However, be warned, this review will contain a lot of spoilers, so only read further if you've seen the episode, and I really do recommend watching it rather than spoiling it for yourself...
I'm going to begin by saying that this was incredibly odd to watch, not because I've been watching this show since it started in 2008, because I haven't, it's exactly the opposite, I only started around a month and a half ago, and I haven't stopped watching since. The majority of the time I've had another episode to watch immediately after I'd finished one, or as it's been the case for the last three or so weeks, one seven days afterwards, and I don't think I've settled with the idea that there's nothing to come next.
Anyway, onto the actual contents of the episode.
As the finale opens, we see the immediate aftermath of Walt's mysterious disappearance at the conclusion of the penultimate episode, 'Granite State', and I have to say, I would've liked it to pick up when Walt had arrived somewhere, rather than him climbing into the car. However, this scene did make way for one really interesting moment, one I can't quite tell if it had a clear meaning, or it was one the viewer was meant to decide the significance of for themselves. As Walt sits in a stolen car, preparing to escape from the police, and he looks into the mirror and mutters "Just get me home, and I'll do the rest...", now what I perceived this as 'Heisenberg' speaking to Walt, that he'd become so absorbed in the crime world he has two completely different states of mind, two unique personalities, one of which is taking slight control. Obviously, I don't know if that's the intended message, but it's what I saw in the scene, and I'm sure many people watched it in the same way.
When we do actually see Walt set his plan into motion, he's really using his intelligence, as we want to see from the character, faking his identity, pretending to be a New York Times reporter writing an article about Gretchen and Elliot Schwartz, to get the couple's address, and the scene that follows is incredible. Walt moves around their house so quietly and stealthily, without appearing to be making an effort at all, just walking slowly and lurking in the background, it's almost scary. Vince Gilligan and Bryan Cranston also work together to give one of the most misleading scenes of the show, because you're almost certain Walt is going to kill the Schwartzs, and you're just waiting for it to happen, yet that isn't the case.
This scene is also the greatest way to show how far the three of them have come since founding Gray Matter Technologies, and how opposite the directions they've taken are, as well as the major differences in what they've earned with their genius, Gretchen and Elliot building up a major business, worth billions of dollars, and Walt becoming a Methamphetamine kingpin. However, it also shows you the difference in strength, the Schwartzs are incredibly weak and cowardly, whereas Walt can be one of the most intimidating characters ever created.
There are also a few examples of how desperate Walter White has become because of his actions, he can't ever give his money to his family personally, and take credit for saving them personally, as he always wanted, he has to disguise it with lies, and another which really stood out to me is how he's relying on two people I'm sure he's never even wanted to interact with to help accomplish his plans, I won't name them, though, as it's one of the best surprises of the show...
This episode also has one of the most tragic scenes of the whole show, if you remember
Jesse's rehab scenes throughout seasons 3 and 4, the scene'll make a lot more sense to you, if you don't I'll recap why it was important quickly; In Rehab, Jesse spoke about building a box in school for a woodwork project, and he put as much effort as he could into it, but the teacher told him it was no good, this might've only been a lie disguising what he actually wanted to say about when he broke away from Mr. White and tried manufacturing Crystal Meth by himself, and despite trying his hardest to get it up to the previous standards, Heisenberg still telling him it was a failure, but it's really the box aspect you should focus on. Anyway, in the final episode we see a scene of Jesse making this box, and it's a beautiful moment, the fact the crew of Breaking Bad found time to put in such a quiet and peaceful moment into the finale surprised me, but it paid off, after watching Jesse proudly building this box, putting his heart and soul into it, he starts to walk away with it, only for the clanking sound of Jesse's padlock and chain to intrude, revealing that for that whole time, he'd just been locked up, cooking Meth... Seeing the state Jesse's in is upsetting anyway, but when it's shown to you after a scene like that, it really gets to your emotions.
 |
| Jesse builds his box, but it's only in his imagination... |
Some of the small details in the episode really stand out to me, as well, one of my favourites being Marie's clothes, you remember how purple-obsessed she was for the entire series? Well, that's gone, replaced by simple black and white, to show her emotional state after the death of her husband, Hank. Also, the fact that even though after being diagnosed with Lung Cancer, he got into manufacturing Crystal Meth to get money to save his family, but the stress of what he's done has driven his wife, Skyler, to becoming a chain-smoker, smoking of course being a major cause of the disease. And then there's my favourite, that Walt's clothes are exactly the same as those that he wore in the first ever episode.
A point that I was at first a little disappointed with, but after really thinking about it, was impressed by, is how incomplete the family side of Walt's life felt by the end of the episode. What I mean is that, even though he did get to say goodbye to Skyler and Holly, he didn't speak at all to Walt Jr. ( Or as he's now called, Flynn ), after considering what this meant I reached a conclusion; Breaking Bad has always strived in it's realism, and in real life, you don't get a perfect ending, nobody gets to accomplish everything they want to, this was Walt's final opportunity to see Walt Jr. , but he knew he couldn't speak to him. Another reason for this is that despite still rooting for Walt, and him being the main character of the show, he is a bad guy, and he doesn't really deserve everything he wants.
Then we finally reach what it's all been building to, the Neo-Nazi camp. Now, after a few minutes into this section of the episode, and with Walt being threatened with a gun to his head, he tries to get the attention of Jack, the leader of the group. He does this by accusing him of partnering with Jesse Pinkman, and Walt knew Jack would want to be seen as well above Jesse, that Jesse wasn't his partner, but instead his slave. I think originally Walt did this to get him into position with the rest of the Neo-Nazis for the final part of his plan, but after seeing the state Jesse was in, quickly changed his mind. Then it was time for Walt's plans to reach a conclusion...
 |
| Aaron Paul's Jesse Pinkman, beaten and bruised in the final episode |
The spectacularly bloody final phase of Walt's plans was the biggest symbol of how much the character has changed in the 5 seasons this show has had, on first viewing of the pilot episode, I don't think anybody, even the cast of the show could've possibly predicted this moment.
I won't go into details of how it happened, but after the slaying of almost all of the Neo-nazis,
and the M60's long-anticipated use, in a fittingly intelligent method, only four characters remained, Walt and Jesse, and who are pretty much their counterparts on the villains side of the show, their opposites, Todd and his uncle Jack.
I think it's only right that Jesse got to be the one to take Todd's life, after everything the character's been put through, being beaten, threatened at gun-point, locked in what was practically a cage, forced to cook meth and finally the death of Andrea, his ex-girlfriend, but a woman he still cared about, all because of Todd, I've never been as relieved to see the death of a character before.
What happened immediately afterwards surprised me more than anything I've seen in this show, as Walt aims a gun at Jack's head, Jack tries to bargain with him, reminding Walt of his money, saying "You wanna know where it is? You pull that trigger you're never gonna know", but Walt interrupts him mid-sentence, shooting him, this was so shocking because all Walt seemed to really care about before was his money, but after loosing his family, he's realised that it's not worth it anymore. What's interesting about this scene as well is that Walt kills Jack in the exact same way Jack killed Walt's brother-in-law, Hank, and it convinced me that this was the real reason he'd come, to avenge Hank, rather than just to punish them for cooking and making money from his formula.
I think it's brilliant that the only two left standing after all of this are Walt and Jesse, I think the viewers have always known these two would share one of the final scenes together, and what a brilliant scene it was. Walt offers Jesse the chance to kill him, to get revenge for the mess he's made of Jesse's life, but when Jesse realises that his former mentor will be dead from a bullet-wound within the hour anyway, he decided the better way to get payback would be for once, not doing what Walt asks him to, Jesse leaves him to die slowly, and I think Walt realised that was exactly what he deserved.
Drawing to the final moments of the show, Walt lets Jesse go free, in a scene which shows just how far these characters have come, you can see it just in the way that they look at each other, Jesse's no longer that cocky, arrogant and ignorant kid he was when we first met him, and Walt's come so far in so many different ways from being just a high-school chemistry teacher wishing he'd achieved more in his life. It also demonstrated that despite being a villain, Walt still wanted to accomplish some good in his life, the fact that he died saving Jesse's life shows that despite being in countless arguments and fights, sometimes even the two of them threatening to kill each other, Walt still cares for Jesse, and realises what a mess he's got his former student in.
However, Walt's actions have still had lasting consequences on Jesse, as he drives away, he appears to have been pretty much driven to the brink of insanity, and it's near impossible to tell if he's crying or laughing.
 |
| Walt looks over the equipment used for making the drug that brought on his downfall |
I think at the end of this episode, at the end of the entire story, Walt has won, no matter all of the bad things that have happened in the last two years of his life, I think he dies knowing he's accomplished something; He's given his money to his family, avenged Hank by killing the Neo-Nazis, freed Jesse Pinkman, and most importantly, beaten the cancer; His death was caused by himself, not the disease that started this entire story off. As Walt reminisces over old times, looking over the criminal lab equipment that cost him his life and his family, I think he's glad to finally die, and while Bad Finger's 'Baby Blue' begins to play, I realise how much I'll miss this show, it's become such a massive part of my life so quickly, and the characters seem like so much more than just characters to me. Fittingly, the story ends as Walt's life does.
 |
| The once great Heisenberg fades from life... |
It's only just starting to hit me that it's over, and I don't think I've ever felt this connected to a show before, I would never have expected such a seemingly beautiful final scene, but I could predict an amazing final episode, which is exactly what we got.
Vince Gilligan, Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, RJ Mitte, Betsy Brandt, Dean Norris and everybody to have ever worked on this show have done the greatest job possible, and the show will be dearly missed.
Rating: Without Question, 10/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment