The Sopranos creator David Chase highlights season 3 scene that could reveal ‘truth’ behind divisive ending

David Chase has revealed a Sopranos detail that some fans might read as confirmation of Tony’s fate.

HBO show The Sopranos ended in 2007 with a finale that continues to be meticulously analysed to this day. It depicts a seemingly ordinary yet extremely tense restaurant scene between Tony (James Gandolfini) and his family, which ends with the screen cutting to black.

Viewers were left stunned by the moment and, over the years, many have assumed this stylistic decision symbolised the show’s protagonist getting ‘whacked’. Ever since, Chase has been fielding requests for clarification - and, in 2020, even referred to it as a “death scene” .

Another detail that will corroborate the theory that Tony was killed in those closing moments has surfaced in a new documentary, Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos – in which the creator reveals why Martin Scorsese didn’t like the show .

The two-part series, directed by Alex Gibney, shows Chase reflecting on the series, sharing insights into its creation, casting and classic scenes. When discussing the ending, he said: “Why cut to black?’

Here, he referenced a scene that takes place much earlier in the show – in season three, episode two, which is called “Proshai, Livushka”. In the scene, Tony’s daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) helps her brother AJ (Robert Iler) with his homework, which is an analysis of the Robert Frost poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Poem”.

“I mean, there was that scene where Meadow and AJ – this was a long time back – he was doing his homework,” Chase told Gibney.

The scene shows AJ wondering what the poem represents, to which Meadow asks him: “What’s covering the field?” He replies: “Snow,” and Meadow then asks: “What does snow symbolise?”

AJ, not picking up her point, asks: ‘Christmas?”, and Meadow replies: “Hello? Cold, endless white, endless nothing. Death!”

In the documentary, Chase tells Gibney “that was in my head” when he wrote the ending, adding: ‘See, now people will say, ‘Now he admitted Tony died!’”

It’s worth noting that, while Chase has often shared details about his thought process behind the final scene, he has never conclusively revealed Tony’s fate, leaving it open to interpretation.

In The Sopranos Sessions , a book published in 2019, Chase elaborated: “[The point was] that he could have been whacked in the diner. We all could be whacked in a diner. That was the point of the scene.”

Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos airs on HBO on 7 September.