It's been more than seven years since The Sopranos ended with one of the most polarizing final scenes in television history. Since "Don't Stop Believin'" blasted through the speakers of nearly 12 million television sets on June 10, 2007, everybody has been asking the question: just what exactly happened? Here's what we know about the scene. Tony Soprano walks into Holstein's diner and looks at the jukebox. He selects Journey and looks around the diner at the patrons. Of particular interest is a man sitting by himself at the bar. As the song continues to play, Tony's wife Carmella and his son AJ enter the diner. They converse, and the man at the bar gets up and walks to the bathroom. As this is happening, Tony's daughter Meadow is outside the diner, trying to parallel park but failing twice. She finally succeeds on the third time, and as she enters the diner, Tony looks up, and the screen immediately cuts to black. So...what happened? Did Tony Soprano die or not? For years, show creator David Chase has been mum on details...apparently until now. That famous scene has recently made headlines again when Chase answered a direct question posed to him about Tony Soprano's fate. The article says: "When he (Chase) answered the 'Did Tony die' question, he was laconic. Just the fact and no interpretation. He shook his head and said, 'No, he isn't'. That was all. First off, it was bad journalism to not ask a followup question considering the fact that Chase had finally given a direct answer after years of dodging the question. Secondly, there was no true context to Chase's demeanor. "Laconic" doesn't really tell us much. Did he seem sarcastic? Annoyed? Frustrated? It was very naive of the writer to assume that what Chase told her was the absolute truth. Chase quickly responded to the article in question and offered a non-committal denial. So the debate rages on. But there really should be no debate. Anybody who was paying attention to the final scene really knows the truth: Tony Soprano is dead. The final scene has been broken down in painstaking detail (almost frame by frame) in this fantastic Master of Sopranos essay. It is an extremely long, but worthwhile read that does a great job of making the argument that Tony died in the final scene. Many of the reasons in the essay are theoretical, and many parts are guesses or connecting dots that may not have been meant to be connected. However, when looking at the final scene itself, as well as the hints dropped by Chase throughout the final season, there were five main arguments that should convince you beyond the shadow of a doubt that Tony Soprano was killed in Holstein's in front of his family.
