Breaking Bad Recap: 'Felina' Series Finale Ties Up All of the Loose Ends as Walt and Jesse Reach Their Ends

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Look, you've watched 61 episodes of "Breaking Bad" so far, why in the world would you read a recap before watching the 62nd and final episode? This recap is basically nothing but spoilers, if you haven't watched the series finale of "Breaking Bad" you really should wait until you've seen it before reading this article .You have been warned.

Sunday night's series finale of "Breaking Bad" did a very rare thing; it was able to tie up all of the show's loose ends in a way that left most viewers completely satisfied.

Season finales are a difficult thing to pull off correctly and series finales are exponentially more difficult to get right. There is a very short list of shows that ended their run in a way that didn't enrage even the most diehard fans. For every perfectly crafted finale, "Six Feet Under" being the best in recent memory, there are 100 that leave fans irate beyond belief, "Lost" being a prime example.

The one trait that has made the show stand out above and beyond most of the other shows on television, the almost obsessive attention to detail, also makes it more difficult to pull off a satisfying end. When minor actions from three seasons past have major consequences in the present it would be easy to leave some pretty major plot holes open yet somehow Vince Gilligan and crew managed to avoid doing so.

In an episode that included a remote control M60 raining death upon all the remaining antagonists it's a bit of a stretch to say that the true genius of the episode was its subtlety, but it's also true. It took an immense amount of courage to introduce the ricin in a manner that left viewers with only a suspicion that it had been used that would not be validated until 50 minutes later in the episode.

The way in which Walt was able to say goodbye, or at least a close approximation to it, to his family said far more in the silences than it ever could in words. It was clear that there was so much more being said between Skyler and Walt. The pain that Walt was feeling as he basically stalked Flynn when he was returning home was so evident on his face it wasn't necessary for him to say anything at all.

In the end Walt was triumphant albeit in a way that viewers could still feel like he was punished for all of his sins. Walt was able to get the money to his family but only by essentially having to ask for help from the last people on Earth he would ever want to (even if he did so through a threat it still must have stung his ego) with no possible way for his family to know that it had come from him.

Over the last two episodes Walt was forced to confront firsthand how much his family had grown to hate him, the phone call between Flynn and Walt at the end of the second to last episode was one of the most heart wrenching moments of the entire series, and it has forced him to come to terms with the fact that he had done everything only to serve his own ego.

It's easy to focus on Walt and his demise, as much of the final season did, but one can't ignore the fate of his one-time student Jesse. Jesse has been put through the ringer in ways that are almost unimaginable. The scene when Jesse was making that wood box, a reference to comments Jesse had made many seasons ago about shop class in high school, gave viewers a bit of hope that Jesse might still be able to find some form of inner-peace in the future. Sure, the reality of the scene was that it was the kind of daydream that Jesse would use to be able to get through his day-to-day life as a meth making slave but the idea that still had the ability to imagine a life where he was content shows that he was not yet completely broken.

While he was not completely broken by the horrors that he had experienced it was obvious that when Jesse used his shackles to enact revenge on Todd it proved that the old Jesse who had been completely unable to stomach the violence his job demanded was gone. Jesse showed that he had a bit of Heisenberg in him when he became consumed by vengeance as he choked the life out of his tormentor, but all of it had come out of him by the time he had to turn a gun against his former mentor.

In the end the finale was the perfect encapsulation of what had made the show so well loved. It had a detailed and intricate plot as Walt's plan worked out perfectly. It had unbelievable acting performances. It had the long, drown out cinematic shots that elevated the show to a place that most weekly television programs never dare to go. The episode was able to even sneak in a little bit of humor when Walt teamed up with Badger and Skinny Pete.

When the camera panned out on an exhausted and resigned Walter White bleeding out on the floor of a meth lab to Badfinger's "Baby Blue" it was one last example of what had made "Breaking Bad" such a great television show, and one last reminder that we may not see a show ever like it again.