Do you think Tony was killed in that diner? I’m starting to lean toward the fact that he actually wasn’t, and instead was beginning to live the rest of his life a little paranoid, as all his former crew members tended to do (Chris, Pussy, Paulie etc were all, at many points, looking over their shoulders thinking they were a moment away from being whacked). There’s the song (Don’t Stop Believing) that was playing whilst he sat waiting for AJ & Meadow to arrive, and I don’t know whether the lyrics (it goes on and on and on and on……) backed up my opinion that he wasn’t shot.
The only other potential theory that I can think of is that he was shot, and that it was possibly masterminded by Patsy Parisi (his twin brother Philly was murdered by an arranged hit from Tony early in the show), and was expertly carried out by getting his Son involved with Meadow. Presumably he could then, if he wanted to, take out Paulie, leaving him as the only member let of Tony’s crew as Sil was out of the picture now for sure. Of course he could think the opposite, and saw an opportunity to work as either a Capo or Underboss to Tony, with only Paulie remaining, however that seems unlikely, as he thought that would happen when Pussy was whacked but Christopher got the nod instead, despite being his junior, which clearly pissed him off at the time.