I know I'm late to the game, but I've been thinking a great deal about the end of what many are now calling the best show ever. (I still think it's either The Wire or Oz, but that's just me.) There are only a few episodes left before Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and the rest of these very complex, deep, and slightly inhuman (at times) characters leave our screens (The rumored Saul Goodman spinoff aside). This has led me to think a great deal about what the ending of show is going to be. I have no doubt none of these are original, and it's very possible, dear reader, you've seen it somewhere else by now, but I haven't gone out of my way to see what other people have said. If I'm copying, I apologize.
By the way, as a side note, I feel like I get to be a bit of hipster on this show. I watched the first episode and was hooked. People were talking about Dexter and other shows at the time, but I was trying to convince them that Breaking Bad was going to be special. I was shot down. Those same people then came back to me a few years later and said, "OMG! Have you ever seen this show?!" Or I read tweets where these same people said, "Why didn't someone tell me about this show?" I did. I don't need credit. I just want to get a "I was here first" in for once.
So, I present two not really serious endings (though I think they would be fun) and one actual ending.
Ending 1:
Walt, having returned to New Mexico to kill Lydia (who tried to have Walt and his family killed), shows up at her house, now a compound of sorts, with his newly acquired heavy machine gun. Locked and loaded, he rushes through the front door and fires. Unfortunately Lydia has help from her partners in the Czech Republic and armed guards. Walt is gunned down. As he dies, we suddenly see him wake up in a bed. He looks different. His hair is longer. He's has no scar and a little more belly. He's hyper-ventilating when we hear a familiar voice:
"Hal! What's wrong? Why are you hyper-ventilating." It's Lois, Hal's wife.
"I had a strange dream. I was a Chemistry teacher...and I started making Meth."
"That's terrible. Come on, you have to get dressed. We're late to pick up Malcolm."
Hal sits on the bed and begins thinking, when he begins to talk to himself out loud.
"I mean it had some great moments. What if...I mean Malcolm is a genius. And Reese is a thug with a heart of gold...not unlike Jesse.... And Francis and Dewey would be able to move product. Lois! I have an idea of how we could solve ALL of our money issues." And with that, the camera pans to a bucket of Los Pollos Hermanos chicken and fades to black.
Of course, this would require people to remember Malcolm in the Middle and be ok with it. So let's try this:
Ending 2:
Walt returns to New Mexico and eradicates his enemies. Hank, Jesse, and Lydia are all dead. As Walt stands over the dead bodies of Hank's DEA buddies, he notices something strange. One of them has a black, oil-like substance coming out of his body. Suddenly, the man stands up. Walt opens fire again and the man dives out of a window. Confused, Walt drops the gun and runs for his car. He returns to the motel he is hiding out in, locks the door, and hides behind the bed. He is prepared to stay up all night just in case. Cut to morning and Walt is asleep against the wall. Suddenly he is awakened by a knock on the door. He slowly moves toward the door and asks, "W-Who is it?" A stern female voice says, "FBI, open the door."
Walt opens the door to see two people standing there, a man and a woman."
"Sir, are you Walter White?"
"Who are you," asks Walt.
"I'm Dana Scully of the FBI. This is my partner Fox Mulder. I'll ask again: Are you Walter White?"
Walt is shocked. "Yes, I am. What...What is this about?"
Suddenly Mulder begins talking. "Sir, we believe you saw an Alien last night. Your prints were found on a gun at the home of one Hank Schrader. We also found an oil-like substance on the floor that suggests an alien was there. Sir, did you see something?"
Walt is confounded. "Aliens? No. That's....That's not possible." He explains what happened leaving out the fact that he was there to kill Hank. Instead, he talks about his brother-in-law being obsessed, etc.
Mulder and Scully ask Walter to come with them. "I'll need a minute," he says. Scully points out the car and asks him to meet them there. Walter goes into the bathroom washes his face. As he towels off, an alien bounty hunter appears behind him. Before Walter can do anything, the alien bounty hunter grabs him. Time slows down and Walter sees his life flash before his eyes as his neck is snapped. His last thoughts are of Holly, Flynn, and Skyler. In an interior monologue, his last words are, "I'm sorry," and, "I deserve this." As his body hits the floor, the camera shows that the Alien Bounty Hunter has already turned into Walter. He adjusts his clothes and leaves the bathroom. The camera centers over Walter's body lying on the floor and begins to pan out and up as Buffalo Springfield's For What it's Worth is playing. It then fades to black.
No? No good? Well Gilligan was very involved with The X-Files. Ok, ok. Here's my real ending:
Ending 3 (real ending):
The last episode begins with Walt standing over the body of a dead Hank. "I'm sorry," Walt whispers. He looks at the cup on the table next to Hank and begins thinking back.
"You got me. For real this time," Walt says to Hank. "I am Heisenberg. I had no choice. I couldn't leave my family with nothing, and I knew the Cancer was going to ravage my body and my mind. Skyler was pregnant with Holly. YOUR niece! Walt Jr. has needs too, Hank. It was supposed to be a fast and quick money with no one getting hurt, but it kept building."
"I don't care," Hank hisses. "Do you know what you have put me through? Marie? Skyler?! You say you care about them, but what you did....WHAT YOU DID! Jesus, Walt, you put ALL of us in danger."
Walt thinks it over. He is silent as Hank is filled with rage.
"I'll explain it to you, Hank. Let's have a drink, and I'll explain it all. Then you can take me in. You can arrest me, but you have to promise, you MUST promise to protect my family." Walt moves over to a bottle of whiskey and pours two glasses. As Hank turns away, Walt drops the Ricin he was hiding into the glass. He hands Hank the poisoned glass and says, "A toast to you, Hank. You never gave up. You never bended like a reed in the wind, and because of it, you got me." Walt drinks. Hank then does too. He puts the glass down and begins to walk over to the couch...but suddenly something isn't right. Quickly his body shuts down and he drops. It's here that Walt apologizes. He then pulls out a list from his pocket and crosses Hank's name off. We see the names he's crossed off, with some being very familiar, but the camera stops on the last name below Hank's now crossed off name: Jesse Pinkman.
We learn that upon finding out that Walt let Jane die and that he poisoned Brock, Jesse couldn't forgive Walt ever. He swore he'd kill him and went to associates of Mike's as well as the new clients of Lydia's in Eastern Europe to solidify his new goal: Destroy Walter. He exposed Walter as Heisenberg attempted to kill him. This led Walter to relocate his family to the East Coast and to fake his death and retreat to New Hampshire. Now back, Walter has bought the machine gun to go after Jesse. Walter has another secret, however. The cancer is not only back, it's terminal. He cannot escape death this time.
Walter goes to Jesse's house with the machine gun. He notices that Jesse has some muscle in front. With a thought back to Scarface, he steps out of his Volvo and begins shooting. During the fight, Walter is shot but finishes off the men Jesse brought in. The gun is out of ammo, but the only one left is Jesse. Walter checks his side and sees the dark blood coming out. He's done for. All he has left to do is get to Jesse.
"Jesse, I just want to talk," Walter says.
"You have a funny way of showing that, Mr. White," Jesse replies.
Walter is beginning to feel woozy. The wound is bad.
"Jesse, I just came to say what I need to. Then...then you can finish me."
Jesse is hesitant. After all, he knows what Walter is capable of from their dealing together. He steps out and begins walking toward Walter.
Walter sits in a chair and sighs.
"Jesse. Jesse, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I did what I did for my family, and...."
Jesse cuts him off. "This shit sounds rehearsed, bitch!"
Walter is running out of blood. He notices a gun near him on the floor and begins speaking more.
"JUST...listen, Jesse. You were right. I lost EVERYTHING because you were right. I thought you were just some moronic high school kid who could help me make money before I died. Turns out you were better at being a human being. In the end, I didn't teach you....You taught me. I'm dying, Jesse. Your guys got me, but if I hadn't been shot, the cancer is back and aggressive. I don't have a great deal of time. I should be angry with you, but I'm not. You were right. My family is safer without me. You were better off without me." He pauses. "I once told Skyler, 'I am the one who knocks.' I was right at the time. Now you are the one who knocks. Don't be like me, Jesse. Don't destroy it all for nothing."
Walter now falls to the floor, but he isn't dead. Jesse, who has seen through this ruse realizes what Walter is doing: He's trying to get a gun. Jesse moves quickly and kicks Walter away from the gun and says, "No. You don't get to take me with you. I told you I didn't want to do this anymore. These guys were watching over me because I was giving them EVERYTHING. Your legacy, Mr. White, will be that every cook from here to the end of the Earth now knows your formula. You'll be remembered because everyone will cook like you do....Did." And with that, Jesse walks away and sits on the couch, crying.
Walter is finished. His breath is incredibly labored. Slowly Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt" begins playing as Walter thinks back over his life and his choices. He sees the people he's used and abused (taking us through clips of the previous five seasons). The last thought he has is of his family. Tears roll down Walter's cheeks as his last breath is taken. And as the song finishes, the camera pulls up and away from Walter as he dies alone with the only person near him, his former partner, hating him. Walter dies alone away from his original goal: his family. Jesse gets up and walks outside into the sun. He has truly broken the bad around him and will now go and do whatever he wants with his life.
Fade to black.
So there you go. Walter dies. The true heart and soul of the show, Jesse, moves from punk in season one to being the person who redeems himself. He breaks the bad. Yes, it was supposed to be Skyler (as Gilligan once said), but she was corrupted. Jesse develops a conscious and comes out better.
That's how I see it. In a few weeks, we'll all know it.
