Did Walt in fact die at the beginning of Breaking Bad’s Felina? (Picture: AMC)

As the bullet casings settle on Breaking Bad’s Felina, a theory is attracting attention that it was in fact all a fantasy in Walter White’s head.

This initially registers as absurd, wavers very slightly toward remotely believable as you read on, but ultimately leaves you wanting to burn down the internet in an act of mercy.

:::SPOILERS:::

The theory goes that Walt’s snow-clad car was in fact his tomb and that the events following, from the key falling from the sun visor onward, are how Walt would have wanted his story to end.


It’s a curiously simple interpretation, given the tide of over-analysing that has gone into Breaking Bad in the past, positing that one of the most diligent writing teams ever put together opted for a trope usually considered a sign of bad writing.



But regardless of whether a fantasy is befitting of a finale, is there even really the evidence to support it?

Let’s break down the claims:

Fortunate yes, but his presence in Albuquerque is spotted almost instantly by the police, and his change in weight, hairstyle and beard would probably be enough to avoid being made by a busy worker.

The most irksome element of the episode for sure, but Marie’s suggestion that the DEA’s resources were intentionally being stretched makes only two officers watching Skyler’s apartment at least remotely plausible.

Also if this were a Walt fantasy, he would have spoken to his son to get closure, not observed him from afar, no?

Walter White is a man who ought to know his way around a sharp knife and a tube of glue.

He had also observed creature-of-habit Lydia’s meeting times and could have gotten there early to lift the packet.

We saw unequivocally that Walt picked up Gus’s traits throughout ‘real world’ Breaking Bad, so why is him acting like Mike indicative of a fantasy?

He’s not being Mike anyway, he’s more Mick Dundee if anything.

This might have been a nice ending, Walter White freezing to death after being unable to start his car (something that nearly killed him back in 4 Days Out) but he was actually pretty resilient in the face of the cancer all season long and never looked at death’s door.

Wait, what? He doesn’t even have control over his own fantasies?

I’m picturing myself surfing a killer whale on a rainbow right now and at no point do I take a bullet to the ribs.

It was awfully convenient he got away with parking exactly where he wanted, but it was also awfully inconvenient that the Todd Squad confiscated his keys/detonator.

Walt is incredibly lucky throughout Felina, but this doesn’t tell us it is the fantasy of a sick, dying man, it tells us he is willing to accept a large amount of risk because he no longer fears death or other consequences.

If Walt can make an M60 oscillate in a perfect arc, he can DIY the sh*t out of a remote-controlled lock.



Gently opening the door vs. thumping it with his Heisen-elbow.

Not even going to touch these.

Maybe. Maybe Vince Gilligan’s final twist was to make the show immortal by instilling an ambiguity to it that will leave us debating the ass end off it for years. Or maybe the world’s just reading too much into it.

The pressure of ending a show that people have invested five years of their lives in must have been huge and you can see why he would have wanted to pay off each plot strand so resolutely while, in my opinion, still leaving our feelings for Walter White as conflicted as ever.

Gilligan has repeatedly said that The Sopranos was a ‘different kind of show’ and needed the artful ending it got, while Breaking Bad always had a nosediving trajectory that needed to end with a crash. A great show doesn’t need to have some meta ending to be great.

And while we’re at it, couldn’t dreams be read into anything? Maybe The Sopranos’ diner scene was also a dream given it cuts out how dreams so often do? Maybe Only Fools And Horses’ antique watch discovery was the hallucinogenic results of Del Boy and Rodney’s shroomy night in?

There will always be those driven to excavate more secrets that may not even be there in Breaking Bad and more who would have preferred a less conclusive conclusion, though this undoubtedly would have produced an even greater backlash.

Felina was an immensely enjoyable climax to an immensely enjoyable show, and while some of the speculation surrounding it has been way off the mark, it is undoubtedly wonderful to have a series capable of turning the world into hysterical colour detectives and pink teddy bear spotters.