After six seasons of vicariously living through the head case that is Tony Soprano, the shows writer and creator, David Chase, decided to break every rule in story telling and gave Tony Soprano the most notorious television exit of all time. Is Tony dead? Why did the camera follow that guy into the bathroom? Why is Boston's "Don't Stop Believing" eerily playing through the final scene? 

To make matters worse, Chase decided to fade to black for a whole 30-seconds before the ending credits rolled. Fans across the globe were busy throwing remotes at the television and dialing up HBO, wondering why their show had just been cut off.  Then out of the darkness the credits began to roll, and everyone realized that it was a part of Chase's masterfully conflicting ending.

For seven years, Chase has been tight-lipped about whether or not Tony was assassinated in the final scene. With no guidance from the show's creator, fans have developed their own theories on the whereabouts of Tony. Some have devised the "Purgatory Theory," in which the restaurant is a metaphor for the afterlife and Tony is waiting for his family members one by one. Others claim that the scene is too eerie for Tony to make it out alive. The man going to the bathroom and the camera following him gives viewers the impression that he is somehow important in a negative aspect.

Chase opened up to Vox in an unprecedented interview where he was confronted with the inevitable question of is Tony dead or not. "No... No he isn't," Chase told Vox. When the story was eventually published fans took that short line to mean that Tony literally had not died in the ending scene.

Leslee Dart, a spokesman for Chase, said, "A journalist for Vox misconstrued what David Chase said in their interview. To simply quote David as saying, 'Tony Soprano is not dead,' is inaccurate. There is a much larger context for that statement and as such, is not true."

With the further clarification it turns out the mystery of Tony Soprano's demise remains unsolved. Chase will likely never reveal his true intentions, which is an artistic move and completely justifiable. The American imagination is left to solve this final mystery.