I don’t want Tony Soprano to die tomorrow night, and something is telling me he won’t. Tomorow night’s finale won’t end “happily,” but I don’t see a bullet or two putting a cap on seven years of great drama. That would be too easy, too pat. A major letdown, in fact.
Sopranos creator David Chase has done too good a job of making James Gandolfini‘s New Jersey gangster not just human and occasionally vulnerable, but us. No matter what Chase may say to interviewers, he’s on Tony’s team through and through. One reason he writes Tony Soprano so well is because he’s essentially writing about his own dark places, and I don’t think Chase hates himself sufficiently to want to kill his own. If he does, I will feel saddened, let down…almost betrayed.
Here’s a final-episode prediction poll piece by various Salon writers.