Life Through the Lens: The Nihilism of Livia and Tony Soprano

[Soprano’s Series Spoilers]

There has been endless debate over whether or not Tony Soprano was killed at the end of HBO’s The Sopranos. He very likely was. However it hit me that I don’t think that’s the point of the ending.

Let’s backtrack for a moment.

A recurring theme throughout the series is that life is all a big nothing. This point is especially reiterated by Tony and his mother Livia.

However the objective reality of the series completely negates this premise.

How so?

Christopher and Tony’s NDEs.

Paulie seeing the Virgin Mary at the Bing.

Adrianna reincarnating into a cat.

Paulie carrying around a “bunch of ghouls”.

AJ potentially being visited by Livia after her passing.

Pussy in the mirror at Tony’s house.

The professor extolling the true nature of oneness to Tony after he’s shot.

The list goes on.

Life is very clearly not a big nothing in the world of Sopranos. In fact, it’s part of a much broader reality that incorporates multiple aspects of the “paranormal” and reveals us to be players in a grand drama (or comedy, depending on your viewpoint).

So with all that said, why does Chase and Co. continue to pepper in nihilistic notions?

Well, at the end of the day, the Sopranos, at its heart, is a story about a boy with severe mommy issues.

The opening shot is Tony framed by a statue’s legs in Dr. Melfi’s office.

The statue of a woman.

The ending is everything cutting to black as Tony’s daughter (the last true bit of goodness in his life) — another woman — enters Holstein’s.

Throughout it all, we watch Tony devolve from this devil may care “rascal” into an endlessly negative monster. He does have an arc (like Noah!). Remember, he’s not the boss at the beginning. As he clings to power and his crown throughout the story, he becomes worse and worse until his default isn’t the family man front he puts up for society, but the manic-depressive gangster who is constantly dissatisfied.

In short, Tony Soprano became his mother.

An endless black hole.

He didn’t get pulled into the black hole.

The big nothing.

There is no objective big nothing.

Instead, he became the big nothing.

That’s the final point of the Sopranos.

People like Tony, like Livia, are the big nothing.

Not some outside malevolent agency looking to devour us all. But people who use nihilism as an excuse to commit terrible actions.

Tony Soprano is the big nothing. Just like his mother.

“Don’t Stop Believin’ plays at the very end, extolling Tony to the true nature of reality. That even after all his horrible crimes, there is still hope. But upon seeing his daughter enter — whether he gets killed or not — he realizes that even her light is not enough to pull him out of himself. Tony finally succumbs to the trap his mother laid for him since birth.

Tony Soprano. Born of a woman. Warped into a monster — the great big nothing.