Is a spoiler warning even necessary? Seriously people: spoilers for all of Breaking Bad.
This week, Breaking Bad said its final goodbye to Walter Hartwell White, marking the finale of what is sure to go down in history as one of the greatest television shows of all time. With gripping plotting, amazing acting, top-notch production values and more, Breaking Bad delivered 62 episodes of consistent excellence that nearly never missed the mark.
More and more these days, though, television shows are remembered for how they resolve than anything else. The Shield will always be remembered for Vick Mackey’s amazing, awful, pitch-perfect send off. Lost, despite its insane popularity, massive pop-cultural impact and ratings, has become synonymous with failure to stick the landing after a final episode that left fans shrugging and wishing for more.
So for series creator Vince Gilligan and crew, bringing a series as ground-breaking and beloved as Breaking Bad to a close was a herculean task. As the final 8 episodes drew to a close, we all held our breath, wondering if they could do it. And as the dust settled on Sunday night, it seemed they’d nailed it. The internet was abuzz with adulations, many declaring Breaking Bad to be the best show with the best finale ever (even going so far as to compare it favorably to The Wire, which is clear tomfoolery).
Though the resolution was emotionally satisfying, the Breaking Bad finale betrayed the logic of the show.
Since the first episode, creator Vince Gilligan has proclaimed that Breaking Bad’s stark moral universe is one in which “actions have consequences”. (This, by the way, is just one of the many themes my friend Blake Atwood explores in his excellent book The Gospel According to Breaking Bad). We saw that horribly (and expertly) portrayed again and again this season: Walt turns on Jesse, but his choice to involve Uncle Jack’s Neo Nazis results in Hank’s death. Jesse tries to escape from Todd’s meth lab prison so Todd made good on his promise to kill Andrea.
Gilligan’s “actions have consequences” mantra has driven the show since the first season, from Walt’s original decision to reject Elliot and Gretchen’s money to recruiting Jesse. Allowing Jane to die brought a plane crashing into Walt’s house. Breaking into Gus Fring’s inner circle leads to Hank getting shot and that grisly showdown in the nursing home.
The show promised that Walt’s transformation into Heisenberg would have consequences. But that promise wasn’t paid off.
The Walter White we meet in the first episode is dying of cancer. His original goal in cooking meth was to earn enough money to care for his family after he died. Though his former business partners Elliot and Gretchen offer to pay for his treatment, Walt refuses out of pride manifested as little man syndrome. According to the logic of the show, this first refusal should’ve had dramatic consequences.
And in a certain sense, it did: the whole show is one inevitable step after another, driven by Walt’s unquenchable pride. But what ending do we get? Walt dies, and (we assume) his family gets all the money they’ll ever need. Walt vanquishes every enemy he created for himself and Skyler escapes every consequence of his actions. Walt even makes Elliot and Gretchen feel small, intimidating them into being the untraceable conduit for his money to reach his family.
Don’t miss my interview with Gospel According to Breaking Bad author Blake Atwood on #StoryMen!
In the end, Walt gets everything he wanted in the first episode. The monster gets a happy ending.
Granted, death doesn’t seem to be very happy, but Walt’s death has been a reality since episode one. Walt never wanted to live, he only wanted to provide a legacy for his family. In this sense, then, Walt faces no true consequences for his actions. He wins. Even his adopted son Jesse is free.
Despite the massive foreshadowing that at least Jesse (PINKman) and Holly (always dressed in pink), and possibly even Skyler (who wore a lot of pink in the last few episodes) might die as a result of Walt’s actions, they all survive Walt, finally escaping Heisenberg’s reign of terror.
All this provided for an emotionally satisfying ending, the ending we wanted. As several tweeps observed, this was by far the happiest ending possible for the show. But Walt didn’t earn his redemption. He finally confesses to Skyler that his actions as Heisenberg were “for me”, that they weren’t really about the family. He made a good drug lord. He felt alive as Heisenberg in a way Walt never did. As Heisenberg, he felt big.
Ultimately, Walt uses “Heisenberg” to conquer all his enemies. All he really proves is that he’s bigger than everyone else. He never actually repents.
We don’t see Walt “learn his lesson” – we’re supposed to assume it was during his months in the cabin, perhaps inspired by repeated viewings of Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium. But he returns to Albuquerque, announces his revelation to Skyler, then proceeds to fix everything as Heisenberg.
In the end, Heisenberg is the solution to Walt’s problems, not the cause. He gets to have his cake and eat it too. So as the final song plays, the lyrics proclaiming “I got what I deserved,” and Walter White collapses to the floor, he has a contented, relieved smile on his face.
Of course he does. Walt got everything he wanted. And we smile along, because we did too. We loved seeing Heisenberg humiliate and intimidate Elliot and Gretchen. Outsmart Uncle Jack. Give Jesse his chance for revenge. And take care of Walt’s family. It was a consummately satisfying resolution.
The problem is, for a show that prided itself on its moral realism, the ending couldn’t be more disingenuous. Walt’s actions, in the end, didn’t actually have any consequences.
13 replies on “The Breaking Bad Finale Broke Badly”
I feel like the consequences aren’t laid out for us clear and plain. We have to deal wrestle with them. Walt’s family might get the money, but they’re in shambles. His son hates him, his wife hates him, his daughter will never know who he was. Jesse is alive, but he has nobody now. His family is long gone, every girl that he loved has died violently in front of him, and now his “father figure” image of Walt is ruined.
Sure Walt’s family I supposed to get some money, but we never saw it. We don’t know. We hope though. We don’t know if Skyler will escape consequences. The DA could still nail her to the wall. We don’t know, but we hope not. Jesse may be able to turn his life around and get back to that moment when he made the box, but we don’t know. We just hope so.
I think at the end, for me, I was left looking at a lot of lives ruined by the actions of one man. But I was also left with a lot of hope. Hope that wasn’t handed to me in a sure fire final scene. Hope that wasn;t guaranteed, but it’s still hope. I think the final message of Breaking Bad was that there are consequences for your actions and they can ruin lives. Our actions may be in our own best interest, but the consequences of self interest are never isolated. They spill over. But even in the brokenness of bad decisions and consequences that have ruined lives, relationships, and possible futures there is hope……
I agree with Adam completely. Walt has lost a tremendous amount. His wife is hurt forevermore, his children will remember him as a monster, his students and coworkers will wonder if they ever truly knew him. When he set on this meth journey, he thought it was about leaving his family money. He never realized he would also be leaving a legacy of ruin. He never saw that because he was blinded by his pride.
I think at the cabin he came to a realization of his actions. Yes in some ways (maybe) he achieved his ultimate goal, but he paid with something far more valuable—his name. Walter White. His family will run from that name for the rest of their lives.
There was no way he could rectify all his wrongs. After all when he first spoke of killing Uncle Jack and the gang, his purpose was to take back the money and give it to his kids. By the time he left New Hampshire, he knew that wasn’t his reason. If he was going to reveal where Hank was buried, he had to kill them or they would kill Skyler and his kids.
For Walter, having Eliot and Gretchen give the money to his family was a solution to get what he wanted. However, think about how prideful he had been about that in the past. Perhaps the trust will still be from his meth work, yet his family won’t know that. They won’t feel provided for and loved by him. They will think the world of this couple that Walter hated. Walter swallowed his pride (something he had never done) to let this couple be the heroes. It seems small to us, but I think for Walter White—that was a huge consequence.
I’m with the first two commenters. I think they nailed it – the ending didn’t betray anything in my opinion. The consequences were profound for him and those who survived. It was a perfect marriage of tragic and satisfying. Let’s use our imaginations: If it was a wrong ending, what do you propose would have been a better one? Based on your commentary, I suppose we could imagine an ending where everyone winds up dead (most in fact are, save 4, or 5 counting Marie), the money is gone, etc. How would that have been a right / better / more fitting ending? I’m not seeing it.
I hear what you’re all saying, but Walt seemed awfully content there with his Blue Meth at the end.
Blake Atwood posited a fascinating ending I loved: that Walter, much like Dante’s Satan, would end up alive and alone, his whole family destroyed by his decision to cook.
This to me would’ve been a more appropriate (and just) ending: Walt loses the very thing he set out to protect (his family) and ends up alone. Though I guess if what he really wanted was his meth, that would’ve been sort of happy in its own way.
JR – I can buy that. Like Vic at the end of the Shield, being alive and alone is probably the most unthinkable outcome. But at the same time, you have to account for the fact that Walt is an antihero. We’re rooting for him (and so in a sense we’re morally culpable along with him). We know he has to pay for what he’s done. There must be some justice – but we care about him. We’re on his side, so we DO want him to both get his just desserts but also have a satisfying or fitting end. In the end he does lose everything, the very family he set out to care for is destroyed etc. I still say they stuck it.
Thanks for the plug JR.
I read an even more fascinating ending, one that Emily Nussbaum (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/breaking-bad-finale-reviewed.html) put forth after the show actually ended and used what was seen on film as fodder for the ending. The more I think about her proposed ending, the more I wish it would have ended just like that (partially because it fits well with what I thought might happen).
While I definitely recommend reading the article, the short of it is that there should have been a final scene, a flashback showing Walter frozen dead in his car, the payoff being that every scene following his little prayer—”just get me home”—were his dying hopes.
That would have been a just ending for Walter, in my humble opinion.
I was surprised as well with the ending of BB. While a cinematic masterpieces, those last few seconds of Walter’s life showed his own contentment with himself and how he had managed to control and manipulate everything necessary.
Yes-things got fixed and he lost, but Walt pulled it off. He was the hurter in the end instead of the hurtee.
One of the things I found intriguing about the show was that it was about far more than Walt’s decisions or pride. EVERY character on the show (maybe with the exception of Flynn… I can’t remember) made choices that were wrong and struggled with pride.
Jesse continued to make bad choice after bad choice. Skyler had an affair (which I found myself more mad about than the meth cooking…interesting moral debate). Hank, in the beginning, was a complete jerk. He mellowed out later. But he went rogue and was out for revenge. Marie was a thief who couldn’t swallow her pride.
In the end, Walt said it was all about him. However, in the beginning, I don’t think that was the case. I think his intentions were more tied to his family. However, over time, his heart was hardened and his pride got him deeper and deeper and more selfish.
All in all, it was a fascinating show because of the moral questions and implications that rose from it. I fall somewhere in the middle. The ending was entertaining…even pretty good. IMO, in a way, it calls into question priorities. What did he care about most? At first, it was his family….and he definitely lost that. However, because of the hardening of his heart, I think he began to care about the money and power more.
By the way, I am thinking about joining the Concerned Nazarenes. Rob Bell is the devil.
Um…who is this posting either AS me or with the same name as me?
That would be me Brannon. Don’t know why…but I thought it would be funny. My sincerest apologies.
Spot on.
I wish some critics would have understood this, getting into the internal mechanics of the show, instead of making their vaguely jesus-juked connections between Breaking Bad and total depravity.
Seriously, some of the stuff out there is ridiculous – http://anirenicon.com/2013/10/03/christians-abandon-the-gospel-coalition-in-droves-after-positive-breaking-bad-review-citing-shows-brief-nudity-as-unwholesome/
Thank you for an insightful review.