Breaking Bad is over and so ends one of the greatest TV
dramas of all time. Like anything in the
day of blogs and social media many have chimed in with their opinion. For the most part the show got great reviews
and I think most casual and hardcore fans were satisfied with the ending. Yet, there are still those who like to poke
holes. I found many of the arguments to
be weak and I decided to share my reasons why.
One of the first complaints I heard was that it was a bad
idea to start both premieres with a reveal into the future, the first being the
scene where Walt purchases the machine gun and the second where Walt retrieves
the Ricin. Some people felt that this gave
away too much of the ending to the finale.
Bill Hader appeared on Talking Bad and stated he felt the Ricin was
meant for Lydia’s tea and he was dead on.
It was clear going into the final episode that the gun was likely intended
to be used on the Nazi’s. Hader opened
the door on Lydia, but I think to some it was clear it might be used on her.
Many have argued if they would have saved those things for
the final episode they would have been more mysterious. There are two schools of thought. The first school is that they should have skipped
the scenes altogether. That would meant
that the gun would randomly pop out of the trunk and Walt would simply revealed
to Lydia that he poisoned her.
If the writers would have gone that way then you would have many people up in arms as to how Walt got the Ricin and how did he have time to rig up that gun and where did he buy it. Instantly people would have jumped on those holes as too farfetched and felt he didn’t have the opportunity to excute them. The second belief was that maybe these things should have happened in the finale in sequence.
This argument bares some weight. If we just take off from the end of Season 4
and build to the season 5B finale in total order with no future details then
the finale might have been even more surprising, but wouldn’t everything that
happens simply fall into place the same way.
We would know once Walt grabs the Ricin that he plans to use it and most
likely it’s for Lydia. The scenes would happen
in sequence and we all knew that the gun would be used against the Nazis. What’s so surprising about all that?
What many missed was that the writers decided to use these
peeks into the future to create even more interest and misdirection. The entire first season we are left wondering
who will Walt use the gun on? I think at
first we assume that it somehow ties back to overseas buyers, or the other
dealer that he trades with. At no point
in the first season did I believe it was intended for the Nazi’s. I thought it was intended to be used on Hank
near the end or the DEA, but that never made sense to me.
The whole purpose was to get your mind racing and misdirect
you to overthinking the whole situation.
By episode 7B I had figured out it was likely going to be used by Walt
to rescue his money, not Jessie, from the Nazis. It was just a brilliant rib and later the
Ricin at the start of the 5B gave us that same misdirection situation. I think most had to believe he was going to
try to poison Jessie. If Hader had not
stated his belief I likely don’t think it’s for Lydia until that coffee shop
scene starts.
So what I think happened was some people were upset because
you figure these things out right before they happen and maybe they wanted it
to be a secret, but did anyone really believe Walt was going to Rambo with that
gun in his health condition? So I think
this gripe bears little weight. The two
items came mysterious because he grabbed them early on.
Tying back into this point some people were confused as to
why Walt would kill Lydia. That maybe
her death was unnecessary and Walt didn’t have a strong reason to kill
her. Now the easy answer to this is that
Walt finds out that Todd threatened Sklyar and the family if they ever
talked. In that scene Todd tells Sklyer
to forget he ever met Lydia at the carwash.
So naturally that’s why Walt offed her, but the events happen out of
sequence. He poisons her then gets the
information from Skylar.
Many then might argue that he did it because of what they
did to Jessie, but again he doesn’t even know Jessie is alive and assumes he is
dead after they take him away. So maybe
everyone is right. Why kill Lydia? The answer is quiet simple. Walt is a genius. He realizes in the shootout scene that his
value to the Nazi’s is diminished and they no longer respect or fear him. This is likely because they have 60 million
of his money and Lydia has got them into the meth business.
So yes Walt’s ego takes a hit, but when the facts starting
getting fully uncovered eventually things will tie back to Lydia. When she gets busted that will put heat on
Walt’s family, which is what he’s trying to avoid. Killing Lydia assures that all the connecting
important pieces are gone and the police won’t pursue things much further. No loose ends.
A big complaint, and one I saw coming after watching the
finale, was that the episode put everything to rest in a too convenient
manner. The reason I saw this as a
complaint was that the episode was banging out resolutions in scene after
scene. This also went in the most
contrast to the Soprano’s Finale, which we all knew this would get compared
heavily too. The Soprano’s left a lot of
open ended questions while Breaking Bad seemed to answer them in a very orderly
sequence.
Walt took care of his family with the money he gave the Schwartz’s,
killed the Nazi’s, freed Jessie, came clean to Sklyar, saw his daughter for the
last time, accepted his failure in Flynn’s eyes, and offed Lydia, just to name
a few. All these things were accomplished
in one episode. So, yes maybe that is
too a litte to tighty and a lot to happen, but in reality the brilliant writing
set everything in to place. In reality
Walt was not on a timeline. He devised a
plan in the time it took him to drive all the way home and executed it. We just saw it in order and the chances
things like saving Jessie and getting the call from Lydia just happened.
We have become so conditioned for there to be questions and
loose ends that we felt upset that there were so few questions, but especially
no major ones. There was no Russian in the forest and fade to black. In reality the Soprano’s was ended the way it
was because of a possible movie spinoff.
The fade to black gave an excuse to either say Tony was killed there or
there was more to come depending how the company decided to move forward. Breaking Bad could have pressed on for a few
more seasons, but it always risked become too much like Dexter with the central
character constantly surviving miraculous situations until it became too
unbelievable.
Breaking Bad gave an ended that respected the fans by
leaving very little up in the air. For
those who thought they did too much and wrapped it up tiddy I say you are simply
overthinking it. For once the writers
and creators respected the fans and gave them great tv.
Another argument that received some criticism and I thought
very unjustly, was that the Schwartz’s would go to the DEA. I won’t even give that argument the time of
day. After Walt admitted to Sklyer what
he had done on the phone the DEA was able to start connecting the dots and he
apparently became a celebrity criminal and was known to the national media. The Schwartz had every reason to fear Walt as
a legitimate threat.
He casually snuck into their house and had them gather his money for them. They had every reason to fear him and what he was capable of. If someone has that much money, and clearly he did as he gave it to them physically, you have every reason to believe that the he could have hired hit-men to get rid of you.
I think that his death sequence would only reaffirm to me
that he was not to be trifled with once that hit the news. So, I don’t think they go to the DEA
especially considering they had nothing to gain by doing it except living in
fear that Walt was serious. He could
have also had Badger and Skinny Pete leave reminders that this needed be done,
but that may be a bit of stretch. Still
it was great that they were included in the episode.
This was the weakest gripe I heard and I was surprised I heard
it so much. I think this was derived from
those who wanted to see Walt fail. There
was a large group of those people and it was understandable. Still I think if I was in reality in the
shoes of the Schwartz’s living the high life there would be no reason to gamble
on Walt having really hired hit-men.
That’s what the point of the red dots was. To really drive the point that they were under
threat, pardon the pun.
The last argument I heard was one that surprised me during
the finale, but made sense to me almost instantly after. I foresaw that Walt would rescue Jessie, but
then Walt would allow Jessie to exact revenge by killing him. Many were flustered when Jessie did not kill
Walt and no one was buying that Jessie wouldn’t pull the trigger considering what
Walt had done.
Walt allowed Jessie’s girlfriend to die in season 2,
poisoned Brock, told the Nazi’s to kill Jessie, indirectly caused his capture
and murder of his latest girlfriend leaving Brock motherless. So yes Jessie had a bunch of reasons to kill
Walt, but he didn’t. Does that make
sense?
In the end to me yes it totally does. When Jessie told Walt to admit that he wanted
this I thought for sure he would pull the trigger, but he didn’t. That shocked me, but then it all aligned.
Jessie was a punk kid who came almost full circle in the end realizing the value
of life. He changed in the end into
somebody who wanted to do the right thing.
He realized that decisions have consequences. He realized that killing Walt made him no
better than what Walt had become. That
was not who Jessie had become and that’s why he left it there. He may have also realized Walt was shot and
would likely not survive, but regardless of that fact he made the right
decision.
The trailer for the finale started with the scene where Walt
talks about chemistry being the science of change. That shows out in the final scene with
Jessie. Walt had changed into someone he
thought he wanted to be, but Jessie had changed into someone who he refused to
become. Through the entire series we
were always hoping that Jessie would stop being a punk who used drugs and become
responsible. He time and time again had
the chance to do it, but it wasn’t until the final season that he made the transformation
completely.
No show was without faults.
Breaking Bad was no exception, but the writers did very well to keep
things as believable as possible and they often times surprised us with logical
twists that we rarely ever saw coming. That’s
what made the show great. Maybe some
people were let off a bit because some things were predictable. Yet, that was necessary so the writers could
have an ending that made sense. What I think
a lot of people missed and what I realized a few hours after completing the
finale was the ultimate trick played on us by the writers.
Throughout season 5 Walt does things that make you really
despise who he is. I rooted for him and
Jessie for the first 4 seasons, but in the end I was rooting for Walt to get
taken down and Jessie to get out because he had become a good person. After Hank is killed I thought Walt might
come back to the pack, but he still wants Jessie kills and he goes wild on his
family taking the baby away. At that
point I think many Walt supporters realized the evil person he had become. That maybe Walt had gone too far.
In second to last episode Walt becomes extremely selfish in
his meeting with Saul. You start to root
against even more. It’s at that point I
was just hoping that he ended up on the wrong end of things. Often in the show Walt does thing that make
your skin crawl. He makes really
stubborn decisions that as a viewer you openly disagree with. He of course does not follow the direction of
his handler and leaves the cabin. He
contact his son Flynn who refuses the money he wants to the family and then he
makes a call to get himself caught and you realize that in a way Walt has given
up. Then he sees the Schwartz’s on TV
and becomes motivated. I thought he was
motivated in the wrong light. I thought
he wanted to prove who Hisenberg truly was and leave his stamp on everything
and everybody.
What they did in the final episode was transform Walt back
into the hero that we all wanted him to be at some point or another, or at
least most of us. They did it in such a
crafty way I didn’t even realize they had done it. By the end of the episode I’m hoping that he
dies so the police don’t arrest him. I
think part of me was maybe hoping he even got away. How did they do this? With great writing they turned a modest man
into a villain and once he reached the apex of evil they brilliantly turned him
into a great hero. It was a master stroke.
When the gun took out all the Nazi’s I am sure I wasn’t the
only one that screamed hell yeah. When
the leader of the Nazi’s thought Walt still wanted the money, but Walt
instantly shot him I realized he had changed.
They somehow made Walt into the hero again and many soaked it in. It was extremely fitting that he could die in
the lab where he was truly at his best.
A much better ending than I could have dreamed up and a fitting end to
the greatest television character ever written and perhaps greatest show
too. Time will tell all things.
