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Then, after he puts a flower on the grave of the idea that it was ever really about his family – that they ever came first – he heads off to sacrifice himself for the mistress he'd always loved more. "He accomplished the thing he set out to accomplish." And unlike everyone else who has to keep on living with the consequences of Walt's actions for the rest of their lives, Walt "was at peace with himself." Hooray for Walt.
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"I think in that last scene, he is with his precious, in Lord of the Rings terms," said Gilligan on Talking Bad last night. Instead, the entire finale is a bit of a victory lap, one that ends with Walt walking fondly amongst his meth equipment like he's goddamn Jean-Luc Picard on the bridge of the decommissioned Enterprise. It might not have been satisfying or easy, but it felt earned, like atonement from a man who was finally ready to face the consequences of his decisions. Not because I wanted to see Walt punished, but because I liked that Walt better – the one who realized that it was all for nothing, beheld the work of his hands, and despaired. Personally, I wish the show had ended in “Granite State,” that bleak, attenuated death knell of an episode, back at the bar where Walt ordered one final whiskey before giving himself up. I can't imagine a more tragic sentiment, or a more brutal indictment of Walt's character. mostly content with how it works out in the end, like it was really a pretty fair trade after all. And rather than concluding that this was a terrible, selfish mistake, Walt seems. In exchange, all he had to do was murder, manipulate, blackmail and either ruin or sacrifice everyone and everything in his life. This episode sets up every single pin Walt has been dreaming about, and he knocks every single one of them down – including himself – in a single epic strike. Finally, after years of trying and failing to poison someone with ricin, he finally manages to pull that off too by spiking Lydia's precious Stevia.
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But wait! There's more! He also gets to save Jesse, who is alive despite Walt approving his torture and death, and miraculously achieves whatever passes for detente between them. And of course, he gets revenge, taking out his neo-Nazi nemeses in a single epic machine gun barrage (which required numerous stars to improbably align exactly as he planned). He regains control of his life and his destiny he gets financial security for his family after his death he gets as much closure with Skyler he could possibly hope for he gets to terrorize and corrupt the Schwartzes, finally tainting their empire with his own. And when the moment of reckoning for all his crimes finally comes, here's what happens: he does. It reads like wish-fulfillment, like someone asked Walt how he wanted it to end and then wrote it down.Īll of this started because Walter White wanted to take control over his life, and to go out on his own terms. Yes, it checks off a lot of boxes - killing all the people we hate, and none of the ones we like - but that's actually the problem.
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It's almost like the show has had three finales: "Ozymandias," the devastating, dramatic ending "Granite State," the tragic but honest ending and now "Felina," which is essentially the feel-good ending, insofar as Breaking Bad is capable of having one.