Fade to black

Well, last night was it.

The End.

Of The Sopranos, that is.

One of my all-time favorite shows ended, not with a bang or a flurry of violence. Nope. It just ended.

[SPOILER ALERT: IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FINALE, STOP READING].

I had prepared myself that the writers were going to kill Tony off in the last episode. I mean, it would have been a fitting end for him. He was not a nice guy -- having just murdered his "nephew" a few episodes back. And last week, his two top guys were hit. So, it just made sense that he'd be next.

How wrong I was. Nothing happened to the guy. N.O.T.H.I.N.G.

Instead: the other boss, Phil Leotardo, got whacked. You just knew that had to happen. But it was - surprisingly - the ONLY death all episode.

Tony didn't get arrested. He didn't get whacked. He didn't go all witness-protection on us.

Nope. He went to dinner with the family and the screen faded to black.

OK, sure....for the last few minutes of the show we all thought he was gonna get hit. My pulse was actually racing and my hands were all sweaty...I was just waiting for it to happen.

Various people came in and out of the restaurant, all looking at Tony in an odd way. The camera kept cutting to daughter Meadow outside, trying to parallel park (so I thought: oh, the rest of the fam is going to get hit and she's going to be the only survivor).

But no.

This was the final scene: Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" was playing in the background, the door opens to the restaurant, Tony looks up and ..... fade to black.

We will never know what happened after that.

And I think, that's the most fitting way to end one of the best shows on TV ever.