Yes, I watched it

The only time I've ever seen an entire episode of 'The Sopranos' is the final show.

As if I'm not going to see it, and listen to all the press and wish I had?

There were many layers of interpretation, enough that even a novice like me could come up with my own spin on what was going on and how this saga ends. Not having watched it doesn't mean I had no idea what was going on about the show or the depth of the characters. When it came out 8 years ago, I didn't have HBO, and listened to all the hype and fevered talk after each episode at work. I thought, "Wow, way to capitalize on the Robert DeNiro movie 'Analyze This', mob boss seeing a shrink." I didn't really want to get that involved in a television show. While driving to Portland from Florida the summer of 2000, one of my Days Inn rooms had free HBO, and after driving 11 hours, I had taken a hot shower and bedded down with the cat, and watched about 30 minutes of this new mafia show, and thought it was great television. And never watched HBO again until this spring, when I got a digital cable adapter in March and it came with 6 months of free HBO.

I even watched last night's episode twice, because I thought I had only seen the second to last episode by mistake, because how can a series like this one end like this?

So the second time it went black, I thought I knew what most likely happened.

The Members Only dude was definitely a hitman. Heavy foreshadowing there, going to the restroom, like the Godfather hit with Pacino, clear shot to Tony when he comes out. The onion ring eaten the same way by all three; whole, straight into the mouth, like a wafer, like a family sacrament, like a halo. Since Tony directed the hit at the gas station, it makes sense that Tony would get hit in return. Neither his wife or his son are innocents, and may have been hit as well, although I don't think that is as likely as everyone else thinks. Meadow not being there is symbolic of her trying to rise above this mess, and marry the crusading lawyer and break the corruption cycle of her parents and family. Trying hard to park, trying to get it right, finding it hard to get it right. Tony seeing his uncle Junior and tearing up at the end shows him what living too long can be like, all the grief of this family doesn't mean shit at the end. Tony making sure his nephew didn't live is like Uncle Junior shooting him. Even the babies in the SUV at the gas station will grow up knowing they were in the truck when their grandfather was killed, blood upon the innocents. When Tony was raking outside, and he stood for a moment looking into the trees and the setting sun, I think it was like his moment of taking stock of it all, and knowing this was probably it. The end of his life pre-indictment, the end of his search for clarity with his therapist, his mentors and supporters were gone, this whole previous chapter of this life was over. Go talk to his uncle and tell him to give the money to Bobby's kids, then meet for dinner. Meadow escapes, if A.J. lives, he's pretty ineffectual and not a threat, Tony's wife is guilty by association, and if she lives, she's moving to the beach house and leaving the scene anyway. "Remember the good times," A. J. says, and that is why I think he and his mom live after Tony is hit, but they will have blood on them literally and metaphorically.

But I've only seen the one show. I could be wrong.