Breaking Bad Series Finale Review: “Felina”
What a difference a week makes. Last week, I was reviewing the universally derided Dexter series finale which might be one of the worst of all time. Now? We’re turning to Breaking Bad which had a final episode that is bound to be far less scrutinized.
I think people are right to say that the show peaked with Ozymandias, the third-to-last episode of the series where we watched Walter White’s world crumble around him. Everything since then has just been clean-up. Not that it’s bad, but it’s simply impossible to match the intensity of the earlier episode.
In truth, this was an almost unexpectedly happy and predictable ending for Breaking Bad, which again, isn’t meant to be an insult. While we had no idea how things would play out a few episodes ago, since Ozymandias, most have had a pretty clear picture of how the pieces were all adding up. The long-held mysteries of the machine gun and the Ricin were revealing themselves. Walt would use the gun on the Nazis who stole his fortune and killed Hank, and the Ricin would likely be for Lydia, forever putting white powder in her coffee on a regular basis (though I’ll admit I didn’t make that connection myself initially).
And really, that’s exactly what happened, not to mention Walt got to tie up a bunch of other loose ends over the course of the night.
He ensured that his money would go to his family in the end, nine million dollars that the Schwartzs now MUST give to Walt Jr. lest they be killed by the country’s two best hitmen, Badger and Skinny Pete, in the world’s best callback appearance.
Walt then got to make up with Skyler to some degree, giving her the location of Hank’s body (which will somehow get her out of trouble in a way I don’t quite understand). The most telling part of that exchange however, was when Walt finally admits the truth. He liked being a meth kingpin, and was doing it more for him than his family. It “made him feel alive” he says, and it’s the first honest admission he’s made in a long while.
Then we get to the revengin’. First, Walt uses Lydia’s clockwork schedule to her disadvantage. As soon as they focused on that one last packet of Stevia, I knew all the speculation was true. And in case that wasn’t obvious enough, the zoom on the swirling powder should have been a clue. And in case THAT wasn’t enough, Walt actually talks to her on the phone to tell her that she’s dying of Ricin poison. I think that last bit may have been too much, and they could have left it with the subtlety of the coffee shop.
Also not subtle was Walt’s handling of the neo-Nazis, but that’s okay. The whole event played out like the end of a particularly raucous Tarantino movie, which was fan-freaking-tastic. I do wonder about the logistics of Walt’s plan, that he would be able to park his car in exactly the right place and every Nazi would be standing in exactly the range of the 100 degree arc of the sentry turret. It’s a bit of luck, but I think we’ve heard that Walt always tends to have luck on his side.
The spray of bullets conveniently left alive both Todd, who is cathartically strangled by Jesse in one of the most satisfying moments of any show ever, and Jack, who is killed in a way that mirrors Hank’s murder, and Walt shows he no longer cares where the rest of his millions are.
In the firefight, it’s revealed Walt took a sentry gun bullet for Jesse, and despite all the hate Jesse has for him, he won’t be the one to kill Walt. He’s free, and the smile on his face as he busts out of the compound is the first we’ve seen from him in what feels like years now. Since the magnet heist, maybe?
Walt succumbs to his own injuries, reminiscing about his blue meth in the lab. The police arrive right as he expires, but I suppose there could be a fan theory or two that he’s really just in a coma or something and gets revived to stand trial in a surprise season six. But nah, let’s just admit he’s dead, and that’s alright.
This was a finale’s finale, with nearly no ambiguity whatsoever, unlike The Sopranos, which had the most ambiguous finale of all time. Even great shows have struggled with bad finales, so I understand why Breaking Bad went “safe” here by giving fans absolutely everything they wanted save Jesse yelling “Yeah bitch!” as he strangled Todd. Yes, Walt dies broke, hated and alone, but he redeems himself as a hero between getting his money to his family, revealing Hank’s location, killing the nazis and Lydia and freeing Jesse. That’s quite a laundry list of accomplishments over the course of a single day.
And you know what? I don’t mind. The thing about giving fans exactly what they want…is that you give fans everything they want. And they’re happy. I’m happy. If the screen cut to black just as Walt was fumbling with his keys on the pool table, would that have made the finale better, more mysterious? I don’t think so, and there isn’t much of anything I’d change about this last episode at all.
With a show as good as Breaking Bad, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that they planned for a satisfying ending like this, but stranger things have happened, and it could have gone poorly. But as it stands, Breaking Bad ends on a high note, and cements its place in TV history with “Felina.”
What did you think?
I liked it.
So many shows can be broken by a bad finale or final season, Dexter and Lost as primary examples, so I couldn’t be happier with what we saw.
We wanted a fitting end to the story, we wanted closure, and we got it.
And Bryan Cranston was chillingly brilliant.
Took the words right outta my mouth.
I think it was a great ending to a great show. Liked every second of it!
Haha, I swear, every time finales are spoken LOST is brought up as a bad finale. It’s funny. I loved LOST’s last ep and thought it was very touching and deeply appropriate. Great finale, in my opinion.
But any way, a very good ending for Breaking Bad, one of the best shows in history.
It felt like a band taking the stage for their encore (after Ozymandias), just taking requests for the crowd. Wanna see Jesse strangle Tod? We’ll play that! Wanna see Jack get shot in the head? We got that too!
Ozymandias was definitely the peak, we may never see an episode like that again, but this was a very satisfying send off for the season and the series.
So after a night of thinking about it, I personally really really enjoyed it. Especially that entire slow melancholic yet peaceful feel that was there entire episode which even managed to carry on during that massive shootout at the end (speaking of the shootout, I was half expecting Todd when he looked at Walt before Jesse choked him out to yell out “MR WHITE! SOMEBODY PUT A GUN IN YOUR CAR!). Also, not going to lie that the end even made me tear up a bit.
My only serious issue I had with the finale was how they incorporated Badger and Skinny Pete, it just felt like really forced and pointless comic relief that was also incredibly implausible, I mean how could two incredibly dumb people who were also metheads hold those lasers so incredibly steady from such a distance (they couldn’t have been directly outside of the window by how the light was shining on Elliot and Gretchen), I also don’t know why Walt would have picked such unreliable people in general for such an important bluff, I mean we already have canonical reason not to trust Badger because of when he got busted by the undercover cop back in Season 2). They really were just characters from the past who were meant to stay there and not get brought back again.
Skinny Pete and Badger have proved themselves to be at least reliable for certain things, and wearing masks, squatting in the bushes and pointing lasers at people isn’t a MAJOR task. Also, Skinny Pete and Badger are…somewhat clean-ish. They really connected with the rehab, BUT they did relapse. In short, Walt had no one else he could call, no one else he could trust. Saul was gone, no way in hell were Huell and Kuby gonna work for him WITHOUT turning him in! Walt couldn’t have paid anyone else. Those were the ONLY two people left on his side. And it worked. It’s not like they broke into the house pretending to be hardened criminals. They were away, at a distance pointing a laser.
so, all in all, i liked it.
the elliot and gretchen play for ythe money was great – didnt see that coming and thought it made great sense
the use of the ricin also was well done and fitting.
the issues i have are that the entire last episode felt rushed to me. i thought they could have benefited from a full 2 hour finale, but thats ok.
to the note above, badger and skinnny pete actually provided a ton of guidance for this episode, in that confirming the blue was still in circulation, and aiding walt in the revelation that jesse was still alive.
the main points that i didnt like were the visiting of skyler. apparently DEA are unabel to watch the front door of a row house apartment. i think it was needed for the show, but seemed remarkably unrealistic, unless walt is also a ninja….
finally, the nazi scene. while i didnt hate it, i sure didnt love it. it was all too convinient that all the nazis would be in that room. that they wouldnt just kill him, but rather have to show him jessie and delay the whole thing.
i was hoping we would get the exploding crystal, a la tuco scene or something more than a gun in the trunk. i thought the “i have a new way to cook” was the set up for bringing the exploding crystal in.
while i liked the finale overall, i think it could have closed out better. i would have liked the last scene to be the DEA opening a package with lotto ticket, and skylar getting a dvd that she watches with Flynn in where walt comes clean, tells how it all unraveled, and asks for forgiveness from them.
anyway….
To me Granite State was almost as good as Ozymandias, and Felina between the two. The finale was an amazing episode, but I did feel a bit uncomfortable the whole episode because of the fact that it had to end. And although I liked the ambiguity of the Sopranos ending, I like that Breaking Bad pretty much wraps it up, which it does perfectly I think. I am a bit of a sucker for happy endings after such a long journey, but this is as happy as it could get. Jesse went through way too much but gets his life back (shame about Andrea though, I always figured he would go to her and that would be his happy end).
In the end there were things the finale could have done better, but I think that’s mostly related to the fact that it’s impossible to make a finale perfectly gratifying. What it conveyed was perfect though: Walts revenge, taking care of his family, a bit of redemption and an inevitable death. I’m not bothered at all by the slight convenience of Walt’s plans, and I liked Badger’s and Skinny Pete’s return. It made sense. Walt wouldn’t want or know how to get very expensive hitmen. Instead he did what he always did well: manipulate.
Here’s my thought when it comes to the neo-nazis and the “luck” of hitting them all.
When the gun pops out, they’re all around Walt and Jesse watching them fight, I’d say the lucky part was having the guy outside in the right place as Walt had no control on where he was standing. I think Todd didn’t want to get involved in their fight so stood back a bit allowing him to dodge getting shot.
Great episode with many great small moments — agreed that it lacked so much of the tension common to some of the show’s overall arcs. All I can say is ‘Thank God for Vince Gilligan’ b/c it’s nice to know that someone working in TV knows how to actually “end” a program with narrative cohesion.
I’ll admit they were a little fast and loose with the logic around some things, as mentioned above, with ninja Walt making his way around old haunts without being even stopped for questioning, but Vince had a destination in mind, and an incredibly satisfying wrap up to a killer ride.
If you watched the Talking Bad episode after, you heard Anna Gunn raving about the attention to detail Gilligan paid to every part of the show, only to have him admit that some pieces were fortunate accidents (Skyler’s reflection in the microwave, mentioned by Jimmy Kimmel). Saying that, I can only applaud the incredible music choices that have lent so much to the overall show, especially in this finale. “El Paso” by Marty Robbins was perfect as the soundtrack to Walt’s return to the west to die at the foot of his true love, and “Baby Blue” from Badfinger reinforcing that relationship, “Guess I got what I deserved, kept you waiting there too long my love,”. Makes you wonder if certain scenes were written with a particular song in mind.
Tying in with that, and by far the most satisfying scene for me, was between Skyler and Walt, where we finally get what Walt seemed to lose so long ago, and that was the truth about entire series of events. “I did it for me”. Walt finally tied this all back to the day he sat in front of the Dr., crushed by his diagnosis, but still the mild-mannered, ever polite pragmatist that has to take another bite out of the shit sandwich he’s been rewarded with for a life of mediocrity and limited risk.
It really struck me that hearing you have only 2 years (at best) to live, would set most of us in deep contemplation of the worth of the life we had built so far, and what risks would we be willing to take given the “get out of jail free” card that comes with having nothing left to lose.
For all it’s oversite and casual logic, the finale paid off with the best last scene of any show I’ve ever watched. Walt strolling through the portable lab he and Jesse built and used to become the absolute best at one thing, his true love, chemistry. I was smiling right along with him.
Paul, I agree with almost all of your comments. I did feel that the episode was rather “safe” in the way it wrapped up the series in a very predictable way (like you, I did not anticipate Lydia’s death by ricin).
The logic was questionable at times, such as Walt’s final plan and Todd’s death (isn’t Jesse, like, really opposed to killing people?) but my biggest complaint is the lack of an epilogue. I think it was almost essential to show where Jesse ended up, tying it back to Walt in some way. That character was completely obliterated in this series, both emotionally and physically, and a slight smile was not enough. I have never felt more empathy for Jesse than in this episode following the ‘wood box fantasy scene’. His position was utterly heart-wrenching, and I personally would have liked to have seen some closure for this character.
I’m really not trying to rant here, as I was very happy with the ending, I just think an opportunity was lost with the absence of some sort of epilogue for Jesse.
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Also, which finale did you guys enjoy more: Face Off or Felina? I have been wondering this myself, and was just curious as to what everyone else thought…
As always, great review!
My favorite part was Todds ringtone. “Oh Lydia oh Lydia..” in the aftermath of the massacre.
No, I loved every minute of it. I applauded for a bit as the credits rolled.
jobieanchovie- Jesse was going to kill a bunch of drug dealers that killed a kid, killed Gill, was going to kill Walt after Brock got poisoned, helped kill Gus and was going to burn Walts house down. I don’t think he is “really opposed to killing people.”
I really liked the ending. I don’t think ambiguity is necessary for a good ending. In fact I think in some way it can be a cop out. You can’t take responsibility for pissing people off if you leave it to there interpretation. Vince Gillian had the guts to pull the trigger. Walts dead. Its over. Some time it is ok. If it is that type of show, but not every show is like that. I never saw breaking bad like that. Anything other then a firm ending would not fit.
Plot twist: Walter doesn’t actually die and becomes a lumberjack.
Gilligan commented after the show that Walt’s final scene when he was caressing the meth lab was his Gollum moment, i.e. the lab was his Precious.
I liked that comparison.
I thought the finale lacked the emotional weight of the previous couple episodes. The Breaking Bad patented feeling of dread transformed into something triumphant and neat. I feel the finale would have been stronger if it was more bleak, dirty and rough, instead of tying everything with a nice bow.
It was extremely enjoyable and poignant, but lacked compared to other episodes, and certainly didn’t pack the emotional punch of the Six Feet Under finale.
In the end it is almost as if Walt died a happy man, having accomplished his goal which led him to cook in the first place. He also was essentially felled by a stray bullet from his own device, which while fitting (being a victim of his own ingenuity), seemed anticlimactic. This didn’t seem like the end he deserved.
I would have liked it more if he his plans were somehow foiled and he took a bullet to the brain from Uncle Jack, dying a true failure.
I really thought he would try his meth in the end when he gets to the lab, dyeing from the bleeding right after.