***SPOILER ALERT***

If you have not seen the finale of Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad, I suggest not reading the following…

For those who have been along for the ride, Walter White’s roller coaster of a journey came to an end Sunday night.  For six years, we have meticulously watched the chain events resulting from the most evil catalyst of  all, cancer.  By the name of the show, Walt’s metamorphosis was inevitable: an innocent, high school chemistry teacher plagued by the putrid disease of cancer transformed into an evil, mastermind king-pin drug dealer.  Nothing can equate to the first time we watched Walter embrace his top hat and glasses, taking on his enigmatic alter-ego, Heisenberg.  Walt’s journey to the top was not always easy, to say the very least.  We saw death after death with characters such as Gus, Mike, and Hank, the deterioration of friendship with partner-in-crime Jesse Pinkman, and, most importantly, the crumbling of the one cause that supposedly drove Walt each step of the way- family.  

It was nonetheless sad to see Breaking Bad come to an end; in fact, it was bittersweet.  A show packed with violence, corruption, betrayal, back-stabbing, and surprise seemed to end so perfectly, as if every single loose end was tied up.  Lydia, Todd and the neo-Nazi gang all got what they deserved, Jesse ultimately receives the freedom he always wanted at the expense of Walt, the Whites are in line to receive their father’s fortune, and Walt dies in the hands of his true love- the lab.  We even see the fulfillment of Walt’s transformation, when he admits to Skylar, “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.”  It takes Walt over two years to finally admit the truth to his wife- it was ego and not  family that fueled Heisenberg.

It all seemed so perfect.  So “happily ever after…”.  Senior Aschon Abae commented on the finale, saying, “The finale was flawless.  Everybody deserved what was inflicted on them, and the show’s theme of anti-heroism delved into a deeper level.  Although I am upset that the show is over, it ended exactly how it should’ve ended.”

While commenting on the ending, creator Vince Gilligan explains, “We knew we needed to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts … In some cases unanswered questions are good, but in this case, in a finite and closed-ended show, we needed resolution.”

In fact, for a show with a reputation of unexpected plot twists and constant contemplation on the part of the audience, it was almost shocking for the show to end in such a predictable manner.  Grant Gilbert, a Senior who watched the entire series in only five weeks, added, “It was interesting to see that there were so few surprises in the final episode in comparison to the rest of the series.”

While the show came to a close, the title of the final season, “Remember My Name” never seems more fitting.  In the end, you can only ask: how will you remember Breaking Bad?