I mean yeah. You can shoot the exact same finale, but use the finale shot to show that it was all Walt hallucinating as he lies dying alone on the floor of his cabin in NH and suddenly its a much better finale that actually gives Walt the ending he deserves
I mean... he died. He ruined his family and their relationship with him, getting his wife’s sister’s husband killed. He consigned the people he loved to public oblivion.
Death was inevitable. He was gonna die from the cancer anyways. Far better for him that he gets to go out getting his revenge. And he still ultimately succeeded in his goal of providing for his family so yeah, feels like he got off way too easy for all the stuff he did.
His son hates him, his family won't know it was any of his money that his children get, I'm not seeing the rosy ending lol. Walt had good intentions for his family at the start and got corrupt with power, the closest thing to a positive end to his life is letting Jesse go who he fucked over more than anybody in the show and I'm guessing Jesse doesn't forgive him. Not like Walt died a hero or something. Like, you need to devise a moderately entertaining finale lol, dying in a bed alone is boring, idk how you end something better than this could have ended tbh.
Like they say in Unforgiven: "Deserve's got nothing to do with it". At every step, every episode, he made a choice that pushed him further away from his family and closer into his own arms. He chose to be a drug lord and died as one. His self satisfied smile at the end was because he made peace with what he had become. He destroyed his family and they hate him, his daughter will only know him as a monster. Gray matter will once again take full credit for something Walt did by giving his son money. If Skylar and the kids are somehow able to figure out it was Walt giving them that money (despite Walt telling Skylar in his most seemingly honest moment of the series that he has absolutely no money to give them) then so is law enforcement and the money will be taken away. Say the law doesn't figure it out but the family somehow does, they wouldn't be very happy about it. It would once again feel like they're trapped under his thumb, controlling them from beyond the grave. (As an aside: I'm still not seeing how the family would figure it out, they're not able to see everything we saw because guess what it's a TV show and we're privy to information that certain characters aren't. I'm always annoyed by people who claim TV characters would be stupid not to know the truth that we do, but we only know it because the show showed us explicitly through a god's eye view. How are characters who are so far removed from Walt at the end and have no idea how much money he has left and where it would be supposed to know it was him? They're not watching the show we are because they are in the show. I swear, some people expect all TV characters to be Sherlock Holmes. But I digress.) Walt showed so much regret and self awareness at the end of his life, but also an acceptance of who he chose to become. From the very first episode, the show was about Walt being able to take control of his life and have a choice in his death, ending his life on his terms and the horrible consequences of those decisions. If the end is just a sad fantasy of a dying man, then it is just a boring black and white morality tale, robbing us of the beautiful ambiguity of gray they left us with. The end of the show is holding a mirror up to each of us. Are we happy that the terrible person vanquished the worse people? Does it really feel like a victory to us? Would we make the same choices he did, fulfilling our desires and fantasies of power despite the consequences? Is the fear of consequences the only thing that stands between us and this monster of a person? Are we somehow complicit for having enjoyed his monstrous journey and living vicariously through him? Also, you know, it's a TV show. It has to entertain, surprise, but also feel inevitable. It has to fit the tone and narrative rules set by the previous episodes of the show. A death fantasy revealed at the very end would have been cheap and broken the narrative rules that show spent so much time setting down for us. Thank God some of you aren't writers. It is entertainment. Not every bad character or bad action needs to be instantly smited by a vengeful god-writer as some sort of hackneyed morality lesson.
Breaking Bad is one of the few shows that actually stuck the landing. I always see complaints that the death of Gus should have been the series finale, but I feel like most people forget the fact that Walt is the true villain. It becomes incredibly more obvious now with Better Call Saul. Pretty solid operation for all involved until Walt decides it doesn’t work for him.
I like the finale. Ozymandias might be my favorite episode of television. That or The Suitcase from Mad Men
But Walt never had good intentions for his family, even from the start. That was clear the moment he turned down Gray Matter's money. It was always about *him* providing for his family. He only became willing to let someone else get the credit when he was out of other options and it was essentially "do this or do nothing"
I personally loved the finale, but I also think it's a pretty reasonable opinion to be disappointed that an evil main character had a triumphant ending
I mean in the context of the bad guy having a happy ending, i’m pretty happy the Nazis didn’t win, so it wasn’t all bad. Not to mention he saves Jesse.
It seems like you’re mad at any scenario in which he went out on his own terms. There are multiple episodes (including all of “Granite State”) that suggested why that would never happen.
The finale was good as is but the show should’ve ended with Walt’s family dead as a result of his actions and Walt alive and in remission.
One of the top 10 iconic moments of the series and folks want to junk it for being unrealistic. Should the planes not have crashed either?
I’d argue everything building to the door blowing off the hinges is iconic. A masterclass in writing, pacing, selection of music, etc. Gus walking out of that room felt cheap. Hell, the last 3 episodes of season 4 are probably the strongest string of episodes in any show ever.
Oh no, I meant a literal zombie Gus. He returns in Season 5. That's how the series should have ended.