Re:He's dead, Jim (Score 1)

I think you're dead on, mostly. I think it left you thinking about two distinct possibilities. Godfather 3, his daughter dies, all James Cagney "top of the world" movies, the hero dies. I was thinking both the entire time I was watching it. I think though that the real thing they left you with was the paranoia, like you said. He's not going to die, but he's going to live the rest of his life thinking that he could. And so will his family.

They knocked Phil off to close that chapter specifically so that everyone wouldn't automatically think he was going to get shot.