The conversation around TV Show endings has gotten pretty fiery in the last few years, and especially in the last six months. Not only did Netflix’s beloved sci-fi series Stranger Things wrap up on New Year’s Eve at the end of 2025, but Prime Video’s superhero satire The Boys officially flew its last episode into the world back in May. As one might expect from the loudness of the internet, there was division around both endings, with some fans finding them satisfactory conclusions while others…disagree. The conclusion of shows like Game of Thrones has put fans on high alert when it’s time for a show to end, though, as many brace for a failure.
Videos by ComicBook.com
This week saw the anniversary of not only a proper and highly anticipated series finale, though, but one that made major controversial waves when it premiered. June 10, 2007, HBO debuted “Made in America,” the 86th and final episode of the Emmy-winning series The Sopranos. What’s so remarkable about the concluding chapter of David Chase’s iconic TV drama is not just its final controversial moment, but how it genuinely brought the entire series to a close; plus, how the conversation around the finale has changed over time.
The Sopranos Series Finale Ignited a Firestorm When It Premiered
It’s Sunday, June 10, 2007, you’re settling in for what you already know is the last episode of The Sopranos, which clocks in at just over an hour, an exciting extension of what you’re used to. How will Tony handle the war with Phil Leotardo? What will happen to Silvio? Will Tony even make it out alive? The series finale of The Sopranos is epic in scope, but its final minute, scored to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” became the only piece anyone could talk about.
In a rare sliver of sincerity, The Sopranos brought the title family together for a nice moment with a dinner together at Holsten’s diner. At the episode was coming to a conclusion, what’s clear about this moment in the finale is how rare it is, not only with the Soprano family coming together without any kind of animosity toward each other, but the optimistic tone that the scene itself takes on (thanks in part to the song itself). Before the last piece of the puzzle came together (Meadow’s arrival at the diner), Tony looks up to the door as the song swells, and then everything goes black. Hard cut. The Sopranos is over. Do not adjust your television set.
At the time that this occurred, a lot of The Sopranos fans thought that something had occurred with their cable or television, assuming that the picture itself had cut out at a critical moment and they were about to miss something. The truth made it worse for some fans, though, as the hard cut to black resulted in a conclusion that many accused of being unsatisfying and offering no proper closure. It’s probably for the best that social media hadn’t reached its final form in this moment, though, because it would have gotten ugly.
Two Decades Later, The Sopranos Finale Is Known as One of the Greatest
Though the finale of The Sopranos confounded many and quickly earned a reputation as a divisive ending, the reality is that the conclusion quickly inspired deep conversations and examinations about what actually happened and what it all meant. Fans wanted to know the truth, but thanks to how David Chase structured and wrote the series as a whole, there were never easy answers with The Sopranos. As a result, theories cropped up about what happened and what it meant, meaning the conversation around The Sopranos finale never stopped.
What got lost in the larger “controversy” around The Sopranos finale is that the episode had become defined only by the closing minutes, with everything that preceded it lost in the conversation. “Made in America” is a fully loaded episode of the show, one that not only ties up a lot of loose ends, but positions many of its characters into a place where it becomes clear that their future could actually work out for them. That is, except for Tony.
Hanging over Tony’s head throughout the entire finale is what’s going to happen for him next. The biggest threat to Tony’s future is the lingering threat of a grand jury indictment against him, meaning the clock is ticking and his time is almost up. Bigger than that, though, is the fact that the entire episode is structured in such a way that it forces Tony to confront a slew of various characters whose fates all show him a possible future for what he himself could end up.
First, Tony attends Bobby Baccalieri’s funeral, pointing toward how he himself could perish (the opening image of the episode is Tony sleeping at the safe house, framed in such a way that it even looks like him laying in his coffin at a wake). Second, Tony has a sit down with Butchie of the Lupertazzi crime family, where they agree to end their war, and Tony is given permission to find and kill Phil Leotardo, hinting at how Tony himself could be taken down by someone in his own organization. Third, Tony visits Silvio in the hospital, reminiscing with his oldest friend stuck in a coma. Finally, Tony goes to see his uncle Junior, a man with such advanced dementia that he doesn’t recall his past at all.
All of these give Tony some distinct paths, making the final moment of uncertainty even more powerful. What happened to Tony? There were a lot of clues, and it really is up to the viewer to determine what it means and what happened. One of the most common readings of the final moment of The Sopranos‘ finale is that the “Members Only” guy inside Holsten’s kills Tony after exiting the bathroom, with the cut to black being the moment that Tony dies, the series ending with him. Even David Chase, who has danced around what happened and what the ending means for years, has even called the moment “that death scene,” reinforcing the reading.
Given this intense debate, and the fact that we’re still talking about it, what’s become clear is that The Sopranos finale has aged like a fine wine. Nineteen years later, it’s clearer than ever, even after the bizarre Super Bowl commercial and though it ignited controversy and anger from some fans at the time that it occurred, time has proven that it’s actually one of the boldest and best endings in TV history.
