# Breaking Bad 5.11 "Confessions" 8/25/13 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959 "2013-08-23T13:02:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/241 "2013-08-27T05:10:52Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Oh, and just be different, I predict Walt will still be alive at the final fade to black. I’m with you. Walt dying at the end (like Tony dying at the end of the Sopranos) is too obvious and almost like ticking off a checklist. > [@B.Serum](#): > > Breaking Bad finale as written by M. Night Shyamalan. LOL, good one. But this is exactly why I didn’t like the whole ricin/Brock plot, as it seemed to be too much in that “twisty for its own sake, never mind if it makes sense” mode. > [@Sampiro](#): > > Do you think Walt is going to use the services of the vacuum cleaner parts salesman (the same one he came close to using when he learned the money was not in the crawlspace)? > > It’s certainly possible that’s how he gets to New Hampshire, but ever since Saul mentioned the guy I’ve wondered if in fact that’s the way Saul sends people to Belize. (“I’m telling you, you’ll never be heard from again.”) I thought about that too. It sure would be a twisted way of going about it, using people’s own money to pay a hitman/cleaner type. > [@hajario](#): > > To suggest that he’s an idiot and not nearly as capable as Jesse? Have you been watching the same show? I think I’ve been watching the same show (every episode at least twice, including recently); and I don’t know that Todd struck me as stupider or less capable than Jesse was at the same early point. I don’t recall Todd doing anything like running the RV battery down, stranding them in the desert, or blowing off instructions and using a bathtub instead of a plastic tub for the acid, resulting in a hole in the floor/ceiling and the world’s nastiest mess. Instead, Todd saved their asses by spotting the nanny cam at their first tented cook; and when he was learning the ropes of meth cooking, he watched intently, took careful notes, and said he did not want any reward until he had gotten the technique down. Todd also came across as very capable (though obviously cold-blooded) in the train heist. Todd is no genius, but he is capable, hard working, eager to learn. Jesse, in the first season? Not so much. I think it also bears mentioning that Todd’s meth had a higher purity level than Declan’s cook, using presumably the same lab; only the fire (which can’t have been too serious given Todd’s being alive and his lack of visible burns) counts against him. > [@obfusciatrist](#): > > Again, I’m questioning whether 74% was the best he was capable of if he was being forced to produce in substandard conditions. Not to mention just getting more practice. ---
**Author:** ![Andiethewestie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ba9def/32.png) [@Andiethewestie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andiethewestie)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/242 "2013-08-27T05:13:18Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > That would make me sad. Marie already overstepped with “Why don’t you kill yourself?” (although it was an understandable reaction). I want to see Hank able to hold his head up when this is over. > > But where was he going when he left the office? He acted like he had an idea. Maybe Marie overstepped, but it’s all this foreshadowing of the future that makes me wonder if her words are there for a reason. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/243 "2013-08-27T05:20:46Z")
I think Skyler and Walt are not going to be on the same side much longer. She seemed really bothered by Walt’s video confession and as Marley pointed out, she looked pretty checked out in the car wash scene. The one (only!) thing she has always demanded of Walt is that he keeps her and the kids out of any possible drug associated danger. With Jesse dousing their house in gasoline, Walt has failed to keep up his end of the bargain. Worse, he didn’t tell her when he found out that danger was coming–he thought he could get to Jesse with his frozen gun without Skyler finding out (as she must unless Walt can get diesel fuel out of carpet). She has no obligation or loyalty left to Walt if he can’t keep her kids safe. She wouldn’t narc to Hank, but I could see her leaving the kids there or disappearing with the kids. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/244 "2013-08-27T05:23:59Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m with you. Walt dying at the end (like Tony dying at the end of the Sopranos) is too obvious and almost like ticking off a checklist. Well, but the show has never shied away going with an obvious choice, if it’s the best one. DID JESSE SHOOT GALE? Oh, yeah, he did. IS WALT’S CANCER BACK? Yeah, actually it is. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/245 "2013-08-27T05:35:16Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > The pickup was legit (as far as we know - making someone with 125k cash on them disappear forever actually seems like a pretty good scam) > [@Sampiro](#): > > ever since Saul mentioned the guy I’ve wondered if in fact that’s the way Saul sends people to Belize. (“I’m telling you, you’ll never be heard from again.”) > [@SlackerInc](#): > > I thought about that too. It sure would be a twisted way of going about it, using people’s own money to pay a hitman/cleaner type. I think we can take the vacuum cleaner guy at face value (there’s no reason to think there was anything shady going on the first time Saul mentioned it to Walt, and if they wanted to whack Jesse, there would be any number of easier ways to do it - even just shooting him in the desert), but man, I am so totally using the idea of a bogus disappearing guy actually being a hitman in my completely hypothetical future movie script. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/246 "2013-08-27T05:39:09Z")
I think the final scene should be Walt basically being cornered and going all bandage fighting his would be captors. The final scene is Walt some in an interrogation room, beaten to shit, but he has that Walter White look still, caged animal cross with mad scientist. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/247 "2013-08-27T06:05:36Z")
Come to think of it, there seems to be a bit of a running theme going on with characters trying to leave Albuquerque and not being able to (or choosing not to). Walt’s first attempt to use the disappearing guy didn’t work out. Then he (maybe) goes to New Hampshire, but ends up coming back. Skyler goes to the Four Corners, flips a coin which tells her to leave, and she still goes back. Hank goes to El Paso but ends up coming back (BTW, didn’t Gomez go in his place? He’s back, too. How did that happen?). Heck, when Mike tried to leave, it ended with Walt shooting him. Now it’s Jesse. New Mexico has a strange gravity. Even the scene with Todd and his gang crossing the New Mexico border has a hint of it, maybe. (Edit: Also, Jesse and Jane planned on taking off to New Zealand. See how that worked out.) ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/248 "2013-08-27T09:24:27Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Come to think of it, there seems to be a bit of a running theme going on with characters trying to leave Albuquerque and not being able to (or choosing not to). Walt’s first attempt to use the disappearing guy didn’t work out. Then he (maybe) goes to New Hampshire, but ends up coming back. Skyler goes to the Four Corners, flips a coin which tells her to leave, and she still goes back. Hank goes to El Paso but ends up coming back (BTW, didn’t Gomez go in his place? He’s back, too. How did that happen?). Heck, when Mike tried to leave, it ended with Walt shooting him. Now it’s Jesse. Are you suggesting that there’s just no escaping Gilligan’s Island? ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/249 "2013-08-27T12:40:04Z")
> [@Washoe](#): > > Are you suggesting that there’s just no escaping Gilligan’s Island? LOL. I wonder if you’re the first to think of that. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/250 "2013-08-27T13:17:59Z")
The notion that the cancer is not back is a bit silly. Remember, **we’re** the only ones who get to see this through the camera’s eye. Walt’s a capable, practiced liar; it’s not like he’d have to go have some elective chemo that absolutely no one else could see to back up his story that the cancer’s back. Hell, it’s not even like Hank, freelance DEA agent with minimal respect for the Fourth Amendment, could go snooping around the chemo clinics of ABQ asking if they’ve had a Walter White in lately–those folks take medical privacy laws seriously enough that it’s a serious pain in the ass to get your **own** information. Incidentally, I want Jesse to burn down the house, even though I know, from the earlier flash-forwards, that he won’t. Just because I want to be able to use the phrase, “Jesse’s ABQ BBQ”. There, that’s out of my system now. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/251 "2013-08-27T13:56:06Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > LOL. I wonder if you’re the first to think of that. LOL, I was thinking of [The Prisoner](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner). ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/252 "2013-08-27T14:00:41Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > Oh shit no! No Russian vanishing in Pine Barrens or no fade to black at Holstens. > > Gilligan did say there would be no loose ends. I’m holding him to it. Up to now my all time favorite ending was the fast forward in Six Feet Under. everything awesome to Sia music, everything tied up with a nice bow. That’s what I want for this show. Best series ending ever. Once in a while I pull that episode up and watch it again – sobbing like a baby the entire hour – because it was so freakin’ perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/253 "2013-08-27T14:14:38Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > And you can just walk in and say “I’d like some chemo as I’m playing a joke on my friends?” Maybe the chemo will work. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/254 "2013-08-27T14:17:39Z")
> [@Martian Bigfoot](#): > > Come to think of it, there seems to be a bit of a running theme going on with characters trying to leave Albuquerque and not being able to (or choosing not to). Albuquerqure is purgatory, and everyone there is already dead! JESSE IS SUMMONING THE SMOKE MONSTER TO WALT’S HOUSE!!! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/255 "2013-08-27T14:20:28Z")
> [@B.Serum](#): > > Breaking Bad finale as written by M. Night Shyamalan. Camera pulls back slowly to reveal that “New Mexico” is actually a terrarium and all the characters are insects. Splash ending title “THE END?” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/256 "2013-08-27T14:26:17Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Albuquerqure is purgatory, and everyone there is already dead! No, that’s Belize. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/257 "2013-08-27T14:31:56Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > I think you’re mixing up your episodes. In “Gliding All Over” he was in the bathroom and noticed that the paper towel dispenser still was dented from when he punched it in season 1 (or was it 2?). Regardless, it was a wistful look he gave it, like, “Look how far I’ve come since that day.” Walt definitely didn’t punch the towel dispenser that day. You know- we discussed this at the time and that was originally how I interpreted the scene, but after we saw that his cancer was back I changed my mind. Let’s ignore that: we’re supposed to understand that his cancer is back. He’s a cunning liar, but the idea of him getting unnecessary chemo is pointless and confusing. ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/258 "2013-08-27T14:39:32Z")
Thread idea: Write the worst Breaking Bad ending imaginable. ---
**Author:** ![Frazzled](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frazzled/32/3368_2.png) [@Frazzled](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frazzled)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/259 "2013-08-27T14:45:17Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Thread idea: Write the worst Breaking Bad ending imaginable. Walt dies in the penultimate episode and takes everybody out with him. The final episode is set in a heavenly court room where he must face all of those whose lives he’s ruined. In a clip show fashion he relives the highlights of the last 2 years and explains why he did what he did. In an uplifiting moment all of his victims stand up and tell him that they all forgive him. The last shot is him hugging his family, looking at the camera with a Heisenburg grin, winking, and saying “It’s good to be the King”. End Credits ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2013, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959/260 "2013-08-27T14:58:58Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > Thread idea: Write the worst Breaking Bad ending imaginable. [A few of us took a whack at it in this episode thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15439819#post15439819) I think we came up with some very good/bad stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-11-confessions-8-25-13/666959.md?page=14)