Jerusalem posted:

I'll still argue to my dying day that the point is that we don't know and never will know. Our journey along with Tony basically paralleled Melfi's, we were safely able to ride along and root for him and enjoy his crimes and infidelities a step removed, and then it was over and we no longer had that privileged insight into his life. Maybe that guy in the Members Only jacket stepped out of the bathroom and killed him? Maybe he went home and lived another 30 years on top of the rickety ship of the modern day Mafia? Maybe he was killed a day, a week, a month, a year later? Maybe he had a heart attack at dinner and fell down dead at the table? Was hit by a car several weeks down the line? Got taken out by some new rising Captain?

The point is, I'd argue, that we don't know, and that just because as viewers we knew the show was ending didn't mean we got to see Tony get what he "deserved" after rooting for him to succeed over the preceding seasons for our own entertainment.

I still love this show. It's clunky by comparison to modern television and feels like it was largely put together on the fly after Nancy Marchand died, but it stands the test of time.