The Sopranos ending explained: What happens to Tony Soprano in the end?

The widely popular American television series The Sopranos concluded on June 10, 2007, after running successfully for six seasons. Starring James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese, Steven Van Zandt, Tony Sirico, Robert Iler, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, the series was one of the most successful series on HBO.

Following its conclusion, many people were disappointed with how things turned out for the show's title character as many wished that Tony Soprano had not died towards the end. For the uninitiated, Soprano was shot and killed in the final episode, after dodging death several times throughout the series.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers.

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Tony Soprano dies towards the end of The Sopranos

A still from the show (Image via HBO)

It is quite uncommon for the title characters of a show to get killed towards its end, but with The Sopranos, it seems like the makers did not want to take the usual trajectory. Tony Soprano, a North Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, played by James Joseph Gandolfini Jr., was killed off in the show's concluding episode by a gunshot.

Although it wasn't established who fired the gun, conversations surrounding the possibility of the gun wielder started to do the rounds on social media. On popular Reddit forums, the consensus was that Georgie had called the shots. This was purely based on the compromised relations between Georgie and Tony leading up to the incident.

Some also believed that Junior was behind Tony's untimely demise. However, there was no basis for this theorization.

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What happens to Carlo in The Sopranos?

Towards the end of The Sopranos, Carlo suddenly goes missing. After his son, Jason, is arrested on grounds of drug peddling, Paulie suspects foul play from Carlo. He is under the impression that Carlo had called the authorities on his son and got him arrested. Although he had no basis to support his deductions, he believed that the two incidents were related to one another.

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Junior no longer remembers his past life

By the end of The Sopranos, Junior is shown to be suffering from severe dementia. As a result, Junior does not remember significant portions of his life, including his life as a mobster alongside his nephew, Tony Soprano.

In the final episode of the show, Janice pays a visit to Junior to pass on the sad news of Bobby's demise. However, due to his ailing health, he does not remember anything. He fails to register who Bobby is, let alone grieve his death. The incident is shocking yet not surprising as it is normal for people suffering from dementia to reach such a situation.

Additionally, later, when Tony pays a visit to Junior to ask him to pass on his fortune to Bobby's kids, he fails to recognize them yet again. He also fails to recollect memories of the life he had before he took ill. However, unlike Junior, Tony was not very accepting of the situation. He was taken aback by it and shed a few tears thinking about Junior's fate.

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About the show

The Sopranos was created by David Chase and executive-produced by David Chase, Brad Grey, Robin Green, Mitchell Burgess, Ilene S. Landress, Terence Winter, and Matthew Weiner. It was produced by Chase Films, Brad Grey Television, and HBO Entertainment. The official logline for the show read:

"Headed by mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), the Sopranos follows the criminal legacy of the DiMeo crime family in New Jersey, along with his enduring wife Carmela (Edie Falco), therapist and confidant Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), hot-headed nephew Christopher (Michael Imperioli) and mentor and uncle "Junior" (Dominic Chianese)."

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The Sopranos is currently streaming on Max and Amazon Prime Video.