Enough valid points to make me reconsider my original position, however...
1. If the Members Only guy killed Tony after coming out of the bathroom, then why doesn\'t Tony look in his direction when startled instead of straight ahead, which is the opposite direction of the bathroom.
2. If the Members Only guy is going to kill Tony, wouldn\'t he try to be a bit more inconspicuous, rather than glance at Tony about a hundred times before offing him.
3. If New York wanted to kill Tony by luring him into a false sense of security in order to whack him, that\'s fine. But in that case, why would they let Jersey kill Phil too? Just so Butchie could take over New York? There\'s nothing that alludes to that at any point. Furthermore, New York didn\'t set up that sit down; Tony did. So there really is no evidence whatsoever of a master plan by New York to kill both bosses.
4. About the "you probably don\'t even hear it when it happens," line. Sure, that could be in reference to Tony. Or, it could be in reference to Bobby seeing as how the line is directed at him and he actually does get killed.
5. About the song: the notion that Don\'t Stop Believin\' is a message to Carm to keep going strong after Tony\'s death is laughable analysis at best. I mean, she\'d have every expectation to stop believing after seeing her husband get killed in front of her kids. If you\'re going to analyze the song in reference to the final outcome, how about considering the line, "it goes on and on and on," being sung as Tony is talking about the impending indictments. Or the last words heard in the history of the show, which are "don\'t stop."
I don\'t know. I\'m sure it\'s fun to pretend to be a detective and read between the lines and find all these cute little clues to force symbolism. Or you can pay attention to what actually happened. Either way. If you really want to subscribe to Chase\'s statement that it\'s "all there," well then, doesn\'t that lend validity to the notion that Tony lives since we don\'t actually see him die? Personally, I think Chase threw all these Godfather allusions and the orange overtones and such to fuck with people who look too deeply into things, sort of a Glass Onion approach. Furthermore, I think it\'s a much less effective ending if Tony does die at the end because we see nothing of the aftermath. And call me crazy, but I think it\'s fairly important to show the aftermath when the show\'s protagonist dies.
I will give the guy credit for making a strong case and he did make me rethink the notion that Chase literally did leave it open-ended with enough indications for either the life or death ending. That was my thought when I first watched the episode and I hate that scenario the most. I maintain my original stance that Tony lives and feel that ending is the most effective of the possible three.
