Okay, that was awful. I don’t want to hear anything about “not wrapping things in a bow” or “ambiguity” because that wasn’t what happened last night. And, yes, spoilers follow, so read down if you aren’t interested.

Chase did not end the series with any kind of ambiguity, or at least, with any kind of ambiguity that matters. No, you don’t know precisely what happens to Tony at the end, but Chase left enough hints around to let anyone put any bow they wanted on the end of the show. If you think Tony should die, well, the ending, combined with Bobby’s comments about just fading to black — which were emphasized in the penultimate episode — let you think he died. If you think he was going to jail, the final scene’s tension combined with the news of Carlos’ grand jury testimony let you think that he was about to be picked up. If you want to believe that Tony continues to muddle along while slowly corrupting and destroying the things around him, A.J.’s sudden conversion to materialism and Meadow’s slow drift into Mob lawyer-land and the plight of Bobby’s poor kids let you believe that as well. That’s not ambiguity — that is pandering.

Chase and his staff created a rich show with fascinating characters and events. Those characters and those events have different importance and meaning depending upon which ending you imagine for the show. Instead of trusting his viewers to think, to re-examine the show in the light of an ending, Chase did the worst kind of pandering. He gave enough evidence to support any conclusion anyone wants to believe and in doing so stole from the audience the pleasure of having to think about what they have just seen. Since you can choose your own ending, you can — and probably will — choose the ending that best fits your desires, pre-conceived notions, and biases. Chase did wrap the show up in a nice, net little package — he just let you choose the wrapping paper.

And that’s a shame. Chase indulged in the kind of pretentious self-indulgence that gets first year film students Fs. He could have trusted his audience, trusted in his story and the structure and characters that he and his writers and actors had created over the last several years. He could have given us something like Rashamon; instead he gave us something like a “choose your adventure” book. The Sopranos could have been truly great. Chase settled for just truly pretentious.