AMC's "Breaking Bad"

[Your Mom]

Put it in a paper sachet, print "stevia" on it.

So he has a printing press of some sort now?

[Your Mom]

Someone explain

How do he get the ricin into the stevia? That seemed a bit far fetched to me. Also I think I read it in the article GoGo posted but him telling her on the phone was a little too on the nose for me. I would rather have seen her sick in the end little montage and said Oh! He got her!

I dunno, guy rigged a machine gun to clear a room full of nazi's on the command of a door opener. I can't think that'd be any more complicated.

Yeah but at least they took a minute to show me how he did that. I didn't understand it but they showed me

I mean does she sit at the same table every time? How did he know to put it there? And he had like a day to do everything but he took the time to get empty packets and find a way to reseal them?

I figure she sits at the same table, same time every tuesday from what he said about her always being there. Wouldn't be too hard to sneak in earlier in the day, replace the thing with the ricin, then wait until she's about to come in to make the switch.

I guess thats true. But like RPS just said it seems like she might have noticed something wrong with it. It doesnt take anything away from the show for me really it's just the whole thing was a bit off to me

[TKz]

I think the best solution is simply

[RPS]

Another angle on the stevia is that Lydia was so caught off guard by Walt being there that if there was any defect in the packaging, like a miniature hole to take out the stevia and to replace with ricin, she wouldn't have noticed. Which also does make a lot of sense considering Lydia is all about being discrete and quiet in public and America's most wanted criminal sat down at her table, so she just tried as best as possible to look normal.

[Walker]

Honestly, I think it is just a case of "We've shown you Walt is a genius. He made a battery out of sponges for fuck sake. Just take this on faith."

[RPS]

The question isn't really about Walt though. He can be a genius and do all of these things, but he's trying to pull a fast one on a character who is obsessive compulsive and has a mind for attention to detail. She's the one character on the show who would notice if something was off. Walt has never been about perfection and it's a bit hard to believe that anything less than perfection would slide by Lydia.

[Josh]

It's ultimately a question of "How did he unseal and reseal a paper package?" which is like a 2 on 1-10 scale of crazy difficult shit Walt has done.

[GoGo Yubari]

Well, she also has worn mismatching socks in the past. Lydia gets pretty erratic when she's under stress.

I'm not really sure how it was done. I think more disappointingly on the nose than the call was really the POV shot of the Stevia/ricin going into the coffee. It was just so glaringly unsubtle that I almost thought that he didn't use the ricin on her after all but then it was the ricin and I was like "oh uh okay."

[RPS]

Well, she also has worn mismatching socks in the past. Lydia gets pretty erratic when she's under stress.

I'm not really sure how it was done. I think more disappointingly on the nose than the call was really the POV shot of the Stevia/ricin going into the coffee. It was just so glaringly unsubtle that I almost thought that he didn't use the ricin on her after all but then it was the ricin and I was like "oh uh okay."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the ricin shot was a callback. I thought we had seen the ricin being put into a drink or something prior and the effect it had entering the coffee and dissolving was something we had already seen. Maybe I'm making this shit up...

[TCO]

Well, she also has worn mismatching socks in the past. Lydia gets pretty erratic when she's under stress.

I'm not really sure how it was done. I think more disappointingly on the nose than the call was really the POV shot of the Stevia/ricin going into the coffee. It was just so glaringly unsubtle that I almost thought that he didn't use the ricin on her after all but then it was the ricin and I was like "oh uh okay."

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought the ricin shot was a callback. I thought we had seen the ricin being put into a drink or something prior and the effect it had entering the coffee and dissolving was something we had already seen. Maybe I'm making this shit up...

Seeing as we're all being pedantic, ricin is a protein so it would denature immediately in hot water and be essentially harmless

[Benji]

I simultaneously love and hate the feeling I get when a show this amazing is finished. I feel so empty and yet so fulfilled.

[livid]

I simultaneously love and hate the feeling I get when a show this amazing is finished. I feel so empty and yet so fulfilled.

Yeah, it's always a weird feeling though. Like, a show ending probably shouldn't affect me as much as it does but it always happens.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Well, she also has worn mismatching socks in the past. Lydia gets pretty erratic when she's under stress.

I'm not really sure how it was done. I think more disappointingly on the nose than the call was really the POV shot of the Stevia/ricin going into the coffee. It was just so glaringly unsubtle that I almost thought that he didn't use the ricin on her after all but then it was the ricin and I was like "oh uh okay."

I thought the same thing. I was watching with my brother and I turned to him and was like "Oh, man, that's probably a red herring, isn't it? Everyone thinks he's going to poison Lydia with the ricin but I bet he's going to use it somewhere else."

AVClub has a spoiler-heavy article about the possible endings/epilogues that weren't used by Gilligan & co.

[OctoberRaven]

But who wrote the Heisenberg graffiti?!

[Ant]

El Homo

[HC]

But who wrote the Heisenberg graffiti?!

[Jimmy]

Someone explain

How do he get the ricin into the stevia? That seemed a bit far fetched to me. Also I think I read it in the article GoGo posted but him telling her on the phone was a little too on the nose for me. I would rather have seen her sick in the end little montage and said Oh! He got her!

But then Walt wouldn't get to enjoy letting Lydia know that he was the one who killed her. I think it was less on the nose for the viewer, and more about another of Walt's egomaniac things. He wanted her to know he did that to her, otherwise I don't think he'd be satisfied enough with his revenge. It's not like he was going for subtly with his killing spree.

[probablyoliver]

It was good.

[LL!]

Oh heeeeeeeey, you guys! I haven't chimed in yet. I loved it, personally.

So, maybe Walt didn't take the ricin, but I was half right! He did end up killing himself, after all.

At first I was ehhh about him using the ricing on Lydia cause the shot made it so obvious, but I came around to the idea. It worked for me.

I'm so glad Jesse didn't pull the trigger. Jesse is such a better person than Walt, and he's such a bigger person. That worked so well. Sure, he killed Todd, but that monster needed to be stopped. After all they put him through, I'd say it's self-defense after the fact.

Walt finally admitting that it was all for him was probably the most satisfying moment for me. Yeah, I was happy to see him die, but I was so burned from all the stuff he had done, that I was really hoping he wouldn't find any comfort beforehand. Yet, it was beautiful that he died in the only place he felt at home anymore. I can appreciate it for the artistry and storytelling, but as a person that absolutely loathed Walter, I wanted to see him die a crippling death all alone. The whole scene with Skyler was perfect in every way.

I'm gonna miss this show so fucking hard.

[RPS]

The only ending I could imagine that I might have liked better:

Everything stays the same up until the trunk gun goes off. Everybody ends up dead, minus Walt and Jessie. Walt does not get hit by a stray bullet. A tense moment between Jessie and Walt. Nothing is said between the two, but body language and the scene indicates that there is an understanding between the two. Nod of the head, a shake of the hands, something. As Walt begins to leave the scene, it's apparent that Todd is not dead and he guns down Mr. White. A struggle ensues between Jessie and Todd, with Jessie choking Todd in the same way that he did in the episode. I like the way Todd dies because it mirrors one of the first deaths on the scene and shows that Jessie ultimately learned from Walt. Jessie flees the scene.

I like it better because it sort of gives the audience that release moment. Walt seems to survive and he could leave, but he's gunned down by a monster he created and Jessie killing him, I think at least, would be a much bigger moment for the audience.