David Chase explains 'Sopranos' ending again

Creator David Chase has been giving evasive answers for the better part of the last decade about Tony Soprano's fate.

And he continued his Tour of Non-Explanations this week for the Director's Guild of America — though granted, he delivered his most detailed non-answer yet, walking the viewer through the last scene, nearly shot for shot.

"I thought the ending would be somewhat jarring, sure," Chase writes. "But not to the extent it was, and not a subject of such discussion. I really had no idea about that."

Riiiight, David Chase, we totally believe you. Anyway, as for that final shot, well, here you go:

"I said to Gandolfini, the bell rings and you look up. That last shot of Tony ends on 'don't stop,' it's mid-song. I'm not going to go into (if that's Tony's POV). I thought the possibility would go through a lot of people's minds or maybe everybody's mind that he was killed.

He might have gotten shot three years ago in that situation. But he didn't. Whether this is the end here, or not, it's going to come at some point for the rest of us.

Hopefully we're not going to get shot by some rival gang mob or anything like that. I'm not saying that (happened).

But obviously he stood more of a chance of getting shot by a rival gang mob than you or I do because he put himself in that situation. All I know is the end is coming for all of us."

Then — fade to black. So?

"I never considered the black a shot. I just thought what we see is black. The ceiling I was going for at that point, the biggest feeling I was going for, honestly, was don't stop believing. It was very simple and much more on the nose than people think.

That's what I wanted people to believe. That life ends and death comes, but don't stop believing. There are attachments we make in life, even though it's all going to come to an end, that are worth so much, and we're so lucky to have been able to experience them. Life is short. Either it ends here for Tony or some other time. But in spite of that, it's really worth it. So don't stop believing."

So, yeah. No definitive answer. This is not too surprising, because in the past, Chase has remained determined not to spill it. Among a few examples:

- June 2007. While talking to The Star-Ledger newspaper directly after the episode: "I have no interest in explaining, defending, reinterpreting, or adding to what is there."

- October 2007. In a book excerpt: "There was nothing definite about what happened, but there was a clean trend on view — a definite sense of what Tony and Carmela's future looks like. Whether it happened that night or some other night doesn't really matter."

- May 2014: At a panel, refusing to confirm Tony's fate either way. "I wanted to create a suspenseful sequence ... It wasn't meant to confound anybody. It was meant to make you feel — not to make you think, but to make you feel."

- August 2014. A Vox writer claims that Chase confirmed that Tony didn't die. Chase's publicist denies this in a statement: "To simply quote David as saying, 'Tony Soprano is not dead,' is inaccurate ... Whether Tony Soprano is alive or dead is not the point. To continue to search for this answer is fruitless. The final scene of 'The Sopranos' raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer."

- September 2014. Elaborating to the Daily Beast on the aforementioned "spiritual question": "Is that all there is?"