re: Long thoughts on the ending of Breaking Bad

first off, great write up and i mostly agree with everything.

quote:

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Walt is essentially killed in Ozymandias, the true climax of the show

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totally agree. when that bullet goes thru hank you see walt start to fall apart (or die as you put it). i would submit at that moment it was actually heisenburg who dies inside of walt and only a broken walt remains. he realizes that all he has at that point is his family and wants to cut his losses and try to hold on to the only thing he has left.

when hank dies, it's the true point of no return. everything before that point, was like watching a gambler take his exciting ride of huge wins and bad beats knowing that at any time he could leave the table with what he has (feel free to tie in the gambling cover story). everything that happens after hank's death to walt until the very end i can't say any better than you did so i'll stop.

furthermore i'm a fan of jesse's ending as well. gaining his freedom from walt and his literal freedom from the nazi's. i'm trying to decide if i agree with you on jesse being the most good hearted person on the show. he definitely had his moments but i don't think he was ever the kind of evil that walt had become. i think gilligan's use of children (jesse's soft spot and walt's ability to justify using them as pawns) was him directing the audience to exactly how he wants us to feel about walt and jesse.

one of the things i noticed by season 3 and 4 is just the far reaching misfortune of everyone walt had come into contact with even indirectly. he was all consuming. there was no one who was changed for the better afterwards, that is, if they survived.