The Sopranos Finale Decoded: David Chase Finally Breaks His Silence
David Chase probably should have known that ending a wildly popular series like The Sopranos with a sudden cut to black would be a provocative move. Still, you have to feel for the guy, now that he’s spent more than a decade getting hounded about that infamously ambiguous ending.
By this point, most Sopranos fans have probably figured out that Chase will never give a clear-cut answer regarding whether Tony actually died in that diner. As Chase has insisted for years, that’s not really the point of the scene. Even so, that hasn’t stopped us from asking him that question over and over and over. And so, in honor of the show’s 20th anniversary, perhaps it’s time to look back at everything Chase has said on the subject—and, perhaps, commit his words to memory so that no one needs to ask anymore.
The final episode of The Sopranos, like the rest of the show, was revolutionary. Tony sits at Holsten’s ice cream parlor with his family, noshing on onion rings and listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” all while anxiously eyeing the door every time it opens. He knows his time is running out, and as a stranger makes his way into the bathroom—possibly to grab a gun, as in The Godfather—the tension builds. Before viewers learn what happens next, however, the screen abruptly cuts to black.
Alan Sepinwall, co-author of the recently released book The Sopranos Sessions, interviewed Chase about the finale the day after it aired back in June 2007. And Chase was clear from the beginning: “I have no interest in explaining, defending, re-interpreting, or adding to what is there,” he said of the scene, adding, “No one was trying to be audacious, honest to God. We did what we thought we had to do. No one was trying to blow people’s minds, or thinking, ‘Wow, this’ll [tick] them off.’ People get the impression that you’re trying to [mess] with them and it’s not true. You’re trying to entertain them. . . . Anybody who wants to watch it, it’s all there.”
A few months later, The Sopranos: The Complete Book was published. In it, Chase elaborated further on the scene—although he sounded a little bitter about how much attention it had gotten. “There WAS a war going on that week, and attempted terror attacks in London,” Chase said. “But these people were talking about onion rings.” He also batted away the idea that the episode contains hidden hints that might illuminate what really happened, calling the finale “no Da Vinci Code.” As for the fans who nevertheless combed through the episode like it was the Zapruder film? “Most of them, most of us, should have done this kind of thing in high-school English class and didn’t.” And no, once again, this was not some kind of prank: “Why would we entertain people for eight years only to give them the finger?” Chase wondered, seemingly unaware that regardless of his intent, this is the question many fans found themselves asking after watching the episode.
Still, you can’t say Chase doesn’t have a sense of humor about the ceaseless finale questions. Years later, in 2012, as Chase spoke with The New York Times about Mad Men (created by former Sopranos writer Matthew Weiner), he noted how difficult it is to end a series—and offered a retroactive solution to two controversial TV finales: “Seinfeld, they ended it with them all going to jail,” Chase said. “Now that’s the ending we should have had. And they should have had ours, where it blacked out in a diner.”
Months later, Chase was back at it again, telling USA Today as he promoted his new film, Not Fade Away, “People still ask me what happened [in the final scene]. They don’t ask me if Tony is alive or dead. But I know that’s where it’s going. My answer is, if I was going to tell you that I would have told you.”
