Monday, September 30, 2013
Breaking Bad: "Felina"
This was not the ending I was hoping for.
Don't get wrong, I thought the ending was beautiful. Walt figured out an ingenious way to get at least some of his money to his family, a brilliant scheme, that made sense, and had a reasonable chance of working.
And that brings me to my problem with the episode, after 5 seasons of cleverness, of mental agility getting Walt out of every situation, they counted on ridiculous implausibilities too many times in the series finale.
1) The keys in the visor of the Volvo, oldest trick in the TV/movie book. Never happens in real life.
2) The ricin in the Stevia. Did she pour an open package into her tea, or did he somehow slip it in and reseal packet?
3) The button-operated machine gun. No way would that work, and no way those guys wouldn't check his trunk
4) Walt slipping into his own house and into Skyler's new one completely undetected by the cops who were stationed outside
5) No one anywhere recognizing him despite a nationwide manhunt.
But I don't want to dwell on the negative when so much great happened.
I love that Walt finally admitted he did it for him. I had always felt that his initial motivation was to provide for his family, but once he started he liked the power. He liked beating up the kid who made fun of Flynn, blowing up the obnoxious guy's car, "I am the danger," and "I'm in the empire business."
It was a very nice moment for him to admit what he did was for himself to feel powerful, not for the family, the family that he lost because of it. And he took one last look at Holly and Walt Jr.
"I liked it. I was good at it." That's what it was beautiful that he ended in the lab.
I guess it's open to interpretation whether he died that night on the floor in the lab from his injury, or whether the cops got him and he died shortly after from his cancer, but the implication is surely that his story ended.
As for Jesse, if we're in the speculating business, it was beautiful that he killed Todd and then drove off wild-eyed and crazed.
Why was he a carpenter in his dream? Is that a Jesus reference? Is he a Christ figure? Is Mrs. Iervese writing this show?
Note: Mrs. Iervese was our high school English teacher who thought every character in every book was a Christ figure, much to the chagrin of the Concierge who believed her overzealous interpretation of the literature made her an anti-Semite.
I guess my big takeaway is that Walt didn't regret it. He did the wrong thing for the right reasons, it went horribly wrong but it ended with him dying anyway (from the cancer, the gunshot wound, didn't matter) but providing for his family.
"Chemistry is the science of transformation," and some things when they change, can never change back.
10.3 million people watched the finale.
I absolutely loved the finale and didn't find those implausible scenes so problematic, although I certainly agree with your very valid criticisms.
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the series Jesse told Walt that he really enjoyed woodworking as a kid/teenager and that he thought he could've gone into that field career-wise if his life had turned out differently. I think Jesse was supposed to be dreaming of better days and was awoken by the chain and to his terrible present situation.
I stood up and cheered when Jesse choked the life out of Todd and when Walt killed Uncle Jack. My interpretation was that Walt was either dead when the agents arrived, or was imminently dying (not weeks later from cancer) but that the gunshot wound was taking his life before he could even be taken to a hospital.
I like to think that Jesse figures out some way to adopt Brock, but it's not like a wanted meth cooking fugitive could get approved for adoption, even in the broken American child care system.
I also loved how they tried to tie up every loose end and brought back minor characters like Badger and Skinny Pete.
Overall I thought it was an outstanding series finale to what I consider the greatest American tv show in recent memory. And I really enjoyed your recapping of the final 8 episodes.
best finale in 20 years. perfect ending. I don't think this show - like most show - was without its implausibilities. But wrapped up everything nicely. Interesting point from Damino about the woodworking, didn't recall that.
ReplyDeleteMrs Iervese loved me. Can you blame her?
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying Paul. I don't completely disagree, but the fun of TV and Movies is that every now and then, you just accept that something improbable happened, and don't NEED a solid explanation. Like the Stevia...the dude has been genius in so many ways for 5 seasons, I just accept that he got it into a packet in some way. Done deal, I don't need to know the exact details.
ReplyDeleteI do sort of think it was a little 'cleaner' than many episodes, considering that so much insane stuff has happened over the years. Overall I did like it a lot though.
Also, he's dead on the floor within minutes. That was some insane military style machine gun, going through the walls of the building, and still killing people. No way you can get hit with that in the torso region, and not die.
I was kind of hoping for the insanely dark ending..where Jessie has lost all hope, comes out of that wood dream, and kills himself. That would have been insane.
Thanks for all your kinds words and thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI liked it, just didn't love it.
I guess my problem with the improbable events is that it seems intellectually lazy. I'm sure that brilliant writing staff could have come up with better ways for him to get the keys and poison Lydia (the two things that actually bothered me, the others were just observations).
Even the crazy stuff that could never happen in real life, the Tuco explosion, the magnet truck, was explained in great detail, these things were just written off.
I was actually looking carefully at Walt, and I'm pretty sure his eyes were open when the cops came in, which I think was intentional to cast doubt on when and how he died.
I loved the show, all 5 seasons, I still think it is the best dramatic series in history, but I just can't give the finale any higher than 7.5 of maybe 8.
"Face Off" (http://paulspoop.blogspot.com/2012/07/best-show-ever.html) was a 10.
There is a growing movement on the internet of people who noticed the same things I did, and because they're so incongruous with the rest of the show, they think Walt died in the snow-covered car. And the keys falling out of the visor were the start of his dream sequence in which he got revenge on everyone and tied up all loose ends.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that's really what Vince Gilligan was thinking as he wrote it, but to each his own.