**SPOILERS HEREIN!**
Well, the answers to all our guessing games about who would
survive and what would happen are now revealed. Turns out I was wrong about
Walt (Bryan Cranston) shooting the neighbor lady, but my eventual assumption
that the machine gun in the trunk was going to be used on the Nazis proved to
be correct. My rumination on Skyler’s (Anna Gunn) interrogation scene last week
turned out to be for naught. And one personal thought I didn’t blog on—that the
series’ very last scene would be a funny one finding Saul Goodman (Bob
Odenkirk) adjusting to his new identity—also, incorrect.
As for the episode itself,
I’m a little torn. Last week I used an analogy about how the show was setting
up every loose end like bowling pins. Well, this episode didn’t level them all
in a strike, but seemed to instead knock
each one down individually, in order, so as not to leave any loose end untied. It
resolved everything, but it didn’t exactly have the explosive impact desired
for a finale.
That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy how some of the loose ends
were tied up. I loved the sequence where Walt paid a visit to Gretchen (Jessica Hecht) and
Elliot (Adam Godley). I loved the way it started off tense
and had us thinking Walt was going to do horrible things to them, then seemed like he really
was only there with good intent, then revealed that no, he hadn’t gone soft, then
twisted yet again to reveal he’d lost so much of his clout he could only bluff
at this point. I also got a great deal of satisfaction seeing the Nazis get blown
away, and Todd (Jesse Plemons) getting spared momentarily for Jesse (Aaron Paul) to
finish him off.
Parts of it were very good, and the slow, deliberate way
each scene built to its end, and every scene built to the climax, reminded me
of the very tense tone in the final two episodes of season four, during Walt
and Gus Fring’s endgame. But I couldn’t quite get past the fact that from a
story standpoint, it basically runs down a checklist of every loose end and crosses them off, instead of building toward a conclusion organically. Some of the
tie-ups were a little disappointing, too. For instance, Skyler deserved a lot more
resolution than just a single scene. So did Jesse, especially after the Hell he
went through this season.
So, that’s how I feel about this episode structurally
speaking. As for the ending, I’m going to need some time to let it sink in and
think about it.
One little element I loved, though: Todd’s ringtone for his
apparent unrequited crush Lydia (Laura Fraser), a very big laugh coming just
after the most climactic moment. This is one of the things I’ll miss most about
the show, how it injects humor into spots where we’re not even thinking about
humor. And it works. Whether it be casting a character like Saul or a throwaway scene like a pizza on
the roof, it always worked.
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