Let the debate begin. How great is this cautionary tale about a High school Chemist teacher turned Master Meth chief drug lord? Only time will tell but as great television finales go this one will make many top ten lists. I have rarely been this satisfied watching a show unfold from season to season. Here Walter White must finally confront his greatest truth while facing the inevitable collapse of his empire. Jesse Pinkman will suffer his own hell while attempting to destroy the very monster he went into business with and Hank Schrader will become the hero we always knew he could be. I bow my head in gratitude to Vince Gilligan and team for this gift of storytelling. Just when I thought it impossible for them to continue to conjure the kind of memorable scenes this show is famous for they do and brilliantly leave a gaping hole I desperately hope can be filled someday. Time for withdrawal for one of the best television programs ever produced.
A+
Spoiler Talk
Did Walter win at the end? Many might assume that he does and find some moral conflict within. But make no mistake, Walter White lost and lost big time. The scene where he looks across at his son returning home from school, now living in some low-income apartment, is all you need to show how much Walter destroyed everything. His son will forever hate him. His entire family will be forever marked as that family of the crazy Meth kingpin known as Heisenberg. Sure he was able to get a portion of his money to them; and yes, it will help some, but it’s more to stabilize their lives instead of supporting them as he had originally hoped. Then why is it so satisfying at the end when he collapses and dies, smiling at the very instruments that led him to his doom? Simple, it’s because Walter stopped lying to himself. He honestly admitted that all of it was for him, that he risked everything for some legacy only he in his delusional, prideful mind could see as something positive. But he couldn’t turn himself into the authorities because he needed to fix two wrongs that only he could fix and that was to take down Lydia and end the distribution route of his deadly blue Meth and then rid the world of the bastards who killed Hank, to simultaneously avenge his brother-in-law’s death and set himself free. And when he saves Jesse’s life, discovering he had been used as a slave, he releases not just a former false son but release all the hatred he had for someone who was trying to atone for all his wrongs and doing the right thing by punishing this mentor. What an excellent and complex group of characters.
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