VIDEO: Did Tony Die on ‘The Sopranos’ Finale? Stern Show Staff Debates

The iconic HBO series “The Sopranos” might have gone off the air over 13 years ago but the way it concluded continues to draw spirited discussions amongst members of the Stern Show staff. “I love the ending, I think it’s brilliant,” Jason Kaplan said of the controversial cut-to-black finale episode, titled “Made in America.” “I freaked out like everybody else, and then I sat and thought about it and I was like, ‘Yeah, you know what, they kind of telegraphed this was gonna happen all season and it happened – cool ending.’”

“You’re such a bullshit artist,” co-worker Chris Wilding argued. “You just said you watched it, you had no idea what happened, and then you had to Monday morning quarterback to even figure out the story and that’s not what an ending should be.”

For noted TV expert Jon Hein, there was also much left to be desired. “When you’re watching the show, I want to know how it ends and I don’t want to make it up myself and I don’t want to interpret it,” the Wrap Up Show co-host said rather passionately. “If [creator] David Chase wants Tony Soprano to be dead, I want to see at least 15 bullets in the guy in the diner sprayed out in front his family and then reacting.”

JD Harmeyer, who once directed an episode of FX’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” was supportive of Chase’s choices. “Some things are more about the journey than the ending,” he reasoned.

“We were on the journey, it was the end of the journey, okay?” Jon fired back. “‘Don’t Stop Believin’ is playin’, it’s building up to this great moment, and ‘Okay how are we going to end this thing … oh it’s up to you to interpret it.’ Fuck that.”

After Jason and fellow staffer Memet Walker argued over a quote from the Bobby Baccalà character in the episode “Soprano Home Movies,” it was co-host Robin Quivers who summed it up best. “You guys gotta get out of quarantine,” she pointed out with a laugh. “That’s what I’m thinking.”