# 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:** 18
**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, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/341 "2013-09-30T14:05:55Z")
> [@solost](#): > > but the DEA already knew or suspected that when they had Jesse in custody after his cash delivery stunt. It was the Albuquerque police that had him on custody. And I’m pretty sure Hank didn’t tell anyone he was going there. Gomey might have known later, but he’s dead too. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/342 "2013-09-30T14:10:57Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I assumed that they were there because of the gunfire. > > And I thought that Lydia lived in Houston, as that’s where the Madrigal warehouse was that Jesse visited to pick up the methylamine. So why was she visiting a coffeehouse in Albuquerque every Tuesday at 10am? To pick up the weekly shipment of blue meth from Todd and drop off the money. You don’t think they used FedEx, do you? ---
**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, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/343 "2013-09-30T14:13:19Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > To pick up the blue meth from Todd and drop off the money. You don’t think they used FedEx, do you? I’m sure _they_ didn’t but FedEx is used pretty often in the drug trade (as opposed to UPS). I think it’s especially used for international trafficking. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/344 "2013-09-30T14:16:07Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I’m sure _they_ didn’t but FedEx is used pretty often in the drug trade (as opposed to UPS). I think it’s especially used for international trafficking. This could have made that Cast Away movie a lot more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/345 "2013-09-30T14:23:18Z")
> [@What\_the](#): > > Next question… what was the deal with the massage chair at the clubhouse? Was it the noise that distracted Jack and let Walt get at the remote control? Were we supposed to think that the guy in it might be low enough to get missed by the spraying bullets? My guess was that it was showing the “toys” the Nazis have started buying with their booty (someone else mentioned Jack had a cashmere sweater. The pool table might be new too.) And I also think someone thought it would be awesome to have a dead body “writhing” in a massage chair. ---
**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, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/346 "2013-09-30T14:27:33Z")
> [@Mithras](#): > > Jesse. Marie will have let them know he was with Hank shortly before his death. The authorities might bring him in based on that alone, even if just for questioning. I imagine they’ll check his fingerprints against what was found at the compound and find them all over the meth making equipment. At that point, he’d be arrested. Even if that’s the only crime they can charge him with and he somehow spends almost no time in jail before getting out on bail and is either not tried or found not guilty, he’s now publicly connected to a massacre of Aryan Brotherhood members. I have a very hard time constructing a scenario where Jesse’s life from here on out will be easy or happy. I don’t think Jesse’s going to stop driving anytime soon. My guess is he still ends up in Alaska somehow. ---
**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:** [September 30, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/347 "2013-09-30T14:29:39Z")
Actually, I noticed last week that the Nazis were watching Jesse’s confession video on a huge flat-screen. And now they can afford Ben & Jerry’s! (Maybe B&J will do a Breakin Bad flavor? They did it for 30 Rock.) ---
**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, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/348 "2013-09-30T14:32:13Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > He was not shown definitively to die, though it’s certainly all set up to take it that way if you wish. There was nothing ambiguous about Walt’s ending. Cops don’t walk over bodies of living criminal masterminds. He’s super dead. > [@](#): > > You mean how he found him originally back in the second episode of Season Four? Or had you forgotten that appearance? It’s mentioned often but Jim Beavers, who plays the gun seller and who was also in Deadwood, is actually a member here and posted a bit about Deadwood in the past. Would be amazing if he popped into one of these threads but I’m sure he never will. ---
**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, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/349 "2013-09-30T14:35:20Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > Actually, I noticed last week that the Nazis were watching Jesse’s confession video on a huge flat-screen. And now they can afford Ben & Jerry’s! (Maybe B&J will do a Breakin Bad flavor? They did it for 30 Rock.) Crystal Blue Persuasion. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/350 "2013-09-30T14:37:33Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Oh, yeah - totally. But, as I mentioned up thread, BB ultimately didn’t go _full Shakespeare_ - the ending wouldn’t leave Walt dead knowing his loved ones were taken care of. He would’ve had everything ripped from him. > > And, as I mentioned upthread, I am still figuring out how I feel about that. And, I suppose, I love the fact that Breaking Bad has been so flippin’ excellent that I find myself so invested in thinking it through. Great experience. Heh, yeah, but you never want to go _Full Shakespeare_. Or is that _Full Retard_, from Tropic Thunder? I may be mixing those up 🙂 ---
**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, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/351 "2013-09-30T14:40:48Z")
[What Todd was going to say.](http://i.imgur.com/XU4BkLF.png) ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/352 "2013-09-30T14:46:52Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Bad Religion’s cover of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue?” 😃 I really expected to hear that song, the original though. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/353 "2013-09-30T14:48:23Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > At this point, who is going to be prosecuted? Evidently Walt thought that lottery ticket would buy Skyler some leverage to lessen her punishment. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/354 "2013-09-30T14:55:02Z")
> [@Duke\_of\_Rat](#): > > Evidently Walt thought that lottery ticket would buy Skyler some leverage to lessen her punishment. I found myself wondering how that would go with regard to Marie: “So I know where your murdered husband’s body is, but I’m going to hold that information hostage to lessen my fully-deserved criminal punishment. That’s cool, right?” I wonder what kind of deal Jesse could make by offering a detailed account of everything Walt did, as well as an explanation of Drew Sharp’s disposition. I imagine he couldn’t make out terribly well, but a good lawyer could probably dangle the Drew Sharp stuff to some effect. Of course, I agree that he might well send an anonymous tip from Alaska or wherever. (I admit I just really want Drew’s parents to at least know what happened and that he didn’t suffer, isn’t currently enslaved, etc.) ---
**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, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/355 "2013-09-30T14:59:55Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > [What Todd was going to say.](http://i.imgur.com/XU4BkLF.png) I half expected him to say “Mr White, someone shot up your car” but then I realized that he’d have no reason to know that Walt was driving that car. Other then Walt having never been there and that car having never been there, would Todd have put that together? As far as Todd was concerned that car could still have belonged to whoever just shot up the place. ---
**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, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/356 "2013-09-30T15:01:54Z")
> [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](#): > > I found myself wondering how that would go with regard to Marie: “So I know where your murdered husband’s body is, but I’m going to hold that information hostage to lessen my fully-deserved criminal punishment. That’s cool, right?” > > I wonder what kind of deal Jesse could make by offering a detailed account of everything Walt did, as well as an explanation of Drew Sharp’s disposition. I imagine he couldn’t make out terribly well, but a good lawyer could probably dangle the Drew Sharp stuff to some effect. He also knows where Hank and Gomez are. ---
**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, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/357 "2013-09-30T15:07:12Z")
> [@Ibn\_Warraq](#): > > The Nazis needed Jesse to make the blue meth. There was always a reason in the script. It’s not a major problem for me because it’s a drama, after all. I’m just pointing out that by the end, ‘get on your knees, I’m going to shoot you in the head right now-’ ‘Wait!’ became a little bit of a Breaking Bad trademark. > [@EllisDee](#): > > Though I think the reminder a few posts up is what ultimately makes that exposition worth it: The most awesome ringtone Todd had for Lydia. I really didn’t see that coming. You think Todd knew Groucho was Jewish? > [@SlackerInc](#): > > If I were Gretchen and Eliot, billionaires, I would burn the money Walt left with them and then give Flynn the exact same amount (minus attorney’s costs, etc.). Why hassle with illegally laundering it, when ten million bucks out of your own pocket is close to a rounding error? Plus it would be like a secret “fuck you” to Walt, since it was so important to him that his actual money get to Flynn, “not a penny” of theirs. And the hitmen, even if they were real, would never know the difference. That’s probably be the smartest thing Gretchen and Elliott could do other than calling the cops right away. > [@](#): > > He was not shown definitively to die, though it’s certainly all set up to take it that way if you wish. He’s not only merely dead… > [@](#): > > I agree that it is likely he takes pride in his work, is not a total murdering scumbag, etc. But it is not correct that he “did straight-up tell Walt that if he came to the cabin and found him dead he was going to take all the money”. He only left the implication hanging in the air with his question “if I said yes, would you believe me?”. Fair enough. I think it’s hard to take his comments any other way, but he didn’t directly say he’d keep the money. He pointed out to Walt that it would be foolish to believe him if he promised to bring the money to Walt’s family. > [@](#): > > I thought this finale was great. But I don’t want that to be the rule for all finales for all shows. I thought the Sopranos ending, for instance, was magnificent. Didn’t Vince say so as well on Talking Bad? Yes. He said he liked the finale of The Sopranos for that show but Breaking Bad required a different type of ending. Speaking of which, I mentioned something about The X Files a week or two ago and **Martin Bigfoot** said this: > [@Breaking Bad 5.14 "Ozymandias" 9/15/13](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-14-ozymandias-9-15-13/668893/413): > > I have a theory that Breaking Bad in part comes out of Vince Gilligan’s desire to get right everything that was wrong with the X-files. The X-files overstayed its welcome, and kept running until everyone was bored with it and the main cast started leaving. Breaking Bad, in contrast, was always designed to have a definite end point in sight, and goes out on a high note. The X-files hit the reset button every episode, and the characters never had any real development in spite of all the weird stuff they experienced. Breaking Bad is hyper-serialized, every action has a consequence, and the characters change in profound and permanent ways. The overarching “mythology” of the X-files (the alien abduction stuff) never really held together, and didn’t go anywhere. The plots on Breaking Bad, on the other hand, are rock solid and meticulously charted out, with clear beginnings, middles and ends, and every single plot thread always connects directly to the main storyline. On Talking Bad Vince Gilligan made some comments about shows that never resolve anything and don’t tie up the loose ends, and he certainly didn’t say anything that made it obvious he was talking about The X Files, but it was easy to interpret it that way. He said he didn’t want to go that route. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I think you are wrong. Just because someone has a charity doesn’t mean that they can avoid all of the laws about money laundering. It’s still illegal to do anything with the money without having the banks file all the appropriate paperwork. > > Also, the charity they founded was for drug treatment facilities in the Southwest. It can’t possibly be legal for them to use charitable funds for the benefit of one person (i.e., Walter White Jr). Right, I’m pretty sure it’s money laundering no matter how you slice it. It’s the proceeds from a criminal enterprise and I doubt they would be the first people to use a charity to launder money. The Schwartzes may very well have the means to pull it off since their net worth is in the hundreds of millions and could be in the billions, and if they got nervous they could even make the donation themselves without ever touching Walt’s money. Strictly speaking I don’t know if Gretchen and Elliott created a charity themselves to fund those clinics or if they just have a charitable foundation and used it to give $28 million to rehab clinics (maybe Jesse will work at one one day if he hasn’t left the Southwest entirely). If it’s the latter, maybe nobody would know. If it’s the former it would raise a lot of questions. > [@PSXer](#): > > And how did he even get all that money from the cabin to the car He stole a car and drove back to the cabin. > [@](#): > > I was kind of let down cause I didn’t like it as much as Ozymandias and Granite State (but that’s setting the bar really high) It didn’t leave the same kind of impression on me either. It couldn’t, really. By this episode everything that was going to happen had already been set in motion. You couldn’t predict everything (I sure didn’t) but there was an inevitability to most of it. That’s why the little things like Walt’s scene with Skyler stood out to me more than the plot points did. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I assumed that they were there because of the gunfire. So did I. They’re in a pretty remote area but that was a lot of machine gun fire. > [@](#): > > And I thought that Lydia lived in Houston, as that’s where the Madrigal warehouse was that Jesse visited to pick up the methylamine. So why was she visiting a coffeehouse in Albuquerque every Tuesday at 10am? Yes, she was. And she went to the coffee place to talk business. She met Walt there every week and she kept doing the same with Todd. That’s how Walt knew he would find them there. I thought it was established that the finished meth was shipped from one place to another with legitimate Madrigal products, but I could be wrong. > [@Jas09](#): > > One thing I would have liked would have been Todd knowing that Lydia was dying, and dying because of Walt. Let that phone call happen earlier, and have it be the cause of Walt not getting shot immediately. He tells Todd why Lydia is sick, and maybe attempts to bargain with an antidote. Still need a way to get Jesse up to the room, I guess, for that final showdown and redemption moment for Jesse (“do it yourself”). If Walt told Todd he’d poisoned Lydia it’s hard to think of a real reason Todd wouldn’t just kill him instantly. > [@solost](#): > > I totally agree. BB has been called “Shakespearean” and you could pick apart any of Shakespeare’s plays in this way if you really wanted to. Look at MacBeth, which probably is the one with a plot most like BB (except maybe King Lear? I never actually got around to reading that one). I mean, 3 witches spouting easily misinterpreted oracle-like prophecies? Come on. There are a couple I still haven’t read or seen but Breaking Bad is the most like Macbeth for sure: they’re about ostensibly good men who go bad and have to grapple with the consequences. Last night I was trying to think of a Shakespearean tragedy that ends like Breaking Bad did and I couldn’t. Macbeth goes through an emotional cycle somewhere between Walt’s and Jesse’s; he’s haunted by what he’s done and gives up when he realizes his enemies and the prophecy have him cornered. If not for Walt’s dealing with the Schwartzes - depending on how you believe that might turn out after Walt dies - I think you could say the ending is Macbeth-y. (Macbeth has no descendants and near the end he despairs that he’s given up his soul so someone else’s children can take the throne.) Richard III and Iago never give up - Richard dies on the battlefield, sort of like Walt - but they’re knowingly, maybe flamboyantly evil. Walt wasn’t that. ---
**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, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/358 "2013-09-30T15:10:16Z")
I forgot to add that I’m glad Walt finally got to tell _someone_ that it wasn’t him that killed Hank, it was the Nazis. Though there was a little part of me that wished he had started that sentence off with “when you ordered the hit on Jesse, they showed up just as I was turning myself in to Hank…” ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/359 "2013-09-30T15:12:22Z")
I knew that the M60 would be mounted on some sort of automated contraption! It was a main plot point in 1997’s The Jackal (loose remake of Day of the Jackal). It just seemed like the thing a smart guy would do with that Rambo gun. I’ve got to say that Walter was extremely lucky that the spray and angles matched up so neatly. That was the tensest parking job ever. Todd looked stupid right up until his heart stopped. I really wonder what he was thinking as Jesse choked him out. _But we’re buddies, right?_ Kudos to the makeup department nailing Lydia’s poisoned look. I’m impressed by stuff like that. Loved the classic rock outro. Walt and Jr. had a conversation about real music awhile back, and it seemed fitting. It seemed a very Paul Thomas Anderson choice, like ELO’s Livin’ Thing closing out Boogie Nights. The pulse of the interwebs seems to be ‘it was satisfying, but perhaps too tidy.’ Rubbish! Jesse did not have a tidy ending. His fate is a huge loose end, and all the better for it. We get to imagine what’s down the road for him. Walt’s moment of anagnorisis in the with Skyler was the crux of the episode. He’s had blustering, false, and wishful moments of it throughout the series, “I am the danger.” This was the true one. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2013, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591/360 "2013-09-30T15:25:08Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > Walt’s moment of _ **anagnorisis** _ [bolding/italics mine] in the with Skyler was the crux of the episode. [QUOTE=Wikipedia] **Anagnorisis** (/ˌænəɡˈnɒrɨsɨs/; Ancient Greek: ἀναγνώρισις) is a moment in a play or other work when a character makes a critical discovery. Anagnorisis originally meant recognition in its Greek context, not only of a person but also of what that person stood for. Anagnorisis was the hero’s sudden awareness of a real situation, the realisation of things as they stood, and finally, the hero’s insight into a relationship with an often antagonistic character in Aristotelian tragedy.[1] [/QUOTE] Ah - I did not know that word. As for your comment saying you do not think the ending was too tidy - cool. I guess my question is: Walt had his _anagnorisis_ (used it! ;)) - he sees he did it all for himself. So - does he “pay” for that selfish pridefulness in a profound way? Should he? If this was a classic Greek/Shakespearean tragedy, his life would be ripped from him and his family would share in the pain of his pride for generations to come. Instead, he dies, but he’s cared for his loved ones. Should he have more classic tragedy? I am still noodling that over for myself… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591.md?page=17) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-bad-5-16-felina-9-29-13-series-finale/669591.md?page=19)