Long thoughts on the ending of Breaking Bad

This is going to be TL;DR but screw you, I’m verbose.

It’s taken me a few days to digest the finale of Breaking Bad, and I’ve perused all of the major episode reviews out there. The general consensus seems to be that this was a satisfying though not spectacular finale. I can agree with that assessment, but I have noticed that those who disliked the episode the most were those who felt Walt “got away with it” and that this was an unearned conclusion.

There is a major strain of Puritanism that runs through Americans, even ones that consider themselves alternative and edgy. We love our anti-hero stories, but we also want to see him punished (it’s almost always a he). The Shield found the perfect punishment for Vic, The Sopranos ends obliquely but hints at torment and retribution, and so on. We root for the antihero until the end, when we want to see him have some sort of punishment. There is a view that Walt was not punished enough for being, well, a sociopathic monster for a large portion of the series.

I believe this view is wrong for two reasons. The first is that Walt is punished. While the final episode ends just about as well as it could for Walt, that’s the best of his bad options. He has lost family that he does love. His name, so important to him, has been destroyed and will not live on with his son, who now calls himself Flynn. He is directly responsible for the death of his brother-in-law, destroying his extended family as well. He also gets shot and dies, so it’s not like he got away with it. We’re all dead in the end. His punishment could have been worse, or more poetic (like Vic’s in The Shield), but he did not escape punishment and judgment.

Which leads to the second reason: Redemption. This is the Catholic in me, but I found my anti-Walt stance soften in this finale because he did what he had never done before: he confessed his sins and was truly penitent. It doesn’t make up for his sins, but it is an important step. Breaking Bad is a moral universe, and Walt’s greatest sin was pride. He finally swallowed his pride and admitted the truth about himself, and laid himself before his wife for judgment (not a perfect metaphor – this makes Skyler either a priest or God).

Walt is essentially killed in Ozymandias, the true climax of the show. In Granite State, he suffers for his sins and is cast out of society. He is left to pathetically offer $10,000 to a guy to spend an hour with him. He is defeated and laid low. It is not Hell, it is Purgatory, with the demons pulling away his sins. He is punished for misdeeds, most acutely when his son asks why he doesn’t just die already. When he looks at the roof of the car and asks for help to just get back home, some think he’s asking God, but I think he’s asking Heisenberg. This is the criminal mastermind’s last act, so Walt can return home to his family and ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness that Skyler gives because, well, she’s a better person than Walt is. She has also been punished for her sins, but sins her sins were not as severe, she still has what is truly important: her family. And she has the power of Walt to grant forgiveness which she gives when he finally asks for it in an honest way, without excuse.

But the key was that he “was alive”. Not is. Walt is already dead, making right what little he can. He can only get the money to his family by telling them it is not from him. He has to give up all ego. Their saviors will be the Schwartz’s. He had to be the villain and let others save his family. He loses the credit for his act, but his family is rewarded. Which is what he always said he wanted, to take care of them.

Finally, Jesse. Jesse is the most good hearted person on the show, which is why he has been consistently punished for his misdeeds. Unlike everyone else, he has known what they are doing is wrong, so the universe keeps punishing him for his sins. He accepted his responsibility a long time ago and he has been beaten up repeatedly, lost his family, two women he loved, and been made into a slave. No show could be so cruel as to then kill him. He has suffered enough. He earned a happy-ish ending.

The best part of his ending is that he made Walt tell him what he wanted, and then was able to deny it. Jesse can no longer be manipulated and he is now free of all chains. For the first time, he has agency. And after killing Todd, who really deserved it, Jesse will not kill again. He turns his back on that kind of life, and joyfully sprints to freedom. He is reborn, fresh to do anything by his own choice. Jesse, more than anyone, appreciates being alive. Marie and Skyler are nearly dead husks, shuffling through existence. Jesse is now finally and fully, alive.

Maybe Walt wasn’t punished enough, but the ending was earned. He just had to ask for it. He finally did.