SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY.
The short answer is yes. And what a relief it is.
“Guess I got what I deserve,” Badfinger sings over the image of Walter White laying dead in a pool of his own, cancerous blood in the middle of the Aryan brotherhood’s meth lab. “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.”
Walt certainly did get what he deserved: dying in the arms of his baby blue — the chemistry lab where he created his perfect blue meth.
“Felina” may not be the most intricate episode of “Breaking Bad,” or the most suspenseful or even the best. But it was the perfect ending to a near-perfect series. In some ways, it wasn’t as dark as I expected it to be, but in the end I’m glad that it wasn’t.
Walt tied up all the loose ends he possibly could during his two days in Albuquerque. He scared the shit out of Gretchen and Elliot in an incredibly badass scene at their mansion. He threatened their lives if they did not give his children the $9 million that he laid out on their living room table, warning them that “the two best hit men west of the Mississippi” would come for them if they disobeyed.
Those two “hit men”? Badger and Skinny Pete! That was the only moment comedic relief in probably the past three or four episodes and it was certainly welcome. I am so glad that Vince Gilligan let us say goodbye to them. (Skinny Pete may have won the dialogue lottery with the understatement of the past decade: “The whole thing felt kinda shady, like morality wise.”) Skinny Pete: Albuquerque’s greatest meth head philosopher.
Walt got to say goodbye to Skyler, a luxury that he may or may not have deserved, but we’ll let it slide; this is television after all. “I did it for me,” Walt finally admitted to his wife about ruling his empire. He also got one last glimpse of Holly and Walter Jr.
Walt’s final showdown at the Nazi compound was downright Scorcesian. We probably all knew that those bastards were going down, and Walt’s awesome machine gun toy was just the thing to take ’em out.
There were a couple of moments of poetic justice: when Jesse wrung the life out of Todd using the handcuffs that Todd — who killed Drew Sharp and Jesse’s girlfriend — locked him in, and when Walt shot Uncle Jack point-blank in the head, the same exact way that Jack killed Hank. Walt also got to tell Lydia that she would be dead within, say, the next 24 hours because he put Ricin in her Stevia, a supposedly healthy sugar substitute. Irony!
Walt then gave Jesse the chance to kill him, and even asked him to and tossed him the gun. But Jesse wouldn’t do it, because he’s had enough killin’. Instead, he took some Nazi’s car keys, got into the car and cracked a smile that we haven’t seen from him since the beginning of season five. Did Jesse deserve pure freedom? I’m not positive that he did, but he certainly suffered plenty. Two of his ex-girlfriends are dead and he has no money or family or friends. So, yeah, maybe he does deserve freedom after all.
Finally, the last scene was absolutely perfect. “Baby Blue” played in the background as Walt went through the chemistry lab until he bled out on the floor as a SWAT team entered the building. He didn’t want the cancer to get him, and it wouldn’t have been right for him to go to jail if Hank couldn’t be the one to put him there.
Walter White died in the place he loved the most.
Other observations and questions:
- The humidifier in Lydia’s bedroom was a great touch.
- Gretchen was wearing white, Elliot was in blue. In the first season, Walt was usually in a cream color and Skyler was always in blue.
- This may have been the first time that Holly was not wearing a yellow or pink hat.
- OF COURSE Todd had that ringtone for Lydia’s calls. (If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.) Thanks to all who commented and emailed me about this! Here is “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.”
- Vince Gilligan must really like the New York Times. That was the second time in two episodes that a Times reporter was name-dropped.
- What do we think happened to Huell? Is he still in that safe house? Poor Huell.
- I like to think that Jesse is heading straight for Omaha to meet up with Saul.