HBO’s “The Sopranos” has one of the most divisive series finales of all time. Since it aired in 2007, it’s caused heavy debate and interpretation among fans over the years. Now, star Lorraine Bracco, who played Tony Soprano’s therapist Dr. Jennifer Melfi, is revealing her thoughts on the controversial ending.
“The Sopranos” ended with an abrupt cut-to-black scene that implied the sudden death of protagonist Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). The final scene shows Tony seated in diner booth as he awaits his family. The door to the restaurant opens, but we never get a glimpse of who enters when all of a sudden the show cuts to black and ends — sparking controversy ever since over its lack of closure. Throughout the show, Melfi and Tony developed a close bond; the psychiatrist was aware of his crimes as a mobster but continued to meet with him as a therapist. Ultimately, Melfi is coerced into cutting ties with Tony after some of her professional colleagues discover the truth about him. The pair’s final scene together shows the psychiatrist closing the door on her former client.
Bracco has her own theory of what may have happened in the ending, including that Tony could still be alive and meeting with Melfi.
“Honestly, I think they bumped into each other in restaurants and stuff like that,” Bracco said on SiriusXM’s “The Spotlight With Jessica Shaw.” “I don’t know. I think part of me wants to believe that she took a moment away from him, and they got back together, back in therapy. I could believe that.”
“I was also not very happy the way David ended it,” she said. “I thought it was bad and wrong. I was annoyed. I told him, ‘How do you invest five years into someone’s life and just walk away?’ I said, ‘That is not cool.’ And you know, that was it.”
Chase told Variety in 2015 that he never expected the ending to incite such heated debate among fans.
“I thought the ending would be somewhat jarring, sure,” he said. “But not to the extent it was, and not a subject of such discussion. I really had no idea about that. I never considered the black a shot. I just thought what we see is black. The ceiling I was going for at that point, the biggest feeling I was going for, honestly, was don’t stop believing. It was very simple and much more on the nose than people think. That’s what I wanted people to believe. That life ends and death comes, but don’t stop believing. There are attachments we make in life, even though it’s all going to come to an end, that are worth so much, and we’re so lucky to have been able to experience them. Life is short. Either it ends here for Tony or some other time. But in spite of that, it’s really worth it. So don’t stop believing.”
Watch the interview with Bracco below:
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