranos" is like modern day Shakespeare. The following was forwarded to me from a friend who found this on a blog, comparing the last scene to Hamlet. A duel takes place and ends with the death of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet. Shakespeare ends with the words "the rest is silence."