“They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know?”
That bothered me."
The ending has been dissected and debated ever since.

James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, and Robert Iler on ‘The Sopranos’.Will Hart /HBO
Chase said what viewers really wanted was “toknowthat Tony was killed.
They wanted to see him go face-down in linguini, you know?
That bothered me.”
And now you want to see him killed?
You want justice done?
You’re a criminal after watching this s for seven years."
He later came up with the alternative ending.
“It was kind of like a shack that served breakfast.
And for some reason I thought, ‘Tony should get it in a place like that.’
I don’t know.
That was, like, two years before [the series ended].”