That's exactly how I feel. I was originally pissed at the ending, but the more I think about it, the better it becomes. I may try to watch it again tonight so that I can actually take it in this time.

Eh alright, I got that information from the HBO board.

Those writers sure are smart.

"The audience gets whacked! Get it?"

:rolleyes:

I just wanted to see TOny use that big fucking gun Bobby had given him

Tom Shales sums it up;

The more I think of it, the more I'm convinced that this ending was the best possible.
Any other ending would have discarded all other possible endings as irrelevent. Now, all the things hanging over Tony's head is alive and viable, subject to our continued ruminations and speculations. And that's how Tony lives his life, with all those threads of danger out there ready to snap.

Me too.

Really, IMO, there wasn't a clear-cut way to end the show that would have made the majority of the fans happy.

On a side note, who's got the 411 on the girl who played Rhiannon? Not getting a whole lot from the search engines. Her name is Emily Wickersham. The perv in me is curious how old she is.....

Won't hotlink, for the squeamish.

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/.../8753.imgcache

Whatever that is, the link didn't work for me....

Its an unusual speed-bump at a Jersey gas station...

Gotcha.

More thoughts:

I'd need to go back and watch the final scene again, but wasn't AJ sitting on the same side of the booth as Carmella?

If so, and if you buy into the theory that the guy from the counter walked out of the bathroom to whack Tony......

Then Meadow's tardiness plays a role. Had Meadow been on time, she likely would have sat on the outside, leaving no clear shot for the shooter, unless he's willing to walk right up behind him with Carm and AJ facing him.

Just a thought.....

ALSO......

I know it's flaky, but something tells me that cat was Adrianna reincarnate.

I don't have a problem with the lack of a big "drastic" ending (something like Tony getting whacked, arrested, put into witness protection, other family members dying, whatever). The problem I have is that the episode flet like it was really building towards some kind of real "ending", but instead it built toward ... nothing. When the Journey music kicked in loud, and the scene kept jumping around, it really felt like something special was going to happen, something that forever would make you think of "that awesome final scene from the Sopranos" every time you heard "Don't Stop Believing". But instead of the final scene being a crowning, redeeming achievement for the series, it was the last, greatest disappointment in a string of recent underachievements.

To me it felt like Chase tried to get too cute with the ending, and instead it came off as him being a lazy, selfish jerk.

Just curious.....

Does anyone think they were going "into the program" and THAT is why (maybe) Tony got whacked?

Talk of AJ working in Hollywood.

Carm looking at architectual drawings of a beach house around the 54 minute mark, followed immediately by Tony raking leaves and looking around the property with a look of "I'm gonna miss this place" on his face?

Carm with a slight look of worry when Tony says he'll meet everyone at Holston's.

The main part that pissed me off about the final episode is the viewers still had to put up with more psychiatrist shit. The shrink stuff was okay for the first couple seasons to set up Tony as a mob boss with real problems, but it didn't need to drag down every single episode.

I have a question for the Soprano experts out there. Who was the character that popped Phil? I know the actor is the guy that played Bill Guarnere on "Band of Brothers", but he seemed to come out of nowhere this season. I'm thinking maybe it was an actor replacement for a character that has been on the show for a while.

That's Walden.

LOL, I watched it last night and did not even realize it was the final episode. All in all that is an interesting way to end it, no big blowout ending. It also leaves open endless possibilities for some sort of encore showing.