Page 6 of Breaking Bad - Season 5

Read a review which probably summed it up well last night.

Epiosde 14 was the end.  This is now the Epilogue.

Absolutely superb again.  Can't wait for next week's final episode.  



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I'm not so sure, I think...

SPOILER:
If this week's episode had ended with him being arrested in the bar, it would have been an epilogue. But when this half of the season started, he was going back to his boarded up house to get the poison. And he's spent this last episode firstly going on about revenge, and secondly trying to get his family the money.

I think now his son rejected him so strongly on the phone, all that's really left for him is revenge, so I think it's going to be one of those finales... again. :)

I loved the way they trailed the finale after this week's episode, rather than doing a "next week on Breaking Bad" they showed a trailer which was entirely made up from previous footage, so no spoilers!


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I'm up to episode 14.  The second half, and in particular the last few episodes of Season 5 have been spectacular in every sense.
Probably the best TV Series I've ever seen.  Even ahead of The Sopranos.

Ste

Well, all finished. :(:(
A truly incredible last episode.  Amazingly written, shot and acted.
Really a bit 'depressed' that it's over.  Some of the flashbacks seeing how the characters (esp. Walt!) have changed make you realise just what a journey we've all been on.
Amazing.

Ste

Amazing! Brilliant ending!

SPOILER:
Watching Walt touch the metal thing at the end and smile, that made me feel good. So I feel good about the fact it wasn't a let down, and every bit as good as finales that went before it.

And Jesse got away, which was nice too. :)

Oh and all the bad guys got it!

Best show ever on TV I think, and I'm glad now that they split the final season up like that. Gave us the feeling that we had another season when really we just had a few more episodes.


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Quote:
sj says...
"The second half, and in particular the last few episodes of Season 5 have been spectacular in every sense.
Probably the best TV Series I've ever seen.  Even ahead of The Sopranos."
Yeah the whole second half of this seen has been superb.

Absolutely no fat and no quick fixes or ambiguous endings, or out of character decisions made just to bring the show to a head. Absolutely brilliant writing.

Also I liked that 

SPOILER:
Skyler, Walt Jnr, Marie and Jesse to a large extent had minimal parts for the final 2 episodes as a lot of shows would have shoehorned them in for larger parts.

Even Skinny Pete and Badger was there for light relief, but also made sense as the most likely people for Walt to get to do the job.




SPOILER:
The best part of the show is there never was a clear bad guy and you always kind of wanted everyone to "win" especially when thinking of Hank, Walt, Jesse 

Even though Walt made terrible decisions in the end and deserved everything coming, you rooted for him.  (I know some felt the ending glorified him and didn't give him the punishment he deserved, but I'm 100% not in that camp).

Even Gus in season 4 when he was established as a vicious, child killer and the main threat to Walt and his family, when he went up against the Don, you still wanted him to win


I honestly can't think of a more fitting ending.  Obviously you'd want Hank to have lived and Skyler, Walt Jnr not to hate Walt like they do, or at least know he offered all the money to save Hank's life, but pretty much anything else would have been a cop out.

The only real question I can think of not answered aswell.

SPOILER:
- Was the Don didn't kill Gustavo in the flashback because of his "respect for who he was and his family", so I thought after season 4 finished they'll definitely be coming into it.

I'm glad they didn't though and was pretty sure that it would just be a non important loose end by the mid season break, but was still slightly concerned that would be coming into the final part season of the season as an additional threat, which would obviously have been overkill.
Just to clarify, that's not something that I'm bothered by not knowing, but is the only real thing that I'm even curious about that wasn't tied up.

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This item was edited on Wednesday, 2nd October 2013, 14:24

Wow they really did pick the right ending, some of alternatives are in interview with Vince Gilligan below.I'm also amazed, that they didn't have it planned out at the beginning of Season 5 how it was going to end, as from the below they literally had no idea and loads of important stuff was just in the first half of the season for the hell of it.

From IGN.com

SPOILER:
Now that Breaking Bad's over… we can spend the rest of our lives talking about the end of Breaking Bad. And we're not the only ones, as creator Vince Gilligan has revealed on his Breaking Bad Insider podcast five ways the show could've ended:

1. Walter White Pulls a Rambo

“Our original version was that Walt would use [the machine gun] somewhat in Rambo fashion. … [But] that felt wrong for Walt to go out brawn over brain, go out like Rambo. Walt on his best day was never Rambo.”


By the way, Gilligan also says that when he and his staff were writing the first episode of the final season, where we first see Walt's machine gun, they had no idea who he'd be using the M60 against. They didn't even know about the Neo Nazis yet! And that's how TV works, kids.

2. Walter White, Cop-Killer

“We thought, gee, is it too obvious he’d use [the machine gun] on a bunch of bad guys? … So we had versions that we talked about for instance where the police come and get him. He uses it on the police. But we didn’t like that. It just didn’t seem right.”

Indeed, that probably wouldn't have sit well with audiences who, despite his evil acts, cheered on Walt until the bitter end.

3. Escape from Jail, Walter White Style

“We had a version where he goes and breaks Jesse out of jail just as the Nazis were gonna knock Jesse off in jail, and he comes in and uses an M60 to lay waste to an entire prison or a prison bus.”

As with the cop-killer scenario, though, Gilligan and his writers decided that "as bad as Walt is we don’t want to see him killing good guys."

4. Skyler's Suicide

“I was leaning toward that and the other writers were like, that’s a bridge too far. Let’s not do that. And they were right. I think that would have been very unnecessary. … I was thinking at some point she went with the Disappearer. We talked about every option under the sun… and one of them was that Skyler leaves with Walt and the Disappearer. … We could almost kinda sorta see where Skyler would go if she was sort of like zombified. But we could never figure out how to get Jr. to go along. … There’s no bringing Jr. if Jr. doesn’t want to go. We talked about a possible version where Skyler and Walt are tied up at a Motel 6 kind of place and he’s talking to her in a bathroom saying, ‘It’s going to be alright… I’ve got a plan. Skyler? Skyler?’ And he finally forces the door open and she’s in a bloody tub or something like that.”



5. Jesse Dies and Walt Jr. Dies

This idea dates back to before Season 1, actually. The gist of this one is that Jesse would've been killed by a drug dealer (one with aspects of Gus, Krazy 8, and Tuco) and Walt seeks revenge by shackling the killer and torturing him. Going medieval on his ass, as it were.

Walt sets up a shotgun and tripwire which, when triggered, would cause the dealer to kill himself. But Walt Jr. finds the guy and the dealer, realizing it's Walt's son, trips the trap and kills them both. Hence preventing Walt Jr. from ever being called Flynn again.




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Quote:
1mills says...
"Wow they really did pick the right ending, some of alternatives are in interview with Vince Gilligan below."
Yeah, they really did pick the right one. :)

SPOILER:
I'm not sure Walt with his cancer would have been able to do much with such a heavy rifle.


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It's amazing to think that such a perfect finale wasn't planned far, far in advance.  Whereas pretty much the opposite could be said of Lost's finale.
So many things were just right.

SPOILER:
The double benefit of getting back at his old partners and getting his money to Jnr was inspired that I never thought of at all.  Nice touch with the lasers too.
SPOILER:
I was surprised the tirelessly, fighting for justice, Hank died - but I feel it was him dying that made Walt do what he did for the rest of the series.  I think he even planned on still killing Jesse, right up until he saw the state of him and how he'd been treated for however long.
Dying, alone in a meth lab touching the stainless steel vat was such a perfect circle.
SPOILER:
The Skylar/Walt scene was sooo well shot.  Him finally admitting that he did it all for him just made so many other things and how people felt towards him, 'right', and perfectly justified.
Ste

I think that...

SPOILER:
Hank dying was the first major comeuppance for Walt, up until that point he'd managed to come out on top of everything, and in control. It was the first time someone he cared about and didn't want to die, got killed, and it was because of him.

I think he rationalised an awful lot of the nasty things he did by seeing everyone he killed as guilty in some way. But there was no way he could rationalise the death of Hank as anything other than his fault.

I agree about him planning on killing Jesse, until he saw that he was a prisoner. And then I think his old fatherly feelings that had gone the moment Jesse was double crossing him, came back which was why he saved him. I think the reason they nodded at each other, was sort of like a mutual "are we even? yes we're even" type thing. Even though I'm not sure poor Jesse was ever remotely even.

And Walt saying he did it because he enjoyed it, it made him feel alive, is probably the best moment in the entire series. It ties up so much in one sentence for me, he went from working two jobs as an undervalued chemistry teacher and car wash cleaner, to being Heisenberg, a legend feared by so many people.

In the first few seasons he was just bumbling along making crystal meth, getting out of scrapes, and then Gus happens, and throughout that hole powerplay is where he begins to like it I think. That for me is when he goes from doing it for his family, to doing it because he enjoyed it.


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