The day we all dread has finally arrived and the last episode of Breaking Bad, "Felina," (Gilligan said that Felina is an anagram for finale**1) has come and gone. Before this episode, AMC ran the entirety of the five seasons of the series since mid-week.
The TV marathon brought to light some memories and new perspectives.
During the series, up until the demise of Mike, I was on Walt's side. But then, while arguing with Mike for a list of names, then shooting him, and saying, oh, I just realized Lydia has the list... well, that was the beginning of the end of my empathy for the character.
Mike made the most succinct statement of the series about Walter just before being shot, telling Walt that if he had done his job for Gus and cooked, they would have had made all the money they ever would have needed, but no, his pride and greed got in the way.
That pretty much said it all.
Other details from the show I noted, where I used to think Skyler was interfering with Walt and Walt was now just a butt head about his own ego.
Seeing the entire series again, I saw it with a new light on how I viewed the characters... specifically seeing much earlier in the show, when Walter started turning ugly before I realized it.
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With that said... SPOILERS ENSUE from here on...
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In the previous episode, Walter watched the "Grey Matter" news interview on TV and something snapped. At that moment, I wasn't sure what it was.
So we know that Walt was headed home from his hiding place in New Hampshire and I'm thinking he's gone haywire again.and doing something else stupid.
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The series finale opens with Walter breaking into an icy car and trying to hot wire it. He finally gets it started and the CASETTE tape in the deck, with Marty Robbins song El Paso, starts playing.
**1: Oddly enough, Felina is also a character in the Marty Robbins song we here in the beginning of the finale, the song titled El Paso.
"Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl
Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina
Music would play and Felina would whirl"
Walter makes a phone call from a pay phone looking for the address to the Schwartz's. He leaves his watch, a $6300 Tag Heuer Monaco Calibre 12, on the payphone and we next see him waiting for them at home. He ends up giving them almost $10 million from his trunk to endow to Flynn from Grey Matter when he turns 18, in ten months.
Oh, and he's hired hit men to watch them to make sure they do it. (He tells them.) Turns out his two "hit men" were Skinny Pete and Badger with laser pointers. It's here that he actually learns that the blue meth is still being sold. The street thought he was still cooking.
"Cheer up beautiful people. This is where you get to make it right." A quote from Walter to the Schwartz's.
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We're fed a scene where Jesse made a box in shop class, then snap forward to his cook imprisonment.
Walt gets his gun, gets his risen cigarette and flashes back to when Hank invited Walt along for a meth lab bust. Sigh. When it all began to crumble.
Todd and Lydia were meeting for lunch and Walter shows up, offering to teach them how to cook without a core ingredient, methylene.
Walter leaves, Lydia puts her sweetener in her coffee and we watch it dissolve... or was that risen?
Walter is now out in the desert building a contraption to auto-fire his M-60.
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Marie calls Skylar to warn her that Walter is in town and we learn that the police are getting various reports that Walter is going to blow something up. The cops are stretched thin.
Walt was already in her apartment.
He gives her the lat and lon of where Hank and Steve's bodies are and suggests she use it as leverage with the DA. She finally gets the truth out of him, where he says he did all for himself. It made him feel alive.
We watch Walt, watching Flynn from across the street, come home from school... AND WALT is wearing a green shirt. (Didn't he always wear a green shirt when he was winning and getting what he wanted?)
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Walter meets with Jack and Todd at their compound, but before Jack can kill him, Walter sets off his M-60 contraption, killing most of them.
Jesse (in chains) attacks and kills Todd. Walter finishes off Jack.
What a beautiful plan and it worked.
Walter gives Jesse a gun and tells him to shoot him... but Jesse sees that Walter is bleeding out from a ricochet and tells him to do it himself. Todd's phone rings, Walt answers it. It's Lydia asking if it's done. Walt says yes. She then realizes what happened, and then Walter asks her if she thinks she has the flu? Things click for the wench.
Jesse drives off in a borrowed El Camino, free from everything that doomed him these last five seasons.
Walter staggers into Jack's meth lab, looking around, smiles, then collapses and dies.
And the end of a television legacy comes to a close. Tears... can you believe it... tears for a show.
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Thoughts on Breaking Bad's Series Finale
The series finale of Breaking Bad was a very satisfying ending. FINALLY, a finale that wrapped everything up.
Breaking Bad came to a close and Walter, despite having killed 29 people himself (Does not include the passengers of the 2 airliners that collided because of his own actions watching Jane die, affecting her air traffic controller father.), did right by anyone he affected.
Lydia will die, Jesse redeemed Andrea's death and his incarceration, and freed by Walter, Skinny Pete and Badger got $10k each out of their laser pointer job, Walter got a geniius way to get his money to his family, Skyler has legal leverage and Walter, standing amongst the machinery that represented his power, bled out.
Now THIS show, I am buying the collected series on DVD/Blu-ray.
Breaking Bad: The Complete Series (+UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
(Anyone here remember Moore's Battlestar Galactica and how it ended? Those last few episodes ruined the entire show for me.)
BB ended perfectly and despite all the stupid, greedy, prideful, evil things Walter did, he redeemed himself enough in my eyes to at least leave this world attempting to fix what he screwed up.
THANK YOU VINCE GILLIGAN for five (six?) seasons of some of the best entertainment on TV that I have ever enjoyed. Unlike many shows that you watch because you've committed time to it, this show is something you truly wanted to see what happens next because it was pretty original in how it delivered the story.
THANK YOU BRYAN CRANSTON and AARON PAUL for delivering wonderful characters who we should have hated, and instead, took us along a wondrous journey and mostly pitied.
And Thanks to Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks for helping create likable criminals. I mean seriously, this show broke wonderful boundaries for this viewer.
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During the series, up until the demise of Mike, I was on Walt's side. But then, while arguing with Mike for a list of names, then shooting him, and saying, oh, I just realized Lydia has the list... well, that was the beginning of the end of my empathy for the character.
Mike made the most succinct statement of the series about Walter just before being shot, telling Walt that if he had done his job for Gus and cooked, they would have had made all the money they ever would have needed, but no, his pride and greed got in the way.
That pretty much said it all.
Other details from the show I noted, where I used to think Skyler was interfering with Walt and Walt was now just a butt head about his own ego.
Seeing the entire series again, I saw it with a new light on how I viewed the characters... specifically seeing much earlier in the show, when Walter started turning ugly before I realized it.
- - - - -
With that said... SPOILERS ENSUE from here on...
-
-
In the previous episode, Walter watched the "Grey Matter" news interview on TV and something snapped. At that moment, I wasn't sure what it was.
So we know that Walt was headed home from his hiding place in New Hampshire and I'm thinking he's gone haywire again.and doing something else stupid.
-
The series finale opens with Walter breaking into an icy car and trying to hot wire it. He finally gets it started and the CASETTE tape in the deck, with Marty Robbins song El Paso, starts playing.
**1: Oddly enough, Felina is also a character in the Marty Robbins song we here in the beginning of the finale, the song titled El Paso.
"Out in the West Texas town of El Paso
I fell in love with a Mexican girl
Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina
Music would play and Felina would whirl"
Walter makes a phone call from a pay phone looking for the address to the Schwartz's. He leaves his watch, a $6300 Tag Heuer Monaco Calibre 12, on the payphone and we next see him waiting for them at home. He ends up giving them almost $10 million from his trunk to endow to Flynn from Grey Matter when he turns 18, in ten months.
Oh, and he's hired hit men to watch them to make sure they do it. (He tells them.) Turns out his two "hit men" were Skinny Pete and Badger with laser pointers. It's here that he actually learns that the blue meth is still being sold. The street thought he was still cooking.
"Cheer up beautiful people. This is where you get to make it right." A quote from Walter to the Schwartz's.
-
We're fed a scene where Jesse made a box in shop class, then snap forward to his cook imprisonment.
Walt gets his gun, gets his risen cigarette and flashes back to when Hank invited Walt along for a meth lab bust. Sigh. When it all began to crumble.
Walter leaves, Lydia puts her sweetener in her coffee and we watch it dissolve... or was that risen?
Walter is now out in the desert building a contraption to auto-fire his M-60.
-
Marie calls Skylar to warn her that Walter is in town and we learn that the police are getting various reports that Walter is going to blow something up. The cops are stretched thin.
Walt was already in her apartment.
We watch Walt, watching Flynn from across the street, come home from school... AND WALT is wearing a green shirt. (Didn't he always wear a green shirt when he was winning and getting what he wanted?)
-
Walter meets with Jack and Todd at their compound, but before Jack can kill him, Walter sets off his M-60 contraption, killing most of them.
What a beautiful plan and it worked.
Walter gives Jesse a gun and tells him to shoot him... but Jesse sees that Walter is bleeding out from a ricochet and tells him to do it himself. Todd's phone rings, Walt answers it. It's Lydia asking if it's done. Walt says yes. She then realizes what happened, and then Walter asks her if she thinks she has the flu? Things click for the wench.
Jesse drives off in a borrowed El Camino, free from everything that doomed him these last five seasons.
Walter staggers into Jack's meth lab, looking around, smiles, then collapses and dies.
And the end of a television legacy comes to a close. Tears... can you believe it... tears for a show.
-
Thoughts on Breaking Bad's Series Finale
The series finale of Breaking Bad was a very satisfying ending. FINALLY, a finale that wrapped everything up.
Lydia will die, Jesse redeemed Andrea's death and his incarceration, and freed by Walter, Skinny Pete and Badger got $10k each out of their laser pointer job, Walter got a geniius way to get his money to his family, Skyler has legal leverage and Walter, standing amongst the machinery that represented his power, bled out.
Now THIS show, I am buying the collected series on DVD/Blu-ray.
Breaking Bad: The Complete Series (+UltraViolet Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]
(Anyone here remember Moore's Battlestar Galactica and how it ended? Those last few episodes ruined the entire show for me.)
BB ended perfectly and despite all the stupid, greedy, prideful, evil things Walter did, he redeemed himself enough in my eyes to at least leave this world attempting to fix what he screwed up.
THANK YOU VINCE GILLIGAN for five (six?) seasons of some of the best entertainment on TV that I have ever enjoyed. Unlike many shows that you watch because you've committed time to it, this show is something you truly wanted to see what happens next because it was pretty original in how it delivered the story.
THANK YOU BRYAN CRANSTON and AARON PAUL for delivering wonderful characters who we should have hated, and instead, took us along a wondrous journey and mostly pitied.
And Thanks to Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks for helping create likable criminals. I mean seriously, this show broke wonderful boundaries for this viewer.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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