One of the big focuses of the final scene is Meadow Soprano, Tonys daughter, trying and failing to parallel park her car. Considering how strange the cut to black was, viewers may have forgotten how strange it was that in the final 30 seconds of one of the greatest TV shows of all time, the audience is watching Meadow Soprano trying to park her car. The question that can be drawn from Meadows final scenes is: What are we supposed to get out of watching this? If we subscribe to the (correct) theory that the Man in the Members Only Jacket killed Tony coming out of the bathroom, then Meadows parallel parking may have been able to save her fathers life. As the diner table is laid out, Tony is sitting alone with Carmella and AJ across from him. When Meadow gets into the diner, she would obviously sit next to her father. What this creates is a block in the line of sight for the Man in the Members Only Jacket. Without Meadow, he has a clear shot at Tony from the bathroom. Meadows presence is so important because of something Tony told Carmella in the previous episode, The Blue Comet, just after Bobby Bacala was murdered. In an attempt to calm her, he said, Families dont get touched, meaning that there is an inherent code in the mafia to not go after family members. Now, theres no guarantee that had Meadow sat down that the Man in the Members Only Jacket wouldnt have shot her before trying to shoot Tony, but since Meadow didnt make it into Holsteins in time, we will never know.
