[S5E16] The Last Call [REPACK]

* Despite an entire roof falling on Bobby, we all knew that Captain Nash would survive this call. Still, Athena and May made a big deal about him getting that MRI. Is anyone else concerned that there may still be bad news to come?

[S5E16] The Last Call

After a lengthy scene with Finn Polmar (newly minted series regular Matthew Goode), she comes to her own conclusion that Will was calling to profess his love for her. Bad news for her, she comes to this realization as she is embracing Peter. Bad news for us, that is where the episode ends.

In her cramped apartment, Skyler receives a call from Marie, who tells her that Walt was spotted at the house. Skyler asks if Walt has hurt anyone, but Marie states that nothing has apparently happened until now. Marie tells Skyler that Walt is likely searching for his family, saying the police are coming to watch her house and Junior's school. She tells Skyler to be vigilant and safe, then hangs up.

The camera pans to reveal that Walt has been in the room the entire time; Skyler tells him that he has five minutes. Walt tells her that whatever happens by the end of the day, he wanted to give a proper goodbye. Skyler tells him about the masked men who threatened her, but he replies that, after tonight, they won't bother her anymore. He hands over the lottery ticket and tells her to give to the police, as it bears the GPS coordinates where Hank and Gomez are buried. Walt admits to Skyler his true motive for cooking meth: he did it for his own sake - he liked it, he was good at it, and it made him feel alive. As a final request, he asks to see Holly. Skyler looks on sadly as Walt lovingly caresses his daughter for the last time and leaves the apartment. Later, watching from afar, Walt gets a last glimpse of Junior as he comes home from school.

That night, Walt drives to Jack's compound and parks his vehicle parallel to gang's clubhouse, opposite the window. After being frisked, Walt enters the clubhouse and is greeted by Jack. Jack falsely claims that the gang is no longer in the meth business and declines Walt's purported offer. Todd menacingly tells Walt that he shouldn't have come back as Kenny puts a gun to his head. Before they can take him outside and execute him, Walt calls Jack a liar for partnering with Jesse instead of killing him as he was hired to do. Angered by Walt's accusation, Jack orders Todd to bring in Jesse to show Walt what sort of "partner" he really is.

Todd takes a shackled Jesse out of the gang's meth lab. When he is brought into the room, Walt sees just how badly he has been treated. Walt feigns anger and tackles Jesse to the floor, using the car remote control to open the trunk and activate the mounted M60. Oscillating on the garage door opener's motor, the machine gun's fire rips through the clubhouse and kills everyone in the gang except Jack and Todd. An M60 bullet shatters a plastic tab on a billiards scorekeeper, and Walt winces as the plastic shrapnel hits him in his side. After the gun runs out of ammo, Jesse takes the opportunity to strangle Todd with his chains, finally snapping his neck. As Walt approaches an injured Jack, in a desperate attempt to save his life, he tries to offer Walt the location of his money. However, this does nothing, as Walt coldly executes Jack by shooting him in the head mid-sentence, in the exact same way he killed Hank.

Freeing himself from his restraints, Jesse faces Walt. After an intense moment, Walt slides his gun to Jesse and urges him to pull the trigger: "You want this." Jesse refuses unless Walt says that he wants it; Walt obliges. Still unable to bring himself to shoot him, and noticing that Walt has been seriously injured, Jesse drops the gun and tells Walt to do it himself. Hearing a ringtone, Walt retrieves Todd's cell phone and answers: it's Lydia, who has fallen seriously ill and is asking if Walt is dead yet. Walt tells her that Jack's gang are all gone, and that Walt had spiked her Stevia with ricin at the café. Lydia starts to panic as Walt calmly says goodbye. Outside the clubhouse, Jesse and Walt share one last look of mutual respect. Jesse gets in Todd's car and speeds out of the compound to freedom, relieved to be alive and free.

As the police lights approach in the distance, Walt walks into the warehouse and looks at the gang's meth lab. In his final moments, he lovingly caresses the equipment before finally succumbing to his injury and collapsing. The camera slowly pans above Walt, having died. There is a faint smile, and almost no look of pain in his eyes, having died in peace in the place where he was alive, a meth lab. Walt passes with the knowledge he was able to see his family one last time, kill his last enemies, free Jesse and make final amends with him, and that his family is well off financially now. The police enter the warehouse and secure the premises as the credits roll on, with Badfinger's Baby Blue playing in the background.

Botched returns Wednesday night with a much different case. While doctors Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif usually operate out of their Los Angeles office, they are packing their bags and headed to Montana to perform a house call on a patient who survived a horrific childhood motorcycle accident.

Marie Schrader calls Skyler White to warn her Walt is in Albuquerque.[c] Walt is already with Skyler and leaves her the lottery ticket containing the coordinates for Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez's grave,[d] which he advises her to use to obtain a favorable plea bargain. He admits that despite claiming he produced meth to provide for his family, he did it to gratify himself. Skyler allows Walt to see the sleeping Holly and he later watches from afar as Flynn arrives home from school.

Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is played during the final scene. According to series creator Vince Gilligan, this is a reference to the high-quality blue meth Walt had produced over the previous seasons and his life as a drug kingpin which the main character, at last, recognizes he had enjoyed.[5] According to Rolling Stone, the music supervisors on the show disagreed with Gilligan's choice for the final song;[5] however, music supervisor Thomas Golubić stated that "journalists sometimes try to create drama where there isn't any" and that his quotes were "mis-represented".[7] "Baby Blue" became an obvious choice as the editing came closer to completion, with Golubić describing the process of finalizing the song:

Upon airing, the episode received universal acclaim.[15][16] Several critics have called it one of the greatest series finales of all time.[17] In her review of "Felina", Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A rating, writing that "Walt's purpose is fulfilled, and he just stops".[4] Seth Amitin at IGN also praised the episode, calling it "fully satisfying" and awarding it a score of 9.8 out of 10.[18] Katey Rich agreed with these sentiments, calling the episode "a deeply satisfying and surprisingly emotional finale".[19] However, Emily Nussbaum, writing in the New Yorker, criticized the episode, claiming it so neatly wrapped up the series in Walt's favor that it seemed more like "the dying fantasy on the part of Walter White, not something that was actually happening".[20]

There's a void that becomes almost unbearable as Alicia gets that call from Kalinda during a speech, telling her Will is dead. Wied eye and stunned, Alicia's face is the last one audiences see before the episode ends. It's an episode that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let you breathe even after it's all over. A tragic way to usher out one of the show's most beloved characters, but what a way to inject the show with new conflict that stems from how much everyone loved Will Gardner.

It's also a bittersweet moment in hindsight. It's the last time Alicia sees Will before he dies. Her last memory of Will is teasing one another, finally allowing themselves to start a road toward forgiveness after she starts the firm. It was also a fresh walk down memory lane for viewers as they witness never before seen flashbacks of that night Will and Alicia walked into that hotel room.

So I will suppress the urge to summarize as much as I can, but contrary to the almost perfunctory nature of tying off every last loose end, I think there's a veritable ocean to dissect about "Felina" and what it means for the series. This is an episode didn't provide that conversation-starting powder keg of other shows like The Sopranos or The Shield offered: immediately controversial or featuring a showstopper of a final statement. I expect that "Ozymandias" will go down as one of the best episodes of the season and one of the best of the series, reveling in an obsessive need to link all of Walt's past decisions with what led to an irrevocable violent break.

But I feel that does a disservice to the comparatively modest goals of "Felina" and how well it ties the remaining threads together. Rather than an expansive, sweeping, examination of overarching implications, Vince Gilligan's final hour zeroes in on Walt to systematically provide endpoints for each of his key business and personal relationships. He doesn't need to talk with everyone, merely affect them in some slight way.

The cold-open prologue is as close to religious devotion as Walter White gets. Freezing in an unlocked car caked in snow, police lights flash in the background, and he utters what amounts to a prayer, that he be allowed this final act to set up the dominos one last time. And just like that, the lights fade, Walt tips the sun visor, and Vince Gilligan drops the car keys into Walt's hands, reward him for his supplication. This is the strongest indicator in the finale of something that has been clear all along: Gilligan has no interest in telling a fundamentally realistic story. Breaking Bad employed consultants on every aspect of the production, but from a narrative perspective, this is Shakespearean tragedy, where convenient twists of fate conspire to make a crucial letter miss the intended recipient resulting in star-cross'd suicide. 041b061a72