Breaking Bad postmortem
Yeah, I suspected anything I thought might happen wouldn't, and didn't. But all in all, a series finale that was pretty damn perfect. ;)
The finale episode wasn't as off the chart as the third to last episode, Ozymandias, but instead was the culmination of the last two episodes slow burn to the end. And that's okay.
The biggest surprise was, of course, Jesse Pinkman living through the finale and getting free, and not just of his neo-Nazi captors, but truly free of Walt, with Walt's help and fucked-up blessing. The series was, after all, the story of their very violent love affair, and not just with producing meth, but with each other.
The Spousal Unit admitted after last night's episode that even though we thought Jesse would try and blow up the meth lab, that was probably more our need to see Jesse take charge within his horrific circumstances, and not actually in keeping with his characterization. In retrospect, plotting to blow up the meth lab and kill Todd's family in the blast wasn't really Jesse's style. He wasn't the thinker, the plotter, the painstaking planner. That was Walter White, not Jesse Pinkman. Walt was the head, the intellect, and Jesse was the heart.
It dawned on me this morning that Walt probably intended to die in the hail of bullets he had set up to kill Todd's family - and, granted, he did die slowly by a stray bullet, after everyone else. But if he had not realized what had happened to Jesse and decided in that split second (going off book, so to speak) to try and save him by pushing him down onto the ground, he probably wouldn't have been on the floor at all covering Jesse's body. Walt would have been standing up with the rest of them and mowed down in an instant by his own remote device.
And if that had happened, Todd would have gotten away because Jesse wouldn't have been spared to strangle him to death.
So the meth lab didn't blow, and I guess that's fitting too. Obviously Walt planned to die that night, which he did, protecting his legacy. He just didn't want Lydia, Jesse, and Todd's family to take credit for his work, so they all had to go - except Jesse who Walt realized wasn't producing the meth willingly, but had been enslaved to do so.
Instead Walt died admiring his handiwork - as Vince Gilligan said last night, he died with his "precious", that which he truly loved the most because it made him feel important and larger than life, after admitting to Skyler that it was never about the family after all. Walt did what he did because he liked it.
I honestly had no idea if Walt would die in this episode, or if he would instead be the last man standing among the mountain of carnage he created. I think that last scene of him dead on the floor of the meth lab he designed with the police arriving on the scene, too late, was the end Walter White was destined to have.
Bravo!
The finale episode wasn't as off the chart as the third to last episode, Ozymandias, but instead was the culmination of the last two episodes slow burn to the end. And that's okay.
The biggest surprise was, of course, Jesse Pinkman living through the finale and getting free, and not just of his neo-Nazi captors, but truly free of Walt, with Walt's help and fucked-up blessing. The series was, after all, the story of their very violent love affair, and not just with producing meth, but with each other.
The Spousal Unit admitted after last night's episode that even though we thought Jesse would try and blow up the meth lab, that was probably more our need to see Jesse take charge within his horrific circumstances, and not actually in keeping with his characterization. In retrospect, plotting to blow up the meth lab and kill Todd's family in the blast wasn't really Jesse's style. He wasn't the thinker, the plotter, the painstaking planner. That was Walter White, not Jesse Pinkman. Walt was the head, the intellect, and Jesse was the heart.
It dawned on me this morning that Walt probably intended to die in the hail of bullets he had set up to kill Todd's family - and, granted, he did die slowly by a stray bullet, after everyone else. But if he had not realized what had happened to Jesse and decided in that split second (going off book, so to speak) to try and save him by pushing him down onto the ground, he probably wouldn't have been on the floor at all covering Jesse's body. Walt would have been standing up with the rest of them and mowed down in an instant by his own remote device.
And if that had happened, Todd would have gotten away because Jesse wouldn't have been spared to strangle him to death.
So the meth lab didn't blow, and I guess that's fitting too. Obviously Walt planned to die that night, which he did, protecting his legacy. He just didn't want Lydia, Jesse, and Todd's family to take credit for his work, so they all had to go - except Jesse who Walt realized wasn't producing the meth willingly, but had been enslaved to do so.
Instead Walt died admiring his handiwork - as Vince Gilligan said last night, he died with his "precious", that which he truly loved the most because it made him feel important and larger than life, after admitting to Skyler that it was never about the family after all. Walt did what he did because he liked it.
I honestly had no idea if Walt would die in this episode, or if he would instead be the last man standing among the mountain of carnage he created. I think that last scene of him dead on the floor of the meth lab he designed with the police arriving on the scene, too late, was the end Walter White was destined to have.
Bravo!