Breaking Bad, The Final Episode

A mighty fine ending to such a great show.

Everything Walt-oriented was wrapped up — he probably got a decent amount of money to his family, his product will no longer be sold without him, and he got revenge on those bastards who killed Hank; in the end, he seemed relieved that it was all finally over, and spent his remaining minutes among cooking equipment — reminding him of the time he spent, nay enjoyed as Heisenberg, where he felt truly alive.

It wasn’t the cancer that got him, though it wasn’t too far off, nor was he imprisoned, instead, his overall weakness, and a gunshot wound from his own (fuck-off-big) gun finishes him off. He also would’ve been happy to have Jesse finish him, but Jesse didn’t think he deserved it. It would’ve been cowardly.

Jesse gets away, at least we hope he does — I’d like to know how he lives out his days after the show, but we’re not gonna find out now. Given how few characters there were in this show, it would’ve been nice to see past Walt’s death, and into their futures — do all of their lives remain such a wreck as a result of Heisenberg’s actions? Of course, for some, Marie & Skyler at least, the answer is undoubtedly yes, but the kids? Jesse?

I think this will end up being a much less controversial ending than Lost’s, or The Sopranos, it was pretty satisfying. Guess I’ll have to start watching The Wire now to find out whether this was a better show.

Somewhat foolishly, I chose to begin writing again about a topic that was about to expire — there’s some great shows on at the moment; Homeland comes immediately to mind, but it seemingly suffers from a lack of an overall plan. I think it would be better off with a fixed end date, to tighten up the story and make each finale not feel so forced to spin up a new story for next season. Breaking Bad never felt that way, but it’s great it got to end on its own terms.

Todd didn’t seem to understand that Walt was behind this attack haha. I’m glad Jesse was the one to get rid of him.

There was some great cinematography in this episode, as there has been throughout the whole show really — Walt being revealed from behind the pillar, the final closing scene, snowy car… Some good reading material here and here.