One could make an argument that this one, with a few tweaks, could have been the finale.
Vince Gilligan is telling a morality tale, and very few episodes illustrated that as effectively as this one.  Walter White made one bad but fateful decision two years before, doubled down on it, quadrupled down on it, and this is what he gets.  He’s sitting there with $11 million in a barrel that he cannot spend, holed up in a New Hampshire shed in the dead of winter, so desperate that he pays his “disappearer” $10,000 just to stick around and play cards with him for an hour.  He’s in prison.  He finally flees and calls his son after a waitress pretends to be Marie.  In the conversation with Walter Jr., he whimpers that all this cannot be for nothing.  But Walter Jr., portrayed throughout the series as innocently clueless, isn’t interested in anything his father offers – not money in a rather desperate plan, or anything but scorn.  Holding him responsible for his uncle’s death, Walter Jr. wants his father to just die already.  The fact that Walt didn’t actually kill Hank – or want him dead – is irrelevant, because he’s morally responsible for that death and many others.
One of the great things about the episode is that it shows what happens when Walt runs out of tricks and luck. Â He’s a small figure, raging about everything that went wrong in the basement of the vacuum store, and powerless to carry out any elaborate revenge scheme. Â He tries to intimidate Saul into coming with him, but Saul – heading to Nebraska for a new identity of his own – tells him it’s over. Â His last piece of advice is to go back and face the music. Â He won’t live long anyway, and will spare his family further legal problems. Â Walt is having none of it. Â He wants Jack and his gang dead, and his money back. Â But in this episode, Walt seems absurd. Â This is a man who must hide on a cross-country trip to New Hampshire, and then is told that he cannot “leave the reservation” or else he will be caught. Â And so he sits there, waiting to die.
Meanwhile, Jesse has it worse in a way that seems too cruel. Â His bid to escape Jack’s compound ends terribly, with Todd shooting Andrea while Jesse is tied up in a car across the street. Â It’s a punishment – and a warning, as Andrea’s son Brock is still alive. Â Jesse’s agonies have reached comic book levels, which left me less devastated by it. Â Likewise, Skyler getting threatened by Todd – along with Holly – felt a bit much. Â Jack’s group, and Todd, are not that clever. Â They’re just brutal, and function more as a plot device than anything else.
But the heart of the episode is in New Hampshire, where Walt shivers in the cold, tries on his old Heisenberg hat but then fears going past the fence, collects newspaper clippings about his case, and can’t keep his wedding ring on his finger because cancer is ravaging him. Â He is finally ready to give up after his son rejects him again, calling the DEA and leaving the bar phone off the hook after identifying himself. Â But then we see what brings him back to New Mexico – an interview with his old partners at Gray Matter, who talk about donations for drug addiction on the Charlie Rose show and dismiss Walt’s contribution to their biotech business. Â This brings Walt, or Heisenberg, to life – if the previews in past episodes of his return are any clue and the musical cues (the show’s theme song) any guide.
I don’t know how I will feel about the finale. Â But this episode was a successful way to complete a morality tale. Â All of its major characters are destroyed, ruined, or dead. Â And it’s all because Walter White broke bad, and never looked back.
My wife was bothered by the Charlie Rose thing — she felt like having the bar tv flip past that interview was too much of a coincidence to swallow. I thought that it was well within the bounds of dramatic license.
I think you really nailed it; this is Gilligan bringing home with utter certainty the truth that the meth business is not a modern fairy tale where the science teacher outsmarts the drug guys. The Nazis are meant to embody this; all of Walt’s scheming and Jesse’s cleverness mean nothing in the face of their amoral brutality.
No matter how it all ends up Sunday, some of the “bad guys” will win. But not Walt.
Thanks for these analyses, B88 — they’re adding much to my viewing!
I understand from the ‘Gate discussion that the last ep is titled “Felina.” So, Iron, Lithium and Sodium … Blood, Meth and Tears? (if “And when I Die” plays in the finale, everybody owes me a beer). Somebody else thought it was the name of the doomed gunfighter’s love in the song El Paso … The anticipation is delicious.
In this ep, I didn’t understand why Todd wouldn’t kill Skyler, but would kill Jesse’s love. He kills so casually, Lydia wants her dead, and she’s too dangerous to his gang. Nothing personal.
“El Paso” is what comes to my mind too. One little kiss and Felina, good bye.
Killing Skyler would (further) piss off Walt, who can identify Todd, Jack et al., and who is currently out of their reach. They’re much better off holding the threat of hurting Skyler if he acts against them, as opposed to actually hurting her in advance.
Have y’all seen this?
That’s crazy. It did feel a little forced (more for me on the Walt-giving-up side than the why-are-they-getting-coverage side, because 24 hour news covers EVERY STUPID THING), but this is a great reason.
Still not clear on why Walt would hole up in a dump in NH when he surely could afford to get out of the US and settle in a country without an extradition treaty.