CAUTION: This article contains spoilers for the series finale of Breaking Bad.
If you’re anything like me, you were surely one of the 10.3 million people who tuned into AMC Sunday night to watch the series finale of Breaking Bad, and even though it’s been a few days, you’re still coping with withdrawal from losing one of the best dramas in the history of television. Part of the reason I waited to put my thoughts on paper was because I really had to let my thoughts simmer, and figure out how I felt about the finale. What’s unique about Breaking Bad is that it ended at the height of it’s run, and never had the chance to get sloppy. Heisenberg burned out like a candle; we never had to see him fade away (at least metaphorically). I, like most people, was introduced to Bad through Netflix, where I binge-watched the entire first, second, and third seasons in less than a month, and where I was captivated by the gritty desert noir that creator Vince Gilligan and the writing staff had created. The show follows a meek, mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walter White’s descent into darkness as a terminal cancer diagnosis leads him to a secret career cooking meth with a former student named Jesse to provide financial stability for his family when he is gone. Their small outfit spans into a criminal empire, all while slowly eroding the morality of both protagonists.
Badmore or less played out like a Greek tragedy, but with meth. In a society where most of the stories told to us in television and cinema are washed clean of anything offensive and everyone gets a happy ending. A show that refuses to grant its characters such commodity is rare and deserves all the attention and accolades Bad has received. Jesse is the only character who is granted a “ride into the sunset”, and even still he is a quivering shell of who he was in season one, living evidence of the damage Walter White has wrought. The very last time we see Jesse he is driving away, laughing in relief and screaming in torment and anguish simultaneously, and that is proof enough that Aaron Paul deserves every Emmy on the shelf. The fact that White sees the error of his ways by the end of the series is debatable; however his attempts to tie all his loose ends are mostly successful. His family will eventually gain his illegitimate fortune semi-legitimately. He also managed to get rid of Lydia, Todd and his family of neo-Nazis, the last remaining people who posed a threat to Walt’s family. The finale’s most powerful moment however came when Walt finally admitted to his estranged wife Skylar that his criminal enterprise was for his benefit and no longer for his family, no matter how much he pledged it was. The ultimate dramatic irony occurs when Walter White achieves his goal from the beginning of the series. He only became what he was to financially provide for his family when he was no longer of this earth. His wife and children will eventually gain the inheritance he left, but at a tremendous emotional and psychosocial price. They are left fiscally stable but emotionally shattered.
When all is said and done, Breaking Bad was a story about a power fantasy gone awry. Walter White was a man who only felt alive when he had power, and he liked the monster that he became. Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us lived vicariously through this character. The old saying that “power corrupts holds no prejudice” is valid, and Breaking Bad is proof. Walter White was Macbeth and power was his lady.