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

Mononoke

Banned
I guess the inevitability of his death does cheapen his final plan for me. He gets a free pass because he knows that, as always, he doesn't have to pay for the consequences of his actions. So the fact that he can end everything (or at least, quite a bit) on his own terms, while hardly redemption, seems a fate far too kind for Walt.

Why does it cheapen it? He's a bad person, who's selfish and does bad things. Bad people don't have to always face the consequences. I don't get why people feel this HAS to happen in literature. I get why people want this to happen in real life, because - well, we like to think bad people don't always get away. But you know, sometimes they do. And I would reckon that, bad people don't always feel bad for what they do either (which is how Walt went out, feeling good about it).
 
This is what Aaron Paul said about what he think's Jesse did.


And this is what Vince Gilligan said.


I like to believe that Jesse got away and is living a new life somewhere far away from all this.

I like to believe that Jesse got away, bought a boat, sailed thru a hurricane while heading to Alaska and then ended up as a lumberjack.
 

Odrion

Banned
I don't get why an ending that delivered resolution is a bad thing.

Who needs ambiguity? There's plenty to discuss about this show for ages to come.

I like my payoffs from 4-6 years of investment watching a show to be conclusive,.
It's weird how endings with a well done resolutions is a rare thing now.

It's like how Gone Home's ending
is refreshing because it's actually happy instead of every other game's "Look how fucking nihilistic we are OoooOoooo" bullshit.
 

Mononoke

Banned
I don't get why an ending that delivered resolution is a bad thing.

Who needs ambiguity? There's plenty to discuss about this show for ages to come.

I like my payoffs from 4-6 years of investment watching a show to be conclusive,.

It's funny, for so long people complained about wanting a good ending that gave the audience resolution and payoff. That actually tied things up thematically and plot wise. Now that's a bad thing.

Vince did it too well, I guess. Shame on him.

Of course, I'm being facetious. I still understand why certain fans didn't like the finale. And think they have a very valid criticism (I'm talking about the tone it took).
 

jtb

Banned
Why does it cheapen it? He's a bad person, who's selfish and does bad things. Bad people don't have to always face the consequences. I don't get why people feel this HAS to happen in literature. I get why people want this to happen in real life, because - well, we like to think bad people don't always get away. But you know, sometimes they do. And I would reckon that, bad people don't always feel bad for what they do either (which is how Walt went out, feeling good about it).

That's exactly my point. Nothing bad happened to Walt in the finale currently and a bullet in the head doesn't really change that since his death was inevitable. What it changes is whether Jesse gets rescued, the Nazis die. I wanted that collateral damage to be permanent. Bad things happen to good people. Jesse deserves freedom, but he shouldn't have gotten it. Nazis deserve to die, but the show should have ended with their triumph.
 

Addi

Member
There was a lot of ways the finale could have gone, and pretty much all of them would be unsurprising given how much everyone went through. If Jesse shot Walt and it ended with him leaving, same reactions. If Walt shot Jesse and bled out, same reactions.

The only way I could see it be "ballsy" was if Jack straight up shot Walt there, and even then he already had the foresight to prepare his plan regardless of the outcome. The money was placed, Lydia was spiked. All this does is not give the viewer a conclusion to Walt and Jesse together while also probably upsetting more people.

Really, the show ended at Ozymandias. And to me(and many others) that is top of the class Breaking Bad, likely my personal favorite episode in the entire series. After everything was shattered there, the final 2 episodes were much slower and had an intentionally diluted stake. He went there fully intending to die, a simple revenge to top off all the destruction he has caused.

Was going to point that out. I like this trivia from Ozymandias on imdb:

Guillermo del Toro desperately wanted to direct the episode "Ozymandias". When he expressed this desire to the episode's eventual director Rian Johnson, Johnson responded, "Yeah, sorry, I'm the one who gets to f*** the prom queen.
 

Maxim726X

Member
I mean, I'm assuming that the Jesse confession tape was still in the Neo-Nazi compound, right?

Did anyone mention that it was destroyed?
 

Mifune

Mehmber
My biggest problem with the finale was that ultimately it was toothless and predictable. And I never expected a Breaking Bad episode, let alone the series finale, to be that.
 

jtb

Banned
My biggest problem with the finale was that ultimately it was toothless and predictable. And I never expected a Breaking Bad episode, let alone the series finale, to be that.

I don't really understand this. When has Breaking Bad ever been particularly bold or unpredictable? It's played it pretty by the book and I think that's why it succeeds. There's no need to try to "outsmart" the audience; if it ain't broke don't fix it.
 

Scrooged

Totally wronger about Nintendo's business decisions.
The finale was great. Yeah, it was kinda predictable but this is the end...there's really no time for crazy shenanigans. Every plot point was wrapped up. Personally i would have hated it if it ended on some stupid cliffhanger or had an ambiguous ending.
 
I can't wait until a decade or two later when Breaking Bad is as absorbed into pop culture as Twin Peaks is.

Obscure Japanese dev studios are going to make the Breaking Bad version of Deadly Premonition for the PS8 and children cartoons are going to sneak in references to Heisenberg.

That makes an eerie amount of sense.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
That's exactly my point. Nothing bad happened to Walt in the finale currently and a bullet in the head doesn't really change that since his death was inevitable. What it changes is whether Jesse gets rescued, the Nazis die. I wanted that collateral damage to be permanent. Bad things happen to good people. Jesse deserves freedom, but he shouldn't have gotten it. Nazis deserve to die, but the show should have ended with their triumph.

Your ending would have shown his delusion about his own importance, which would have been fitting. His legacy is death.
 

Mononoke

Banned
That's exactly my point. Nothing bad happened to Walt in the finale currently and a bullet in the head doesn't really change that since his death was inevitable. What it changes is whether Jesse gets rescued, the Nazis die. I wanted that collateral damage to be permanent. Bad things happen to good people. Jesse deserves freedom, but he shouldn't have gotten it. Nazis deserve to die, but the show should have ended with their triumph.

I just didn't have an issue with it. I don't mind in literature when bad people come out on top, because it happens in real life. I would have taken issue with it, if the show tried to make Walt seem heroic when he wasn't. If the show tried to justify Walt's actions, without committing to why he actually did what he did.

For me, ultimately this show was a bout a man that lived his life making bad choices. And it lead him to a life where his potential was muted, he was emasculated, and his ambitions were never lived up to. It showed the path he took to feel control over his life for once, and in the process realized how much alive he felt doing it - despite the damage it caused others around him.

To me, that's a pretty good sum of why people might become bad, and why they are bad for doing these things.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
I don't really understand this. When has Breaking Bad ever been particularly bold or unpredictable? It's played it pretty by the book and I think that's why it succeeds. There's no need to try to "outsmart" the audience; if it ain't broke don't fix it.

The show is full of shocking moments and turns and off-kilter bits of weirdness. I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not saying it's The Prisoner or anything but within the realm of the crime drama it's a pretty bold show.
 

Maxim726X

Member
I guess the inevitability of his death does cheapen his final plan for me. He gets a free pass because he knows that, as always, he doesn't have to pay for the consequences of his actions. So the fact that he can end everything (or at least, quite a bit) on his own terms, while hardly redemption, seems a fate far too kind for Walt. His actions have had consequences for everyone but him, again and again. I'm sure some would argue being forced to confront his sins in solitary confinement in NH is punishment enough, but that's not enough for me.

I mean, how?

He lost everything he cared about. He watched his brother in law die, Jesse despises him (and he completely ruined his life), his wife doesn't love him, his son hates him, his daughter will know nothing of him other than the fact that he's a criminal, Marie would probably kill him herself if she had the chance... He didn't win anything. That's part of the point.
 
I thought the ending was great. Even though his life was ruined, I think somehow it was a happy ending. There's nothing more difficult than ending a show like this, and I think they did it the right way; full closure for the fans.
 

Skeyser

Member
I don't really understand this. When has Breaking Bad ever been particularly bold or unpredictable? It's played it pretty by the book and I think that's why it succeeds. There's no need to try to "outsmart" the audience; if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Breaking bad was never this predictable.

Honestly I think it's the flashback in the first episode of 5B that spoiled the finale. It made it so obvious what was going to happen.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Your ending would have shown his delusion about his own importance, which would have been fitting. His legacy is death.

Him killing the nazis didn't change much there. Again, he already set up the money scare tactic which was all he wanted. He fully expected to die and probably didn't even think his plan would work as well as it did.
 

Speevy

Banned
I thought the ending was brilliant.

The episodes leading up to it explored Walt's attempt to justify every other reality for himself and his family, but in the end, it was just him and his chemistry.

His lack of control was resolved. He shattered the world he knew and glued it back together, but it didn't fit, so he said goodbye to it.
 

jtb

Banned
I mean, how?

He lost everything he cared about. He watched his brother in law die, Jesse despises him (and he completely ruined his life), his wife doesn't love him, his son hates him, his daughter will know nothing of him other than the fact that he's a criminal, Marie would probably kill him herself if she had the chance... He didn't win anything. That's part of the point.

He lost everything he cared about. And yet he didn't lose anything himself. No, his punishment must be more severe :p

This whole show is about Walt trying to exert some agency over his life, right? Well, he still managed to run damage limitation in the finale when, imo, a bolder ending would have had Walt exerting zero influence, zero agency. It's not just about Walt's POV, it's about giving us very real, very permanent consequences for Walt's actions. To eliminate Walt's agency in that final showdown, even after all his scheming, and couple that with the permanent collateral damage of Jesse staying in captivity, the Nazis living, etc.; that would have been the ultimate damnation of Walt. (at least within the limitations provided by everything that came before it)
 

jtb

Banned
Breaking bad was never this predictable.

Honestly I think it's the flashback in the first episode of 5B that spoiled the finale. It made it so obvious what was going to happen.

The show is full of shocking moments and turns and off-kilter bits of weirdness. I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm not saying it's The Prisoner or anything but within the realm of the crime drama it's a pretty bold show.

I dunno. I've never really felt Breaking Bad was all that unpredictable. Twist-y, sure. But I think there's always felt the plot moved forward pretty logically. And while I wouldn't have minded one last twist (Walt getting shot in the head, being my twist of choice), I didn't really mind that it all happened, for the most part, just how we expected.

I agree that the flashforwards in S5 are terrible though. Been beating that drum for a while now heh
 

rekameohs

Banned
Anyone wanna recap his pitch for those not wanting to listen to a podcast?
In the end of Season 1, Walt's dealer brutally kills Jesse. In a fit of rage, Walt captures the dealer and chains him up in his basement. He has a string by the dealer which would activate the trigger of a rifle pointed at him across the room, if he wanted to end his suffering. Every day, Walt saws off a little bit of the dealer to torture him. After weeks, his legs are completely cut off, when Walt Jr. stumbles on the scene. He thinks that the man was innocent and goes over to him to free him. The dealer then pulls the trigger, killing them both.


Sounds reeeeeeaaaaalllly bad.
 

Dany

Banned
Anyone wanna recap his pitch for those not wanting to listen to a podcast?

Jesse would be killed by the end of season 1 by a drug dealer. Vince thought of him as the baddest of the characters he thought up of. Vince said that part of this drug dealers character made his way into Gus, Tuco and Crazy Eight. Walt would be so incredibly depressed and angry that Jesse was murdered that he took his rage on this drug dealer and seeked revenge. He kidnapped the drug dealer and tied hum up to a pole in the basement. Walt set up a trip wire with a shotgun in the basement that would blow the drug dealers head off if he escaped. Walt wanted the drug dealer to kill himself and in order to make him do that Walt was going to torture him until he had enough suffering to commit suicide. Every day Walt would go into the basement at 4 pm and take off a piece of his body, first it would be a toe, then a foot and a leg. Walt was at this for two weeks and becoming more monstrous in the ways he would torture and amputate his body parts. One evening Walt Jr walks downstairs and sees the drug dealer and offers the man some water and says he will call the police. The drug dealer in haze from his earlier torturing would see Walt Jr. and knowing that the boy was Walt's son; the drug dealer would set off the trip wire killing them both.

EDIT: There was another story where Walt and Skyler would go to the vacuum repair guy to flee the Feds. Skyler would be in shock after Hank is dead and just be in a 'zombie state'. They would both be in some cheap hotel room, skyler in the bathroom and walt on the bed. Walt was saying how everyhting will be alright and that he has a plan and he waits for skyler to answer but she doesn't. He breaks into the bathroom and sees her in a bathtub full of blood.
 

amnesiac

Member
In the end of Season 1, Walt's dealer brutally kills Jesse. In a fit of rage, Walt captures the dealer and chains him up in his basement. He has a string by the dealer which would activate the trigger of a rifle pointed at him across the room, if he wanted to end his suffering. Every day, Walt saws off a little bit of the dealer to torture him. After weeks, his legs are completely cut off, when Walt Jr. stumbles on the scene. He thinks that the man was innocent and goes over to him to free him. The dealer then pull the trigger, killing them both.


Sounds reeeeeeaaaaalllly bad.

oh my god sounds like a horror movie
 

Speevy

Banned
Jesse would be killed by the end of season 1 by a drug dealer. Vince thought of him as the baddest of the characters he thought up of. Vince said that part of this drug dealers character made his way into Gus, Tuco and Crazy Eight. Walt would be so incredibly depressed and angry that Jesse was murdered that he took his rage on this drug dealer and seeked revenge. He kidnapped the drug dealer and tied hum up to a pole in the basement. Walt set up a trip wire with a shotgun in the basement that would blow the drug dealers head off if he escaped. Walt wanted the drug dealer to kill himself and in order to make him do that Walt was going to torture him until he had enough suffering to commit suicide. Every day Walt would go into the basement at 4 pm and take off a piece of his body, first it would be a toe, then a foot and a leg. Walt was at this for two weeks and becoming more monstrous in the ways he would torture and amputate his body parts. One evening Walt Jr walks downstairs and sees the drug dealer and offers the man some water and says he will call the police. The drug dealer in haze from his earlier torturing would see Walt Jr. and knowing that the boy was Walt's son; the drug dealer would set off the trip wire killing them both.

This show would have lasted one season.
 

maharg

idspispopd
He lost everything he cared about. And yet he didn't lose anything himself. No, his punishment must be more severe :p

This whole show is about Walt trying to exert some agency over his life, right? Well, he still managed to run damage limitation in the finale when, imo, a bolder ending would have had Walt exerting zero influence, zero agency. It's not just about Walt's POV, it's about giving us very real, very permanent consequences for Walt's actions. To eliminate Walt's agency in that final showdown, even after all his scheming, and couple that with the permanent collateral damage of Jesse staying in captivity, the Nazis living, etc.; that would have been the ultimate damnation of Walt.

I can sympathize with this, but I've kind of come to the notion that on a meta level it's not Walt's agency that led to his success on all these things but the moral force of the universe BB takes place in acting through Walt. When Walt stops fighting what and who he is, some good comes of his actions and he gets a small reward of dying having satisfied his ego.

But I recognize that that's a VERY meta interpretation of things that might not work for everyone.
 

maharg

idspispopd
Jesse would be killed by the end of season 1 by a drug dealer. Vince thought of him as the baddest of the characters he thought up of. Vince said that part of this drug dealers character made his way into Gus, Tuco and Crazy Eight. Walt would be so incredibly depressed and angry that Jesse was murdered that he took his rage on this drug dealer and seeked revenge. He kidnapped the drug dealer and tied hum up to a pole in the basement. Walt set up a trip wire with a shotgun in the basement that would blow the drug dealers head off if he escaped. Walt wanted the drug dealer to kill himself and in order to make him do that Walt was going to torture him until he had enough suffering to commit suicide. Every day Walt would go into the basement at 4 pm and take off a piece of his body, first it would be a toe, then a foot and a leg. Walt was at this for two weeks and becoming more monstrous in the ways he would torture and amputate his body parts. One evening Walt Jr walks downstairs and sees the drug dealer and offers the man some water and says he will call the police. The drug dealer in haze from his earlier torturing would see Walt Jr. and knowing that the boy was Walt's son; the drug dealer would set off the trip wire killing them both.

Wow. I kind of hope he still makes that somehow. Probably as a film, though.

EDIT: There was another story where Walt and Skyler would go to the vacuum repair guy to flee the Feds. Skyler would be in shock after Hank is dead and just be in a 'zombie state'. They would both be in some cheap hotel room, skyler in the bathroom and walt on the bed. Walt was saying how everyhting will be alright and that he has a plan and he waits for skyler to answer but she doesn't. He breaks into the bathroom and sees her in a bathtub full of blood.

This makes me think too much of Dexter. :/
 

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
Jesse would be killed by the end of season 1 by a drug dealer. Vince thought of him as the baddest of the characters he thought up of. Vince said that part of this drug dealers character made his way into Gus, Tuco and Crazy Eight. Walt would be so incredibly depressed and angry that Jesse was murdered that he took his rage on this drug dealer and seeked revenge. He kidnapped the drug dealer and tied hum up to a pole in the basement. Walt set up a trip wire with a shotgun in the basement that would blow the drug dealers head off if he escaped. Walt wanted the drug dealer to kill himself and in order to make him do that Walt was going to torture him until he had enough suffering to commit suicide. Every day Walt would go into the basement at 4 pm and take off a piece of his body, first it would be a toe, then a foot and a leg. Walt was at this for two weeks and becoming more monstrous in the ways he would torture and amputate his body parts. One evening Walt Jr walks downstairs and sees the drug dealer and offers the man some water and says he will call the police. The drug dealer in haze from his earlier torturing would see Walt Jr. and knowing that the boy was Walt's son; the drug dealer would set off the trip wire killing them both.

EDIT: There was another story where Walt and Skyler would go to the vacuum repair guy to flee the Feds. Skyler would be in shock after Hank is dead and just be in a 'zombie state'. They would both be in some cheap hotel room, skyler in the bathroom and walt on the bed. Walt was saying how everyhting will be alright and that he has a plan and he waits for skyler to answer but she doesn't. He breaks into the bathroom and sees her in a bathtub full of blood.

Jesus lol. That would've been brutal.
 
Content Roundup - Episode 8 - Felina

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Videos
Reviews
- Onion A|V Club review
- Sepinwall's review
- Variety: TV Review: ‘Breaking Bad’ Finale Gets the Chemistry Just Right
- memles on the finale for Cultural Learnings
- Alyssa Rosenberg on the finale
- Slate.com review
- IGN review
- The Atlantic discussion
- Frazier Moore for AP
- Esquire
- LA Times
- Poniewozik's review for Time.com
- Tim Goodman on the finale for THR
- Warming Glow on the finale
- Matt Zoller Seitz review
- Maureen Ryan's review
- Badass Digest
- IndieWire #1
- Salon.com #2
- Slant Magazine
- Emily Nussbaum for The New Yorker
- Sean T Collins @ Rolling Stone
- Washington Post
- Chicago Sun Times
- Cinema Blend
- Collider
- NJ Star-Ledger
- Eric Deggans @ Tampa Bay Times
- The Week
- Film School Rejects
- EW.com
- Linda Holmes @ NPR
- Kate Arthur @ Buzzfeed
- Laura Bennett @ The New Republic
- Andy Greenwald's review for Grantland
- NY Times
- Toronto Star
- Jaime Weinman @ Maclean's
- Ryan McGee
- The Guardian
- TV.com
- LA Times #2
- Matt Zoller Seitz's video review

Other
- AMC Q&A: Jesse Plemons (Todd Alquist)
- Poniewozik @ Time: How Walter White Became the One Who Knocks
- The Onion: ‘Breaking Bad’ Ends With Reveal That Whole Series Was Plot of Book Marie Shoplifted
- Bad Finger - Baby Blue (closing song)
- El Paso (Full-Length Version) - Marty Robbins
- NY Times: Walter White’s Soul, and Yours (Room For Debate Editorial Feature)
- Warming Glow: ‘Breaking Bad’ Series Finale GIF Highlights: Felina
- Salon: Why Flynn is the real hero of “Breaking Bad”
- National Geographic: Things You Should Know About Ricin
- NY Mag: 11 Breaking Bad Finale Facts Revealed on Talking Bad
- NY Mag: Your Final Breaking Bad GIFs
- EW Interview: Vince Gilligan explains series finale
- EW Interview: Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul discuss ending of 'Breaking Bad' finale
- THR: 'Breaking Bad': The Meaning of the Finale's Last Song
- Forbes: Working Bad: Exclusive Interviews With the Brains Behind 'Breaking Bad' (set of interview links)
- Rolling Stone: Lessons of the 'Breaking Bad' Series Finale
- Andy Greenwald answers a few BB questions in his September Mail Bag for Grantland
- The Week: Breaking Bad: An interview with the show's science advisor
- Canada.com podcast on the finale
- Barry Hertz @ Maclean's: Why Breaking Bad’s finale will disappoint—and we’re all to blame
- EW: 'Breaking Bad': 10 questions we'll never see resolved
- Onion A|V Club's "For Our Consideration" Feature: Breaking Bad ended the anti-hero genre by introducing good and evil
- NY Mag: The Dream of Jesse Pinkman’s Happy Ending
- THR: Beyond 'Breaking Bad': What's Next for the Show's Stars
- NY Mag: Albuquerque Said Good-bye to Breaking Bad With Finale Parties
- Yahoo Interview: Michael Bowen on Becoming Uncle Jack
- Slate.com: Exclusive: Aaron Paul’s Complete Script for the Breaking Bad Finale
- EW: 'Breaking Bad' series finale ratings smash all records (10.3M viewers, 5.4 in the 18-49 demo)
- Time: Breaking Bad Finale Downloaded Illegally 500,000 Times in 12 Hours
- Insider Podcast is up
- Sepinwall & Fienberg talking BB on this week's podcast
- NY Mag: Breaking Bad and Badfinger’s ‘Baby Blue’
- Warming Glow: The ‘Breaking Bad’ Character First And Last Appearance GIF Wall
- Zap2It: 'Breaking Bad' vs. 'The Sopranos' series finales: One size does not fit all
- Maureen Ryan and others discussing the finaleon HuffPost Live (video)
- NY Mag: Breaking Bad’s Laura Fraser on Lydia, Stevia, and ‘Gross’ Todd
- Onion A|V Club: Here are some pictures from the Breaking Bad finale screening
- Rolling Stone: Five Revelations From the Near-Perfect 'Breaking Bad' Finale
- AMC Fan Quiz on the finale
- PN Inlander: Who's Really "The One who Knocks" on Breaking Bad?
- The Awl: Customers Who Didn't Buy The "Breaking Bad" Finale Also Didn't Buy…
- EW: Badfinger's Joey Molland talk 'Baby Blue' in the 'Breaking Bad' finale
- Andy Greenwald talking BB finale on this week's Grantland Podcast
- THR: 'Breaking Bad' Producer on Walt's Finale Sacrifice: He Didn't Redeem Himself (Q&A)
- THR: The 'Breaking Bad' Legacy: Now That It's Over, Where Does It Stand?
 

Dany

Banned
Oh and I think the last pitch they said was how they wanted a cold opening for a season to be Walt running through the desert with a bloody suitcase and the question would be 'whats in it' Vince was like 'maybe its Holly, who knows"

:|
 
i love the mind of vince gilligan and what it has bought us

i now sort of feel like what we have now as breaking bad is just a watered down version of what could have been, and even at that it is the best show ever made
 
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