I arrived late to the Breaking Bad party. Upon hearing a glut of praise from people I respected, I gave it a spin on Netflix. Seasons 1 and 2 were a depressing slog, but the show seemed to hit its stride, for my taste, in seasons 3 and 4. Like many, I was jumping around the room when Gus’s face was blown off at the end of season 4. I watched the first episode of season 5, and decided to skip the rest and just watch the last 3 episodes on AMC with everyone else.
Why give up? It was just too depressing. I appreciated the craft, the acting and writing, it was just difficult to watch the slow destruction of the characters. I didn’t have high expectations for the finale, but was excited to see if the end would or could be satisfying; and I think that it was.
In the third to the last episode, Walt offered up 80 million dollars, his life's work, to save Hank’s life. Walt was desperate, which made him foolish, but the finale shed some light on this moment. As long as his family was ‘unscathed’, he could continue under the delusion that he was doing this for his their benefit. With Hank’s assassination, the truth of the matter had become undeniable.
A few months alone in a secluded cabin can do a person some good. It humbles them. It distills what is most important, what is lost forever, and what is still possible to accomplish. I grant you that Walt had given up when he placed the call to the DEA in the bar in New Hampshire, but then it was a fortuitous episode of Charlie Rose that stirred his imagination one last time; the final detail to complete his endgame.
By enlisting his former business partners, those who cheated him out of the wealth and achievement he could have enjoyed in a legitimate career, Walt was able to pass on what remained of his fortune to his family. Perhaps more importantly, he was able to get the last laugh against those who had wronged him. The young Walt may have been swindled, but Heisenberg struck fear into the privileged couple, coercing them to do his bidding while living in fear of what could happen if they crossed him again.
The final meeting with Skylar was quiet, beautifully shot, and satisfying. Both were relieved when Walt could admit his was a selfish endeavor. It was undeniable what it had cost them, and their tears bore witness to the loss.
Violence has always been a potent tool in BB's chest, and Walt's bullet sprinkler made for a grand finale, with Jesse being able to choke Todd a cathartic consellation prize on his way towards freedom; whatever that may mean for him.
The end for Walt and Jesse felt about right to me. Their relationship was so destructive, so much bad had gone on between them. There's a good chance Jesse will squander his opportunity to start again, but maybe his woodworking fantasy and all the bad he endured will lead him to his golden woodshop after all.
I've heard some negativity about the ease with which Walt was able to tie up his loose ends. I must say I enjoyed the unhurried pace and tone as a welcome counterpoint to the rest of the series. Walt has been running for is life, in one way or another, in almost every episode. It was a nice, slow, methodical walk through Walt's final moments; a pause to contemplate and savor the end. I assert Walt could accomplish this because of the heavy price he paid to obtain the wisdom required along the way. He had earned it.
What would have been fun? What could have been a pleasant surprise? I held out a little hope for one last great escape. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Walt wouldn't survive. His time in the cabin proved he didn't want to live a life alone in hiding, away from his family, and let's face it, cancer was looming as well. He would have been forced to leave the country, to start over someplace else. Jesse dreamed of his wood shop, was there a dream that Walt could have pursued, after his final encore? It would have been a nice dessert to think of Walt putting that scientific mind to work on a new challenge, for whatever time he had left.
I do have some criticism of the show as a whole, and what it says about us, but that discussion deserves its own post.
