Breaking Bad

[Project862006]

Let me get this out of the way I greatly enjoyed the finale and felt it was a satisfying conclusion.

However did anyone else feel like this might have been the most predictable episode of the series? I felt like everything we saw, people starting last year essentially predicted. Aside from the Gretchen and Elliot angle I pretty much expected really everything that took place in this episode, which is different really for what I'm used to for this show.

it was no shield finale thats for damn sure(still best series finale ever)

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

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.

This is pretty much a perfect read of the episode.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Predictable if done right is perfect. And Breaking Bad did it right. Dexter could have learned something from BB. Dexter finale and the whole final season should have been predictable. Would have been better than the garbage they fed us all season long, culminating with a pile of **** for the finale.

Dexter could have learned something from ANY show. From post-show interviews, Scott Buck seems to be in complete denial about what a fiasco the last season and by extension, the finale was of that show.

 

[TheNextNolan22]

This is always going to be one of my favorite things ever. t:
[YT]55ANBJksgrE[/YT]

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I know it's probably been talked about, but it's eerie how similar the last shot of Walter is to Jack Shephard's. Both dying, but satisfied, on the ground with the crane-shot rising away.

 

[Broseph44]

Dexter could have learned something from ANY show. From post-show interviews, Scott Buck seems to be in complete denial about what a fiasco the last season and by extension, the finale was of that show.

All the writers are very much in denial. And they all come up with ways to justify or explain the season/series finale and it's just sad. So poorly written and executed.

 

[TheAQU4M4N]

This is always going to be one of my favorite things ever. t:
[YT]55ANBJksgrE[/YT]

Why am I just seeing this now? that is incredible

 

[Shikamaru]

Listening to Baby Blue right now.

This show has been absolutely fantastic. Easily the best TV series I've ever seen and one of my favorite pieces of fiction of all time. I really regret not giving it a chance until last month. I see a lot of people saying "It's been a pleasure watching this show all these years, I'll miss tuning in every Sunday night" or "This show grew with me from 2008 to 2013". I'm not sure whether or not tuning in so late was an advantage or disadvantage. On one hand, I got the chance to sit down and watch it all as if I was reading a book, not having to worry about going insane due to waiting for a new episode every week (except for the past few 5 or 6 weeks ). On the other hand, the ending must feel more powerful for some of you due to having that nostalgic connection with the show. It does feel more tragic that the show ended, but there is also a greater sense of satisfaction in seeing Walt's journey finally come to a somewhat-happy end after all this time.

I don't watch a lot of live-action TV shows. I'm completely invested in almost all other mediums - films, anime & all other types of animated shows/cartoons, comics/manga, video games, even books to a certain extent - but I've been avoiding dramas like Breaking Bad for a lot of years now. On top of giving me a brilliantly fantastic piece of fiction I'll never forget and will talk about for a long time, Vince Gilligan also made me realize there is a part of the TV medium I never delved much into past animation and a few comedy shows. There's so many TV shows out there I have yet to see. I don't think I'll see one on the same level of BB for a long time, but I do think I'll find some pretty good ones nonetheless. The Walking Dead is next on my list.

Kinda a mini rant I know most people won't care about, but I had to get that out there.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Has anyone here been with the show since the first season? I came aboard in the beginning of season 3. Knew about it from the beginning, but stupidly dismissed it because I thought the whole chem-teacher-as-meth-dealer-with-DEA-brother plot sounded "gimmicky" and because I didn't think AMC could deliver the goods like HBO. From my first or second episode, I knew how wrong and completely idiotic I was. I think a lot of people had similar misconceptions of the show, because it's only caught on like wildfire since the beginning of 5B.

So any first season vets? When did everyone start watching?

It's amazing how mainstream it is now. People who were raving about shows like "Girls" a few months ago are now all into it. But I wonder how many are just jumping on the bandwagon.

 

[Project862006]

BB didn't feel like it hit mainstream till season 4

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Yeah, it hit mainstream when the Gus stuff was coming to a head, but then it hit a different kind of mainstream (as confusing as that sounds) around 5B.

By "different" I mean that's when your mom starts talking about it.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

I guess these posters were the pioneers.

http://forums.superherohype.com/showthread.php?t=292012&highlight=breaking+bad

 

[Sawyer]

2 pages spanning pre-season 1 to the second episode of season 2?

How things have changed...

 

[lime]

I'm right that the original plan for Walt was to be killed along with the Neo-Nazis and Jesse, right?

But when he saw what they did to Jesse, he decided to spare him, but the original plan was for him and everybody in the room to die?

 

[Bruce Malone]

Based on ratings BB could arguably not be considered "mainstream" until this past half season?

It was a big cult hit I'd say from season 2 onwards though. I remember hearing a lot of good things about it but I actually thought the premise sounded too depressing so i didn't bother until I took the plunge on netflix right before season 4 I believe.

 

[Sawyer]

I'm right that the original plan for Walt was to be killed along with the Neo-Nazis and Jesse, right?

But when he saw what they did to Jesse, he decided to spare him, but the original plan was for him and everybody in the room to die?

The way he was talking to Skyler, I'm guessing he had no particular plans to get out of there alive.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

Based on ratings BB could arguably not be considered "mainstream" until this past half season?

Well, like I said different levels of mainstream. By season 4 you could finally find guys at work to talk to about BB.

By season 5B, you could practically talk about it with your grandma.

 

[Project862006]

no one talked about bb at my work till this final season

 

[Bruce Malone]

Yeah I would categorize BB up to 5A at least, as successful cult. As in certain demos out there will be really into it but most people out there will have trouble knowing what it is even about?

I was just reading how the season 4 finale "face-off" maybe the show at its peak, actually got only 1.9m viewers on its initial airing. That was only 2 years ago too and here we are with the series finale getting over 10 million. Pretty insane. I can't think of any show that's come close to that in terms of viewer growth?

 

[TheDreamMaster]

Wow, reading those old posts from the original thread, crazy that a lot of people were taken aback by the plane crash, even disliking it. It may seem a stretch, but that was one of the huge surprises for me of the series. It was crazy how all of that could have been avoided if it wasn't for the choices Walt made.

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

 

[Sawyer]

We didn't get to see Todd's eyes bulge and fill blood, though, so...

 

[JJJ's Ulcer]

We didn't get to see Todd's eyes bulge and fill blood, though, so...

It was Meth Damon. What eyes? He didn't have eyes, he had swollen flesh-pockets with small black dots in the middle.

 

[Sawyer]

Touche.

 

[dark_b]

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.

that was me. do you have a problem with that? he comes back and talks to Todd and Lydia in his old dirty clothes. than before killing the nazi's he puts on his known Walter White ''costume''. because he needed to die in his green shirt.

can i not think that BB is the best show in tv history and at the same time think that this was stupid?