FunkDoc1112
Heavily Armed
...The more I conclude that it ended with Tony having another panic attack, not getting whacked.
Think about it: the show is ultimately about a man in therapy. That's the anchor of the show, Tony's ongoing hope/delusion that his problems will get better and confiding in Melfi. In the penultimate episode, Melfi writes him off as hopeless and ends their treatment. That's really the end of Tony's story as told on the Sopranos.
So in the final scene in the diner, every time the doorbell goes off, what do we see? Tony gesture towards his gun, looks up, and then we cut to his POV of the door and the entrant. Tony realizes it's nobody trying to kill him and calms down.
They trick us by showing Meadow struggling to park because we're as paranoid about Tony getting whacked as he is, and as we've seen, there's a code of honor in the mob where they only go after the target and leave out the family. Since Meadow would end up sitting next to Tony, that prevents a would-be assassin from getting a clean-shot (similar to how the cat in season 1 took too long trying to get a clean shot when Meadow's dragging him to the motel room, and eventually the elderly couple arrives as potential witnesses). And we see that Tony subtly has his eye on the Members Only Jacket guy, so he's doubly worried.
So when the bell rings, and Tony looks up and realizes it's Meadow, all the tension he's built up just reaches a boiling point, and he also realizes that he's gonna be this edgy for every moment of his life from here on out. It goes black, because he passes out again - the same thing that triggered the start of the series strikes him yet again, only now he doesn't have Dr. Melfi, or any hope really. Even if convinces Melfi to resume treating him like in season 2, on the other side his crew is decimated and his family is drifting further away. His life from then on out is hopeless, and either his panic attacks will do him in, or whoever he's afraid of.
Think about it: the show is ultimately about a man in therapy. That's the anchor of the show, Tony's ongoing hope/delusion that his problems will get better and confiding in Melfi. In the penultimate episode, Melfi writes him off as hopeless and ends their treatment. That's really the end of Tony's story as told on the Sopranos.
So in the final scene in the diner, every time the doorbell goes off, what do we see? Tony gesture towards his gun, looks up, and then we cut to his POV of the door and the entrant. Tony realizes it's nobody trying to kill him and calms down.
They trick us by showing Meadow struggling to park because we're as paranoid about Tony getting whacked as he is, and as we've seen, there's a code of honor in the mob where they only go after the target and leave out the family. Since Meadow would end up sitting next to Tony, that prevents a would-be assassin from getting a clean-shot (similar to how the cat in season 1 took too long trying to get a clean shot when Meadow's dragging him to the motel room, and eventually the elderly couple arrives as potential witnesses). And we see that Tony subtly has his eye on the Members Only Jacket guy, so he's doubly worried.
So when the bell rings, and Tony looks up and realizes it's Meadow, all the tension he's built up just reaches a boiling point, and he also realizes that he's gonna be this edgy for every moment of his life from here on out. It goes black, because he passes out again - the same thing that triggered the start of the series strikes him yet again, only now he doesn't have Dr. Melfi, or any hope really. Even if convinces Melfi to resume treating him like in season 2, on the other side his crew is decimated and his family is drifting further away. His life from then on out is hopeless, and either his panic attacks will do him in, or whoever he's afraid of.
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