I think it’s safe to say that the majority of fans of Breaking Bad are satisfied with how the series concluded. The final handful of episodes were some of the best must-watch television moments in recent years. Though the final episode itself didn’t necessarily culminate in a breathtaking final few minutes, it gave some very good closure to everyone we’ve cared about (and didn’t care about), and in a way that made sense.

Walt was able to find a way to get the final word with his ex-Gray Matter colleagues, while using them to funnel money to his family. It didn’t 100% work out the way I’d predicted (I said he’d blackmail them), but pretty darned close. But for Walt, the most important thing he came to grips with — and I daresay the best part of the entire final season — was admitting to himself and Skyler that he’d been doing the meth cooking for himself all along; the money he’d made while doing it was just a positive consequence of his actions, and one he had been able to latch onto as a righteous reason for “breaking bad.” Being parted from most of his money — and from his family — allowed him to realize that.

Walt may not have gone down in a hail of police gunfire or have us see him put behind bars, but it’s the ending to Walt I believe we all wanted or needed to see. He didn’t die a lonely death in prison with nothing to show for what he’d done. He didn’t simply go out gangster style while screaming like a crazed Scarface. He learned from this journey and paid for it in the end, though in a way befitting of someone who’d learned from what he’d done.

Jesse’s conclusion, though, is the one I’m having a hard time with. This is where the viewers were given “what they wanted” and not “what made sense.” I’m fine with Walt ultimately saving Jesse the way he did — it showed even more that he’d learned from his past. What bothers me is that I firmly believed Jesse to be unsavable in another sense. This young man had gone through more hell than anyone should ever have. He’s killed people, good and bad. He’s seen people killed, good and bad. He’s a rather hopeless junkie, locked up for months cooking meth for people he’d really like to kill. To me, Jesse was a completely broken man, one beyond saving. Seeing Jesse speed off into freedom at the end, laughing with relief, just seemed to throw all of that pain away. Perhaps we’re not meant to assume Jesse’s now truly “free” and is simply speeding off to kill himself in the night, but I can’t be the only one who doesn’t want that for him.

Some had theorized that Jesse’s end would come in a moment of sacrifice, blowing up the Nazi lab and all the baddies with it. That would have made sense for him, but, in the end, having Walt literally take the fall for Jesse there allowed for Walt — the true subject of this entire story — to complete the loop of his redemption. His death there on the floor would free Jesse from all suspicion of involvement, allowing the authorities to assume Walt was still cooking meth all along.

Someone had said that the finale reminded them of the ending of Reservoir Dogs, with Mr. Pink getting away and Mr. White taking the fall. Hmm … Could it be that creator Vince Gilligan had that in mind all along? PINKman and Walter WHITE? Anyway. …

There are a couple of other pieces I would have liked to have seen resolved. One was the reason behind Walter leaving Gray Matter, of course. The other: what the heck happened to Huell? Is he still waiting in that hotel room?

It’s a bit surreal that this is likely the last time I’ll write about one of my favorite shows on television. It’s one of very few shows I’d consider spending time to watch all over again from start to finish. Maybe ten years from now, when my son’s old enough to watch and understand it, we’ll catch it together.

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I’m halfway through season two of one of the greatest shows of television’s second Golden Age – Breaking Bad. And avoiding spoilers (the “purging”) about Walt and Jesse is about as difficult and unrealistic as hopping onto the 405 and expecting clear sailing to your destination. The story of the cancer-riddled meth kingpin culminates this Sunday on AMC, and if I want to preserve my innocence in completing the series, I have two options. I can either employ Netflix and various other options for catching up, trying to burn through two and a half more seasons by Sunday night … or I can elect to take my time and go dark on social media for the next week (at least).

I’ve tried the second option before, with Lost. Covering my ears and muttering “la la la” when entertainment pundits or my annoyingly well-informed circle of friends began to discuss the series’ end worked for a while. But honestly, that was before the rise of Twitter and Netflix, two internet titans that television executives were actually leery of at their inception. As it turns out, both have contributed in ways that no one could have foreseen – Netflix enables slackers like me to binge on a show like Breaking Bad, robotically clicking on “Next Episode” at three in the morning so that I don’t have to suffer the shame of removing myself from the room the next time someone brings up the Better Call Saul spinoff. Twitter, though, is the real game changer. It has elevated the best shows on television into the zeitgeist, creating more organic hype than the best corporate ad campaign could ever hope to.

What Twitter did, quite by accident, was make it impossible for people to “catch it on DVD”. There is no middle ground now when it comes to Game of Thrones, The Newsroom, and even How I Met Your Mother. The shows that create suspense and craft sophisticated, interesting characters are being rewarded with rabid viewership because of the internet, not in spite of it. Either you saw last night’s episode, or you’re not part of the conversation. I want to be part of what will certainly be an incendiary dialogue after Breaking Bad’s finale. So, I’ll be spending Saturday alone, so that, hopefully, I can finally participate on Monday morning.

 (Be sure to stop by for our liveblog/chat — we call ‘em LiveClacks — this coming Sunday night at 8:45 PM EST for some live commentary of the Breaking Bad series finale. Participate with us!)

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This is it. This is the last time we can say we’re looking forward to the “next” episode of Breaking Bad. Next Sunday, it all ends. So, you’re wondering: how is it all going to end? That I don’t know; I’m betting there are really not many who do know, especially outside the show’s actors, production crew and staff. With the incredibly tight writing this season, though, you can certainly make some decent guesses for some of it.

For me, I say the majority of the final episode comes down to Gray Matter Technologies, the company Walt help found many years ago. It’s certainly not a stretch: the final scene of the second-to-final episode (“Granite State”) included Walt watching his old colleagues — Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz — denouncing Walter’s contribution to their company. If you listen to that television interview closely, though, you’ll note two things that could have caused Walt to react the way he did.

Firstly, Charlie Rose — the interviewer — let it be known that the Heisenberg-famous blue meth was back on the streets and even back in parts of Europe. This told Walt a couple of key things: Todd and his Nazi “family” were using Jesse to cook HIS blue meth recipe, and Lydia — of Madrigal — is actively working with them to distribute overseas.

The second thing that would clearly ruffle Walt is Elliott and Gretchen downplaying Walt’s prior involvement with Gray Matter, other than being the “white” part of the “gray.” Go back and watch a few episodes from the first two seasons, in particular “…and the Bag’s in the River,” “Gray Matter,” and “Peekaboo.” There you can see some flashbacks to those early days of Walt with Gretchen, and also how Walt feels about his being “cheated” out of a large share of the company he helped found. Walt’s version of the story makes his departure from Gray Matter seem as though he was forced to do it, while Gretchen says he abandoned them. So who’s right?

Let’s start with the blue meth part of the story. You’ll recall in past episodes that Walter is very adamant that the blue meth recipe is his and his alone, and that a Jesse version of it would be inferior. Now that Jesse’s version is circulating — and under the Heisenberg name — that’s clearly going to piss Walt off. This would flow in well with why Walt purchased an M-60, in the flash-forward scene from the beginning of this season: he’s going to take out the Nazis. This would clearly be the easy guess, but it’d also be pretty surprising that he’d be able to take on the well-armed thugs himself. Plus, he’d have to find them, and without Saul’s help.

This leads us to Lydia, Walt’s only clear connection to finding Todd and the others. It also explains what Walt will do with the ricin he retrieved from his broken-down home: right into Lydia’s stevia. Note that, in the last episode, it was no mistake that we saw Lydia once again ordering her usual tea from the diner and then asking for “more stevia.” This was no small detail: it is where Walt will plant the ricin. The question is, is Walt just killing her outright out of spite/revenge? Or could it be that he’s going to bait her into something else, i.e. “you’re going to die from the poison I just gave you unless you do as I say.” More on that later.

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As the “Ozymandias” episode of Breaking Bad came to an intense close, we saw a side of Walter I think none of us wanted to see. He became irrational; manic. He completely snapped, became the subject of an Amber Alert, and then made a phone call to Skyler that shone a completely different light on Walt. To everyone in that room during that phone call to Skyler, Walt was a complete monster. This was a man who was resorting to kidnapping and murder threats, all while resounding his own praises. Everyone in the room, that is, unless Skyler was smart enough to realize Walt just completely removed all guilt from her in the eyes of the law, and that he acted completely alone.

I will admit that I did not at first figure out that this had to be Walt’s plan. I thought we’d seen the very last of a redeemable Walt, and that there was simply no way for us to hope for this man anymore. When Walt’s tears showed up — and then he left Holly in the trusting hands of a Fire Department — it made complete sense that the Walt we saw during that tirade was a show for the people in the room listening in. Walt made that mistake once with Jesse, and if there’s one thing we’ve come to know about Walt: he doesn’t tend to make the same mistake more than once.

The question now is: is Skyler smart enough to know what Walt did for them? The thing is, it probably doesn’t matter. Now Walt’s own son considers him a complete monster, and no doubt Holly will be raised to never know him. Does Walt necessarily care about what Skyler thinks at this point? Does he love his family so much that just knowing their well-being is being taken care of is enough for him so he can let his cancer take him away?

And, seeing some of the flash-forwards of what’s to come, what’s Walt left to resort to to make sure the sacrifices he’s made for his family were worthwhile?

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AMC and Sony Pictures Television confirmed today that they have reached a licensing agreement for a spinoff of Breaking Bad, with a working title that fits quite well (and is probably of little surprise to anyone): Better Call Saul. The press release states: “Plans call for Saul to be a one-hour prequel that will focus on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman character before he ever became Walter White’s lawyer.”

I honestly wish I had this news earlier in the season, especially before the confrontation Saul had with Jessie. When Jessie beat the shit out of Saul and pointed the gun at his head, I did not think Jessie would pull the trigger. Mostly that was because of the spin-off rumblings. Imagine if those rumors had been purposely spread earlier in the season, to throw people off like they did to me, only to have Jessie blow Saul Away in that scene? Holy crap, that would have been a twist most no one would have seen coming.

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*Snnnniiiffff!* Ahhhh… Smell that? That’s the smell of a new, freshly baked episode of Breaking Bad, baby. Don’t get to used to ‘em, though — there’s a mere handful of episodes left, and then they’re done … forever. But what a fine way to kick off that last batch.

There was one scene in particular in “Blood Money” that made me think, “huh, well now look at that.” Though hugely interesting, it wasn’t the opening scene showing Walt’s fenced-in and dilapidated house, or him coming back to said house for the ricin he’d hid several episodes ago. It was that whole exchange between Walt and Lydia at the car wash. It felt very familiar. As in, isn’t this exactly how Gus Fring spoke to Walt when he came to his front business, Los Pollos Hermanos? He carried on the conversation very matter-of-factly, making sure no mind was paid to how they were talking nor what they were talking about. Just. Like. Fring. It was spooky. Walt even folded a towel to kneel on when he was vomiting, something Gus did once before when he was upchucking the poison he’d fed to his competition.

When I was reading the Breaking Bad sub-reddit this weekend, a link to a theory was posted that solidifies the fact that Walt not only is very close to becoming the new embodiment of the late Gus Fring, but he’s been taking on characteristics of people he’s killed:

“When Walt killed Crazy 8, he started cutting off the crusts of his sandwiches – just as Crazy 8 had done.

Gus drives a Volvo. After Walt kills Gus, at the beginning of Season 5 (at the Denny’s), Walt is driving a Volvo (w/ NH plates).

When Mike and Walt meet at a bar in an earlier season, Walt orders his drink neat while Mike has his on the rocks. After Mike is killed, and Hank offers Walt a drink in his office – he asks for it on the rocks.”

You can now add to that list the way Walt uses his car wash as a front, AND CONTINUES TO ACTIVELY WORK THERE. I remember when we first learned that Gus was a drug kingpin, how bizarre it seemed that this guy would very publicly be owning and operating this franchise, not just from behind a desk but often out in the open. Now, with Walt, we’re likely seeing how Gus worked his way into that position in the first place.

What doesn’t seem likely, though, is that Walt will suffer the same demise as Gus did. The fact that he’s still alive a year later, and then apparently ready to unleash some major mayhem on someone (and likely end his own life with ricin), it’s unlikely someone’s taking half his face off in a surprise attack. Could it mean, though, that Walt’s sorta-business-partner Skyler will meet the same fate as Gus’s former business partner? It’s been hinted that a big main character dies before the series is through, so besides possibly Walt … ?

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This a.m. on CBS Sunday Morning commentator Mo Rocca did a piece on “The A-Word,” more commonly known as the word “asshole.”

The report included mentions of Mel Gibson (“If I’ve still got my pants on in the second scene, I think they’ve sent me the wrong script.”), Kanye West (“I am God’s vessel. But my greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live.” / “I don’t even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in.”), Donald Trump, Adam Sandler and more.

Comically (well … possibly comical … I’ll let the reader decide), I’ll include myself on that list based on a little incident which occurred yesterday morning.

I pulled up in a panel van to get gas at a self-serve gas station (are there any other kind in this day and age?), got out, fed $20.00 into an automated teller and went back to pump lifeblood into the vehicle. I had made a mistake, however. The gas tank, I discovered, was on the other side of the van and the hose wouldn’t reach. So … back in the van I went to flip it around.

There was no one but me on the entire lot of 16 pumps, but when I had pulled forward then glanced in my rear view mirror, there was a vehicle that snuck into the space I had just pulled out of. I backed up and mouthed I had paid for gas at the pump, but hadn’t completed the transaction to a woman who quizzically wondered what I was doing talking to her silently through our windows. She shrugged, looked at me rather piss offedly and gestured she didn’t know what I was talking about, Willis.

I put the van in park, got out and politely asked her to roll her window down so I could explain. She got more teed. Unwilling to accommodate me, I raised my voice so she could hear through her window and attempted to offer my plight. No rolled down window was forthcoming. Instead, she threw up her hands, jammed her car into drive forcefully and dashed off to another pump across the station. I shook my head slightly at her spurning and finally backed the van to the pump.

As I was pumping gas, I looked up to see where the woman had gone. She was out of her car, glaring at me. I called out to her apologetically and tried offering my apology once more.

“Whatever!” was her reply, cutting me off immediately.

I couldn’t help myself. “Really … ?!?” I responded, raising my voice somewhat.

I checked that my gas pump was engaged and working and decided to take action. It was asshole time. I marched over to her, keeping a car’s length between us. “Ma’am? I was trying to apologize nicely to you I hadn’t pumped my gas, but you didn’t want to here what I had to say. I just wanted you to know that,” I told her just a bit snottily. She threw up her hands yet again and said she didn’t want to hear it.

I closed with “You’re welcome,” turned tail and headed back to my vehicle.

I didn’t realize until after viewing Mo Rocca’s report the woman had probably called me an asshole several times over, probably out loud in her car and in her mind half a dozen times over and later to her friends and husband.

Now? After the fact? I feel like a genuine asshole. In a manner of speaking, I feel a bit like Don Draper from Mad Men with a smidge of Walter White from Breaking Bad coursing through my veins and coiffed like The Donald.

Okay … maybe not.

But I can dream, can’t I?

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