# Breaking Bad 5.16 "Felina" 9/29/13 SERIES FINALE **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591 "2013-09-24T17:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/221 "2013-09-30T03:02:53Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > > > I _thought_ Walt was setting up the gun on the ground outside the compound. > > Did he know where the compound was? I assumed that they called him with the address that night, but was he there before to set up the prison hits? I can’t remember if he had been there previously. And they were so careful to search him but didn’t ask him to pop the trunk. (BTW, I think he brought that bigass Cadillac specifically because the trunk was big enough for his gun.) ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/222 "2013-09-30T03:03:12Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’ll say this: the last handful of episodes were really tough to watch a lot of the time. One of the few positive things was that in the midst of a horrible domestic tragedy Flynn turned out to be kind of a tower of strength - he found a strength his parents, and Walt in particular, didn’t have. Maybe you could say he got it from Hank. But when he found out what was going on he did exactly the right things and even looked like he was willing to lay down his life to protect his mother. He wouldn’t listen to Walt or take his money or hear his excuses for a second. He has some terrible stuff to work through, but I walk away feeling he’ll be alright. All true but I think that’s the beauty of the show in showcasing the insidious nature of trying to do the wrong thing for the right reason; Walt and Skyler fall down a slow and slippery slope that lead to consequences you could never have imagined. Flynn has the advantage of a shockingly clear revelation. He goes from complete ignorance to the knowledge that his father is a cornerstone of a drug empire and that he killed Uncle Hank. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/223 "2013-09-30T03:03:31Z")
I’m trying to remember what Walt’s main beef with Lydia was, but I’m drawing a blank. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/224 "2013-09-30T03:04:51Z")
I can’t remember a series finale that was so perfect. _Friday Night Lights_ was passable, but not this good. _Battlestar Galactica_ and _Seinfeld_ sucked. By the time it got to the finale, _The Office_ (U.S.) had been clinically dead for a year or two. It took me some time to make my piece with _The Sopranos_. But this one was right on. The whole series played like a TV miniseries adaptation of a novel, like _The Jewel in the Crown_ or _Brideshead Revisited_. Absolutely nailed it. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/225 "2013-09-30T03:05:55Z")
Seemed Legit. Nice to hear a little love for Badfinger. I named my dog from that song. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/226 "2013-09-30T03:07:14Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’m trying to remember what Walt’s main beef with Lydia was, but I’m drawing a blank. My guess is that he knew that Skyler would never be safe so long as Lydia was around. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/227 "2013-09-30T03:07:46Z")
My expectations were probably too high (finales are usually far from the best episodes of their respective shows). It was still _good_, but right now I’m still processing how good. I didn’t like the ease with which Walt got into the Schwartz’s place. That seemed to work out a bit too easily, and the Schwartz’s seemed a little too gullible. Then again, even if they didn’t believe his story about the best assassins in the country, they still wouldn’t want to go to the police as having had Walter White in their home. That would just set Wall Street tongues a-waggin’ again. (I like to think that Elliot and Gretchen end up fighting about whether they should follow Walt’s plan, and eventually it drives a deep rift between them. It would be one more tendril of Heisenberg’s legacy of destroying those he interacts with.) In any case, I think the very beginning of the episode was the weakest part. The ricin in the tea was sorta meh. It seemed like the entire Internet except for me thought that’s what was going to happen, and it happened, and it makes sense. But it seemed so obvious that it would happen that I was expecting something different. It was remarkably satisfying to see Jesse strangle Todd with his chains. That was the best strangled-with-chains scene since Return of the Jedi. The best moment of all, I think, was Jack trying to make a deal. Walt was long past giving a damn about the money. It was never really about the money for Walt anyway - it was always about his _legacy_. He cared about the money, sure, but only to the extent that it was a symbol of his achievement and brilliance. Note to paranoid Nazis who check for wires under shirts and weapons in the back seat: Also check the trunk. Just FYI. I was unsure about the very ending, until it clicked: The cowboy came back for Felina and took a bullet. I had been thinking that Felina, the cowboy’s true love, was Skyler. I think it’s safe to say that Walt _does_ love her. However, his true love was his sweet baby blue. That’s his Felina. That’s who he had to come back to see, regardless of the consequences. And he got to caress the sweet vessel of her creation one final time before he died. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/228 "2013-09-30T03:08:10Z")
2 things that I noticed right off the bat: 1)Both times the the garage door opener was spinning around, once in the desert and once at the ‘clubhouse’ there was a distinct clicking. A garage door opener shouldn’t do that, neither should any of the rigging he had it attached to UNLESS he used something that specifically made it click. But you know what it did sound like…Drew Sharp showing up at the wrong time and to lesser extent Tomas. 2)Was the gas station that Walt used the phone at the same one that Jesse tanked up the RV at? When he was filling up I had this feeling that it was and that somehow that’s what would be the downfall of him. It wasn’t, but I still wonder if it was the same place. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/229 "2013-09-30T03:09:18Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > All true but I think that’s the beauty of the show in showcasing the insidious nature of trying to do the wrong thing for the right reason; Walt and Skyler fall down a slow and slippery slope that lead to consequences you could never have imagined. > > Flynn has the advantage of a shockingly clear revelation. He goes from complete ignorance to the knowledge that his father is a cornerstone of a drug empire and that he killed Uncle Hank. You’re right and I think all of that is also true. What happened with Walt and Skyler from one point of view is that they tried to compromise with things that cannot be compromised with. And approaching it from where he does, Flynn makes the right choices and rejects all of that. > [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’m trying to remember what Walt’s main beef with Lydia was, but I’m drawing a blank. She was a threat to the family and she was also a piece of the Heisenberg operation - I was saying last week that Walt needed to destroy the whole thing so no one else could take credit for what he did, and even if that wasn’t his sole motivation, he did accomplish that. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/230 "2013-09-30T03:09:40Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > During one of his NA meetings, Jesse told the story of the time he hand-crafted a wooden jewelry box in shop, intending to give it to his mother as a gift, but ended up selling it to buy drugs. That scene was the first one where I teared up. Jesse with potential – any kid with potential – how fucking sad. I agree that they absolutely nailed it, absolutely. I can’t even quibble about Jack not shooting Walt right away, because there was Todd shaking his head like “Uncle Jack, you don’t know what this man is capable of”, and Jack not listening, because Jack didn’t know Walt well enough to be worried. And you know Anna Gunn’s tears were real. I think Jesse’s gonna be fine. The Schwartz’s only problem will be laundering all that cash, but they have enough of their own money, maybe they’ll just pack Walt’s money away and use theirs to put Flynn and Holly through college. Beautifully done, bravo, kudos, etc. etc. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/231 "2013-09-30T03:11:10Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I’m trying to remember what Walt’s main beef with Lydia was, but I’m drawing a blank. Skyler told him that she and Holly were threatened on Lydia’s behalf. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/232 "2013-09-30T03:13:56Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I think Jesse’s gonna be fine. The Schwartz’s only problem will be laundering all that cash, but they have enough of their own money, maybe they’ll just pack Walt’s money away and use theirs to put Flynn and Holly through college. > > Beautifully done, bravo, kudos, etc. etc. 😃 They’re running a charity, there’s no reason that they’re can’t call it an anonymous donation. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/233 "2013-09-30T03:14:35Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I can’t even quibble about Jack not shooting Walt right away, because there was Todd shaking his head like “Uncle Jack, you don’t know what this man is capable of”, and Jack not listening, because Jack didn’t know Walt well enough to be worried. There were lots and lots of moments like that throughout the series, really. Moments when Tuco or Gus should’ve killed Walt, or when the Nazis should’ve killed Jesse a few episodes ago or on and on. It wasn’t all that believable, but it’s drama. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/234 "2013-09-30T03:18:44Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > There were lots and lots of moments like that throughout the series, really. Moments when Tuco or Gus should’ve killed Walt, or when the Nazis should’ve killed Jesse a few episodes ago or on and on. It wasn’t all that believable, but it’s drama. TV and movies in general are filled with those moments. How many people don’t get killed because they say ‘wait!’ and manage to talk their way out of it. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/235 "2013-09-30T03:20:15Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Skyler told him that she and Holly were threatened on Lydia’s behalf. He had already poisoned Lydia when she told him that. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/236 "2013-09-30T03:21:18Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > I was unsure about the very ending, until it clicked: The cowboy came back for Felina and took a bullet. I had been thinking that Felina, the cowboy’s true love, was Skyler. I think it’s safe to say that Walt _does_ love her. However, his true love was his sweet baby blue. That’s his Felina. That’s who he had to come back to see, regardless of the consequences. And he got to caress the sweet vessel of her creation one final time before he died. I think you nailed it. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > TV and movies in general are filled with those moments. Right. It’s not a flaw specific to Breaking Bad. It’s just a thing that happens all the time in drama. There was no good reason Kenny could’ve have shot Walt as soon as he drove up. Then again Nazis aren’t the smartest. ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/237 "2013-09-30T03:21:22Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > The Schwartz’s only problem will be laundering all that cash, but they have enough of their own money, maybe they’ll just pack Walt’s money away and use theirs to put Flynn and Holly through college. Only if they didn’t believe Walt’s threat - he made it absolutely clear that _his_ money would go to the children. Any taxes or other payments had to be taken from Walter White’s legacy-to-his-children-fund, and not from anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/238 "2013-09-30T03:21:32Z")
This may be the single best finale in TV history… certainly among shows that I’ve seen where the finale is actually resolving an overarching series-long plot. (Not that many shows even try to do that over multiple years.) Things I loved: -The tense buildup of the scene in the Schwartz’s house, and its resolution, nice sendoff for Badger and Skinny Pete -The scene with Walt and Holly, and Walt finally being honest -The Stevia (I hadn’t guessed it ahead of time, but guessed it while she was drinking the tea) (I agree it seems a bit unnecessary for him to spell it out for her, but he probably wants her to know he beat her, one last burst of ego) -Robot gun obviously -Jesse strangling Todd -Jesse’s face as he drove to freedom -Walt dying among the things that made him happiest Overall just very very satisfying. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/239 "2013-09-30T03:28:25Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > Only if they didn’t believe Walt’s threat - he made it absolutely clear that _his_ money would go to the children. Any taxes or other payments had to be taken from Walter White’s legacy-to-his-children-fund, and not from anywhere else. Yeah, but they would have to launder it to make it look like it was their money anyway. There’s really no way to tell from the outside which money was whose. ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/240 "2013-09-30T03:29:42Z")
Jesse becomes a substance abuse counselor. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591.md?page=13)