A little gif I made:
My predictions:
Walt’s Fate and the purpose of the machine gun
[spoiler]All signs point to death for Walt. The poem “Ozymandias” has to do with a boastful inscription upon a once mighty statue, now broken and forgotten in a desert. Scarface – who wielded a machine gun much like the one Walt has in his trunk – did not make it. Walt’s cancer has come back. He has provoked Jesse’s wrath, and his overall karma tab looks like it’s coming due.
And yet. Walt’s believed he was dying before. In fact, we first meet the guy as he’s taping a frenetic last testament, certain he was about to be killed. But he’s made it this far. His cancer went into remission, he outfoxed Fring, yadda yadda. So much of Walt’s sins have been predicated upon his imminent demise; Gilligan has the potential for some great dramatic irony here. What if the wall that Walt’s back was against… wasn’t there? What if he did all this and has to live with it – no easy escape?
Is the show interested in passing judgement on Walt? As Jesse roars, “He can’t keep getting away with it!” Can he? It all depends on the writers’ sense of justice. We can only divine that through the show’s tone and track record. Based on that, I think he lives… kinda. The show’s a dark comedy, remember, and permitting Walt a Scarface-esque blaze of glory seems wrong in two ways: one, it wraps things up too tidily for the audience, reassuring them that all monsters are put down; two, it affords Walt a little too much pride. The show is consistent in making Walt – who is lethal and genuinely terrifying at times – look like a goof. We see Walt in his white briefs. We see him throwing pizzas, throwing potted plants, pitching infantile fits of rage. Is he really going to get to go out like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? Too glorious by half.
My instinct is that Walt’s fate will be utterly ignominious. That means prison; that means all of his work comes to nothing. I could easily see Walt in the final scene exchange his yellow lab jumpsuit for a nice shade of DoC orange. He’s lead into his cage, and informed that the results of his prison physical have come back: his cancer’s in remission. His money won’t go to his family, it’s been seized by Hank Schrader’s replacement.
But I think Walt might have an out. The ricin pill. That damn thing’s been floating around forever, and I think this will be Walt’s failsafe. He’s used chemistry to get himself out of tough situations before, and this may be his get out of jail “free” card.
This ending utterly humiliates Walt, while still making sense for the character: from his perspective, a ricin suicide lets him retain some measure of dignity and autonomy. We know Walt hates to be controlled, after all.
Who is the machine gun for?
What’s left for Walt? He did everything for his family, and they are now lost to him. Certainly he’d load for bear if they were endangered, but who would do that? Since Jack let him go with a handshake, the Nazis have no interest in any more friction.
It seems certain that the M60 is for offense; Walt’s behavior at his old house in the flash forward was brazen: he said hello to his neighbor. These are not the actions of a man hiding, or a man who plans to live for very long.
In that light, Walt must be trying to liberate Jesse. That seems sensible and elegant. But considering Jesse’s feelings towards Walt, unleashing him from the dog run would work out as badly for Walt as it did if he unleashed a real rabid dog. If Walt frees Jesse, Jesse will kill Walt.
What’s the problem? That stupid ricin. M60s and poison pills are not part of the same offensive; I can’t imagine Walt poisoning anyone but himself. So what’s a scenario in which Walt frees Jesse, but still takes the ricin?
Maybe, once freed, Jesse sees through Walt’s attempt at suicide-by-ex-partner. Realizing that a bullet to the head would be too clean for the monster Heisenberg, Jesse spits on the guy one last time and tells him he isn’t worth the time. This would satisfy Jesse, I think. Walt would watch him go and pop the pill.[/spoiler]