Breaking Bad, Season 5, Episode 16, “Felina”

A subtle, safe, but satisfying conclusion to a brilliant final season.

So that’s it, Breaking Bad has finally come to end, and the series finale (or Felina) left little up in the air as the show rounded up. So did the show go out with a bang or a whimper? If I’m being honest, it felt like a little bit of both.

On one level the show concluded perfectly. The episode ticked all the boxes of things that needed to be resolved as the different timelines finally connected in a brilliant structured final episode and season. For a finale, it had all the things fan could want. There were flashbacks to the past for both Walt and Jessie showing where they have got themselves to, with Jessie’s in particularly being a beautiful throwback to one of his characters most memorable stories. Walt found a way of finally getting his remaining money to his son at the cost that he won’t know that it came from his father. He said his goodbyes to his family as best he could after giving Skylar a get out of jail free card. He killed his rivals and those who had stolen his product, his money, and threatened his family; and he saved Jessie at the last moment and spared him.

The highlight of the finale for me though was Walt finally admitting that he didn’t just do it for the family but for himself. As Skylar tells Walt to stop telling her that he did this for the family he simply says “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it” and that it made him feel alive. His admission was in many ways redeeming for Walt, as it was as if he had just come to terms with it himself. At last he finally admitted that he is a bad person, not simply a good guy forced to do bad things, and in that moment I felt more respect for Walt. In this scene there was also some brilliant camera work done by Vince Gilligan, with a great shot of a house beam separating Walt and Skylar in their confrontation.

The climax to the episode play out much like a classic western, with a shootout killing all of Todd’s uncles men with Walt deciding to save Jessie at the cost of taking bullet himself. Walt then finishes Todd’s uncle, shooting him as he tries to save his life by bargaining with the location of Walt’s remaining money; by this point however that money means nothing to him. Jessie also gets some vengeance, brutally strangling Todd with his chains leaving Walt and Jessie as the last men standing. Walt at his point asks Jessie to shoot him, who comes close before realising that Walt has already been shot and that it is what he wants. Walt has throughout the show always told Jessie what to do, and at their last moment Jessie denies Walt the satisfaction that he wants. The final parting of the characters ends with a simply nod, one of a now lost affection that has gone far beyond the point of redemption.

A now injured Walt stumbles into the Nazi meth lab examining the equipment with a look of nostalgia, or simply fondness. This scene is made more powerful through Walt’s final revelation that he liked what he did, as at the core of his criminal life was a chemistry teacher who loved practicing chemistry, and who was proud of what he could create. The final scene sees Walt collapsing looking at his reflection and seeing his alter ego, Heisenberg staring back at him. As the police arrive at the scene we see Walt die almost happy, almost at peace, after finally accepting what he is. It felt like a good ending.

On the other hand, however, I couldn’t help feel slightly underwhelmed with the ending. As much as I agree and support the points I have just made I can’t shake the feeling that there was something missing. As a Breaking Bad episode it wasn’t particularly surprising or shocking and I felt it all came to a close very abruptly. I was also sad that more was not seen of Jessie, who had one line in the whole episode. While I liked the goodbyes exchanged between the two, Jessie has always been the emotional centre and the other key character in the show’s story and I felt disappointed that he did not feature more in this finale, especially considering his presence in the last few episodes has been so minimal. Instead the majority of the episode was spent with Walt dealing with new enemies in the face of Lydia, Todd and the Nazi gang, when I would rather have seen more of Jessie.

 The episode felt for me like an epilogue, and the best way I have heard this be described is as the shows conclusion, not its climax. There is no doubt that “Ozymandias” was the shows climax, with everything exploding around Walt as his empire collapsed in devastating fashion. “Felina” was therefore a conclusion that tied it together, without reaching the heights that “Ozymandias” did.

As an ending it was relatively safe, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. As I mentioned it seem to resolve everything still up in the air and offer definitive closure to the shows storylines. If I was to make a top 5 best Breaking Bad episodes list however, this wouldn’t be in there. I wasn’t on the edge of my seat or shocked here as I have been in the past. Does that make it a bad ending? No, but when I look back at the series as a whole I don’t think that I will see the ending as one of the shows best moments, for me it just felt like it was missing something

What I do think is a more impressive achievement is that the show never had a bad season. Each year the show seemed to get better and better and I thought the 5^th season as a whole was as good as the show ever was. Shows such as Lost or the Wire are those that I loved and thought personally had great endings but they did suffer lulls. The middle section of Lost, around about season 3-4 dipped significantly in quality, and even the Wire, probably my favourite TV show, had a bad last season by its own standards. Breaking Bad kept its consistency up for all 5 seasons and that is a truly impressive achievement. For that reason I can accept that the ending wasn’t the shows best episode, because the show was good enough that it doesn’t bother me.

“Felina” therefore is a highly satisfying ending to a brilliant show, that doesn’t quite reach the heights the show has in the past, but offers a complete resolution to a truly original and ground-breaking television series. The show will be greatly missed.