Question: Did Tony Soprano get whacked after David Chase "Cut to Black"?
Answer: YES.
Explanation:
David Chase's abrupt "Cut to Black" and lingering silence at what was the end of the Sopranos Final Episode has created an enormous controversy. The last time a TV show cut off early, leaving viewers hanging, it changed the world of TV sports broadcasting. "The Heidi Game" in 1968 involved the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders, and NBC cut away from a Raiders comeback to air the children's movie "Heidi" on time.
Anyone alive in 1968 involved with TV or sports remembers the controversy that erupted -- resulting in a Wikipedia entry for The Heidi Game.
Just why North Jersey born-and-raised Chase --a longtime TV director and writer -- decided to create his own version of The Heidi Game controversy is unclear, but this season he not only featured the Jets' head coach in a Sopranos cameo, he also had Tony betting on a Jets game.
The title of recent Sopranos Episode 83, "Kennedy and Heidi", appeared at the time to refer to the two girls whose car Christopher nearly hit in the accident that would lead to his death. The writers strained in that very brief scene to have the theretofore unknown characters address each other explicitly by their first names. At the time, it seemed oddly forced. Until the final episode, the meaning of this reference hung in the air, unresolved.
So where does Kennedy come in? The anticipated "whacking" of Tony Soprano has been the subject of years of speculation. Had it occured on screen, it would have been a rival to the Zapruder film in terms of being an iconic filmed death scene. "The biggest thing since the Kennedy assassination," perhaps. Of course, this ignores the fact that JFK was a beloved U.S. President and Tony Soprano is a fictional, sociopathic criminal, but Sopranos fans love their Tony.
David Chase pulled a Heidi -- cut off the video -- right before all visual cues led us to expect that Tony Soprano would be killed. And he foreshadowed it three episodes earlier with the episode title "Kennedy and Heidi'.
As Chase chose to pair the references Kennedy and Heidi togehter, it makes litle sense that Tony Soprano would have survived an assassination attempt had the camera view not suddenly cut to black. Were Tony meant to survive an asassination attempt, the teens in the car would surely have been named Reagan and Heidi.
Tony Soprano is dead. For now.