People forget that in the “previously on The Sopranos” recap for that episode they include a scene where Tony’s on a boat and somebody asks him what he thinks happens when you die. “Nothin’, everything goes black” he says.<p>Everybody who watched that episode saw that, everybody saw Obvious Hitman creeping around in the background, “Don’t Stop Believing” is perfect because you have to be in complete denial to think that ending was ambiguous.
Great analysis. If anything, the thing that has taken away from that final episode is that people have been pestering Chase about it without stop. So much so, that in later interviews he has implied more detail about what happened, diminishing some of the impact and the mystery. Perhaps just through shear fatigue at having to <i>explain his art</i>.<p>Still, though, this piece reinforces what a master stroke that episode was, to the point that we're <i>still</i> talking about it.