“I did it for me. I Liked it. I was good at it. I was alive.”
Well guys, Breaking Bad has finally closed its blue doors on us. The finale came and went as quickly as these last 8 episodes seemed to as a whole. It seemed like just last week that we were picking our jaws off the floor from Hank and Walt’s first real encounter. Was it a finale packed with twists, turns and surprises? No. If you were expecting that, then you’re probably disappointed. But that’s your fault. This show did enough of that throughout its 5 seasons, that all it needed to do was wrap up its story in a satisfying way, and it did just that. It was a perfect ending to a nearly perfect TV show, that truly is one of the greats.
The episode begins with Walt in New Hampshire finding a car that hadn’t been used in a while and he trys to steal it. He has a close call with a cop but and in desperation pleads with god just to get him home. The cop leaves and Walt realizes that the keys were waiting for him the the sun visor. It looks like Walt still has some luck on his side after all.
Walt gets to a gas station and we see him make a phone call where he gets Gretchen & Elliot’s address posing as a NY Times writer trying to finish an article on the duo. Walt is waiting for his former co-workers when they get home to their extravagant home creepily looking around the house until a scared Gretchen finds him. Walt isn’t there to hurt them, but rather to gives them something. Elliot takes out a pathetic little knife and Walt just stares him down and nonchalantly says “If we’re going to go that route, you’re gonna need a bigger knife.” There’s no more room for games in Walt’s life.
Walt brings all the money he has left with him and puts it in their hands, threatening them with the responsibility of getting the money to Walter Jr. on his 18th birthday via one of their rich business people trusts. They reluctantly agree, but Walt won’t leave it to a gentleman’s agreement. Soon two red lights are locked in on Gretchen and Elliot. Walt threatens them to make sure the money goes where it’s supposed to or “the two best hit-men west of Mississippi” will take them out someday down the life. “Cheer up beautiful people this is where you get to make it right” Walt says as he leaves. Surely, he finally gets to enjoy some sort of revenge on these two who have screwed him over long enough.
The two “hit-men” turn out to be none other than Badger and Skinny Pete, who surprisingly make one last appearance (how awesome it is to see them one last time). Walt pays them handsomely to point some laser pointers at the frightened couple. They question the morality of what they did (a funny self-reference to the show perhaps) but all that is appeased once Walt hands them a fat stack of cash.
We then see a peaceful and quaint Jesse making something in workshop, reminiscent of that story he told in rehab. Only its a dream, in reality he’s still a slave in Todd’s laboratory making meth. Hopefully the dream will be a flash forward for Jesse someday. That seemed really peaceful.
We catch up with Walt at the Denny’s diner scene that we saw in the first episode of season 5, meaning that we are finally all caught up. We see the gun, Walt grabs the ricin, and steps in to his destroyed living room where he flashes back to his surprise birthday party from season 1. Boy, a lot has changed.
Walt crashes in on Todd and Lydia meet, and plays his hands right. He uses it to get the attention of Todd to get a meeting with Uncle Jack and slip something a little special into Lydia’s beloved Stevia that she loves to put in her tea. Her countdown begins.
Walt is out in the desert preparing the M-60 to be used from the trunk of his door. We get to see the practical genius at work in the desert, one last time.
Marie calls Skylar at her new apartment and warns her that Walt has been seen around town. Only in a clever camera angle, we see that Walt is actually there the whole time. We see this as his final goodbye to Skylar. He gives Skylar the coordinates to where Hank and Gomie are buried, as a way for her to trade that info to make a deal with the DEA and get them off her back. She tells him she doesn’t want to hear about him doing all this for the family again, but Walt doesn’t even consider that. Finally, after 5 seasons, he admits the truth to her, that we all knew:
“I did it for me. I Liked it. I was good at it. I was alive.”
It was a brilliantly acted scene by Cranston. If Jeff Daniels or anyone else (other than maybe Jon Hamm) takes the Emmy gold from Cranston next year, it would be a god damn shame. His delivery of this line, and that deep breath of relief to finally get it all out, was brilliantly played by the great Bryan Cranston.
He gets to say goodbye to Holly and he is able to see Flynn return home from school one last time and get to say goodbye to him in his own way. Like that he turns and walks away through a dirty screen that makes him seem like an old spirit finally free to go make peace.
Walt comes to visit Jack and the rest of the neo-nazi gang. They plan to kill him, and it allows Walt to have one last gun pointed to his head. Only he gets Jack’s attention by accusing him of partnering up with Jesse. This pisses Jack off and gets him to bring Jesse right to him. Walt tackles Jesse to the ground, hits his car keys and sets the M-60 into full motion. Walt is hit by a stray bullet, but everyone else is dead except for a wounded Jack and Todd. Jesse gets to finally get some revenge on Todd, brutally choking him out. Jack tries to tell Walt that only he knows where the money is, but Walt is no longer that man, and shoots Jack right in the head without a moment of hesitation. Finally, sweet revenge for both these characters for the harm they did to Hank, Gomie, and Andrea.
Lydia calls Todd’s phone as he lays there dead, and Walt gets to tell her that he slipped the ricin into her Stevia, and hangs up on her in brutal fashion. Imagine being on the other end of that phone call to Walt? Good luck trying to sleep that off.
Walt tosses the gun to Jesse and gives him a chance to put an end to all it. Jesse makes Walt beg for it though. “Say you want this. Nothing happens until I hear you say it.” but Jesse sees that Walt is wounded anyway, and lets him take care of it himself. He drives away and has a cathartic moment of freedom that he finally deserves. Amazingly, Jesse ends up surviving the show, something that none of us would have guessed at the beginning of this season. Most likely he will be off to take care of Brock, and try to get his life back in some sort of normalcy.
Walt takes a look at the meth lab, and gets to take in all that he’s accomplished one last time. As he touches the equipment one last time, the cops arrive. Only he falls to the ground and finally dies. Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” plays as the camera pans up from his lifeless body, and the show comes to its end.
Breaking Bad closed its doors by answering all that it needed to and giving all the closure that we hoped for. I’m able to walk away from the show completely satisfied and have no regrets at all. It was quite a ride, and I’m perfectly ok with how it all wrapped up. We won’t see a show quite like it ever again.
R.I.P. Walt. A legendary anti-hero who we will see influence many future TV shows over the rest of television history.
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