AMC's "Breaking Bad"

[Walker]

Glad Gray Matter made an appearance.

Oh fuck, Todd's face when they watched the Jesse DVD. Then he fucking killed Andrea. Holy shit, that arsehole needs a violent or pathetic death. I hope Jesse uses Walt's phosphine gas trick on him.

This episode slowed things down, calm before the storm is right. The finale is going to be so intense I'm going to wind up in a coma.

[wrathofcarnage]

I was convinced that the last shot of that episode was going to be...

pretty much what it ended up being, only with the Heisenberg hat being left next to Walt's drink, symbolizing Walt leaving Heisenberg behind for the police to find while Walt makes a last ditch effort to go out as himself.

[Adam]

Can it just be next week already? I literally cannot wait to see how this all ends.

[Pizza]

Hate how much I empathized with Walt during the final scene.

The whole Charlie Rose interview I was saying "oh fuck those guys, ricin those motherfuckers", which made me really uncomfortable that I could still be on Walts side with something so petty.

[livid]

You weren't the only one, though the ability to relate to Walt is what makes this such a fascinating show. The situations aren't the same obviously but I'm pretty sure everybody's felt like their pride just got ran over by a freight train so it's easy for us to understand why it would piss him off. We're just not psychotic meth dealers so our first reaction isn't to hurt people.

[EndOfAnEra]

I loved that Grey Matter bit. It was like it just hit him:

he had been working so hard to leave this legacy of the best meth ever, and never stopped to realize what the real world would perceive him as. Makes me think that the Grey Matter bit is to show that he's still more worried about getting his credit/leaving a good name for himself than he is saving his family. He had all this motivation to give himself up and save Skyler, but instead, what really pushes him over the edge is not getting his due credit from them.

Edited September 23, 2013 by EndOfAnEra

[Benji]

Holy fuck, the effect that putting the theme in that little bit early had on the final scene. After the bad taste that the Dexter finale left in my mouth, this penultimate episodes just blew me away. I can't remember being this excited for a finale except LOST and Friends, and I watched both of them during their entire run, rather than catching up really late like I did with Breaking Bad.

[GoGo Yubari]

I loved that Grey Matter bit. It was like it just hit him:

he had been working so hard to leave this legacy of the best meth ever, and never stopped to realize what the real world would perceive him as. Makes me think that the Grey Matter bit isn't to show that he's still more worried about getting his credit/leaving a good name for himself than he is saving his family

A lot of people are missing the most important bit of information gleaned from the Grey Matter interview:

Charlie Rose offhandedly mentions that the blue meth is still on the streets. As big of a slap to Walter's ego as Gretchen and Elliot downplaying his accomplishments was, even more important is that Walter knows that Jesse is almost certainly still alive.

[EndOfAnEra]

I loved that Grey Matter bit. It was like it just hit him:

he had been working so hard to leave this legacy of the best meth ever, and never stopped to realize what the real world would perceive him as. Makes me think that the Grey Matter bit isn't to show that he's still more worried about getting his credit/leaving a good name for himself than he is saving his family

A lot of people are missing the most important bit of information gleaned from the Grey Matter interview:

Charlie Rose offhandedly mentions that the blue meth is still on the streets. As big of a slap to Walter's ego as Gretchen and Elliot downplaying his accomplishments was, even more important is that Walter knows that Jesse is almost certainly still alive.

Yeah I totally glazed over that now that you mention it. So at the end of the day, Walt is still a piece of shit.

[LL!]

It all boils down to what I've been saying. Walt's ego has led him down a path of destruction ever since he broke things off with Gretchen and is still very bitter about the Gray Matter debacle. Life stepped on Walt hard the day that Gray Matter took off and Walt was left with a paltry sum. He became a low payed Chemistry teacher and a wash rag jockey at a car wash run by a guy who had no respect for Walt. This whole thing has been a way to show everyone what he is capable of. HE, the guy that got screwed over by life, the guy that got a pitiful severance, the guy that had to teach ungrateful kids, the guy that had to get cancer, the guy that had to have a son with cerebral palsy, that guy? He had to be able to build an empire and become SOMETHING. Anything except for who he was.

His family was the only the only thing that mattered beyond his own hubris because they are the only ones that cared and supported him in all his endeavors. Not to mention the he created his kids, and what's more something to pump you full of pride than creating life? Walter White loves his family. He still does. That much is obvious. To be able to exonerate Skyler like he did.. that's love. However...

This just shows the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde barrier between Walter White and what became known as Heisenberg. Walter White is the man who loves his family, and puts them at the forefront through the thickest of thins. Heisenberg is Walter's ego. The ego that has been stepped on for too long. The problem is that when Heisenberg took over, things changed.

Not only is the writing so smart on this show when it comes to character traits, but Bryan Cranston is just so fucking excellent at portraying Walter White. He's so good at it, that he still has people convinced that he's still doing this for his family. Thankfully, the ending of last night's episode should've put things into perspective for everyone. All you need to do is look at Walt's conversation with Flynn over the phone. Nobody believes his deception anymore, and Walt is so desperate at this point for someone to believe him. The fact is, he's desperate to believe himself when he says that it's all "for you." He NEEDS Flynn to accept this money because he cannot accept failure. He cannot accept that his first goal, helping his family out when he dies, was about to go to waste.

When Gretchen came back into the scene, everything changed. They wanted to help Walt, but Heisenberg wasn't going to allow it. Instead, Heisenberg wanted to take Gretchen's offer for help and shove it up her ass. He needed to build an empire so that they can't pity him anymore. He needed to become a king, just to show these two people that they made a big mistake in carrying on without him. They obviously cared for him, but he feels as though they crossed him, so they were never considered "family."

When everything was said and done, when Flynn pretty much told him to fuck off and die already, Walt was done. He was gonna take Saul's advice and go turn himself in. It was his last resort and penance he was willing to pay in order to not feel like a complete failure. Seeing Gray Matter on Charlie Rose cut him down once again, and hearing that Jesse was still alive and producing HIS meth, made Heisenberg come right back and realize that if he failed at providing for his family, he wasn't going to fail at taking his empire down with him. To him, Jesse and the Nazis are the reasons why he's in this position, and they all need to die.

And that is where Walter fails to gain sympathy from me. I could look past the meth cooking to get enough money for his family. Hey, at least he wasn't the one distributing it. He can turn a blind eye to the customer base. It was the greed and the complete disregard for his only good reason for cooking that caused me to start turning my back. And then just the vile things he's done beyond that only made him worse to me. Poor Jesse has felt the brunt of everything, and while Walter White still has people he loves, Jesse has nobody. Walt has destroyed Jesse's life, but at the same time has destroyed Marie's life, Skyler's life, Hank's life, Saul's life, Jane's life, Jane's father's life, Andrea's life, Brock's life, Holly's life, and Walt Jr.'s life as if people staring at him for being on crutches and having a speech impediment wasn't enough.

To use the old adage: "Vince" didn't screw Walt. Walt screwed Walt.

As much as I want him to go fucking nuts and off the nazis, I pretty much need him to die in order to feel a sense of closure and satisfaction. He's ruined the lives of too many people to garner my sympathy. And in the end, I think he knows that. I think he knows he's become a complete monster and he's gonna embrace it. He's gonna kill all of those people in the name of his family, and then he's going to take the ricin himself because his ego will not let him rot away in prison.

God damn I hope that all made sense. Vince Gilligan is a mad man and has jumbled my train of thought far too much.

[Benji]

[LL!]

Actually, that's much better than anything I said.

[Ruki]

Shall we start taking bets on who dies?

[LL!]

Morbid, Ruki. Worse than Walter White. :/

[Walker]

Everyone except Badger, Skinny Pete, Holly, Marie, Skyler and the old lady from next door. The all die.

Nazis die at the hands of the DEA, except for Jack and Todd.

Todd kills Brock.

Jesse kills Lydia and then Todd.

Jack kills Jesse.

Walt kills Jack and them himself via ricin.

I'll be damned if we don't see explosive Mercury fulminate and red phosphine gas come into play.

I want every call back ever in the finale.

I wish the finale was a feature length episode. And by feature length I mean Ben Hur feature length.

[EndOfAnEra]

I would love to see them not end it at the finale and announce a TV movie event. Pleeeeeeeaaasssseeee

[Maxx]

Jesse can't die, after all he's been through, especially after last night. He has to survive.

[livid]

I was actually going to post the exact same thing earlier but the fact that that is what is expected leads me to believe that it won't happen.

[LL!]

Yeah. I, honestly, wouldn't put it past Gilligan to kill off Jesse.

[Maxx]

Why would he be mad about the meth still being in circulation? He sold it off to someone else, he was well aware someone was still producing it. I don't remember if Lydia or Jack mentioned not being able to get the color right.