Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is played during the final scene. And so my favorite redemptive moment was when Walt was, at long last, honest with his wife and with himself. No, he means to use Gretchen and Elliot as a way to get his ill-gotten gains to his family. [22], In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Felina" as the 19th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes. He tackles Jesse to the ground, shielding him with his own body, and triggers the machine gun. As for Walt, who has taken a bullet to the abdomen, its time to go. He cried for Walt's sins. Then the song played as Walt got up the wherewithal to drive to New Mexico. However, there are multiple ways to synthesize meth from other ingredients, and several involve lithium. And then theres Jesse, enslaved by the Neo-Nazis, forced to watch them murder Andrea and leave Brock motherless, and spend his days cooking meth and waiting for the day they decide hes of no more use and kill him. var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); The feds took her house, she is infamous as Heisenbergs wife and lives in fear that the Neo-Nazis or some other angry associates might harm her family, and her children are fatherless. Most of the guys are killed instantly but Todd manages to avoid getting fatally wounded, giving Jesse the opportunity to strangle him to death with the chains that bind hima fitting end for Todd, who has been Jesses nemesis since he pulled the trigger on Drew Sharp. A call back to "Crawlspace," to Walt and his scans, to Jesse Pinkman on the roundabout? Game of Thrones Ends as a Paean to Reactionary Politics, The Leftovers Finale Offers a Moment of Transcendence. And after five seasons of half-truths, blatant lies and continual delusions, it was nice to hear. We find Walt in a snow-covered car, hiding from the police. That he died in the lab, surrounded by the things he finally admitted to loving the most. var ffid = 1; He is doing it, quite simply, because it is the right thing to do and it is long past time he actually did right by his family. Theres one last piece of unfinished business for Walt: Jesse Pinkman. }
There are very few things that Walt can make right with his family at this point but he does what little he can. [24], 16th episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad, Events related to Jesse's escape were presented in the film, David Friedkin for "Cross Your Heart, Hope to Die" (1974), "End Game: TV's Best and Worst Series Finales", "This is the End: The 13 Best TV Series Finales Ever", "Bryan Cranston on 'El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie', "Why 'Breaking Bad' Chose Badfinger's 'Baby Blue', "Breaking Bad Insider Podcast Season 5", "Is 'Felina' the Secret to the Breaking Bad Finale? That leaves two men standing: Walt and Jesse. Here Jesse got to say no to Walt, he's no longer Mr. White's b*tch.
The Art of the Finale: Breaking Bad Felina. While I thought it might have planted a small seed in the back of Walt's brain about the possibility of Jesse Pinkman being alive, but it played a much bigger role than I thought it would. [21] However, Emily Nussbaum, writing in the New Yorker, criticized the episode, claiming it so neatly wrapped up the series in Walt's favor that it seemed more like "the dying fantasy on the part of Walter White, not something that was actually happening". Flynn and Holly get a little screen time. After spending some time out in the desert to MacGyver up the machine gun in the trunk, Walt pays Skyler a visit. Skyler is left holding the bag for Walts crimes and will be tried as an accessory despite his attempt to give her plausible deniability via his vicious phone call in Ozymandias (S5E14). What about you, were you satisfied with Lydia's end? In the parking lot, Walt and Jesse have one final exchangejust a nod of heads, a silent goodbyebefore parting ways for good. Jesse has killed people but he was never a killer; Walt was always pulling the strings. He accuses Jack of partnering with Jesse after hed promised to kill him, but Jack brings Jesse in to show Walt that, though he may be cooking for him, they are most certainly not partners. But I will admit to being surprised that my comment last week about Walt having his face pressed up against the window, looking in on his happy family played out so exactly. We are!
Im not sure who is worse off: Flynn, who is old enough to fully understand what Walt did, or Holly, who will grow up without a father only to learnprobably at far too young an agethat the man she never knew was a monster. window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'stat_source_id', 44); Despite this being a successful outcome in the context of the story, he finds himself increasingly isolated and dissatisfied. Sign up for highlights and exclusive content. var pid = 'ca-pub-9804963895925826'; Probably. ins.style.display = 'block'; That's what it means. ins.style.height = container.attributes.ezah.value + 'px'; Walt coerces them to place his remaining $9.72million in a trust for Walter Jr. They are allowed to flaunt their wealth while he was forced to hide his in barrels in the desert; they can live a life of luxury, complete with dinners at the 21 Club and Per S, while he couldnt buy a bottle of champagne or a car for his son without coming up with elaborate cover stories. ins.dataset.adClient = pid; As far as Flynn goes, Walt knows better than to approach him when he gets off the school bus, not just because the police are watching but because hes on his honesty tour and part of that honesty is accepting the fact that his son hates him and never wants to see him again. Alright, I know that Pinkman wood working scene was a call back to the episode "Kafkaesque" where Jesse tells the story of a teacher who encouraged him to do better. Club gave the episode an A rating, writing that "Walt's purpose is fulfilled, and he just stops". That Walt should have gone out hated. Ever want to write about your obsessions? var cid = '1553348147'; After all that has happened, it would have been incredibly unsatisfying for Walt to be caught by the policenot that he didnt absolutely deserve it, but because Hank is no longer alive to see it. var ffid = 1; Moonhaven S1E4: Mada Do You Think Theyll Drop the Bomb? The show went for satisfaction instead of surprising. After Jesse walks out of the clubhouse, Todds cell phone rings; its Lydia, calling to see if they took care of Walt, and Walt gets the pleasure of telling Lydia that shes dying and he is the one killing her. Did I not get a thrill out of that final shot? The episode was written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan. The title was interpreted by some as "blood, meth and tears" because iron is a predominant element in blood, lithium is sometimes used in methamphetamine production, and sodium is a component of tears. Jesse killing Walt would not have worked because it wouldnt have been the right thing for Jesses character. Sean Parker Walt got so many of the things he wanted (revenge, to provide for his family, to scare the bejeesus out of Gretchen and Elliott), but he was denied this. He doesnt deserve to win. He learns from them that it is still being sold and is just as good as everso good, in fact, that everyone believed that Heisenberg was still cooking it. In her spare time she enjoys obsessing over various television shows, especially Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. The three episodes leading up to the finale were a rollercoaster ride of death and destruction, and by the time we reach the end of the line and Felina (S5E16) begins, all our main characters lives are in ruins. window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'stat_source_id', 44); if(ffid == 2){ Another, called the "Shake 'n' Bake" method, involved throwing lithium and several other ingredients into a single pot to create the drug. All we know is what Walt tells them: they must get the money to his children or they die. Breaking Bad was never going to end well. When Walt sees Jesse he can see the absolute misery hes been put through. [13] This ultimately resulted in the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which first aired on Netflix on October 11, 2019, and had limited theatrical runs that weekend. Eerie, gruesome touch from director Vince Gilligan. Its up in the air as to whether she will serve prison time but even if she doesnt, her life is in shambles. Is this the best depiction of a "happy place" Vince Gilligan could conjure? When he walked into that room he may have wanted Jesse dead, but seeing him in the flesh changes his mind. ins.dataset.fullWidthResponsive = 'true'; He would have accepted Hank being the one to take him down, and he did accept it until Jack and his crew showed up. ), "I'll do the rest." document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); art of the finalebadgerBreaking Badelliott schwartzfelinaflynn whitegretchen schwartzjack welkerjesse pinkmanlydia rodarte-quaylemarie schraderskinny peteskyler whitetodd alquistvince gilliganwalter white, by
It's tricky for us as music supervisors in that we keep pulling together ideas and revising them.
var cid = '1553348147'; It was followed by a sequel film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which was made available on Netflix on October 11, 2019. I think most of us could have guessed that "Felina" would stand in for Walt's family or maybe his pride. ins.dataset.adSlot = asau; I don't understand the cries of "fanservice" or "unsurprising." So, once again, here's my Jesus/Jesse Pinkman theory. March 4, 2021, 12:00 am, by We need to spend this last hour with him to remind ourselves that it is the end of the line for Walt, and for the series. ins.style.width = '100%'; container.style.width = '100%'; Felina skips over Walts exchange with Lawson the gun dealer, but we do see the machine gun in his trunk.
Your email address will not be published. Oh it works very well. May 27, 2021, 12:00 am, by Required fields are marked *. var asau = '7141056054'; So what does it all mean? [11] "Baby Blue" became an obvious choice as the editing came closer to completion with Golubi describing the process of finalizing the song: "Before I saw the scene, I pulled together a number of ideas one which I thought worked pretty beautifully against picture: The Bees' "No More Excuses" but once I saw that beautiful shot, and saw the scene in context, I realized why Vince was so strongly attached to the Badfinger song. With the other question markSauls fatebeing explored in Better Call Saul, the expanded Breaking Bad universe looks like it will answer the few questions Felina did not. Yes, he has hair and a beard, but stillits a little too convenient, just like the keys in the car at the beginning of the episode was a bit too convenient.
