End Game Theory: Final Shots, and Why They Matter

PRE-SCRIPT: See my previous attempt to predict the end here; I was wrong, though a scene along those lines did occur in "Ozymandias"

Breaking Bad is, after all, a post-modern Western

As referenced in the very first thing I wrote for this site, I was--in part--finally inspired to get off my ass and codify-via-blog my "head full of ideas, that are driving me insane" by an AV Club article Why the Ending of Breaking Bad Doesn't (and does) Matter. Based on the torrent of finale predictions raining down through many digital avenues of the interwebs, it's clear how much the end matters and means to people. The ending also matters artistically, and the final shots will make clear exactly what the show "meant" all along.

Recently, my BraBa-bro Brad Ferraina and I got into a debate about where the last episode will go. He's on team "We will see more of Gretchen and Elliot." I'm on team "Well...maybe; but that doesn't feel necessary." Our intense yet silly discussion lead to a synthesis theory. I won't bother spelling it out, since nothing is really guaranteed.

Not to count chickens, but the landing will definitely stick strong (to use the metaphor that about half a dozen reviewers have referenced this week alone). If I could pen one final scene, I'd have it so that Jesse actually saves Walt from his bumbling attempt at bad-ass-ery, and helps take out Jack and Todd's crew via the same chemical reaction that Walt used to take out Crazy 8 and Emilio back in the pilot; then, Jesse walks over to the shocked Walt and says something like "We've got work to do" (echoing the end of the Fring empire)...leading to them blowing up the Nazi compound and then doing something (while a confrontation seems more authentic, I'd get a huge kick if they did something like steal another RV from Combo's mom and ride off into the sunset). But I don't think that fan-boy dream is authentic, so thankfully its in better hands.

I'll agree with the AV Club's Zach Handlen...Breaking Bad's legacy is already secure, regardless of the final episode. However, even if the specific narrative points are pretty irrelevant (I find that I would be satisfied with at least four of the theories kicking around out here, here and here...though I know deep down that the only conclusion that will fit the most is the exact one that has already been written down and filmed), there are clear philosophical undercurrents that must be resolved.  

Hell, one of the most intriguing theories I've read this week claims that the show will end as a comical farce (the show is structured as, and inspired by, Shakespearean tragedy...which always teetered on resolving like one of his "comedies"). I don't even think the bard himself could create a satisfying conclusion to the story of Walter White and the denizens of the rotten state of ABQ. Personally, I would really dig if the final sequence veered toward absurdist humor. 

Gilligan, and the rest of the crew, know best. Maybe they even knew all along...though the beautiful thing about the series is how much fate and improv played in making things seem like they always mattered (check out Matt Zoller Seitz's stellar analysis of this feat here). 

Hell, at this point...since I've already gone really mystical and nonsensical...I'd say that the show itself became an organic entity by around the end of the second season, and that it's been maintaining and bolstering it's own quality through the network of themes and technique that had been coded into his aesthetic "genotype." But, since even I don't think I know what the last sentence really means, I write it with a grain of salt.

All I really know is...once the last episode has aired, the story is far from over. Breaking Bad isn't just a show that burrows into the psyches and souls of its viewers and creative team...it's a series that in and of itself has a vibrant and complex soul.  Just like when Walt and Gretchen discussed the missing elements that constitute a human being, there may always be left over accounting (though, we could all feel really accomplished--and obsessed--if we even skirt 99 percent understanding, at the "end of the day").

The most auspicious source of predicting seems to be the title, "Felina." Gilligan playfully let out that it's an anagram of Finale, but many fans already beat him to the punch, realizing that the "Felina" character is from Marty Robbins' song "El Paso" (...see here for a detailed analysis about Marty Robbins Song "El Paso"...which completely jibes with my own predictions). As I've started to solidify in a separate page about the pre-existing songs used in the show are more explicit about the narrative and themes than many realize. 

Read about the "El Paso" stuff in the above link. However, Marty also did a follow up song "Felenna." Though, unless y'all are hoping to get insight into a potential Skyler spin-off series, I'm not sure if the lyrics of this one are worth dissecting. Check it out...

#RespectTheChemistry

I have one idiosyncratic source of prediction I'm going to throw out there, since I haven't seen it discussed yet (my apologies if someone out there has already dissected this... obsessive and compulsive endeavors like this tend to veer toward disorder...) 

That Which I Find Meaningful...The song used in the finale promo, "Line of Fire," by Junip.

The promo, as well as all the connotations of the title ("Felina"...see here for a detailed analysis about Marty Robbins Song "El Paso"...which completely jibes with my own predictions http://previously.tv/breaking-bad/breaking-bads-upcoming-felina-finale-explained/) seem to paint a pretty unavoidably picture of what's going to happen. However, I've learned enough about the trickster editing of previous "Next time, on Breaking Bad..." promos to be suspicious. But, as I've started to solidify in a separate page about the pre-existing songs used in the show

Here's the promo....

Here are the song's lyrics...

What would you do
If it all came back to you
Each crest of each wave
Bright as lightning
What would you say
If you had to leave today
Leave everything behind
Even though for once you're shining

Standing on higher ground
But when you hear the sounds
You realize it's just a whim
And you notice it matters
Who and what you let under your skin

If put to the test
Would you step back from the line of fire
Hold everything back
All emotions and desires

Convince yourself to be someone else
And hold back from the world
Your lack of confidence
What you choose to believe in
Dictates your rise or your fall
Dictates your rise or your fall

With no one else around you
No one to understand you
No one to hear your calls
Look through all your dark corners
When you're backed up against the wall
Step back from the line of fire

What would you do
If it all came back to you
Each crest of each wave
Bright as lightning

I'd do the same as you would
do the same as you
do the same as you
do the same as you
I'd do the same as you would
do the same as you would
do the same as you
What you choose to believe in
Dictates your rise or your fall

With no one else around you
No one to understand you
No one to hear your calls
Look through all your dark corners
When you're backed up against the wall
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Step back from the line of fire
Oh

Step back

Step back

Step back

To me, the promo and song make it obvious what's going to happen...which, as I got at at the beginning of this post, makes me suspect that it could be an elaborate Red Herring. I mean, it does seem like a pretty redemptive arch for Walt to have; which likely means that it could be robbed from him. Or...there may be some codas planned which are entirely unpredictable; that the recent advertising is attempting to occlude through including the more spectacular elements of the series....I'm really up for anything at this point. Let the images wash over us, and make each predictor humbled through showing them something better and more fitting than what our wildest imaginations could conjure up.

Here's the music video of the song. Check it out; it has artistic merit separate from the way it weaves into the BraBa universe. The story and tone seem like it would be straight of American Beauty and Happiness, as directed by David Lynch. 

Aside from the lyrics and atmosphere, this video also contains images and motifs straight out of Breaking Bad (even from episodes that aired after this video was produced). Why? Let's presume the creators of Junip's music video had never seen the show. Why are there so many stark parallels, especially in relation to the surreal imprisonment of the domestic sphere? I got some things to say...but I think I've said enough for now...