1921

My son (25) and I get together every Sunday and grab some dinner, drink some beer, and watch some shows…but he’s not caught up on BB. I asked him to show up early tomorrow so I can kick him out by 9pm so I can watch the last episode in real-time. What a Dad :)

1922

“E-Meth, you know it’s good because it’s blue, bitch!”
-Jesse as pitchman on Saturday Night Live

1923

Applause.

1924

Well I was wrong about most stuff, except that Walt wasn’t out for revenge on Gray Matter, Jesse killed Todd, and THE RICIN WASN’T FOR WALT.

1925

THAT’S the way you end a series, David Chase. Not your open-ended, what just happened, thirty seconds of silence crap (which after many years turned out to be a stroke of genius but never mind that, jerk!).

1926

One thing I always loved about the show was how it had me guessing so many things wrong. Happened again here - I thought Grey Matter’s re-emergence in the show was merely a red herring, and holy shit no! That was every bit as satisfying as the conclusion to the other storylines.

1927

Yeah, Grey Matter’s inclusion made the finale much more satisfying that it would have otherwise been – and while I would have, on some level, enjoyed Walt inviting a more vicious visit, it wouldn’t have fit his character and so I was worried they were going to cater to bloodlust instead of sense in order to spice up the finale – but the purpose turned out to be brilliant. And bonus Skinny Pete/ Badger footage, which felt artificial but was so satisfying that it belonged.

The scene of the finale was the kitchen scene though. Wonderful.

1928

That ended as well as it could have, IMO (except I wanted Skylar to die). Great work.

1929

I agree. But I didn’t want Skylar to die.

It ended pretty much exactly as I thought it would but I was really happy with the two particular choices of having Jesse be the one to kill Todd and having Jesse not kill Walt (who was already dead in 2 different ways and Jesse knew it anyway). Taking the circumstances leading up to the end as a given, this was the happiest of all possible endings, IMO.

And all you people who thought the ricin wasn’t for Lydia or that Walt would want to kill Jesse are exposed for the fools you are!

1930

I was hoping Walter was going to wake up hand cuffed to a hospital bed, as his vision clears he sees Marie standing over him smirking. Fade to black.

Overall I though it was a silly and underwhelming finale. The only high point was seeing Meth Damon get choked out.

1931

Yeah, I thought as much myself. It was a surprisingly satisfying thread that I wasn’t expecting to see get tied up, but I’m glad I did. The two best hit men this side of the Mississippi! Hahahaha

1932

Yep, I agree with this so much. Just when you think he’s going to go down that same old boring path, Walt kicks out the simplest, most honest explanation you could imagine. Really satisfying.

I was hoping Walt would go out in a heroic hail of bullets and that I’d be cheering for him. I was. What a great close.

1933

Great ending. Walt made Grey Matter serves his purpose and got them to soil their underwear. Said good-bye to his family as best he could, and at least admitted the truth of the matter to himself and Skylar. Lydia? Okay, I just thought it too damn obvious that the Ricin was for her and didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon. Die, bitch! Meth Nazis? Science, bitches! I said I wanted to see characters be true to themselves, and Walt playing one last card where he outwits his foes with science. Todd: who didn’t want to see Jesse personally kill him with his own hands? Die with extreme prejudice, bitch! Hank gets dug up, Skylar (presumably) gets off the hook, Walt Jr. gets the money in a circuitous route, and Walt pays the price but goes out on his own terms.

A happy ending! Of sorts…

Okay, so, Jesse probably goes back to his wastrel life, but he at least has the opportunity to do something (ahhhh, carpentry!).

1934

A little more straightforward than I would’ve liked. Not much to talk about. Considering the crazy highs and mind-blowing moments this show has had, I would’ve like to have my mind blown once or twice in the finale. But I guess if you think of Ozymandias as the true climax and these last 2 as a epilogue, it’s pretty solid.

1935

Ozymandias was the more defining episode. It all came crashing down with that. The last two episodes were just playing out a hand that had already been dealt. 1. Protect and preserve his family. 2. Gain revenge. 3. Exit on his own terms. I think Jesse was way down the list. Walt would have triggered that final fusillade without Jesse being present if he had the keys in his hand. Live, die, who knew who might be left over? He had to throw him in as a final distraction. He may have only decided to try and save him when he saw how pitifully he had been used. It was a good final moment between them.

1936

Did anyone catch the “is it cornflower blue” reference when Todd was talking to Lydia about her blouse? It’s a bit abrupt because it gets cut off as Walt sits down.

Fight Club, Chuck P reference in each novel, etc. I just thought it was an interesting choice of color, in a show that does everything intentionally.

1937

Also:

Group Leader: Jesse, last time, you seemed down about your job at the Laundromat. Let me ask something, if you had the chance to do anything you wanted, what would you do?
Jesse Pinkman: Make more green, man. A lot more.
Group Leader: Forget about money. Assume you have all you want.
Jesse Pinkman: I don’t know. I guess I would make something.
Group Leader: Like what?
Jesse Pinkman: I don’t know if it even matters, but… work with my hands, I guess.
Group Leader: Building things, like carpentry or bricklaying or something?
Jesse Pinkman: I took this vo-tech class in high school, woodworking. I took a lot of vo-tech classes, because it was just big jerk-off, but this one time I had this teacher by the name of… Mr… Mr. Pike. I guess he was like a Marine or something before he got old. He was hard hearing. My project for his class was to make this wooden box. You know, like a small, just like a… like a box, you know, to put stuff in. So I wanted to get the thing done as fast as possible. I figured I could cut classes for the rest of the semester and he couldn’t flunk me as long as I, you know, made the thing. So I finished it in a couple days. And it looked pretty lame, but it worked. You know, for putting in or whatnot. So when I showed it to Mr. Pike for my grade, he looked at it and said: “Is that the best you can do?” At first I thought to myself “Hell yeah, bitch. Now give me a D and shut up so I can go blaze one with my boys.” I don’t know. Maybe it was the way he said it, but… it was like he wasn’t exactly saying it sucked. He was just asking me honestly, “Is that all you got?” And for some reason, I thought to myself: “Yeah, man, I can do better.” So I started from scratch. I made another, then another. And by the end of the semester, by like box number five, I had built this thing. You should have seen it. It was insane. I mean, I built it out of Peruvian walnut with inlaid zebrawood. It was fitted with pegas, no screws. I sanded it for days, until it was smooth as glass. Then I rubbed all the wood with tung oil so it was rich and dark. It even smelled good. You know, you put nose in it and breathed in, it was… it was perfect.
Group Leader: What happened to the box?
Jesse Pinkman: I… I gave it to my mom.
Group Leader: Nice. You know what I’m gonna say, don’t you? It’s never too late. They have art co-ops that offer classes, adult extension program at the University.
Jesse Pinkman: You know, I didn’t give the box to my mom. I traded it for an ounce of weed.

1938

Nice call back, then. I thought it was interesting that Skinny Pete was saying the blue meth was better than ever and it turns out Jessie had surpassed Walt in his need to escape from his circumstances. He’d completely dissociated and focused on the work as he tried to perfect his method.

I do think it’s very interesting the way they structured this season such that the climax did not coincide with the final episode. TV viewers are so conditioned to expect all the biggest revelations and confrontations to be saved to season or series finales, so putting a lot of that stuff in Ozymandias and then simply letting things play out to their logical conclusions is a fairly brave move for the medium. I actually want to make some comparisons to the narrative structure of The Last of Us, but it would involve spoilers for the game.

1939

Well, the finale didn’t make any mistakes, but it didn’t shatter any expectations either. I’m glad that Jesse got to kill Todd and Walt revealed Hank’s burial site. But the scene with Skyler was the only real character moment of the episode; everything else was just action.

1940

Yeah, this is a good point and I almost missed it as I was watching. I don’t think he was specifically planning or hoping for anything regarding Jesse, Walt was there to take out the Nazis and almost certainly himself in the process. Actually getting Jesse into the room was just his improvisation when he needed a way to get his keys back.

I wonder what Todd was about to say when Jesse grabbed him. He was looking out the window at the gun and starts “Mr. White—” before Jesse cuts him off, and he almost sounded excited, like he was about to say “—that’s so cool!” or something. Crazy dude.