Breaking Bad

[hellblazer103]

that's what i was thinking during the whole episode. did liam neeson train him during the commercial breaks this whole show ? dayum

 

[Piper Maru]

So where does Jesse go from here? I doubt he'll be able to live a "normal" life after everything he's been through.

 

[georgec]

Walter was like a ghost with the way he kept sneaking up on people.

He was dead the entire time!!!

Ghost Walt was either a hallucination by the characters or an actual ghost who needed to set his wrongs right before moving on.

 

[hellblazer103]

i love how walt just shoots him mid-sentence, just like when jack shot hank in the head before he could even finish his sentence.

 

[Still Wynning]

You know, it dawned on me a little earlier, but Vince Gilligan's journey with this show kind of parallels Walter White's journey (You know, without all of the meth-making, violence, back-stabbing all that. t.

Both started something because they just enjoyed doing it and were really good at it. And, at the very end, just like Walter White leaving his bloody handprint to reclaim his reputation and leave his mark on the world, Vince Gilligan, with this wonderfully written show, has left his mark as well.

When you think about it that way, it makes the ending of the show even more beautifully poetic and poignant.

Damn I didn't notice him sitting there in the coffee shop.

I noticed him almost right away, because I was looking for him. After all, he was trying to tie up loose ends, and he knew that Lydia was a creature of habit.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

So where does Jesse go from here? I doubt he'll be able to live a "normal" life after everything he's been through.

With what that dude has been through, I definitely don't see him adopting Brock. Maybe getting to visit him one more time, but that's it.

 

[hobo123]

Quick question, did we ever find out about what happened to Walt's mother?

 

[TheNextNolan22]

This is depressing as ****. I think I'm gonna cry again.

 

[ThreadPool]

Hell if I know. Lol!
One complaint I've been seeing is that there weren't enough curveballs. I think the real curveballs came right before the finale. The truth coming out about Walt, Mike, Hank... I like that about the serialized nature of this kind of tv. Everything doesn't have to happen at the very end, because the end has been this entire season.
I came into the series pretty late. This wasn't quite perfection to me but it's the closest anyone has been in some time. Best drama that's been on tv these past 6 years. It's been so consistently good, and it went out on top, on it's own terms.

 

[Broseph44]

that's what i was thinking during the whole episode. did liam neeson train him during the commercial breaks this whole show ? dayum

I really don't see why people think all of that was so hard to believe.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

I really don't see why people think all of that was so hard to believe.

This. He's done it before so I don't see what's so hard to believe.

 

[Piper Maru]

This. He's done it before so I don't see what's so hard to believe.

Some people just like to nitpick everything. I read earlier in this thread someone didn't like how Walt went back to his tan colored clothes. Like is that really a big deal? lol.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

Some people just like to nitpick everything. I read earlier in this thread someone didn't like how Walt went back to his tan colored clothes. Like is that really a big deal? lol.

DONE.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

So, how many of you think Jesse will continue to make meth?

 

[TheNextNolan22]

With all the crap he's been put through? I can't see it.

 

[BestGirl]

So, how many of you think Jesse will continue to make meth?

I don't. I believe his experiences with Walt have left him mentally scared forever. After everything that's happened to him, if he goes back to the drug biz he's a complete idiot.

 

[Piper Maru]

I don't know what kind of life waits for Jesse in the aftermath. I think he'll relocate somewhere and stay out of sight and out of mind.

 

[redhawk23]

man people really hopped onto that whole "Blood. Meth. Tears." explanation for the "Felina" title, making shirts and all but Gilligan only ties it into the song reference. I mean it works but its kind of funny how much of a life of its own that took.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Which is why I think AMC decided to split the season up. And I agree completely, these last 8 episodes of the series are going to be hard to top. Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, and Bryan Cranston better win!!

I find it doubtful. While networks do like awards to help market something, I don't think it's a major importance. I really do think the split was a compromise between Gilligan and the network as opposed to them ordering a single reduced season, which was the original plan, I believe. It's weird to think now, but BB wasn't the megahit ratings wise it randomly turned into these last years originally. Walking Dead and Mad Men both got higher ratings, and BB was roughly the same as Hell on Wheels. It just happened to turn into their favor big time that it become such an overnight phenomenon.

 

[Dark Carnage]

It took a friend to point out to me the relevance of Walt's dying in the lab. Though the blue crystal had continued after he disappeared. the discovery of his body at the cook site negates everything that really happened and his legacy is in tact.

I liked the ending before, but realising that made it so much sweeter.

 

[redhawk23]

http://vimeo.com/75760291 The opening lines of the first episode, played over the closing.

 

[Keyser Soze]

It's been a day now since I watched the Breaking Bad finale, and I'm still in awe. I feel a deep sadness it's all over, mixed with a satisfaction that we now have this complete, beautiful story to treasure forever, safe in the knowledge that Vince Gilligan and co stuck the landing.

This was not a shocking finale. There were no real twists or revelations here, and I don't think there was any need for them. If that's what you expect from a finale, then I would argue that "Ozymandius" is the real finale, with everything that followed acting as an extended victory lap as the aftermath of that most climactic of episodes settled in on us. In "Felina", the focus was much more on inevitability, on things that were set in motion way back at the beginning of the story finally coming to their natural conclusion. No, this wasn't shocking. But by God, it was satisfying.

Breaking Bad has always been one of the most intensely moral shows on television, and so it was fitting that this episode ends with the bad people being punished and the good people getting a shot at something better. Lydia, Todd, Uncle Jack and the Nazis all meet a grisly end: the Nazis killed with a classic badass "YEAH SCIENCE!" moment, Jack satisyingly offed in much the same manner as Hank only Jack now in the role of futilely trying to use money as a bargaining chip while Walt has gone on to being unmoved by such offers, Todd getting axed in literally the exact way I wanted him to go after last week - getting choked out by Jesse with his shackles. And Lydia's fate is perhaps most gruesomely rewarding of all in how much is left to our imagination - the series-long Checkov's gun of ricin poisoning finally being unleashed on her ensures that this most odious of villains in all her prim, precisely-manicured ruthlessness will die in heaps of her own vomit and feces, unable to stomach even her vile new-agey tea concoctions.

As for the good folk, Walt Jr inherits a fortune without it coming with the taint of drug money, Marie seems to have found her husband's strength in his absence and will at least be given the comfort of having his body to bury, and Skyler gets a chance to both somewhat reconcile with Walt and be vindicated at last with Walt's acknowledgement that all of this wasn't for his family... it was always for him. A strong contender for my favourite moment of the episode in an episode filled with them.

And then there's Jesse. I've seen some people upset that we have no idea where he goes next as he drives off, screaming in half-insane, feral joy. Does he go on the run? Does he go after Brock? Does he drive himself off a cliff to end the endless sea of pain that is his life? The truth is, it's not important. What's important is that he can make the decision, himself, to do any of these things, or none of them. He can go to Alaska and open a woodshop. It doesn't matter that he's beaten-down, traumatised and penniless, because at last... after being under the thumb of so many people over the course of the series... he's FREE. We don't see where Jesse goes, and can never see what horizon he drives off into, because he drives out of this dark world and into one of his own making. And that in itself was the most rewarding possible resolution the character could have.

And what of Walt? Some have complained that he didn't deserve redemption, and this final episode was undeniably redemptive for him, where even in death he is triumphant. As someone who has been vocal in expression my opinion that Walt had become the villain of his own show and was beyond our sympathy, I was totally happy with this redemptive arc. He got his punishment in "Ozymandius" and "Granite State". He was laid low, and everything was taken away from him. And what made his final journey in this episode so rewarding was that it wasn't some hollow contrition like the Dexter finale where everything is shaped to best suit the protagonist, but rather at last he was making amends and repairing some of the damage done to those he hurt most with his actions before his own inevitable demise.

I'm going to make a reach here, but amidst all the talk of symbolism on the show there's one quite obvious detail that I've not seen discussed. The first time the name "Heisenberg" is used in Breaking Bad, it is in the episode where Walt first shaves his head. In interviews, Cranston talked about Walt's reasoning for this being that "Walt didn't want to recognise the person he saw looking back at him in the mirror." Well, here in "Felina", his hair is back. For the first time since Season 1, Walt recognises himself in the mirror. A lot of fans have got into the rhetoric of the Heisenberg myth: how many times have we heard, "Walt is gone, only Heisenberg remains," or "Walt needs to bring back Heisenberg to kick some ass?" Walt himself bought into this myth, of Heisenberg as this larger-than-life criminal mastermind who was without peer, with him reaching the height of his despicable hubris in Season 5's "Say My Name." But the past couple of episodes have deconstructed that Heisenberg myth, with "Granite State" actively making a mockery of the ritual of putting on the pork pie hat when it can't even get him out his front gate. Heisenberg wasn't some superhero alter ego or dormant alternate personality. It was Walt. It was always Walt. And in "Felina", Walt himself realises that, and we see how resourceful and effective WALTER WHITE is at getting stuff done when he's not making ostentatious displays of his own genius. Heisenberg was well and truly buried by the time this finale began, and this was Walt trying to recapture who he really is, perhaps spurned on by Gretchen's words at the close of last episode.

Are there little things I wanted? Sure. I would have loved a Jesse/Walt Jr scene before all was said and done, even if I can't figure out how they could have done it. And I was itching for some kind of aftermath after Walt's poignant final moments. But I think it's appropriate that the show ends as Walter's life does. We came into this world with him. It's appropriate we leave it with him too.

I'm aware this is a meandering rant, so I'll stop now. To wrap up, all Breaking Bad needed to do to cement its legacy as my favourite TV show of all time was not make a total disastrous mess of the last episode. And this finale was far from a disaster. It didn't do anything fancy, but I didn't want it to. Instead it focused on giving us everything we could want from the end of this story. Thank you Bryan Cranston and all the rest of the impeccable cast. And thank you Vince Gilligan.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

It's been a day now since I watched the Breaking Bad finale, and I'm still in awe. I feel a deep sadness it's all over, mixed with a satisfaction that we now have this complete, beautiful story to treasure forever, safe in the knowledge that Vince Gilligan and co stuck the landing.

This was not a shocking finale. There were no real twists or revelations here, and I don't think there was any need for them. If that's what you expect from a finale, then I would argue that "Ozymandius" is the real finale, with everything that followed acting as an extended victory lap as the aftermath of that most climactic of episodes settled in on us. In "Felina", the focus was much more on inevitability, on things that were set in motion way back at the beginning of the story finally coming to their natural conclusion. No, this wasn't shocking. But by God, it was satisfying.

Breaking Bad has always been one of the most intensely moral shows on television, and so it was fitting that this episode ends with the bad people being punished and the good people getting a shot at something better. Lydia, Todd, Uncle Jack and the Nazis all meet a grisly end: the Nazis killed with a classic badass "YEAH SCIENCE!" moment, Jack satisyingly offed in much the same manner as Hank only Jack now in the role of futilely trying to use money as a bargaining chip while Walt has gone on to being unmoved by such offers, Todd getting axed in literally the exact way I wanted him to go after last week - getting choked out by Jesse with his shackles. And Lydia's fate is perhaps most gruesomely rewarding of all in how much is left to our imagination - the series-long Checkov's gun of ricin poisoning finally being unleashed on her ensures that this most odious of villains in all her prim, precisely-manicured ruthlessness will die in heaps of her own vomit and feces, unable to stomach even her vile new-agey tea concoctions.

As for the good folk, Walt Jr inherits a fortune without it coming with the taint of drug money, Marie seems to have found her husband's strength in his absence and will at least be given the comfort of having his body to bury, and Skyler gets a chance to both somewhat reconcile with Walt and be vindicated at last with Walt's acknowledgement that all of this wasn't for his family... it was always for him. A strong contender for my favourite moment of the episode in an episode filled with them.

And then there's Jesse. I've seen some people upset that we have no idea where he goes next as he drives off, screaming in half-insane, feral joy. Does he go on the run? Does he go after Brock? Does he drive himself off a cliff to end the endless sea of pain that is his life? The truth is, it's not important. What's important is that he can make the decision, himself, to do any of these things, or none of them. He can go to Alaska and open a woodshop. It doesn't matter that he's beaten-down, traumatised and penniless, because at last... after being under the thumb of so many people over the course of the series... he's FREE. We don't see where Jesse goes, and can never see what horizon he drives off into, because he drives out of this dark world and into one of his own making. And that in itself was the most rewarding possible resolution the character could have.

And what of Walt? Some have complained that he didn't deserve redemption, and this final episode was undeniably redemptive for him, where even in death he is triumphant. As someone who has been vocal in expression my opinion that Walt had become the villain of his own show and was beyond our sympathy, I was totally happy with this redemptive arc. He got his punishment in "Ozymandius" and "Granite State". He was laid low, and everything was taken away from him. And what made his final journey in this episode so rewarding was that it wasn't some hollow contrition like the Dexter finale where everything is shaped to best suit the protagonist, but rather at last he was making amends and repairing some of the damage done to those he hurt most with his actions before his own inevitable demise.

I'm going to make a reach here, but amidst all the talk of symbolism on the show there's one quite obvious detail that I've not seen discussed. The first time the name "Heisenberg" is used in Breaking Bad, it is in the episode where Walt first shaves his head. In interviews, Cranston talked about Walt's reasoning for this being that "Walt didn't want to recognise the person he saw looking back at him in the mirror." Well, here in "Felina", his hair is back. For the first time since Season 1, Walt recognises himself in the mirror. A lot of fans have got into the rhetoric of the Heisenberg myth: how many times have we heard, "Walt is gone, only Heisenberg remains," or "Walt needs to bring back Heisenberg to kick some ass?" Walt himself bought into this myth, of Heisenberg as this larger-than-life criminal mastermind who was without peer, with him reaching the height of his despicable hubris in Season 5's "Say My Name." But the past couple of episodes have deconstructed that Heisenberg myth, with "Granite State" actively making a mockery of the ritual of putting on the pork pie hat when it can't even get him out his front gate. Heisenberg wasn't some superhero alter ego or dormant alternate personality. It was Walt. It was always Walt. And in "Felina", Walt himself realises that, and we see how resourceful and effective WALTER WHITE is at getting stuff done when he's not making ostentatious displays of his own genius. Heisenberg was well and truly buried by the time this finale began, and this was Walt trying to recapture who he really is, perhaps spurned on by Gretchen's words at the close of last episode.

Are there little things I wanted? Sure. I would have loved a Jesse/Walt Jr scene before all was said and done, even if I can't figure out how they could have done it. And I was itching for some kind of aftermath after Walt's poignant final moments. But I think it's appropriate that the show ends as Walter's life does. We came into this world with him. It's appropriate we leave it with him too.

I'm aware this is a meandering rant, so I'll stop now. To wrap up, all Breaking Bad needed to do to cement its legacy as my favourite TV show of all time was not make a total disastrous mess of the last episode. And this finale was far from a disaster. It didn't do anything fancy, but I didn't want it to. Instead it focused on giving us everything we could want from the end of this story. Thank you Bryan Cranston and all the rest of the impeccable cast. And thank you Vince Gilligan.

 

[Wolfwood]

I was on another forum the other day and someone posted a thread asking if anyone was going to watch the Breaking Bad finale. Someone responded with this:

I have nothing against a good TV show and I have AMC because they show the occasional good movie, but when I caught bits and pieces of this over the years I thought the characters were laughable and the acting bad esp the drug kingpin who worked at like a Pollo Loco? And the plot seemed preposterous, the main character who is the meth producer, his brother in law was a DEA agent? Really?

I think I had three strokes just reading it. Sadly,this person isn't a troll.

 

[BestGirl]

Whoa, that was one hell of a brilliant post, Keyser Soze.