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One Little Kiss and Felina, Good-Bye: The Series Finale of “Breaking Bad“

Written by P. Desmond Schumann

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There are a lot of ways to end a long-running series.

There is The Sopranos approach, which is akin to a punk-rock band smashing their instruments and storming off stage before the encore. Or, there is The Wire, where last-minute twists and revelations – the bread and butter of most finale episodes – was replaced by a bitter-sweet sense of closer – in that case, a long good-bye to the city of Baltimore. Or, one last example, the LOST method: in which loose-threads are tied into an incoherent knot at the last second, but major themes go neglected.

The finale episode of Breaking Bad is nothing like any of those endings, but it was a little bit of all of them. Let’s start with the bad, because there isn’t too much of it.

Much like the finale episode of LOST, I felt disappointed – granted though, to a way-less degree – that plot-points and side-charactors I loved weren’t given their moment of proper send-off. It was an unexpected surprise to see Badger and Skinny Pete again, but it bugged me a little that characters like Marie and Skyler didn’t really contribute to the momentum of the narrative, like at all. Jesse, too, had little to no agency over the events that brought the series to a close – excluding the very last moments. This isn’t a problem, necessarily. Each character was given a pitch-perfect note to leave the series on, but they had no sense of control in it, which robbed those scenes of a little gravity. Walt delivers closer to every character’s door-step with a neat little bow on top. Starting with his first business-partners, then Skyler and Holly, and ending with his last business-partners. In retrospect, it paints Breaking Bad out to be wholly the story of Walter White and his misdeeds, which I never believed it was. To me, Breaking Bad was as much about watching characters re-act to Walter. But, that’s the end of the complaining.

Now, the good. That was over quick.

Most cold-opens in Breaking Bad (a cold-open is that tease that comes before the BrBa logo and the episode proper begins) are more surreal than narratively focused. Think back to the sauce taste-testing with the chicken nuggets, the close-up’s of a house-fly with Skyler singing a lullaby accompanying it, the skate-boarders in Walt’s pool, the boy putting a tarantula in a glass-jar and riding off on his motor-bike. The examples go on forever. Breaking Bad loves to make its audience say “What the fuck am I watching?”, but other times, they’ve used the cold-open to establish some piece of plot to kick-start the episode. The cold-open of the finale episode was a little of column A and a little of column B.

Walt peers through a snow-covered windshield, then opens the door and climbs inside. After failing to hot-wire the car, Walt hears the police sirens coming for him. He leans back, takes a moment to compose himself, then does something very odd. He prays. Maybe to God (which seems unlikely to me), or maybe to the writers-room, begging to have his winning-streak back for one last show-down (in a The Dark Tower-sorta way).

Regardless, the prayer is answered. The keys to the car, in uniquely TV logic, just so happen to be hidden in the visor. Look: this might really happen in towns that small, but you can’t argue that from a story-telling perspective, that doesn’t feel like a big cheat. It’s the kind of writing Breaking Bad has always made a point of avoiding: no short-cuts (or half-measures, for that matter). And maybe that’s the point. What ever omnipresent entity has granted Walter White his incredible luck decides to bless him with 24-hours more of it. Just enough time to finish the story the way it should end; not locked up in some cabin, withering away. Hell, maybe it’s the audience that grants Walter the keys I that moment. However you see it, that scene is definitely odd. I probably would have left satisfied if Walt just some-how found his way back home without explanation; but instead, Vince Gilligan chose to show us this scene. Very odd.

The sequence that comes next – involving laser-pointers and home invasion – is pure genius. I’m not going to say much about it, because there isn’t much critique I can offer, only praise. But have we ever seen Heisenberg be that menacing? I don’t think we can even call him by that name anymore. It’s as if a second transformation has taken place. Mr. Lambert is a hybrid of Heisenberg’s ruthlessness and Walter White’s cunning. In this scene, he is more terrifying than Gus, Tuco and Uncle Jack combined. “Cheer up, beautiful people. This is where you get to make it right.” God, the chills that sent up my spine… Oh, and I love how the whole sequence gets turned into a farce by revealing Badger and Skinny Pete’s involvement. (The moral preaching we hear in the car from our junky C3PO and R2-D2 was way too on the nose for my taste, though).

The next scene is my favourite of the whole episode. I can’t think of any drama series that could of pulled this off. The sequence of Jesse sanding, oiling, then smelling a wooden-box must have struck a lot of fans as out-of-left-field. It wasn’t, of course, but I feel bad for anyone who didn’t make the association to an earlier episode immediately. If I hadn’t of re-watched the episode in which Jesse confesses the story of trading a wooden-box he made in wood-working class – his potential, thematically speaking – for an ounce of weed, I might have missed it, too. It may have been demandingly subtle, but that moment hit me harder than any other on television has. The jolting match-cut to Jesse working in the “meth-prision” was beyond heart-breaking. Now that the love of his life has been taken from him, Jesse’s only mental-escape is that box, and by association, the potential that Walter White brought out of him. This is evident from the continually rising quality of the meth he produces while captured. By the time he is freed, the blue is “better than ever” (in Skinny Pete’s words). I wonder if Jesse ever imagined Walt there in the lab with him, working beside him once more. I think it is implied here, but not enough to be definite. Make your own mind up on what it was that kept Jesse going. Likely, it was the dangling thread of Brock hanging above his head.

Oh, lets talk about the ricin. I almost added this to the “bad” section. Did anyone else feel a little disappointed that Lydia ended up being on the dying-end of the poison? After the multiple seasons of build-up – what, they make it in season two, right? – I thought it was a bit lame. It had Walter’s, Jesse’s, or Skyler’s name on it. Someone important. Not… Lydia.

That leads me to another observation: there wasn’t many surprises to be had here, were there? Even the “shoot-out” at the end goes down exactly how you think it will. Again, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. No surprise is sometimes a surprise and I’m okay with that. But… Definitely never imagined Breaking Bad to be a show with a clean, relatively tidy ending. I was expecting a lot more loose-threads then we ended up getting. Almost every aspect of this episode was final. You couldn’t even call Walt’s death at the end a twist. It was just fulfilling on the promise made at the beginning of the show. I guess that’s a good way to sum this whole finale up: The writers kept all their promises, but didn’t surprise us with anything unexpected. In that sense, the final moments of Breaking Bad are the opposite of The Sopranos. It was graceful exit, not the punk-band wrecking havoc on their stage.

Pretty soon here, I’m going to talk about those final shots and the pop-song which accompanied them, but first lets talk about Jesse some more. Pinkman got two wonderful moments in this episode (besides the box scene). They almost make up for his absence this season.

The first came when he is asked by Walter to pull the trigger, effectively putting him out of his misery. Jesse demands Walter stop manipulating him, or he won’t shot the gun. “Admit you want this.” Walter, defeated, admits he wants to die. Jesse, for once deciding his actions for himself, says “do it yourself”. He is no longer a puppet. First, Walt abuses him, then Gus, then Hank. Now, Jesse is ready to make his own calls.

The second wonderful moment is his frenzied escape through the chain-link gate he failed to climb the episode before. It’s reminiscent of Walt in his car after bombing Tuco’s head-quarters, only Jesse’s joy is more pure. I’d like to think he ends up in Alaska. Maybe making wooden-boxes for some local farmer’s-market. Even if the approaching police found Jesse, I’m not sure what more you could charge him with besides a speeding-ticket. Walt, by dying in the Nazi’s meth-lab, takes full credit. No one will be looking for Jesse. He’s free.

Now, to Walt’s death. After Jesse speeds away in the car, Walt looks at his bullet-wound, then begins walking toward the meth-lab, seemingly unperturbed. We see him strolling through the vats, weak, but relaxed. Police-sirens swell in the distance. The red and blue lights – but mostly, the blue lights – seep into the dark, dimly-lit meth-lab. At this point, I’m looking at my watch, checking how much time is left and trying to figure out what the writers will do with it. Then, Walt picks up a gas-mask and the first chord of “Baby Blue” by Bad Finger drops into the sound-mix. It sunk in, right then, that this was the ending. I stopped glancing at my watch. Walt caresses a vat Jesse and him used to cook with – this shot mirrors an earlier shot of Walt caressing Holly – then his reflection is seen dropping to the ground. The camera begins to spiral up-ward, combining the great “Crawl Space” shot and the ferris-wheel shot from earlier this season, as-well as mirroring the shots of Walt in the MRI machine. By the time the cops reach Walter White, he’s dead.

I’m not going to lie, I bawled my eyes out. Only in Breaking Bad could an ending where the main character dies in a Nazi meth-lab be beautiful. After finally realizing the horror he had wrought on his family, Walter made the only measures he could to protect their future. He’ll take credit for Hank’s death, if it means Skyler has a “get out of jail free” card. He’ll let the Swartz’s take credit for giving Jr. the money and future he deserves, even if he’ll have no idea Walter worked hard for it. His ego had been put aside and he has finished business as best he could. In the last moments of his life, there was only one thing left to say good-bye to: chemistry, his Felina (if that reference goes over your head, read the lyrics to that song at the bottom of this post; it’s the one Walt finds in the car and hums to himself later on). Just like in the song, Walter died in the arms of his lover, surrounded by the lab-equipment that brought him so much happiness. Whether he was cooking meth or working for Grey Matter, chemistry was Walter White’s home; his love.

And on a more meta level, I believe that was Vince’s way of saying good-bye to Breaking Bad, and also, to the process that made a show 99% pure. I couldn’t help but see that meth-lab as a stand-in for the writer’s room; Walt for Vince and his team of writers. It felt like their way of saying: “One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.”

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Here are the lyrics for both songs that were featured in the episode. A close-read of them will give you some in-sight into Walt’s final thoughts.

“Baby Blue” lyrics, by Bad Finger:

Guess I got what I deserved

Kept you waiting there too long, my love

All that time without a word

Didn’t know you’d think that I’d forget or I’d regret

The special love I had for you, my baby blue

All the days became so long

Did you really think, I’d do you wrong?

Dixie, when I let you go

Thought you’d realize that I would know

I would show the special love I have for you, my baby blue

Guess that’s all I have to say

Except the feeling just grows stronger every day

Just one thing before I go

Take good care, baby, let me know, let it grow

The special love you have for me, my Dixie, dear.

“El Paso” lyrics, by Marty Robbins:

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso

I fell in love with a Mexican girl.

Night-time would find me in Rosa’s cantina;

Music would play and Felina would whirl.

Blacker than night were the eyes of Felina,

Wicked and evil while casting a spell.

My love was deep for this Mexican maiden;

I was in love but in vain, I could tell.

One night a wild young cowboy came in,

Wild as the West Texas wind.

Dashing and daring,

A drink he was sharing

With wicked Felina,

The girl that I loved.

So in anger I

Challenged his right for the love of this maiden.

Down went his hand for the gun that he wore.

My challenge was answered in less than a heart-beat;

The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor.

Just for a moment I stood there in silence,

Shocked by the FOUL EVIL deed I had done.

Many thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there;

I had but one chance and that was to run.

Out through the back door of Rosa’s I ran,

Out where the horses were tied.

I caught a good one.

It looked like it could run.

Up on its back

And away I did ride,

Just as fast as I

Could from the West Texas town of El Paso

Out to the bad-lands of New Mexico.

Back in El Paso my life would be worthless.

Everything’s gone in life; nothing is left.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden

My love is stronger than my fear of death.

I saddled up and away I did go,

Riding alone in the dark.

Maybe tomorrow

A bullet may find me.

Tonight nothing’s worse than this

Pain in my heart.

And at last here I

Am on the hill overlooking El Paso;

I can see Rosa’s cantina below.

My love is strong and it pushes me onward.

Down off the hill to Felina I go.

Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys;

Off to my left ride a dozen or more.

Shouting and shooting I can’t let them catch me.

I have to make it to Rosa’s back door.

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel

A deep burning pain in my side.

Though I am trying

To stay in the saddle,

I’m getting weary,

Unable to ride.

But my love for

Felina is strong and I rise where I’ve fallen,

Though I am weary I can’t stop to rest.

I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle.

I feel the bullet go deep in my chest.

From out of nowhere Felina has found me,

Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.

Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for,

One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.

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Thank you for taking the time to read my thought. I hope you enjoyed.