A user on reddit had an interesting theory on the ending of the show.

http://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/1nno0k/breaking_bads_two_endings/

Quote :

"SPOILERS, SPOILERS EVERYWHERE! NOTE: This is just how I view the final episode of Breaking Bad. I'm not saying it's the end all be all answer, but rather just one person's opinion. And no, I'm not saying it's all a dream or Walt's fantasy. That's a different "theory" entirely. As many have noticed, the final episode of Breaking Bad has a tonally different and other-worldy feel to it. Walt floats around like a ghost, everything comes easy to him, etc. That's led some to speculate that the ending was all a fantasy of a dying man. While I think that's a bit too easy and cheap of an explanation, it does have some merit. However, I have a different take. Breaking Bad has 2 endings. The first, definitive, "TV" ending is the final episode: Felina. The keys magically fall from the visor. Walt taps the window and all the snow perfectly falls off. He easily glides into the Schwartz's house and successfully threatens them. Badger and Skinny Pete make cameos. He patches things up with Skyler. He says what everyone wants him to say, that he did it all for himself. He looks at his son one last time. He takes a bullet for Jesse, kills all the neo-Nazis, and gets one last moment with a meth lab. Jesse also gets revenge on Todd, escapes, and happily drives off into the night to settle down somewhere quiet and take up carpentry. It's a perfect, Hollywood ending. And completely unlike Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is real. Breaking Bad is gritty. It's getting shot mid sentence and being dragged through the dirt. It's always striving to get what you want, but never succeeding. When there's a perfect heist, an innocent child ends up getting shot. Simple tasks like swatting a fly can take all day. Running a drug empire doesn't give you a legacy and pay for your children's collegiate future. It leaves you dying in your underwear in a cabin in the middle of nowhere while Nazis take credit for everything you've fought so hard for. To me, the true "Breaking Bad" ending is the episode before: Granite State. It's real, it's tragic, and it's unexpected. It's fitting. Jesse tries to escape, is punished dearly for it, and ends up paying for his sins by working as a meth slave. All of Walt's hard work was for nothing. His family hates him, won't accept his money, he has power over nothing, and his legacy has been stolen from him. He turns himself in, but at the last minute decides to go out in one last hurrah, disappearing from the bar like he was never there. It's then left up to us to decide if he goes on to build that robot machine gun to save the day, or if he dies from one last coughing fit in his snow covered car, depending on if we're pessimists or optimists. Hell, the final shot of Granite State is literally the glass half-empty or half-full idiom. [1] And guess what music plays over it. The theme song. (Which we have never heard outside of the intro.) It's the true, open-ended finale. But most viewers would hate it. And Vince Gilligan and the writers knew that. They knew that they owed it to us as viewers to give us a satisfying ending. But they also knew that they owed it to the show to give it a truthful ending. It would be impossible to create an ending that did both. They were conflicted as writers and probably deliberated about it for days, weeks, months. Should we make an ending to satisfy and reward the viewers, or one that stays true to the realism of our story? Eventually, someone decided, why can't we do both? Granite State is the truthful ending the show deserves, and Felina is the happy ending the audience deserves. That explains the difference in feel of Felina to the rest of the show. It's not a dream sequence, that's too cliche and cheap, totally wrong for the show, and if that were the case they would make it clearer to the audience. Instead, it's simply a satisfying, almost tongue-in-cheek, Hollywood ending. When the keys fall from the sky, the snow perfectly falls off the window, and the music kicks on, that's Breaking Bad's wink and nudge to the audience that this episode is going to be the fun, happy, classic TV ending that we all deserve after going through so much torment. It's the switch from the real, gritty Breaking Bad we all know, to a cleaner TV fantasy world. Think about it -- We get everything we've wanted as viewers. And you may think that would be a betrayal to the story and the show, but it isn't. It's still true to character, tone, etc. There's still all the drama, drugs, and clever scientific Walter White destruction. The only difference is that it's all tied up into a neat little perfect bow, because at the end of the day Breaking Bad is still just a TV show. And a really fucking good one. EDIT: Thanks for the Reddit Gold, stranger! And like I said, this isn't the end all be all interpretation, it's just how I see things. I'm not saying Felina didn't really happen or that it was a fantasy, just that it's the more "TV" ending most everyone wanted. Granite State is the creators saying, "This is how it would/should end." Felina is them saying, "But this is how you/we want it to end.""

[Edited on October 6, 2013 at 1:46 AM. Reason : formatting]

10/6/2013 1:45:31 AM

Just watched the last two episodes. While Granite State is indeed a more real and "Breaking Bad"ish episode, it seems to me that the whole "the series finale was a dream" scenario has been so played out over the years, that Gilligan wouldn't go that way.

10/6/2013 8:26:30 AM

10/6/2013 8:45:26 PM

^^

Quote :

"I'm not saying Felina didn't really happen or that it was a fantasy, just that it's the more "TV" ending most everyone wanted."

10/6/2013 8:49:28 PM

10/9/2013 12:26:22 AM

http://vimeo.com/76287333

10/10/2013 10:50:51 AM

I'm way late on this train but I finally got caught up. Great ending and I like the previous post about the other episode being the "real" endpiece. When I saw Jesse's goons (wtf their names are) I was taken aback like how the fuck did they make it all they way out there in time? but if this is taken to be the conclusive ending it was good.

I just wish we had a better idea of where Jesse is going - he has no DEA alibi and he has no money left so even though he was rescued as a meth-slave where does he go next?

This show in a way paralleled Weeds in a sense - you have a parent getting into drug manufacturing for their kids sake that turn into total monsters. I guess the big theme(s) I took away from this series (obviously) are that money and power corrupt even the most benign people and that the chase for quick fixes to problems lend even more catastrophic consequences.

Great series all in all, and take note that this post was written buzzed at 6am.

11/9/2013 5:58:00 AM

Like didn't go to sleep buzzed, or woke up buzzed buzzed?

11/9/2013 11:07:18 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9kZivVxB3vU

11/17/2013 11:48:54 AM

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jacelacob/this-breaking-bad-alternate-ending-must-be-seen-to-be-believ

Alternate ending

11/18/2013 11:26:30 AM

I just finished season 5. Now I need to figure out how to watch the rest, since it isn't on Netflix.

2/18/2014 10:17:05 PM

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/8979212/Breaking_Bad_-_The_Complete_Season_5_%5BBDRip-HDTV%5D___EXTRAS

2/18/2014 10:23:58 PM

His Malcolm and the Middle character was very funny. Underrated show.

2/18/2014 11:41:08 PM

Quote :

"I just finished season 5. Now I need to figure out how to watch the rest, since it isn't on Netflix."

It's on Netflix now

2/25/2014 12:02:18 AM

They're replaying all of the episodes on Sundays. Not sure how many episodes per day/night but it's nice to rewatch some of the earlier episodes again

8/11/2014 12:43:05 AM

Walter White back on tv was great, if only for 30 seconds

SAY MY NAME

sortaGreg?

2/1/2015 11:59:05 PM

Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte, Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito, and Vince Gilligan on Conan tonight (10th anniversary of BB)

7/18/2018 10:37:07 PM

Halfway through season 5, Walt is up there with Cersei in terms of evil.

8/10/2019 10:28:12 PM

I rewatched the entire series recently with my wife who had never seen it. The Walt evilness seems a lot more over the top now than it did to me first viewing. Like I felt like I had been rooting for him most of the time then but just hated him most the series this time.

8/11/2019 6:01:56 AM

^ I could see how If you watch 1 episode a week with season breaks Walt’s evil might come on very subtly.

Binging it though makes it clear he’s an absolutely sociopathic narcissist, constantly lying to and trying to manipulate everyone around him to protect his own ego.

8/11/2019 12:31:35 PM

^^It's different when you know what he's going to become. Seeing him go from a chemistry teacher to something you're not sure of yet, is one thing. Seeing him at the beginning, knowing he's going to be a murdering drug kingpin sheds a different like at the start.

8/11/2019 8:47:33 PM

^SPOILERS!

8/12/2019 12:27:42 PM