It’s over. In a
nutshell, the finale was satisfying and fitting. Walt found a way to get the money to his
family. He made amends with Skyler and
told her the truth. Lydia got the
ricin. Walt’s robot machine-gun
spectacularly offed all the Nazi henchmen.
Jesse killed Todd, Walt killed Jack, and Walt got shot saving Jesse’s
life. Walt secured his legacy, dying in
all his Heisenberg glory as he bled out in the lab.
For a show that kept a legion of viewers guessing for six
years, there were few surprises in the finale.
But I loved it that way. Most of
the loose ends were wrapped up, and as the first strains of “Baby Blue” by
Badfinger played, I felt content knowing the fates of characters that were part
of my life for the better part of a decade.
As a self-proclaimed ‘Team Walt’ member, I was rooting for him all the
way through. In the end he got what he
deserved, but in the most oddly touching way.
And the finale was certainly his episode.
The episode opens with Walt in New Hampshire, getting into a
snow-coated car. He pops open the glove
box, finds a Marty Robbins tape and a screwdriver. After a few minutes of trying to break into
the cars console, sirens and red and blue lights approach. As the cops get closer, Walt says a little
prayer to no one in particular, “Just get me home. Just get me home. Ill do the rest”. New Hampshire police must not be that
observant, because despite what have got to be obvious tracks in the snow
leading from the bar up to the Volvo’s door, they drive away. Walt magically finds the keys in the visor
and drives away to the refrain of Marty Robbins ‘El Paso’, which includes a
female named ‘Felina’ (hey, that’s the name of this episode!).
About 30 or so hours later, Walt pulls into a gas station
down south with a trunk full of cash and cancer meds. He pops a pill and takes a swig of water from
the hose dangling next to the pump.
Gross. (Side note - Can someone
please tell me why Walt is still taking his cancer meds? Maybe because Mr. Hoover charged him 50 grand
for them and he doesn’t want to be wasteful?
Otherwise I don’t get it.) Walt
walks over to a pay phone and makes a call to the Schwartzes’ assistant under
the guise of being a reporter from the New York Times. He gets their address and their estimated
time of arrival and hangs up.
Gretchen and Elliot arrive home as planned later that night,
passing right by a lurker Walt on their way to their front door. Gretchen keys in the code and turns on some
classical music on their fancy schmance alarm system. Walt saunters in the front door. He casually peeps at some family photos as
the oblivious couple whines about needing to talk to the housekeeper about
getting the right type of artisanal cheese, and how long it’s been since
they’ve been to Napa. Rich people
problems, right?
As Gretchen goes to turn on the fireplace, she turns around
and encounters a real life problem.
Walt. He acts like it’s perfectly
normal that he should be standing in the living room, and opens with,
“Hello. I really like your new
house.”. Walt is a total badass,
completely owning the room as he goes on to tell them that he isn’t there to
harm them. He’s there to give them
something. Elliot weakly brandishes a
cheese knife, and Walt responds wearily, “If you’re going to go that way,
you’re going to need a bigger knife.”
A bit later, Walt instructs Gretchen and Elliot to stack
almost 10 million dollars in cash on their living room table. No matter how rich they are, I bet they’ve
never done that before. Walt explains
that the Schwartzes will be giving this money to Junior to use “for college and
the betterment of his family”. Elliot
asks what happens next, and Walt says they’ll shake on it. They do, with Elliot needing to prod Gretchen
a bit before she offers Walt her hand.
While Elliot pretty much just stammers his way through this exchange,
Gretchen is clearly angry with Walt. It’s
a shame that we don’t get that flashback I was so hoping for explaining what
exactly happened between the threesome back when they were still working
together.
Walt asks if he can trust them, and Elliot says that he
can. And then, in a deliciously cunning
move, Walt deftly flicks his wrist at the living room window and two red laser
dots appear squarely on Elliot and Gretchen’s chests. Message received - If Junior doesn’t get the
money, they’re goners. Walt leaves them
with biting final words, “cheer up beautiful people, this is where you get to
make it right.”
On his way out, Walt pulls over to the side of the road and
his two ‘hit men’ get in. Skinny Pete
and Badger! Yay! They have some funky feelings “morality wise”
regarding the lasers, but those feelings are assuaged when Walt hands them each
a stack of cash. Walt asks them straight
if the blue meth is still being sold. To
which Badger says “Its you, right?”.
Once Walt says no, they all deduce that it’s Jesse. Walt has a decidedly different reaction to
this than the two boys. He clenches his
teeth and drives away.
Flashback to a golden dappled memory of Jesse’s. He is making the box he spoke about in an AA
meeting back in season 3. He carefully
constructs the hinges, with a look of wonder on his face. Bringing it to his
face, he breathes in deep, then cradles it in his arms. In the present, Jesse’s reverie is swiftly
broken as the lead on his dog run gets caught.
He is an unkempt mess, looking every bit the captive animal that he is. He yanks at the cord to continue his cook.
Dennys! The
flashbacks from previous episodes are put into context. We see shots of bacon numbers and a glimpse
of the gun in the trunk. After he procures the gun, we see Walt extracting the
ricin from the electrical socket hideyhole.
As he leaves 308 Negra Arroyo Lane for the last time, Walt has a
flashback of his own in his living room, to two years prior on his 50th
birthday. In his memory, Hank encourages him to go on a ride along to a meth
lab, “have a little excitement in your life”.
Oh Hank if only you knew what trouble that offer would bring. RIP Hank.
We miss you bunches and, hey, a big thanks for unknowingly introducing
Walt to Jesse during that ride along.
Later that morning, Lydia rolls her suitcase into the
meeting place coffee shop, asking for her usual. She inventories the sweetener supply, and
extracts the single Stevia packet from the bunch as Todd arrives. Apparently they’ve upgraded to sitting
together, as he takes a seat directly across from her. As they start chatting, Walt casually comes
over and sits down. Lydia’s face
contorts in crazed panic and she indecisively bobs in and out of her chair like
a Whack-a-mole. Todd just coolly stares. Point goes to Todd for being super
chill. Lydia settles back into her chair
as Walt asks for two minutes of their time.
He says he has a new meth recipe.
No methylamine, and he’ll teach it to Todd for the bargain price of 1
million dollars. Todd voices that he thinks it’s a bad idea, but Lydia says ok,
and then banishes Walt from the table as her tea arrives. Once Walt is gone,
Lydia spells it out to Todd that he’ll be doing Walt a favor by offing him when
he comes to ‘teach’ that evening. She
dumps the Stevia in her mug, and the camera follows the powder as it ominously swirls
into her tea.
Walt’s next stop is in the middle of the desert. He sings a few lines from ‘Felina’ as he
constructs an automatic rig for the gun, connected to some sort of remote
keychain. As he leans over, his wedding
ring necklace falls out of his shirt and dangles from his neck.
Pan over Skyler’s tiny, sad, dark apartment. The furniture is still the same. We see the large wooden hutch, the orange crocheted
afghan. Skyler is chain smoking as she
gets a call from Marie. Her sister runs
it down for her. Walt has been seen
popping up all over town, and as far as Marie is concerned, Walt’s headed to
Skyler, to Junior, or to her. (Don’t
flatter yourself Marie, Walt has no use for you.) Marie tearfully tells Skyler to be on the
lookout, and they hang up. The camera
pulls in to reveal that Walt has been standing in the kitchen the entire time.
Skyler lights a cigarette and tells Walt he has five
minutes. He gives her the lotto ticket
of death and tells her he should use it to make a deal with the DEA. He explains about Hank, and then goes on to say,
“all the things I did, you have to understand…” Skyler stops him. She doesn’t want to hear the same old
bullshit again about how it was all for the family. Walt goes on.
“I did it for me. I liked
it. I was good at it. And I was…really…I was alive.” Skyler looks up at Walt with wonderment, like
she’s seeing him for the first time in years.
She shakes her head at him and gives him a small smile, like ‘oh what
will I ever do with you, Walt’.
Walt asks to see Holly, and Skyler accompanies him to the
crib. Walt lovingly strokes Holly’s
hair, and half of America breaks out in muffled sobs. He smiles tenderly at his sleeping child that
he will never know. As he leaves, he and
Skyler exchange a loving look for the last time.
Walt watches from afar as Junior gets off the bus, and then walks
away into a blur.
As night falls, Walt drives up to the Nazi compound. They unchain the gate for him, and he drives
up to the clubhouse. After making sure
Walt isn’t wearing a wire they go inside, and Jack marvels at Walt’s full head
of hair. Walt asks if they can talk
business, and Jack says no. Todd says
that he shouldn’t have come back. One of
the henchmen cocks a gun, and Walt goes berserk, saying that Jack owes him
Pinkman.
Jack’s got some odd sense of pride, and bristles at Walt
calling him a liar. He tells Todd to go
get Jesse, and when he’s done with Jesse he’ll put a bullet in Walt’s head
personally.
Jesse wobbles over to the clubhouse with Todd. While he’s waiting, Walt grabs hold of his
keys that some henchman carelessly left on the pool table. Jesse is pushed
forward into the room, and Walt’s face softens the moment he lays eyes on
him. The two of them lock eyes, and
Jesse flinches away from Walt, not too sure of where they stand. Understandable because the last time they saw
one another, Walt sent him away to be tortured and killed.
Walt wrestles Jesse to the floor. The Nazis have a little chuckle over it, and
Jack tells Todd to separate them. As Todd
starts to pull them apart, Walt presses the button. Oscillating gunfire rains down upon the
clubhouse for a good 30 seconds. As Walt
is propped up on Jesse’s body, he takes a rogue bullet in the side. Nazis die en masse, excepting Todd and Jack. Apparently Mr. White made himself a Scarface robot,
his very own scientific ‘little friend’.
The robot runs out of ammo, and the words, “jeesus Mr. White” are barely
out of Todd’s mouth when Jesse attacks him, violently strangling him to death
with his chains.
Walt looks on as Jesse struggles with Todd, but then
realizes Jack is still alive. Jack props
himself up on the chair, and says, “wait” as he grabs his lit cigarette from
the floor and takes a drag. Honestly,
Jack was in the running for most badass TV death of all time until he tried to
bargain with Walt, telling him that if he pulls the trigger, he’ll never get
his money. Walt pulls the trigger
anyways, and shiny red blood spatters onto the camera lens.
Jesse, free of his chains, stands, waiting for Walt to do
something. Walt slides him the gun and
says, “Do it. You want this.” Jesse says, “Say the words, say you want
this. Nothing happens until I hear you
say it.” Walt says that he wants
it. He wants to die. Jesse looks down at Walt’s wound, eyes
widening, and says, “Then do it yourself”.
(Side note – At the climax of Walt and Jesse’s relationship,
that father/son dynamic holds true.
Walt, in taking a bullet while protecting Jesse is the parent who
sacrifices for the good of his son. When
Jesse sees the wound, he realizes that he can’t do it. He can’t kill his father figure; no matter
how much pain and suffering he has caused him.
He rebels by dropping the gun and walking out.)
As Jesse walks out the door, one of Todds wonderful ring
tones starts up. “Lydia oh Lydia…..” Say what you will about Todd, but he’s the
master of ringtones. Walt rummages in
Todd’s pocket, and answers the phone.
Lydia asks, “Is it done?” to which Walt replies, “He’s gone. They’re all gone.” Walt identifies himself to her as he watches
Jesse walk across the compound. He keeps
his eyes on Jesse as delivers the crushing blow to Lydia. “Feeling under the weather? Like the flu?
That would be the ricin. I
slipped it into that Stevia crap you’re always putting into your tea. Goodbye Lydia.”
Jesse and Walt have a wordless exchange, almost
imperceptibly nodding their goodbyes to one another before Jesse takes
off. Tearful, and cackling with
laughter, Jesse speeds away, taking that damned barbed wire fence with him.
Walt stands alone, bleeding from his side. He limps to the lab, casually tamping at the dials
as the sirens begin in the background, much like they did at the start of the
episode. The first lyrics of ‘Baby Blue’
play as Walt caresses the equipment. “Guess I got what I deserved…” He slips
away, his soul ascending skyward. (Final side note - Does Walt really belong in
heaven? Is killing ten Nazis and one
really evil Stevia-loving bitch enough penance for all those other people he
killed, and all that meth he cooked?)
As the police case the joint, Heisenberg lies dead on the
floor of the lab, legacy firmly intact.
And in the end, Walt won.
*****
There are questions I could ask here, and some stray
observations I could make, but I’m going to cop out. I have loved this show for so many years, and
I just truly and really want to express my love for the most fantastic show on
television. In my mind, the finale was
perfect and left me feeling content with my commitment to the series as a
whole. I will most certainly watch it in
its entirety several more times throughout my life, and feel confident that I
will be amazed and satisfied each and every time.
Goodbye Breaking Bad.
Thanks for the memories.
