Breaking Bad

[Lottery]

Man I loved the conclusion, wasn't perfect but still. Feel like the odd one out here.

[Neil]

I've lost all desire to even try to legitimize how much I enjoyed the finale, and that's a damn shame because this was a unique moment in television history. 

[polkablues]

YOU'RE NOT ALONE.

[Neil]

Is uncle jack Jeremy Blackman's dad in Magnolia?

[Reel]

yes

[Pubrick]

Johnny come latelies love the finale, what a surprise.

i feel like this finale was made to satisfy not so much the casual viewer, because they will take whatever they can get, and not the hardcore viewer, whom i consider [modage] and JB to be, but rather the less discerning viewer.

[picolas]

yes

holy FUCK that's how i knew him... what an amazing actor.

my top 5:

5. No Mas 3.1



this episode represents the peak of walt's self-rationalization in the form of the school assembly, which strikes me as a little bit contrived but still kind of perfect. his method of rationalization, using objective data, is so organic to walter white. the near-burning of the money and last-second retrieval of it is a great, simple manifestation of walt's guilt and his inability to turn away. fring plays the 'rational businessman' to perfection. i think this ep was probably the last time walt could've walked away and held onto a legit chunk of his humanity. a turning point. the news footage montage is also a really cool, seamless way to show walt connecting the dots between the plane and himself.

4. Crawl Space 4.11



>why dost thou laugh? it fits not with this hour.
>why, i have not another tear to shed

who would think to write that cackle of sheer despair aside from shakespeare? the writers of bb apparently. cranston's execution of it is why he's so good.

this is a classic bb 'corner'... no hope. no possible way out.

and this is a perfect example of how weirdly funny and simultaneously awful bb can b.

3. ...And the Bag's in the River 1.3



when walt put the plate back together and discovered the missing piece i knew bb was a cut above. so clever. so conflicting. the list of pros and cons.. walt at the beginning of the episode relative to sitting in his car after his first kill would be enough of an arc for a movie. also features the earliest event in the bb timeline as its opening. and the walt/jessie dynamic is already so great.

2. ABQ 2.13



the plane explosion is one of the most brilliant and blindsiding (yet totally sensical) events in all of television, and delivers (what i thought was) the overall thesis of the show with 96% purity. walt's decisions ripple into the world in a way that's just indirect enough for him to justify more cooking in season 3.

1. Ozymandias/Granite State 5.14-15



there may be a recency bias at play and putting them together is a bit of a copout but i've never been more moved by and invested in individual episodes of television. the skylar phone call is probably the best scene because it's so piercing and clever and complicated. five years built to these. "goodbye to everyone" is on the nose but so wonderfully tonally ironic.



and invoking the extended version of the theme song for the first and only time as granite state comes to an end, setting the stage for the finale, could not have excited me more.

[©brad]

^ Awesome post. Those short write-ups are better than most recaps I've read of this show as of late.

Johnny come latelies love the finale, what a surprise.

i feel like this finale was made to satisfy not so much the casual viewer, because they will take whatever they can get, and not the hardcore viewer, whom i consider [modage] and JB to be, but rather the less discerning viewer.

What would the more discerning viewer like to have seen in the finale instead? Not an attack, just might be fun to hear what team dissent would do as showrunner. Had the series ended with say Granite State, with Walt in that bar not seeing Gretchen and whatshisfuck on TV, rather just him surrounded by cops drinking the whiskey, or him dying in the cabin, or....?

[Jeremy Blackman]

What would the more discerning viewer like to have seen in the finale instead? Not an attack, just might be fun to hear what team dissent would do as showrunner. Had the series ended with say Granite State, with Walt in that bar not seeing Gretchen and whatshisfuck on TV, rather just him surrounded by cops drinking the whiskey, or him dying in the cabin, or....?

My ideal ending: At the end of Granite State, Walt is beginning to snap (which certainly seemed plausible), and he does things in the finale that force the viewers to question their relationship with Walter White. That in my mind is the greatest missed opportunity, and it still saddens me that they did the opposite. But like I've said, this is personal taste.

Alternatively, he tries to have victories but finds himself cornered or in even more trouble, and he is punished further. This would be inferior to my first option, but still better than the finale that aired.

I would still be okay with Walt freeing Jesse (perhaps inadvertently), but I would have preferred Jesse getting out of that himself. Maybe a chemical reaction, foreshadowed by the Nazis' distaste for gas masks. (I expressed my hope for that one before the finale.)

[Neil]

[the white family are] hugely rewarded for walt's actions and murders. i mean, they absolutely deserve compensation but for walt to give them the money is undoing what the show is about, i think. and it makes walt feel like he's still a good dude at the end of the day. again i'm fine with him realizing his wrongs and taking out the remains of his empire, but rewarding his family so hard is a copout.

Addressing that which appears in pics post and has also been echoed by countless others (team dissent/podcast). this notion that these characters "deserve" a certain ending is not only old fashioned and boring, it's also just completely unrealistic. I think this show is honest in dealing with luck as far as fortune and misfortune are involved, and those two forces couldn't care less about what a person deserves.


I'm sure this is far too obvious but, I view Walt's confrontation with Elliott and Gretchen in the finale as merely a superficial victory for Walt.
And, no i don't mean this in a, "money is material," type of way. I mean, Walt believes his money will go to them, and that's enough to give him peace. Because there is so much wreckage that he must look through in order to see that silver lining, it makes the plan so brilliant, he's accepted his fate, as Heisenburg, not as Walter White. Don't you see? It's all so tragic, Walt is content with NOT SEEING THAT PLAN THROUGH, because he knows that is not an option. 

To me this is the brilliant part about it all. He came up with a sneaky plan to give them money through a legitimate platform, and this is what some of you have shown appreciation for, however, he intentionally sets his plan up to where he isn't going to see that act through, which is why he wants to speak his peace to his family and give Skyler the most closure that language allows in his case and also the lotto ticket.

Because after all, we can't forget that his grand plan, which was already in motion at that point, would inevitably involve his death. He knew this. His plan was to kill everyone including himself. That's what the beat is for when he sees Jesse, the plan changes right then and there. Do you really think his plan involved anything that took place after he saw jesse and decided to save his life? He also couldn't have known/planned or predicted to fade away in middle  a meth lab he stumbled upon, making it look that certain way that a few of you have complained about (aka luck).

For one to say that the finale doesn't align itself with the rest of the series seems trivial, and here's why; the verdict was still out about what the show would ultimately be about.  To put this another way, the show was about certain things previously, and maybe that was more interesting to you, but that isn't what we're talking about.  We're talking about the series and what actually happens. Not what you gathered from a few interviews etc and thought the show was about. It was probably about those things too.  I'm certain this is all far too pragmatic for most, but that's my interpretation and reaction to your interpretations, if such a discussion is even possible.

[Tictacbk]

For one to say that the finale doesn't align itself with the rest of the series seems trivial, and here's why; the verdict was still out about what the show would ultimately be about.

I disagree with this.  I think a properly written show's central themes are established before the finale.  BUT, just to play devil's advocate, if that's the case what would you say is the final verdict?  What were the central themes of the show that the finale defined/delivered on?

[Brando]

I'm among those who think Walt only won cause his own soul has been compromised to point that only he can see it as a win. I'm trying to see this from the "dissenters" point of view. That the finale didn't fully punish Walt. That the finale took the position that crime does pay which is conflicting from the series themes/message.

I'm thinking about the entire series and when have they ever set up that crime doesn't pay? Walt became a success. Gus was a success. Crazy 8 and tuco were successful. While we all came to see Hank as a great DEA agent, he never arrested and put anyone in jail. From Crazy 8 to Walt, They all have gotten away with it and were successful until someone killed them. I'm trying to see when they set up that crime doesn't pay.

What Breaking Bad did set up was that crime does pay but that innocence pays the price for it. We've seen multiple times that an innocent life is lost to sacrifice to continuation of an evil life. I think the finale should be viewed keeping in mind the entire series. It shouldn't stand alone. While you may see the finale as an individual/single disappointment, if you view the entire series as a whole you see a show about the loss of innocence. And for JB asking for an ending that questions our support for Walt, think about Jane, 167 deaths on the plane, Gale, Andrea's brother, Andrea, motorbike kid, Walt's family, Brock, and so on. While the finale may not have made you confront your support of Walt, the entire series did enough to make you question it.

[Neil]

For one to say that the finale doesn't align itself with the rest of the series seems trivial, and here's why; the verdict was still out about what the show would ultimately be about.

I disagree with this.  I think a properly written show's central themes are established before the finale.  BUT, just to play devil's advocate, if that's the case what would you say is the final verdict?  What were the central themes of the show that the finale defined/delivered on?

I completely agree with you, but I don't find this to be the ONLY way a series MUST take place. Sure, some great TV/Film has followed this formula, and has been a success in doing so, but to me that is a bit too absolute for my liking.  I don't believe that there is only one way to tell a story "properly," or only one way to make a great TV show/statement, because life just isn't like that and you're going to hear me say that a lot with regards to this show.

Life doesn't always present nice and neat themes to you early on, only to be fully realized at some later time. Closure is a made up idea that people decided was a good plot device to include in the medium we're discussing.  I understand wanting something you don't get in life, but like i said, this shouldn't be considered the only way. 

The themes that were established early on are still important, but maybe perhaps with regards to the given season in which they appear, and they still play an important role in setting up the BB universe, if only for the fact that they exist in the consciousness of these characters, or make up their past. In my opinion, despite my desire to back this statement up with another viewing of the entire series, BB is like most shows in that, each season is about something different while we grow (or die) with these characters. 

The 1st season says nothing about how breaking bad is a good thing, if Walt is rewarded, it's because of luck and he was thrust into this predicament via misfortune, or being unlucky (cancer) in the first place so that seems pretty consistent.  As a matter of fact, immediately after he starts his new path towards "breaking bad,"  it leads to two murders in the first two episodes. So, I'm not sure where this crime pays bit comes in, unless you're specifically talking about finances.  If you folks were unaware of the fact that the black market affords you the opportunity to make more money at a much quicker rate than most legitimate professions, then I'm not really sure what to tell you.  Do i need to mention that the black market is dangerous too? 

I think that the premise of the show is not that, "crime pays," but rather that power corrupts to the core.  Not to mention that if a man with too much pride gets a taste of power, there's some dark things that can come out of this.  To me, one of the first indicators of this theme is when Walt misses his daughter's birth.  The corruption of one through gaining power is consistent with Hank's arc too. 

With this being said, most of you are right about the show all the way up until Skyler and Walt's last conversation. That conversation is a shift in Walt's character, and this should not be looked over.  After that, we see the shell of a man. He didn't want to succeed in murder and ruthlessness but his pride blocked his ability to see this.  That's why I think the finale is so tragic, he knows there's no point to live, but he couldn't die without exposing his selfishness to his family.  The people he spent so much time claiming he was doing it FOR. He realizes that his actions were completely selfish and that's the tonal shift of the show.  We see a new Walt and this new Walt sees no purpose in buying into the lie, about it all being for a good reason.

There's so much more i'd like to say, but i'm tired of typing. 

[RegularKarate]

I've been off this site for quite some time, but I'm dying to read everyone's reactions to the last few episodes.

Before I go back what appears to be twenty or more pages, I'll leave my Breaking Bad Finale "story" and a brief summary of my thoughts on the series overall.

I perform Sunday nights so I can't watch the show live, but some others in the same boat all agree to stay off the internet and meet up a couple hours later and watch it on DVR. We had been doing an amazing job at all staying away from anything that would spoil the smallest plot point.

By the time we got to the finale, we had accumulated about ten devoted people to watch in complete silence. We all agreed to just hit play and shut up...
unfortunately, the DVR had also, for some reason recorded TALKING BAD (the worst show in the world where people just tell you what happened in a show you just watched and then they say "wow" a bunch).

Now, we're not dummies, we IMMEDIATELY saw that Mike, the host of the evening, had accidentally started Talking Bad (which shows up listed under Breaking Bad episodes for the dumbest reason ever). We all yelled "THIS IS TALKING BAD! THIS IS TALKING BAD!". Mike realized that grabbing for the remote and fumbling for the stop button would take too long, instead he leapt through the air and turned the T.V. off and we all sighed in relief and agreed that most did not comprehend the still from the episode that was being displayed (though I had a good feeling I knew what it was).

Mike sits back down, grabs the remote and turns the T.V. on. Yes, this is Mike's mistake... he didn't stop the DVR before doing this... the T.V. was back on for less than a second... enough for Chris Hardwick, ruiner of worlds, to say four words... "Walter White is Dead".

I'm surprised that at this point, Mike's neighbors did not call the police about a possible homicide as we all began to scream and punch things. Personally, I ran into the Kitchen and yelled "Nooooooooooo! Whyyyyyyyyyyy!" then ran back into the living room to scream at Mike "Why would you leave it on that channel! Why would you do that?"

Of course, it took a couple minutes for us all to calm down and agree that we were all pretty sure that was going to be how the series ended anyway and that it was kind of funny that in the half second that the TV was on Talking Bad, the four most spoilery words came out. It took us another five minutes to all apologize to Mike for yelling at him.

Other than the DVR having to reboot right as Walter's MacGuyver gun started firing, the rest of the show went amazingly. Everything that needed to happen, happened. I loved the end because it resisted the urge to pull the rug out one last time (which is why a lot of people didn't like the finale... boneheads).

After the episode ended, as we sat in silence, soaking it in, "Talking Bad" began to play and we got the full statement from Chris Hardwick: "If you're just now tuning in on your DVR and you haven't watched the episode yet, please press stop right now. We will be discussing this important episode... Walter White is dead".

We just missed the warning.

[Lottery]

Haha, wow that must have been angering. Fuckin' Mike.