Seven years later, David Chase annoys us all over again.
To save you some pain, the article is very meta, and all Chase says is basically, "No, he isn't [dead]."
I gotta say, this adds to the legend of Chase's brilliance. The Lost writers were only able to upset us once with the ending of Lost-- Chase has managed irritate us over and over again.
I feel vindicated. As much as people tried to convince me, I never could quite grasp that Tony died in the finale.
He is. I think Chase just lost his nerve after Gandolfini died and couldn't bring himself to say it. If you watch that breakdown of the episode, unless Chase just threw together that last scene completely randomly, it is fairly clear.
Pretty sure Tony is dead. In fact, I heard he was Paul.
The plot thickens. David Chase has followed up on his remarks by saying they were misconstrued in last week's article and that he did not in fact definitively proclaim that Tony is still alive. No elaboration on his follow-up though. Essentially, he's left the whole thing ambiguous. Which, of course, is right back where we started.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/20...ype=blogs&_r=0
I've always felt that since Chase never showed us what exactly happened that it was up to us the viewer to decide Tony's fate. I still feel that way, no matter what Mr. Chase or anyone else says.
The end is apparently based on Edgar Allen Poe's poem, Dream Within a Dream:
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?