Anyone not satisfied with the Breaking Bad Finale?

[Fantastic Anarchist]

I was very satisfied with it. I would have liked to see Heisenberg live, but I knew it wasn't in the cards. Otherwise, it was a great finale.

[phantom power]

1. I thought the ending worked very well

I was prepared for it to be much darker, actually. The way it went down, where Jesse lives, and Walt achieves some measure of redemption via self awareness at the end, is about as good an outcome as you could have and still remain believable.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

2. Yep, that's a good take on it, and I agree. nt

[TexasBushwhacker]

3. Yeah, I was afraid it would be much darker

I loved the visit to the Schwartz's and the "assassins" he hired I expected him to be killed by Jesse, but I was glad that didn't happen. The scene where he was touching his daughter's hair was heartbreaking. Poisoning Lydia was a nice bonus, but I have to wonder what ricin tastes like. She would have had to ingest 2 or 3 grams for it to kill her.

Did you know that Michael Bowen, who played Uncle Jack, was the creepy boyfriend in Valley Girl?



He was also the creepy orderly-rapist, Buck, in Kill Bill.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

5. Ahhh, great catch!!!

Yes, I was extremely satisfied with the Lydia "hit." But I wonder how much she would have had to ingest to kill her. I wonder if that's believable.

I wish Mike would have killed her ... he gave her every chance. Oh well, it was nice that Heisenberg got his with that.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. I did a little ricin research

If it's ingested or inhaled, it only takes a pinhead size amount to kill you. It's a protein, so if it has to go through your digestive system it takes much more. For an adult it would take 2 to 3 grams. A stevia packet is one gram, so I suppose Walt could have made it a little heavier, but there's still the issue of taste. I know castor oil, which comes from the same castor beans, tastes NASTY.

I know there was a case several years ago where a woman tried to poison her husband by putting ricin in his food. He got violently ill and had to be hospitalized, but the only death I've ever heard of was the man who was poked with a ricin tipped umbrella.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

8. So, if she ingested it ...

... and it had to be digested, how did she die?

Thanks for doing the research, by the way.

[The2ndWheel]

4. Can't say that I was satisfied

I thought parts of the finale were good. After it was all over though, it just doesn't feel like it was an episode of Breaking Bad. Walt was the one that always won, and that's fine, it's a TV show, and he's the central character. It's just that he faced no obstacles to winning in the finale.

One example of a potential obstacle for me being when he's driving to the Nazis compound, and they never check the trunk before they let Walt in. In the context of the situation, where Jack killed Hank, and they stole $70 million of Walt's money, and Walt is gone for months, and all of a sudden he shows back up...the one Nazi guy checks the backseat, and that's it.

The writers for the show are famous for getting themselves stuck in a corner, and trying, plausibly or not, to write themselves out of it. It was part of the fun of the show, and I was on board for all of it, hook, line, and sinker. In the finale, it's almost like they got themselves stuck in the corner again, but then just sort of stayed there. How do we get the gun through to the compound? Let's not have a bunch of well armed Nazis who are now waiting for Walt, with family blood on their hands and all that stolen cash, even worry about the trunk. Pat Walt down, see if he's wearing a wire, and check the back seat. But that locked compartment where something could be hidden? The Nazis can trust Walt on that one.

There was no ambiguity in the episode. There was no collateral damage. Everything Walt wanted to do in the episode, he did, with no mess. That's not Breaking Bad. The episode was almost too perfect. How do we get Walt into Skyler's apartment, while it sounds like more and more people are finding out that Heisenberg is back in town? Let's just put him in there. They didn't even seem to try to wriggle their way out of the corners.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

6. Good points ...

One example of a potential obstacle for me being when he's driving to the Nazis compound, and they never check the trunk before they let Walt in. In the context of the situation, where Jack killed Hank, and they stole $70 million of Walt's money, and Walt is gone for months, and all of a sudden he shows back up...the one Nazi guy checks the backseat, and that's it.

The writers for the show are famous for getting themselves stuck in a corner, and trying, plausibly or not, to write themselves out of it. It was part of the fun of the show, and I was on board for all of it, hook, line, and sinker. In the finale, it's almost like they got themselves stuck in the corner again, but then just sort of stayed there. How do we get the gun through to the compound? Let's not have a bunch of well armed Nazis who are now waiting for Walt, with family blood on their hands and all that stolen cash, even worry about the trunk. Pat Walt down, see if he's wearing a wire, and check the back seat. But that locked compartment where something could be hidden? The Nazis can trust Walt on that one.

I don't know, though. Why would they check the trunk? It's not like he could open it with all of them there. Throughout the show, Walt/Heisenberg defeats his enemies through brains, not brawn. The Nazis were all about brawn, and not really bright. I'm sure they didn't even think twice about the trunk, and really had no reason to do so. So, with that, I think it's highly plausible that the trunk wouldn't be checked.

There was no ambiguity in the episode. There was no collateral damage. Everything Walt wanted to do in the episode, he did, with no mess. That's not Breaking Bad. The episode was almost too perfect. How do we get Walt into Skyler's apartment, while it sounds like more and more people are finding out that Heisenberg is back in town? Let's just put him in there. They didn't even seem to try to wriggle their way out of the corners.

Agreed. I don't know how he got around without being spotted. How did he find Badger and Skinny Pete? How did Skinny Pete find "morality?"

[The2ndWheel]

9. Why would they have Walt lift his shirt after he got out of the car?

There's brains vs. brawn, and then there's basic security. I think you have to check the car trunk of a man who all of a sudden wants to meet with you about a business opportunity after months of hiding in the New Hampshire wilderness, after you killed his brother in law and stole $70 million of his hard earned fortune.

"It's not like he could open it with all of them there."

Exactly, that's the corner the writers always wrote themselves out of. I feel like this last episode, they didn't bother doing that. Sure, Walt got out of situations sometimes on dumb luck and a few things having to go a certain way, but the luck involved in the Nazis not checking the trunk was almost too dumb. Getting the gun where Walt needed it to be was too easy. Since we didn't get to see the process in the finale, rather we just saw Walt where he needed to be, it's like Walt never earned his victories in the episode.

Breaking Bad was always Walt winning, but having to go through various obstacles, and then leaving a mess afterward. The last episode was too clean and perfect. I know it was the finale, and there was no next episode to deal with the subsequent mess, so it needed closure, but it didn't quite feel like the Breaking Bad of the previous 61 episodes.