Part 2 Who Killed Tony? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/apeZjZWf3ZfHaX0.html with alternative theories from some of these comments below

I think Tony LIVES! The gun man comes out of the bathroom and Tony notices the gun and in a football fashion tackles the man on the ground proving once and for all he had the makings of a varsity athlete.

I think part of what made the ending so great was that we felt the anxiety of what it is like to live with a mobster. His family goes to dinner and the audience is convinced that everyone who walks in is a potential threat to Tony.

The fact that so many people “could” be the killer is the point I think. We’re supposed to feel like someone killed Tony because Tony feels like he’s about to be shot and he can’t be sure. That feeling will live with him forever.

"There's 2 endings for a guy like me. High profile guy. Dead, or in the can." That statement right there is all you need to know about the ending. Even if he wasn't shot dead, the FBI was pretty much ready to move in on him, which probably would have ended with him in prison for the rest of his life.

Tony did always say the scene in The Godfather where Michael comes out of the bathroom and kills Solozzo was his favorite.

You almost had it. The one who hired the hit man was Eugenes wife.. she had the money and motive, she even said to Eugene “why don’t kill him, put a f’kn bullet in his head” Hence the reason the hit man wore the same jacket as Eugene did in the diner hit, and coming full circle with Tony being shot in a diner..

I like the idea that "it doesn't matter" - we saw it all. Everything had unfolded for Tony and however long his life, he would spend the rest of it looking over his shoulder.

I finished it only yesterday. The ending scene, the music, the coming together of the family, the parking mess up, the lighting of the diner, all of it gives chills, feels very morbid in a way.

Paulie hired Sal Vitro to do it. The price was the other half of the lawns.

Not sure if anybody has said this yet but another foreshadow would be when tony goes to get Aj from the police station and aj says "when we watch god father and Michael grabs the gun from the bathroom to avenge his dad, you sit there with your bowl of ice cream and say how its your favorite scene of all time!"

Ive always thought the writers purposely avoided giving any clear indications of who did it and why, beyond the guy's appearance and dress telling us it was someone in the mafia. We see the story from Tony's POV and of course that POV ceases to exist when he dies so we never find out, I think that's intentional.

My theory: After NY got wind of Carlo flipping, in addition to all of the beef with Phil (how he was whacked in front of his family and Tony demanding restitution for Bobby getting whacked), NY decided Tony was a liability to flip and put a hit on him. Tony had never spent time in the can, not really, and NY didn't have much respect for him or NJ. Instead of risking Tony flipping to save himself after Carlo flipped, which could potentially bring down all of NJ and a good chunk of one of the Five Families, NY decided to just get rid of Tony. Tony had already shown to buck the normal mob rules by seeing a therapist, not handing over his cousin, and how he dealt with Vito. I could honestly see Tony flipping.

Tony had a dream where he looked through one of those pay binoculars where he shoots Paulie When Tony was in the hospital, Paulie talked to him and this almost kills Tony Tony almost killed him in Florida Paulie has a dream where Pussy is cooking for him in his kitchen These two were having a very subtle battle between each other

Artie ordered the hit. (Finally got revenge for Tony blowing up his restuarant lol)

Imagine it was Junior pretending to be sick he ordered the hit on Tony

I always had the idea the guy wasn't connected anyone, he was someone who's life was either ruined directly or indirectly from Tony's crew and this was his revenge.

i like to think Furio sent a "cousin" over from Napoli to deal with Tony

no one kills him, right after the last episode ends a dozen assassins run in the diner and Tony put them all in a head lock and gave them a noogie one by one

I 100% agree with your observations. Rewatching the series and keeping an eye on Patsy. His son would know where Tony would be due to the fact of his son being engaged to Meadow. I always wondered about his wife checking out Carmella's china.

Patsy is the likely suspect. Tony not only killed his brother, he talked down to him constantly, treating him like a servant, and even slapped his head. The middle of the war with NY was the perfect time to have it done.

When the Members Only guy went to the restroom, was that the 3 o’clock Christopher was talking in his dream about Mikey? His route to the bathroom from where he was sitting was shaped like 3 o’clock.

I think you're right, because then it plays out like a Greek tragedy. In "Carlitos Way" the main character lets a killer go because he wants to start being a better person, but Carlito is in a violent criminal business, and near the end of the movie, just as he is about to realize his goals...the guy he had let go pops-up out of nowhere and shoots him. This is a key element to Greek tragedies where some decision you made in the past ends up having big consequences in your future. Tony has spoons' twin brother killed early in the series, and at the very end, even though almost his entire crew is decimated, he is happy because he still has his family. Just as he is contemplating witness protection and a new life for him and his family, bada bing. Not only is "bada bing" the name of Tony's place of business, it's what Sonny Corleone says to Michael in the Godfather. "What, you think this is the army where you shoot them a mile away. You got to get them close like this and Bada-Bing!"

If there ever was a scenario where Tony did live, he himself would believe that he’d be better off dead because he would be living a life of complete paranoia, watching each person that came through the door or passed by him, knowing one day that he had it coming for the very bullets that would eventually hit him by someone he knew or not.

Loved the video and analysis. Another thing which someone else mentioned is that when Chris was shot he saw a vision of his father telling him to warn Tony about 3 o clock. The restroom if someone would come out and shot tony from there is at his 3 o clock point of view . Blessings to everyone and dont stop believin'💚

The members only jacket was also worn by the NY soldier who shot Silvio. It does not suggest an inside job, it just suggests he is indeed the killer who dispatches Tony. I think New York and the surviving members of the Soprano family (namely Paulie and Patsy) worked together to get rid of both Tony and Phil, whose dispositions were now resulting in chaos and lost money. Eventually, NY absorbs the Jersey crew, which was their goal since Johny Sack moved to the neighborhood.

I always thought it was Patsy. He never got over his brothers death and along with Butch in NY, they were tired of Tony and Phil’s bullshit.

I would say Butchie ordered the hit... Remember his double-take after Phil wanted a sit-down over the botched hit on Tony... Then he gives Tony the okay to clip Phil in order to end that problem... Butchie turned the whole thing into his own power grab...

I actually think that Paulie, Patsy and Butchy all worked together to kill Tony. Patsy for revenge and because one of his family members got pinched and he feared to worst for him, Paulie because he wanted to be boss of the family and because he feared that Tony would eventually kill him after the boat incident and Butchy because he wanted Tony (an effective opponent) gone and replaced with someone he could keep under his thumb. Together they set up the hit. Patsy found out through Maedow where Tony was going to be that evening and Butchy found a man to do the hit. Paulie promised to make sure that this didn't escalate back into war after taking over the family. In the end, the Jersey family effectively became the "Jersey crew" under New York. Officially still a separate family but practically just a crew in the New York family.

The bear killed Tony - that's why he was so surprised when he saw it come in the diner.

It was obviously Hunter … as if her name wasn’t the biggest clue of all.

Great vid, Meta! 👍 Who does the music?

Also, people seem to forget that Tony even since the beginning would have a stroke of some kind and faint, usually due to high stress, whose to say he didn't simply have his last episode and died right on that seat, I'm sure every time he fainted it looked black just like that...typically in movie writing if you can't find the answer at the end it's probably in the beginning, the whole show started with him falling over fainting, and that's how it ended... Just another regular day, and his last faint

Paulie and Patsy worked together on the Hit, the cat points to Paulie on the last scene indicating him as a rat.

It was Furio. Lol. He had the guy say "you have a bee on your head" when he shot him.

Maybe the guy in the jacket was related to the guy who hung himself, a brother or cousin or something who always rejected the life and who was probably an average Joe. The wearing of the jacket could have been a tribute to commemorate his relative while he killed Tony, the man who he might have felt was responsible for what ultimately happened to him.

Tony wasn't killed! It was us the viewers who got whacked! Our screens went black and we never even heard it coming!!

Paulie set the whole thing up, believing that Tony had AIDS even though he said, “Nobody got AIIIIIDSSSS!”

It's also sad because Tony tried hard to keep his family in the dark about what he did, for as long as he could. He didn't want his son to follow in his footsteps, however, they knew, and it affected all of them. Tony was also killed in front of his family, probably shot right through the head. How will AJ take this? Also, like Michael from the Godfather, he flipped his switch from good guy to mafia man after a hit on his father. Will AJ flip to?

There are a lot of options. I have always believed that the other NY families (Mongano, Teresi....) might have looked down on the increasing violence between Lupertazzi and Soprano, and they may have felt that Tony disrespected "this thing" when Phil's head was crushed (even though it was an accident). They might have hit Tony just to be done with the violence, period. Butch himself may have sanctioned the hit, also on the logic that while he may have given up Phil, he didn't intend for him to be mutilated. Butch knew what was done to Vito S, for example, so he might have thought that Tony was making a statement with Phil's head-crushing. Other options are that things happened so quickly and fluidly that word didn't get out yet that the war was over, so Members Only guy thought he was free and clear to kill Tony. Dark horse theories are also that Paulie set it up after Sil and Bobby were hit: maybe he made a deal to escape that violence since he previously claimed he made it out of the 70's by the skin of his nuts. Paulie, after all, was at the meet with Butch and could see which way things were going. Arguments for an inside job are that the entire family was destroyed, anyway: Paulie was the only one left standing. There was no N Jersey crew left!

I love the understated soundtrack to this video. Does anyone know what it is?

The member only jacket simply represents everybody tony has screwed over in his life in the mafia. It could’ve been anyone.

If you look at how the members only guy walks into the toilet, its like an ode to the Godfather when Michael whacks sollozo and the police chief in the diner. Makes perfect sense that the guy walked back out and shot him as things like this were done several times in the show.

The major clue is, New York did all their planning in a beauty shop. When Paulie comes back he offers the crew haircutting scissors, and Chase did that to show you he was with New York planning Tony’s hit.

the scary thing about the eugine theory is that you will start to question if tonys death was as brutal and ruthless as the guy eugine killed in that restaurant and the more disturbing question is if carmella and aj died too

Am I the only one that fell in love with the scene where they try to whack Tony in season 1 and a bullet hits the juice bottle in Tony’s hand and he looks surprised and at the same time drops it? All in slow motion. You can see it a lot clearer in the actual episode than in this clip.

Georgie killed him as revenge for all those savage beatings he got from Tony

I still think it's Butch, he's been wanting Tony's Organization Gone for while... Even Phil resisted the idea at first... The reason Butch gave up his Boss was him being tired of being a target while Phil hid away... So he schemes to kill two birds with one stone, strike a deal let Tony Kill Phil (Making Butch the Next Boss), and then Kill Tony with his false sense of security thinking the war is over, (killing the last threat, and take over jersey)

About a week after the finale, I read an interview with Steve Perry & David Chase where Steve Perry said “everything you need to know about the finale is in the lyrics (of Don’t Stop Believin)” and David Chase agreed. Steve Perry refused to grant the rights to use the song unless he knew exactly what the outcome was, so David Chase told him in confidence right before the finale aired. In his 2019 interview with Dan Rather, Steve Perry confirmed this again. Personally, I think everyone that has seen the finale has latched on to the idea Tony was killed because of the way it was filmed, but there’s no connection there based on what David Chase & Steve Perry said. It was filmed to give us a false sense of paranoia to throw us off. Anyone who’s ever gone into a public place after blowing a few rails will know exactly what I mean about a false sense of paranoia.

Pasty had a motive and so did Paulie, but neither would have done this without outside backing from Butchie. They simply didn't have the ambition to take over as head of the family. It was either them working with Butchie, or it was Butchie on his own. They hired that woman to seduce AJ and got an outside hitman.

A heartattack killed him from all the gabagool, the doctor said it's bad for him.

I’m really surprised no one came to the conclusion of who it actually was who came out of the bathroom and whacked Tony. It’s so obvious. It was Rocco DiMao! He wanted his jacket back! Madonne!

I have long thought it was Butch, and he could blame it on Phil, when speaking with surviving members of the Jersey crew, and maybe Patsy was involved, but we will never know. The theories will abound so long as the series has fans. It makes sense that it was Butch, who prodded Phil to go to war, and then said he agreed Phil could be killed. All that is left in NY is Butch, and not much in Jersey besides Paulie, who will not want to be more than a capo, because all above him have died young.

I always tought that it didn't reall matter if Tony died that time or not. The way I see it the finale tells us that there's not going to be an happy ending for Tony's life; maybe non that time, maybe in 1 year, maybe in 10, but Tony has no hope for redemption or of escaping violence.

It was the cat. The cat was angry that Tony killed Christopher, and then let Paulie harass it.

I admit, I thought my cable went out and I was so mad! When I realized what really happened, I was even more mad. Years later, I truly appreciate how brilliant the ending is and perfect for the best show ever on television.

The beauty of that ending is that it is so open to interpretation. There’s no particular person. Hell, it could have even been the onion rings he was eating, giving him a heart attack.

Butch without doubt. He can work with paulie. Remember who the top three to take out were, tony only one alive. “Absorb the rest of the crew”. Butch hated tony too.

To me all the way though the seasons of sopranos, it shows how the mob is all about loyalty to the face & ruthlessly unloyal behind the back. All these guys had it coming, it almost doesn’t really matter who did it or why. The only way out of “the life” is death. A lot of Tony’s decisions in critical situations were made for his own gain & to suit him when if he had followed the rules of the mob he would have done things differently & more fairly. He made a lot of his own guys resent him. Especially with junior out of the picture & aj not grown up following his dad into the business, it was pretty easy for the soprano family to fall.

If we are totally buying into the theory Tony died, I think Paulie makes the most sense. All his flashbacks, seeing the Virgin Mary, plus their last interaction at the empty deli table.

Tony didn’t die, the screen went black when he had a panic attack.

In quantum mechanics, Schrödinger's Tony Soprano is a thought experiment in which a hypothetical wiseguy may be considered simultaneously both alive and dead as a result of his fate being linked to a random subatomic script event that may or may not occur.

I was caught off guard by the sudden ending but now I think it is probably the most fitting ending for The Sopranos. There was no resolution, no coming on top, Tony throughout the series was given chance after chance to come to his senses and become the man he thought he was, but at the moment where he almost understood where the path he followed would lead him to, his journey led him to its final destination.

Just another reason why this is one of the greatest shows ever. We still don’t know for sure. Man I miss this series.

Actually, it wad Noah. He punched Tony's lights out- the cut to black.

I agree with you. Tony’s crew was decimated. Perfect time for Patsy to get revenge for his brothers murder.

Tony doesn't die. It is, instead, the viewer who gets whacked himself. Very meta storytelling by David Chase

He and his family actually were given a new life and identities by the Feds and he became Kevin Finnerty (from his time in a coma) and then a whole new series… “The Finnerty’s”

Butchie had it in for Tony. Wanted to wipe out the NJ management and do business with whatever was left. He used Tony to get rid of Phil, then erased Tony.

Excellent analysis

Never put a spoiler in the title of your video. Doesn't matter how long it's been out.

Damn good vid and never knew about the members only jacket gives me a whole knew perspective on the ending I always just thought of bobby telling tony about "you probably don't even hear it when it happens" great work man

Bravo man!! A thoughtful analysis! ..& another facet mirrored in the members only assassin parallel, is that both settings were in an eatery.

Definitely Patsy. He's the only one in the crew who would have known Tony would be at Holston's that night since his son was banging Meadow. I still love that scene in Tony's living room when Patsy gives the nastiest eye roll to Tony refilling his glass that final episode. I always wonder what happened to Meadow in this scene since she is in the way of Members Only Guy's escape.

BRILLIANT Answer to the oft-asked question, "What really happened at the end of "Sopranos"?

# 15 Subs, .. here, I'm sure you'll get many, many...MORE.. a very good job,.. Keep it up! :)

Word on the street is it was the second gunman on the grassy knoll ! 🤣

Not to mention the man Eugene kills in "Members Only" is named Teddy Sporakis (TS) in a dining establishment.

Its crazy how the people thinking he got killed isnt thinking "did he get killed?" they think "who killed him".

Also, early in season 6 its mentioned that Tony's favorite scene in any movie is when Michael kills the guys that tried to kill his dad. Michael emerges from the bathroom and then does the hit. Just like the guy in the diner

I always found it strange how when christopher made the gay joke about Vito , Patsy was the only who laughed

If you remove the Schrödinger's cat ambiguity of the finale, you’ve missed the point.

The guy in the Members Only jacket actually looked a lot like Eugene, what if it's his brother that killed him as like poetic justice for his brother dies because Tony wouldn't let him leave.

Whatever it is, it is the end. The show starts out, "lately, I'm getting the feeling I came in at the end. The best is over." And winds up with, "Don't stop believing."

David Chase has been all over the map with his answers over the years in my opinion but I distinctly remember an interview he was in about a year after the show ended and he was saying that he was surprised there were so many questions about the ending. He said that in his mind everything was there to figure out everyone's questions.

There's not a single piece of evidence that would prove in a court of law that Tony got whacked. The creator of the show stopped the show.

Why u gotta put spoilers in the title, im just watching the sopranos for the first time and of course i see this.

"Did I kill Tony Soprano,yes I did" Alite🤣

Rumor has it that he took the jacket off of rocco dimeo’s brother, the second toughest guy in Essex county

The episode where Tony is on his death bed is called "Members Only".....he survives, so the guy in the members only jacket comes to finish things

Plot twist: It was a heart attack

Tell Tony and Paulie 3 oclock Mog shooter would be at Tony’s 3 o’clock when Tony died

I've been trying to convince people Patsy is the most probable suspect for years.

Was there any other new your families in sopranos?you would think they would know or even be related to ppl in other families

I think Paulie and patsy. Really strange that both sil and Patsy were cornered at the bing and patsy walked away without a scratch and he didn’t fire a single shot at the New York hit squad

The restroom was at Tony's "3 o'clock" too. Like Chrissy told him after his coma dream. "Tell Tony and Paulie, 3 o'clock"

My theory on the ending: Noah Tannenbaum finally punched Tony’s lights out.

Love this theory, and I think you're on to something with Eugene. Could it have been a member of his family, brother ,cousin, or such...seeking revenge?

I always thought the Member's Only guy at the end resembled Tony's father.

This is a great video, but Butchie and NY finishing the job always made sense to me-though I could totally see Patsy lending a helping hand in that. Butchie always had it out for Tony and he was the earliest and most enthusiastic proponent for taking Tony out. When he had his cell-phone walk-and-talk with Phil after Bobby and Silvio were hit, but not Tony, Phil clearly blamed Butchie for the incomplete work, and then he brusquely asked for a sit-down before hanging up on Butchie. At that point he probably figured that his head would roll when it was all over if Phil the hothead remained boss. Of course Butchie could have just hit Tony at their peace-meeting, but why risk keeping Phil around just to face his wrath later? So, Butchie betrayed Phil and let Tony do the dirty work of taking him out, with Butchie there waiting to take the helm. Tony would naturally let his guard down with Phil gone because he felt secure in his deal with NY. At this point, why wouldn't Butchie just finish the original plan by hitting Tony? The Soprano crew was hollowed out by Tony's bad leadership and this last war with NY, and it was just waiting to be swallowed by a bigger fish sooner or later. Patsy could totally have been involved for all of the reasons discussed in this video, and since it would probably be easier for NY to have a...well, a patsy to have as a puppet to do business with.