It is a scene that has grown in infamy.

In the last scene of "The Sopranos," Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), sits at a diner with his family. The tension was building, but there's no real reason for it. His rival crime boss is dead, and he seems to be in the clear. Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" is playing on the jukebox. A.J. (Robert Iler) has arrived, just after the man in the "Members Only" jacket that seems to mysteriously hold sway over the tension. Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) is struggling to find a parking spot and the mysterious man goes to the bathroom. Then Meadow walks into the diner and Tony looks up. 

Viewers have been left to ponder why the show faded to black at that moment. The HBO series left fans in a moment of rising tension then just disappeared. The question has been debated and argued over the past eight years: "Did Tony get killed?" Did his lights just "go out," as his brother-in-law said in regards to dying while on a boat ride with Tony earlier in the season?

David Chase was recently interviewed by the Director's Guild of America and spilled a few thoughts about the finale.

In reference to Tony being distracted while waiting for his children to arrive at the diner, Chase said, "Tony hears the bell when the door opens and he's repeatedly looking up when he hears it throughout the scene. That rhythm is very important to the scene."

That scene is another – on top of the music that was playing – that added to the building tension.

So when A.J. walks in behind the mysterious man, there seems to be an underlying purpose that the scene will climax.

"My thinking about wanting to introduce A.J. and the guy together was that both the audience and Tony would not focus on the guy so much, they would focus on A.J. Tony would focus on his son, rather than the man who might be there to do him harm," Chase said.

But after the fact, we see the man looking over at Tony in a calm and collected manner. It seemed to be quite revealing.

"I just wanted the guy to look over. I didn't want him to look particularly menacing. And he glances off Tony so quickly," Chase said. "We worked on that quite a bit so he wasn't staring at him. The guy was like looking around the place in general."

But even with all the insight, he never mentioned anything in regards to Tony's fate after the show faded to black. But Chase did add, "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."