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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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
