‘Breaking Bad’ Ending Explained – What Happens to Walter White?

After years of relative obscurity, nobody would’ve anticipated the conclusion of Breaking Bad to amass a lot fanfare. By the point Season 5 of the critically acclaimed AMC drama hit the airwaves, a mass viewers caught up with the present due to its recognition on Netflix’s streaming service — an early indicator of the place the business was shifting towards. Not like most reveals that garner a seismic essential following, creator Vince Gilligan didn’t need to overstay his welcome, deciding to finish the sequence after 5 seasons and 60 episodes. On September 29, 2013, the world eagerly awaited to see how Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) Shakesperean rise-and-fall saga would finish within the sequence finale, “Felina.” In any case was stated and carried out, Breaking Dangerous signed off below passable phrases, maybe too passable. Regardless of being a show about how a mild-mannered, decent man destroys his life and others round him to ruins, Gilligan opted to search out decision amid Walt’s self-destruction.

Walter White Settles Outdated Scores within the ‘Breaking Dangerous’ Collection Finale

In Breaking Bad‘s penultimate episode, “Granite State,” Walt is at his lowest. The previous highschool chemistry trainer who grew to become a reluctant meth cook dinner is gone, as a raveled Walt has embraced his monstrous self. Hank (Dean Norris) is lifeless by the hands of Jack Welker (Michael Bowen) and his gang. They stole his drug cash, and he’s remoted in a cabin within the woods of New Hampshire as a fugitive. His household, the advantage that his legal empire and Heisenberg alter-ego had been based on, now loathes him. He’s about to show himself in to the police, however then, a tv inside a bar offers him a Hail Mary alternative. Walt watches his outdated pals and colleagues Gretchen (Jessica Hecht) and Elliot (Adam Godley) seem on Charlie Rose, offering him with one other ingenious scheme.

“Felina,” written and directed by Gilligan, follows Walt tying up loose ends by threatening the 2 philanthropists to donate Walt’s remaining money to Walter Jr. (R.J. Mitte) on his 18th birthday. On his return to Albuquerque, he talks to Skyler (Anna Gunn) and gazes at his son from afar one ultimate time. Like a dying Western cowboy, he strolls as much as Jack’s hideout and meth lab for a bloody showdown with the gang of Nazis whereas rescuing Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) from captivity.

After Walt, together with his most superior use of gadgetry in a car-lock-controlled machine gun, blows away Jack’s crew, he saunters over to the meth lab. Earlier, we see that he has been inflicted with gunshot wounds to his abdomen, and his serene demeanor means that he is able to die. As he strolls by the lab, reminiscing over the gratification and achievement that meth cooking gave him, the Badfinger rock observe, “Child Blue,” performs. Within the context of the story, the tune’s title refers to Walt’s product with an unprecedented stage of purity. The tune’s wistful tone reveals Walt reflecting on his destiny and an timeless ardour for cooking. Just like the opening lyrics of “Child Blue,” Walt certainly got what he deserved, however he hardly regrets his actions, as he’ll carry his timeless love for his blue meth to the grave. In any case, in his dialog with Skyler within the episode, he lastly drops the facade of “doing it for the household,” and admits that he became a meth kingpin because he enjoyed it. He leaves a bloody handprint on a metallic tank earlier than falling to the bottom and bleeding out. From a excessive angle, the digicam slowly drifts away from Walt’s face because the police arrive on the crime scene.

“Felina” Ties Up All of the Free Ends in ‘Breaking Dangerous’

All through its run, Breaking Dangerous‘s storytelling was tight as a drum. Every episode was extremely gripping, and no stone was left unturned on the finish of every season. The exact plotting made the present probably the most entertaining and satisfying to look on the small display. In “Felina,” every part appears just a bit too clear and tightly resolved. Within the grand scheme of issues, Walt’s story is not any fairy story, as he was as soon as a loving household man whose personal hubris prevented him from accepting charity from Gretchen and Elliot and resorted to cooking meth, costing numerous lives alongside the way in which. “Ozymandias,” thought-about to be Breaking Dangerous‘s most interesting hour and top-of-the-line episodes in tv historical past, confirmed the unflinching horror of Walt’s actions and the impact of his legal empire collapsing in real-time. He was liable for Hank’s demise, allowed Jack to enslave and torture Jesse, traumatized his household, and fled to New Hampshire with out an oz. of the Aristocracy.

Within the framework of the series finale, Walt experiences all the most effective attainable outcomes in his determined bid to settle outdated affairs. Even after Walter Jr. scornfully rejects his father’s cash, he crafts a scheme to go away a nest egg for his children. Whereas not a correct send-off, he manages to have one ultimate second with every of his members of the family. He kills each hostile pressure in his path, together with Lydia (Laura Fraser), who’s unsuspectingly poisoned by ricin, a sequence staple lastly put to make use of. The episode desires us to consider that Jesse has forgiven Walt regardless of shattering his livelihood. “Felina” is a denouement so tightly resolved that the episode can barely breathe. In “Ozymandias,” Walt left Albuquerque as a savage who pillaged the souls of the folks he cared about essentially the most, however Vince Gilligan selected to search out closure in his anti-hero’s cataclysmic downfall.

‘Breaking Dangerous’ Concludes Walter White’s Saga With Too A lot Decision

As a result of every part panned out favorably for Walt, followers speculated that “Felina” might have been only a dream. The New Yorker‘s Emily Nussbaum alleged in her assessment that the overwhelming sense of closure evokes the fantasy of a dream-like world. These theories recommend that Walt died in his automotive within the episode’s opening moments, and every part we see afterward exists in his thoughts. In distinction to the unflinching destruction and sorrow demonstrated in “Ozymandias” and “Granite State,” the finale’s idyllic consequence for its disgraced meth kingpin is jarring. The episode tries to validate Walt as a decided household man by abandoning a nest egg, a ruthless crime lord embarking on a vengeful rampage, and a tragic villain with the “Child Blue” scored ultimate scene. Even so, the poignant impact of the ultimate scene is undermined by the previous course of occasions. Just some moments prior, Walt reworked right into a Clint Eastwood-like outlaw, gunning down enemy combatants with out regret and taking pictures Jack earlier than he can utter his final phrases (revenge for Jack executing Hank earlier than he completed his final phrases).

All through “Felina,” Walt is made out to be “cool,” as evident by his domineering nature towards Gretchen and Elliott and the Western duel in Jack’s hideout. On reflection, Breaking Dangerous ends with an unlucky whimper as a result of it not directly validates the bad-faith discourse that prevailed all through its period. Whereas Walt’s anti-heroism was celebrated, Skyler was maligned for being an annoying roadblock to her husband’s success as a drug lord. Gilligan and the writers labored exhausting to deprive Walt of any sympathy within the earlier two episodes, however the romanticism of the ultimate moments of “Felina” is antithetical to what we anticipate from the crop of Golden Age dramas centered round anti-heroes.

The finale was usually well-received by critics and audiences, primarily on account of its gratifying nature. In comparison with the paradox and lack of crystal-clear decision in The Sopranos and Mad Males, both containing lingering mysteries that individuals are nonetheless debating however had been divisive upon airing, Breaking Dangerous‘s conclusion confirmed disinterest in leaving issues messy. Vince Gilligan mirrored his protagonist in that his writing was sharp and calculated, and he dealt with every character and story arc with scientific precision, even when Walter White’s life went into full free fall.

Breaking Dangerous is on the market to stream on Netflix within the U.S.

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