FELINA: Breaking Bad Finale

Okay, so before we proceed I am going to say:

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE.

I REPEAT, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS ARTICLE.

"Felina" the title of our final episode of the Emmy award winning tv series, Breaking Bad, is an anagram for the word "finale." And everything about this last episode was indeed final, conclusive, and extremely satisfying.

Walt is on the run again, this time back to Albuquerque. He steals a car and while gassing up he uses a payphone, where he poses as a journalist wishing to interview Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz. He is able to obtain their new home address and discovers they'll be home that evening. Then he removes the watch Jesse gave him on his 51st birthday, and carries on.

Last week, so many people thought Walt was headed to find Elliot and Gretchen to kill them. Yes, they hurt Walt's pride and we all know just how much Walter's ego means to him, but almost all of Walter's kills have been in a fit of blind rage (aside from Gus Fring that is however, we all know he had to die). So I wasn't entirely surprised to discover that his reason for tracking down Elliot and Gretchen was to use them to secure his family's future, rather than off them. He confronts the couple, in their home. Alarmed at his unexpected and unwelcome visit (not to mention his rather haggard appearance), they are at first reluctant to comply with Walt's demands. He wants them to keep his money for him until Junior turns 18. At which point they will distribute the money to Junior, making it look as an act of charity and compassion for Walter's family, who are in fact blameless victims of the methamphetamine drug trade. To ensure their cooperation, Walter then signals outside to what appears to be nothing but dark, black night. Sniper lasers target both Gretchen and Elliot's chests, at which point Walt explains that he has spent $200,000 of his hard earned cash to hire two of the best assassins in the state to guarantee that Gretchen and Elliot honour their word in that they will do exactly as Walter has demanded.  

Satisfied that the couple has been intimidated into doing as he has instructed, Walter returns to his car where we discover the two badass hitmen are in fact Badger and Skinny Pete, armed with nothing more than laser pointers. Thank heavens for some comic relief folks, the tension was really starting to kill me here.

As the three men drive off into the night, it is revealed to Walt that the Blue Meth is still on the market. Walt deduces Jesse is still cooking, thus he is not dead. The next scene shows Jesse, looking even worse than Walt is. He has clearly been beaten and deprived of both food and sleep, and cooks meth in Jack Welker's lab by force and under threat of young Brock's life. Oh Jesse, how I love your big heart.

We are then brought back to the opening scene of the season premiere, Walt returning to his home. It is now vacant and vandalized. Here in his living room, he retrieves the ricen and recalls better times had in the home, including Hank offering to bring Walt along on a meth bust: the starting point of Walter's career in the illegal drug trade.

Miss Camomile with soy milk and Stevia, also known as Lydia awaits Todd Alquist's arrival in the coffee shop. No sooner does Todd sit down, and to their shock, Walt pulls up a chair. He desperately pleads for their help as he is out of money. Walter offers to make it worth their while by providing them with a Blue Meth recipe that no longer requires the crucial and hard to come by ingredient, methylamine. He says he will give up the information for $1 million dollars. Lydia shows very little compassion, all she wants to know is how Walt knew where to find them. Walt claims it wasn't hard, this is where they used to meet each week as well. Todd immediately says no to Walt but Lydia agrees to meet with Walt, later, at Jack Welker's compound. A server arrives with her camomile tea and Walt departs. Lydia implies to Todd that they will not help Walt but will rather use the opportunity to kill him. With that, Lydia stirs her Stevia into her mug unbeknownst to what other ingredient she just added to her tea.

We see Walt working on a rather lethal looking gun in the desert. He seems pleased with the results.

Finally we are brought to Skylar's home. Skylar appears almost frail looking. She is a woman broken by what her life has become. While she sits quietly smoking her cigarette, the phone rings. It's Marie, who has heard of Walter's return to town and has called to warn Skylar. Skylar humours her sister, hangs up, and says "five minutes." The camera shifts to reveal Walt is standing in Skylar's kitchen. Walter has returned to say a proper goodbye. He admits to Skylar that all that he did was for himself. "I did it for me," he declared to Skylar. "I liked it. I was good at it. And I was alive." He assures Skylar that after tonight there will no longer be any danger to their family. He then provides Skylar with the lottery ticket which contains the coordinates that will lead back to Hank's body. He instructs Skylar to trade the location for a plea bargain to clear her name. Then Walt asks if he might see Holly one last time. Skylar agrees. Here we are shown the often absent tender side of Walt. He watches his daughter sleep and tearfully bids her farewell. Oh the FEELINGS. Then from outside the house, he watches Junior arrive home. So not to disturb him, he leaves undetected.

Walter then heads to Jack Welker's compound. Upon arrival at the gate, Kenny enters the car and tells him to park, but Walter insists on parking the vehicle on just the right angle. Kenny thinks nothing of it. After exiting the vehicle, Kenny insists on having Walt's keys and wallet. Walt wants to know that they'll each be returned to him. They enter the main building, where Jack refuses Walt's offer to provide a new recipe for the Blue Meth and Todd reveals that Walt never should have returned. Jack informs Walter that he plans on killing him. Before Jack's men can take Walter out to dispose of him, Walter calls Jack out on breaking his earlier promise to kill Jesse, accusing Jack of making Jesse a partner instead. Jack is livid that Walt would accuse him of partnering up with a "rat", and insists his men bring out Jesse. Jesse remains shackled and disheveled. Jack asks Walter if it looks like Jesse is his "partner" and informs Walt that he uses Jesse as more of a slave. Walter uses the distraction to slowly retrieve his keys from a nearby table.

And here, the climax. Walter flings himself into Jesse, appearing to attack him, when actually he is protecting Jesse by tackling him to the floor. Walt presses the "trunk" button on his keys, and the machine gun he built in the desert begins firing from his vehicle's trunk into and all over the building, spraying bullets everywhere. We see Walt take a hit as he shields Jesse's body with his own. Everyone but Walter, Jesse, Todd, and Jack are instantly killed. After the chaos, Jack pleads for his life by offering Walt back his money, Walt responds by putting a bullet into the man's head, in the very same fashion in which Jack killed Hank. Jesse then violently strangles Todd with his handcuffs chain, finally killing him by snapping his neck.

Jesse frees himself and Walter offers up his gun. He tells Jesse, "you want this" but Jesse won't kill Walter unless he wants it too. Walt assures him that he does. Jesse then notices the fatal gunshot to Walter's side and tells him "do it yourself." He walks out.

Todd's phone rings quite possibly the creepiest ring tone of all time, some variation of a song called "Lydia" and when Walt answers, it is of course Lydia. Lydia is sick and in bed, looking simply terribly, and she doesn't recognize that she is speaking with Walt when she asks "Todd" if he has taken care of Walter. Walt reveals himself to Lydia, and gloatingly informs her he has killed Todd and the rest of Jack's crew. He asks her if she is feeling "under the weather" and explains that he poisoned her by putting the ricen in her Stevia. Then he tosses the phone.

Walter saunters outside, where he and Jesse acknowledge each other one last time. Jesse starts a car, and speeds off. Our final scene with Jesse is him laughing, crying, both hysterical and ecstatic at the same time, to be free; not only of Jack's meth lab, but Walter and the entire lifestyle as well.

We hear sirens in the distance. Walter heads over to the meth lab and takes it all in, touching it, appreciating it. He finally succumbs to his wound as the police arrive at the compound. Walter White, dead on the floor, surrounded by chemistry equipment, is at peace at last.

Going  into the series finale, I'm not going to lie, I was worried. It seemed like so many issues needed to be resolved in a short 60 minutes of screen time. I began to fear that we'd end up with a Dexter finale, a Sopranos finale, or worst of all: a LOST finale. But series creator, Vince Gilligan delivered as promised. And as always, Bryan Cranston was nothing short of amazing. That goes for Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, and the rest of the cast as well; so shame on me for not believing. My only slight complaint might be that Walter killed the men at Jack Welker's compound with a machine gun and to me that's not exactly Walter White. I would have expected something with a little more "chemistry" involved but this isn't the first contraption we've seen Walt throw together (ie. the RV battery, Gus Fring's Face Off bomb). So I'm definitely not losing any sleep over it.

This series left no stones unturned, no loose ends untied, and gave every Breaking Bad fan the closure they so needed. Somehow, in a single episode, Vince Gilligan ensured that Walter White secured his family's future, provided Marie the closure she needed after losing her husband, destroyed his enemies, made things right with Jesse, and finally faced the consequences of his actions.

R.I.P. Walter White, my television anti hero of 2013.

Danielle Beaudin-Lawrence

@daniellebeaudin