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Breaking Bad - The (Beautiful) Finale - Season 5 Part 2 - Sunday on AMC - OT3

Redd

Member
I wonder. Walt's plan was for Jesse to shoot him at the end. Jesse didn't. If Walt didn't get hit by the ricochet, was Walt going to shoot himself as his plan B? Part of me says yes...

I thought Walt planned to kill Jesse too bud until he saw what happened to him.
 
As always, if there are particular reviews and commentary that you found worth reading, please let me know and I'll highlight them. Thanks.
 

Blader

Member
Huh? Him constantly trying to reach his keys would be the perfect tension. Everyone wondering 'What is he trying to do???" and then BOOM.

Except there's no connection between the two. There's no tension over Walt trying to grab his keys if you have no idea what the scene is supposed to be anticipating.
 
I wonder. Walt's plan was for Jesse to shoot him at the end. Jesse didn't. If Walt didn't get hit by the ricochet, was Walt going to shoot himself as his plan B? Part of me says yes...

I assumed it was Walts plan to take everyone out, including himself, with the M60. Seeing what had happened to Jesse changed his plan and he chose to save him.
 
Huh? Him constantly trying to reach his keys would be the perfect tension. Everyone wondering 'What is he trying to do???" and then BOOM.

Showing Walt building the contraption was essential. There's a difference between shock/surprise and suspense/tension. In my opinion, suspense and tension is a much more powerful and effective technique (mastered by Hitchcock, who shares the same opinion), than the effect that shock has on an audience. Knowing beforehand what the keys are for and why Walt really needs them adds suspense and tension to that entire scene. If we didn't know what Walt was up to the suspense level would have been much lower and replaced with confusion.

The surprise would have been cool, I guess, but I find suspense a much more effective and interesting tone for a scene like that.
 

Horse Detective

Why the long case?
So has anyone discussed Todd's last moments?

I wonder if he was admiring Walt's contraption, or if he was genuinely confused, and was only left alive so we could watch Jesse kill him.
 

Empty

Member
As always, if there are particular reviews and commentary that you found worth reading, please let me know and I'll highlight them. Thanks.

i liked the npr review

i thought the point about balance was great and totally agreed with the idea that balance in breaking bad shouldn't be walt ending things neatly on his own terms. ozymandias and granite state were so much better for this, walt just completely losing control of the situation he's created and ending up isolated in a cabin begging someone to talk to him.
 

Darklord

Banned
This is the kind of ending Dexter should have had. My only gripe is not enough Jesse, he seemed almost completely unimportant. Great end though.
 
One thing no one has mentioned is that Walt also kept his legacy as the best meth maker because the police will think he was behind all the blue meth on the streets while he was missing with him being found there and dead by the machine.
 
i like to think of season 5 as the 'epilogue season'. it's a different beast than the first four. i think the point is everything is supposed to feel after-the-fact, and the nazis are meant to be sort of an afterthought in light of gus' empire. the whole season was supposed to settle the characters' fates, unlike the first four seasons which were the "meat" of the series

This is probably the best way to look at it. I just felt that 5A lacked the urgency and fear - precisely I think because of that after-the-fact feeling - which made Walt more than a cartoon character. I get that that was probably the point, but the writers seemed like they just didn't quite know how to make it work, and we had to suffer through a few episodes with cooky plots of the type they would have thrown away in the shorter seasons - or I guess I'd like to think they would have :p

There were a few lines of dialog in 5A that made me cringe or even want to chuckle at actors that I knew were better than what they were being given, and that's just not what I'd come to expect from this series.

5B is undoubtedly the better half of the season in that it rectified all of these issues right out of the gate, at least for me.
 

BFIB

Member
What a fantastic ending. I don't think I could have had it any other way.

I fucking lost it when Lydia called Todd though. That ringtone!
 
So considering this ep as an epilogue, Walt definitely didn't end on top. He had lost everything he cared about prior to this. Basically this episode was him doing good deeds, the best of which was to finally end the chaos which swirled around him. On the whole, though, there was nothing tidy about how the series ended.
 

NotLiquid

Member
Two prime examples; Even though the camera zooms on the sweetener when she grabs the packet, and then zooms at her for a good minute while she pours it in her coffee, we still get the phone call of him explaining it to her. I didn't mind the call, but he should have just hung up the phone after he told her if she was sick. No explanation needed.

While I agree somewhat that I assumed we'd not get a shot of Lydia again before her death, I think it was rather cool in a brutal kind of way how "Lydia is left knowing she'll die in a couple of hours". It, the murder of Jack and his confrontation with Gray Matter were probably the unsympathetic "Heisenberg" portions of this episode as all things considered Walt seemed rather calm and hopeful throughout. The show spent a good amount of time both as genuine Walter White and brutal Heisenberg.

It also served something of a double purpose I imagine. With Jesse being around during the phone call, he'd probably hear and know that Walter dispatched the only person who'd be out there still looking for Jesse. He's probably in a mix of emotions after that encounter, but with that final revelation and knowing that Walter essentially got rid of every loose end that can tie back to Jesse, he's fully free. I imagine that revelation is what makes him laugh and cheer hysterically when escaping.
 

methane47

Member
Finally, as Walt was confessing to Skyler the real reason he did what he did I was wondering if hearing the exact words "I DID IT FOR MYSELF" coming out of his mouth would finally knock some sense into the "provide for his family" brigade. I'm only half surprised to find out they didn't.

I don't think so. Walt has been selfish and irresponsible. But I definitely think that saying "I did it for myself" is not mutually exclusive from "I did it for my family" I actually think he's just saying it to give his wife some relief from the guilt of what he's done some how being his fault.

If we truly think that Walt did it entirely for himself then this Whole show makes no sense. He fought tooth and nail to retain his family when he had no real need to.
Even when Skylar cheated on him and then sent millions of Walts money to the tramp he STILL didn't leave. He still stayed around to protect them, he STILL tried to provide for them even though his family (especially Jr) is so annoying.

Again, I think Walt was telling the truth when he said he was doing it for himself but, I think what HE wants is a family, and to provide for them and to protect them.

The CLEAREST example of this is when his bro gets killed.
- Walt was ready to call Jack to come kill Jesse but as soon as Schrader showed up he called them off. Why?
- He then didn't try to escape, he freely gave himself up, without a fight. Why?
- When uncle Jack arrives, Walt kicks and screams trying to call off Jack and Warn Schrader.
- When Jack is about to shoot Hank, Walt pleads and tries to wheel and deal for Hanks Life.
- Why in the world would Walt want to keep Schrader alive?

Why?
Because Walt really cares about him, and his wife and his sister. So even though Walt is a greedy bastard, the ONLY thing more powerful, the only thing more endearing to this manipulating freak is family.

To say that he wasn't doing this for Family seems to be missing the point IMHO.
 
As much as I loved the episode. And I loved the episode. I wanted a tad more of a resolution at the end. I mean I'm not asking for "Breaking Bad: The After Years" as Don't You Forget About Me plays, but it would have been nice to maybe see a glimpse of Jesse visiting the grave at the end.

That's my only personal complaint. At least it ended really close to what I expected. And not mid-sentence.
 

THEF3AR

Member
Is it me or in the beginning is Walt praying?


The cops are around him and he says, "Just get me home." It almost seems like he's praying to God to not get caught yet.
 
I am just wondering why they filmed it the way they did. They put an effort into allowing him to see the pivoting m60 and make a comment. I just want to know what his final thoughts were.

I imagine he thoughts were firmly centered around his rapidly contracting windpipe.

However in my head, the full line was "Mr. White, what kind of Willey Coyote shit is that?"
 

kehs

Banned
Is it me or in the beginning is Walt praying?


The cops are around him and he says, "Just get me home." It almost seems like he's praying to God to not get caught yet.

Not necessarily praying, but he's giving up his destiny to the universe. A man who has to have control over everything doing that, is fantastic.

I totally sympathized with him in that moment.
 

BFIB

Member
As much as I loved the episode. And I loved the episode. I wanted a tad more of a resolution at the end. I mean I'm not asking for "Breaking Bad: The After Years" as Don't You Forget About Me plays, but it would have been nice to maybe see a glimpse of Jesse visiting the grave at the end.

That's my only personal complaint. At least it ended really close to what I expected. And not mid-sentence.

Why would Jesse do that? He has clear hatred towards Walt, even at the end. Its why he refused to do the one thing he knew Walt wanted.
 

Ensirius

Member
This has been the greatest TV show I've ever watched. It's up there with The Wire, SHIELD, and Homeland.

I'm going to miss Walt
jr
so damn much.
 

NotLiquid

Member
As much as I loved the episode. And I loved the episode. I wanted a tad more of a resolution at the end. I mean I'm not asking for "Breaking Bad: The After Years" as Don't You Forget About Me plays, but it would have been nice to maybe see a glimpse of Jesse visiting the grave at the end.

That's my only personal complaint. At least it ended really close to what I expected. And not mid-sentence.

There's always hope for that alternate ending coming up in the boxset!

Though I'm going to assume that it's going to be more of a joke ending since we still don't know what role Jane Kaczmarek is going to have in the supplemental material.

Why would Jesse do that? He has clear hatred towards Walt, even at the end. Its why he refused to do the one thing he knew Walt wanted.

As cheesy as it sounds for Jesse to do something of that sort (and I doubt it'd ever come to pass anyway)... Hate or not, there is a level of mutual respect it seems. Walter finally took pride in managing to teach something of his own to one of his more valued students, and I don't think it'd be that far fetched to assume that some parts of the last two years is something Jesse might remember fondly, or even that he appreciates the fact that Walter saved his bacon time on time again. It's hard to say just what Jesse thinks of Walter's genuine change of heart in that last moment.

The both of them have gone through rough shit because of one another. But there doesn't seem to be any malice during their final moment. It's like a mix of regret, anguish, tranquility and peace all at once. I'd call it the most ambiguous scene in the entire series.
 

Error_g

Member
Sorry if this has already been discussed, I checked a few pages but couldn't find anything...

Does anyone have any thoughts on why Walt was still taking pills in this episode? He seemed to know what was going to go down so I just kind of wondered about that...
 

Maxim726X

Member
As much as I loved the episode. And I loved the episode. I wanted a tad more of a resolution at the end. I mean I'm not asking for "Breaking Bad: The After Years" as Don't You Forget About Me plays, but it would have been nice to maybe see a glimpse of Jesse visiting the grave at the end.

That's my only personal complaint. At least it ended really close to what I expected. And not mid-sentence.

What was there to say between them at that point? I thought about it after the episode, and the somber head nod really is the best way to sum it all up.

Kind of a 'Yeah... This is fucked up, and it's mostly my fault- and I'm sorry. But there's still hope for you, right outside those gates'. I don't know if any conversation could have done their complex relationship justice.
 

Hindle

Banned
I've started working on my top 5 episodes and I can say its hard. There really were so many awesome individual episodes in this show. Even in S1 there one or two standouts.
 

THEF3AR

Member
Sorry if this has already been discussed, I checked a few pages but couldn't find anything...

Does anyone have any thoughts on why Walt was still taking pills in this episode? He seemed to know what was going to go down so I just kind of wondered about that...

Maybe to ease pain in his lungs??

That's my best guess.
 
I thought Walt admitting "I did it all for me" was the biggest scene of the episode. It put the whole "Walt vs Heisenberg" crap to rest and it was powerful to see him finally tell Skyler the truth. And honestly the way he delivered his line it was hard not to feel a little happy for him knowing that he went out doing what he loved.
 

xenist

Member
If Walt wasn't acting for his own pleasure he'd have taken Gretchen's money. It was always about him. The family stuff was just a convenient excuse he could give himself.
 

inm8num2

Member
Walt at the times of his first and last kills.

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jJK8Xrg.png
 

kehs

Banned
Sorry if this has already been discussed, I checked a few pages but couldn't find anything...

Does anyone have any thoughts on why Walt was still taking pills in this episode? He seemed to know what was going to go down so I just kind of wondered about that...

He a stubborn asshole. He always thinks he'll make it out alive. Suicide by m60 was a risk, not a solution.

If Walt wasn't acting for his own pleasure he'd have taken Gretchen's money. It was always about him. The family stuff was just a convenient excuse he could give himself.


That goes against his whole character. It is always about him. But not about him coming on top, It's about him earning everything he does and every thing he has.
 

Ashok

Banned
A perfect ending to a brilliant TV series. I don't see myself enjoying another TV series to the same degree as Breaking Bad for a very, very long time.
 

amnesiac

Member
I thought Walt admitting "I did it all for me" was the biggest scene of the episode. It put the whole "Walt vs Heisenberg" crap to rest and it was powerful to see him finally tell Skyler the truth. And honestly the way he delivered his line it was hard not to feel a little happy for him knowing that he went out doing what he loved.
But Walt did do it for his family. Initially, at least.
 
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