Any Way You Want It

So, what did you think? Of course I'm talking about the Sopranos finale last night, in which -- hey, I've been wanting to do this anyway, so spoiler alert, spoiler alert -- the series ended not with a bang, but with, well, Tony and the rest of the Sopranos sitting around in a diner eating onion rings while Journey sang in the background and then...black screen. Nothing. Done. Series over.

Of course, this episode had its share of bangs, or one in particular, a bullet into the head of that bastard prick Phil Leotardo, followed by one to the chest, and then a final crunch of SUV rolling over skull. There were what felt like fairly big resolutions -- Bobby Baccala's funeral, a final visit to Uncle Junior, which revealed without a doubt that he has indeed lost it, and wasn't planning some big caper from the nursing home, AJ's rather radical recovery from depression, which involved an underage model, a burning SUV, and a crappy movie script about a detective who "gets sucked into the internet," and talk of Meadow's wedding to Patrick Parisi.

I was glad to see The Sopranos return to the humor, dark as it may be, that was such an important mix in the series' genius all these years. The final episode was probably the funniest of the season, or the past several seasons. Plus, we learned what the ringtone is on Paulie Walnuts' cellphone.

But it's what didn't happen that will have everybody talking today. A quick survey this morning and it looks like reaction is pretty evenly split. As always, Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com sums up the essential question better than anybody:

As the screen went black in the middle of a line from the song "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey, it was hard not to wonder, Is Chase brilliant for so thoroughly subverting our expectations, or... is he just an asshole?

Actually, that doesn't quite do justice to how it really ended. It ended with an ingeniously crafted, very drawn out scene that was surely intended to fuck with us. And fuck with us they did. We saw each of the Sopranos enter the diner, one by one, starting with Tony. The first indication that Sopranos creator David Chase might be fucking with us came when Tony examined the jukebox in his diner booth. "This is it," we thought, "the last song." In retrospect, the fact that we were watching Tony select the final song to a show that has been known for its use of music is a little "meta," and was probably an indication, although there's nothing that would have prepared us, that something was up and we were, indeed, being fucked with (I'm sure somebody will publish the list of songs -- and, perhaps, possible endings that each might have implied -- but I can't find it yet). Anyway, he finally settled on "Don't Stop Believin" ("Any Way You Want It," a title that better describes the ending itself, in no uncertain "meta" terms, was just below the one that Tony chose). The Sopranos drifted into the diner, along with one particularly shady looking dude in a members-only jacket. The jacket dude glared at Tony and then walked into the bathroom, Michael Corleone style. We watched as Meadow tried again and again to park her goddam car, then ran across a crowded street. It was the end of the end. Death around any corner. How is he going to end it? And then, well, nothing.

So back to the question: what did you think?

I actually liked it. Even in this last season, with Tony's mysterious, peyote-fueled revelation ("I get it!"), and his seeming coming to grips with his mother ("they're bus drivers, they drop us off, and then continue on their own journey"), the show has always been about how Tony and his crews, work and home, are able to keep on keepin' on despite what Tony and the boys do for a living, and all that it implies. If the series had ended in some good versus evil showdown, with Tony shot full of holes or heading off to witness protection, it would have been against the spirit of the show from start to finish (this is why, by the way, Sarah Jessica Parker had to end up with Mr. Big, and why Laurelei Gilmore had to end up with Luke). It's not about wrapping up big plot points, grand conspiracies, but rather about staying true to the characters.

I think.

My favorite moment of the entire series was when teenage AJ was pondering the meaning of life and his grandmother snapped "It's all a big nothing. What makes you think you're so special?" The show has always fucked with our moral expectations -- we love Tony, but we've watched as he's killed his friends and relatives, ordered hits, slept with countless women who aren't his loving wife, did god knows what else. We've watched him struggle with the Big Questions while also trying to manage the little things -- in his case, many of which fly in direct contradiction to those Big Questions -- that make up his everyday life.

We've watched Sil and Paulie Walnuts and the rest of the crew murder time and again, sometimes characters that we've come to know and love (Adriana, Big Pussy, cousin Tony Blundetto), then we've giggled as they return to bickering pver random minutiae in the back room of the Bada Bing. To me, the story has always been about how this entire group of characters is able to keep on keeping on, knowing what they know, doing what they do, and the massive and profound contradictions that allow them to do so. That's where the humor and the drama comes from. I think. Maybe.

So my vote is: satisfying? No. Fitting? Yes.

So we're all supposed to be writers here, right? What did you think? Was the ending a brilliant artistic stroke, or a cowardly way to fuck with us for awhile without making the big decisions?