Laying Tony Soprano to rest

Here’s the “Sopranos” story that’ll be in the paper tomorrow (warning: spoilers), along with some random final thoughts as I watch the episode a second time:

Well, technically, Tony Soprano survived the series finale of HBO’s classic series “The Sopranos,” which aired Sunday night.

But series creator David Chase ended the series with a Rorschach test for its fans: What happened in the seconds immediately following the final cut-to-black?

For the most part, the episode, entitled “Made in America,” played like a typical midseason episode, with many small, dawdling scenes of character interaction. Tony (James Gandolfini) was still in hiding after Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) ordered hits on two of his generals.

The feud was resolved when Phil was dispatched with extreme prejudice: Talking to his wife outside her SUV, he took a bullet to the back of the head. Panicked, his wife jumped out of her SUV, leaving it in drive, and a tire rolled over Phil’s noggin, pancaking it.

The final scene played suspensefully, perhaps due more to viewers’ expectations than anything else. Set in a diner, it had Tony engaging in small talk with Carmela (Edie Falco), then being joined by their son AJ (Robert Iler). At the same time AJ arrived, however, a man in a grey jacket entered; the camera paid this guy an ominous amount of attention.

Meanwhile, Meadow was having trouble finding a parking spot. The camera cut nervously to other diner patrons, and the jacketed man entering the men’s room. The final shot of the series featured Tony looking up, responding to – what? Meadow’s entrance? The stranger with a gun?

The show itself offered no answers, as it cut immediately to black. Several seconds later, the credits rolled – and for only the second times in the show’s history, no music played over them.

A possible hint as to Tony’s fate: The only other time no music played over the closing credits was in the season-two episode “Full Leather Jacket,” which ended with Christopher (Michael Imperioli) getting gunned down.

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Actually, I think this was the perfect ending for the series. (It’s kind of the exact opposite of “Six Feet Under’s,” which was painstakingly literal about the final fates of all its cast members.) David Chase has always teased viewers’ expectations, and played mind games with his fans, and this season got progressively darker, so the simple, otherwise benign appearance of a diner patron was fraught with anxiety for viewers, if not for Tony. Chase was throwing in peripheral characters and creating new loose ends up to virtually the final second – most of the episode moved at its usual pace, with long, leisurely scenes with characters just chatting about family, work and so on. And since Chase couldn’t possibly create a climax that’d live up to everyone’s expectations, he decided to let you do it. Along with one final “Godfather” reference: The ominous guy, who may or may not have been a shooter gunning for Tony, heading into the restaurant bathroom.

“Made in America,” of course, is a double entendre, referencing made men in the mob. But it also reflects Chase’s darker thoughts on what America stands for these days – the shot of AJ watching MC Rove and Dancing Dubya (not far removed from footage of al-Qaeda soldiers) reminded me of the similar whistling-past-the-graveyard joke in “Sideways,” where Paul Giamatti sneaks in on the tubby couple working it while a press conference with Bush/Rumsfeld/Rice plays on their bedroom TV. What is our biggest export? Chase seems to think it’s murderous greed.

Phil’s death turned into a sick little joke? Almost too much. Almost.

But WTF was up with AJ’s story arc this season? He was all over the map – buffoonish lout, responsible fellow, suicidal loon, guy suddenly obsessed with world affairs, and so on.

And perhaps Chase’s best practical joke of all: A series that boasted really cool music at the end of virtually every episode ends its swan song with a monumentally crappy Journey ditty. “Don’t Stop Believing,” indeed.

But that’s just me: People in Washington, DC didn’t like it so much: "It was stupid. I couldn't believe it. . . . I was waiting for a big huge climax, and it didn't happen, so I was let down."

Likewise, the New York Times’ Allessandra Stanley was underwhelmed: “The abrupt finale last night was almost like a prank, a mischievous dig at viewers who had agonized over how television’s most addictive series would come to a close. The suspense of the final scene in the diner was almost cruel. And certainly that last bit of song — “Don’t Stop Believing,” by Journey — had to be a joke. … In that way at least “The Sopranos” delivered a perfectly imperfect finish.”

What do you think? Was this a fitting conclusion to what routinely gets called the Best TV Show in History? Or did David Chase toy with us too much?