Breaking Bad - Season 5 (AMC) (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

Part of me likes to think that the machine-gunning of the Nazis is a metaphor for how AMC treated this show (as well as Mad Men and The Walking Dead), and this is how Gilligan responded to their "notes."

 

[joshEH]

Walt's "manifesto" was clearly just Badger and Skinny Pete running around town and dialling in all sorts of threats (using "weird" voices). It explains why he waved to Carol, which confirmed he was in town, but then couldn't be caught afterwards. If you can't go fully sneaky, walk around in broad daylight and scatter the cops like chickens.

Convenient, and a little implausible, but evading the cops was never going to be an interesting focus of the episode, so I'm happy with the explanation.

Love that Uncle Jack died the same way as Hank, up to being cut off mid-sentence, with one crucial exception: Bossman ASAC Mutherfucking Schrader did not beg. Jack didn't seem particularly bothered about his nephew's demise, either.

 

[joshEH]

Oh, and one more quick thing:

Apart from Jesse going all "Slave Leia" on Todd, that entire endgame in the Nazi-compund almost plays like a riff on the first act of Return of the Jedi.

Countdown to someone dubbing in the "Sail Barge Assault" music over the M60 robot-gun sequence...hell, I may just do it myself.

 

[Simon Massey]

Can be summed up in one word - "satisfying" Personally I havent had years of expectation and watching as I only started in August and I look forward to watching the whole thing again in the future.

And really, I think removed from the hype and with the benefit of time, when the series as viewed as a whole piece and watched as such, I think it will be as good an ending as anyone could have expected.

 

[Hanson]

I think Gilligan acquitted himself ably on the Kobayashi Maru scenario that is the series finale of a beloved show. Maybe it all went down too easily and tied up too many bows, but for grieving fans, this was the closure we needed. A tip of the hat for having Skinny Pete and Badger come back (and be an integral part of Walt's last scheme).

I only started watching the show in August, but it was so engrossing I was able to catch up to live by season 5 episode 13.

Much like my marathon of the GoT novels, I was able to side step the waiting between seasons and kept everything fresh by the finale. Quite possibly the best show ever.

The one question they never did answer -- why did Walt cash in his Gray Matter shares? He was clearly going out with Gretchen at one point. I imagined that they were a couple until he knocked up the waitress at the diner.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Just finished watching the finale.

Liked it. Didn't overly love it. However, there is no perfect
ending to be had -- only one that is satisfying, and I believe
that is what this episode did for just about everyone.

Scanned back on the restaurant scene trying to see how
Walt was able to finagle that sugar packet exchange. Guess
the slight of hand wasn't meant to be seen. Perhaps Walt was
in the restaurant prior to Lydia's meeting.

Suppose Badfiner's "Baby Blue" is now as famous as Journey's
"Don't Stop Believing" as far as finale songs go. I love Badfinger,
so I was very happy to hear it included here.

I suppose, in the end, all of us should be happy that there was
some sort of definitive finale with all loose ends tied up. Would
have hated to see yet another finale where the screen just suddenly
goes black....

 

[Greg.K]

It seemed clear that he swapped the ricin ahead of time. He made a point of saying that she always used the same table.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thanks, Greg.

....and geez, I know this is only a tv show, but was it in Walt's best
interests to tell Lydia of the poisoning if he wanted her dead?Just from the quick online research I did on Ricin, you can survive it
if brought to the hospital.

 

[Hanson]

The one thing about the coffee shop scene is that they shifted Lydia from her usual widow seat to round table in the middle of the floor (presumably because they needed Walt to pull up a chair, which would be difficult to shoot if the table was against the window). But yeah, just accept that Walt was able to get the ricin in the packet and pull off the switcheroo.

BTW, the way Walt delivered the ricin to Lydia is not a fatal as they made it out to be:

"Ricin is resistant, but not impervious, to digestion by peptidases. By ingestion, the pathology of ricin is largely restricted to the gastrointestinal tract where it may cause mucosal injuries; with appropriate treatment, most patients will make a full recovery."

I also hope that so many people are Googling "ricin" today that I will not be hearing a knock at the door for unearthing that nugget. *Crosses fingers*

 

[Charlie Campisi]

The one question they never did answer -- why did Walt cash in his Gray Matter shares? He was clearly going out with Gretchen at one point. I imagined that they were a couple until he knocked up the waitress at the diner.

I thought they answered this in season 1 with the Gray Matter flashbacks. Walt and Gretchen were a power brain couple, feeding off each other's intellect. They fell apart and Elliott got between them. I don't recall if they addressed whether Elliott was the reason for the breakup or if he was the rebound boyfriend. Somehow as part of the breakup, Walt left the company and presumably sold back his shares. They didn't show this, but it seemed an easy assumption that he sold them when the company was in its infancy and not worth much. Gretchen and Elliott built Gray Matter into the giant it became and while Walt was in on the early concepts, he was not entitled to anything more.

Most of the criticisms I've seen of the finale are that it was too predictable and tied things up too neatly. Gilligan said on Talking Bad last night that he knew that might be a complaint, but he said unlike Sopranos or The Shield, BB needed a definite ending with resolutions. Ozymandias might have been the best episode in the finals run, but Felina definitely was a just ending.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Most of the criticisms I've seen are that it was too predictable. Gilligan said on Talking Bad last night that he knew that might be a complaint, but he said unlike Sopranos or The Shield, BB needed a definite ending with resolutions. Ozymandias might have been the best episode in the finals run, but Felina definitely was a just ending.

That was my complaint with the ending. Just too neat.

...but you know what? Done any other way, the fans would
have been pissed off.

Every time a series ends with an ambiguous ending (The
Sopranos or Lost for instance), there is an outcry. I think
Gilligan did the right thing in bringing proper closure to the series.

 

[Charlie Campisi]

Yeah, when explaining it to friends who haven't watched it yet, I might tell them:

If you like blockbuster movies, stop watching after Ozymandias. (Need a tv parallel here, but one wasn't occurring to me.)
If you liked the ending of The Shield, stop watching after Granite State. (The image of Walt "getting away" and having nothing to do with his money but pay $10k/hour for someone to talk to, was fantastic.)
If you like happy endings, watch Felina. (Only in BB, could a half dozen dead Nazis and the death of the main character be considered a happy ending.)

The show could have ended on any one of those.

 

[mattCR]

I think no matter what you do people would be unhappy. For me, I'm one of those who always thought the Soprano's ending was one of the most perfect to air.. although I loved the ending to the shield, which tied things up.. but definitely not neatly.

I had figured this would go more the direction of "The Shield", where Walt's plan would ultimately be foiled or something along the way. The fact that everything worked just seemed cheap to me. After watching it last night, I felt "terrible", but I'd now just say: somewhat disappointing, but it definitely closed off all the stories. It could have been far worse (see: Dexter) so I'll live.

 

[TravisR]

The fact that everything worked just seemed cheap to me.

Walt is pretty damn smart and amazingly lucky. Plus, only one part of his plan was really up in the air. Getting the money to Junior via Gretchen and Elliot was easy when they think that they'll be killed if they don't comply. Lydia is clearly a creature of habit so delivering the ricin to her wasn't very hard. The shakiest part of his plan is getting the car to the correct point and he only accomplished that by deliberately going against Kenny's instructions of where to park.

That's easier to buy then the S4 finale where Saul & Huell stole the ricin from Jesse, Walt managed to poison Brock without being seen, built and planted a bomb on Gus' car and then had to convince Hector to blow himself up in order to kill Gus. There's a lot more shaky parts of that plan than shooting up a bunch of guys.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Scanned back on the restaurant scene trying to see how
Walt was able to finagle that sugar packet exchange. Guess
the slight of hand wasn't meant to be seen. Perhaps Walt was
in the restaurant prior to Lydia's meeting

He can be seen on screen the whole time she's walking to the table. They did a good job of keeping her the focus, but I was watching with intent.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Wow, really. Will have to go back and rewatch.

 

[ScottH]

Walt is pretty damn smart and amazingly lucky. Plus, only one part of his plan was really up in the air. Getting the money to Junior via Gretchen and Elliot was easy when they think that they'll be killed if they don't comply. Lydia is clearly a creature of habit so delivering the ricin to her wasn't very hard. The shakiest part of his plan is getting the car to the correct point and he only accomplished that by deliberately going against Kenny's instructions of where to park.

That's easier to buy then the S4 finale where Saul & Huell stole the ricin from Jesse, Walt managed to poison Brock without being seen, built and planted a bomb on Gus' car and then had to convince Hector to blow himself up in order to kill Gus. There's a lot more shaky parts of that plan than shooting up a bunch of guys.

Forget about all that...the hardest thing to buy in the entire series is that a restaurant actually carries Stevia! I've never been to a restaurant that had it.

 

[TonyD]

I think it was more of a coffee shop that would carry that type of sugar

 

[Greg_S_H]

Just rewatched the scene, slight correction: you can't see Walt directly as Lydia walks to the table, but you see him when she sits down to when he gets up and comes over.

 

[Walter C]

I did get to watch the finale while out of town, as I did change hotel, so I could watch it alone, without any distractions. And I'm glad that I did that, because it would be impossible for me to stay away from spoilers, and having to wait a few days to watch it, since I would have had no time today. This is the only show that I followed from start to finish on TV during its first run, that lasted a long time.But regardless how one followed the show, this has to be one of the best TV shows of all-time. It was the perfect marriage of cast and crew, where everything just seemed to click on all cylinders. While it's sad to see it end, I'm glad that it ended on its own terms. It never wore out its welcome at all, with no dip in quality at all.As for the final episode, it was very satisfying, and I am glad the way it ended. I think more people would have been upset if Lydia and Todd (and Walt, for that matter) survived in the end. I certainly would have. And it was satisfying to see Jesse strangling Todd instead of shooting him, and seeing Lydia all messed up after injecting the ricin. And the final scene can't be any better than seeing Walt dead on the ground.

This episode was the equivalent of the Final Act, Final Scene, in a Shakespeare play.