said this about the final episode:

"I wasn't going to do this," Chase says, "but somebody said it would be a good idea if we said something about that ending. I really wasn't going to go into it, but I'll just say this...when I was going to Stanford University's graduate film school and was 23 , I went to see Planet of the Apes with my wife. When it was over, I said, 'Wow ... so they had a Statue of Liberty, too.'"

I assume he means that the ending of the Sopranos was obvious and that people are missing it due to overanalysis, lack of attention, wanting a different ending...whatever.

I get that, but my question is, what is the "Statue of Liberty" in the final episode? It seems to me that it can only be one of two things...1) The show just ended--Chase simply pulled the plug--no resolution--no real "ending" at least in the dramatic sense--just a literal "end"--hence the screen going black. The "Statue of Liberty" is the TV going off, stupid!...okay.

or 2)Tony was killed...he sees black b/c he got popped in the back of the head, stupid!

Both positions are reasonable, but I think it is clear that the POV pattern was established. The camera roved in the scene to distinguish what was Tony's POV from what wasn't--the bell-T's reaction-what T sees--his reaction--that is the standard definition of a POV shot--no shot is intrinsically POV--it's the shots that come before and after that make it POV--character--what he sees(POV)--reaction--this was done so much that it's difficult for me to think that it was just a lead up to Chase pulling the plug/an ending w/o an ending.

The onion rings/eucharist could very well be a coincidence that some dude desperate for meaning pulled out of his ass as a result of an Alex Jones style fervor for finding connections. If this is the case, though, it is a very interesting coincidence. I think the Viaticum/Journey connection does seem a tad far-fetched but not impossible--and really, I just can't see any other way that the song connects to the final scene.