Breaking Bad Season 5 Thread

Until about a month ago, I had never watched Breaking Bad. Knew it was good and that everyone was raving about it, but just hadn't gotten around to it. I binge-watched on Netflix and got caught up, and I think my perceptions are influenced by watching it in such a condensed timeframe.

I wanted things to work out for Walt, and I kept wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he just wanted to provide for his kids because he was dying and that once he got to a point where he was free and clear of everything and everybody, he'd walk away from cooking. But his confession to Skylar in the final episode means he suckered me. If it truly was a confession, of course. I tend to think that was genuine because he planned to die in the attack on the Nazis. But one of the things I loved about Walt and about the way the show was written is that nothing he did was ever quite as it seemed. Did he tell Skyler that purely to make her feel better? I guess it's a minor point in the grand scheme.

Both the machine gun and the ricin struck me as implausible, but as others have pointed out, no more implausible than lots of other things Walt has pulled off. And what was happening with the characters was so engrossing that it was easy not to get caught up in stuff like that.

But by far the biggest thing I took away from the final episode is that even though I believe Walt's intent was to kill Jesse, I was really glad that didn't happen and that the last time they saw each other they were both alive. They couldn't stand each other, but there was always a fundamental respect between them. They have both killed to save the other. I kept thinking of the conversation Walt had with Margolis in the bar, when he talks about Jesse and refers to him as his nephew. On some level, Walt thought of Jesse as family, and my gut instinct was that there wouldn't be bloodshed between them. I would have been disappointed if it had gone another way.

Beyond that, Walt got closure with Jesse that he didn't get with his own son ... that look the two of them exchanged outside of the clubhouse, just before Jesse got in the car to drive away was perfect -- the perfect way for the Walt-Jesse relationship to end.

 

So Jesse finally passes chemistry?

 

You really still thought it was about providing for his family?

 

No, obviously he went around the bend. But he also went to some trouble to figure out a way to get the money to his son, who had told him to die. So that still meant something to him all the way to the end.

 

I just rewatched the finale tonight and I still love it. I only have two very minor problems with it.
The first is the music Gilligan used. I've liked the use of music on this show throughout the series but something about last night's episode just seemed to heavy-handed to me and too much like Gilligan was trying to hammer home the point he wanted us, as viewers, to be making at a given moment.
Take, for example, the scene in the car at the beginning of the episode. The song that begins playing when Walt gets the car running says something along the lines of "Even if I die tomorrow..." Then there's the start of the song in the final scene, which goes along the lines of "I got what I deserved."
The music wasn't very subtle, at all, and I really felt that was distracting.
The second problem I have revolves around the Stevia packet.
While I can buy Walt would know exactly where Lydia and Todd were meeting and exactly what time they were meeting, unless I'm mistaken that was the first time in this series that they sat at that particular table (which was round vs. the square tables we've seen them meet at before). How would he know exactly which table she was going to sit at? How would he know she wouldn't go to a different table? And, once Walt did show up, why in God's name would Lydia have stayed?
Not only is Walt wanted, he could be being followed and he could be setting Lydia up for either a rival gang and/or the cops after what Uncle Jack did to him. No way does she stay once she sees him and, even if she does stay to avoid making a scene, no way does she stay after he leaves to sip her tea. She'd be out of there the first chance she could.
Other than those two gripes, though, I think it was a perfectly wrapped up finale. Absolutely the best I could have hoped for.

 

How on Earth could anyone have been rooting for Todd? That's just wrong.

 

Todd winning would have been abrasive and bold and cynical and pissed off a lot of viewers. It also probably would have been the most realistic scenario.

 

I almost expected Todd to say "Jesse, why are you choking me?"

 

"You shouldn't have come back, Mr. White."

 

Most realistic would've been Walt getting busted driving across the country, coming clean on everything with the Feds, and Todd getting arrested and becoming someone's prison bitch.

 

Realistic was the wrong word. This show clearly isn't realistic, and I'm fine with that. But true to the tone? True to the real world? The bad guys win. And even if they don't, new bad guys replace them.

 

So what happens if Walt never caught a bullet from his own machine gun? Arrested and trial?