How did Walter locate Skylar, and how did he reach her without being spotted by the cops who were looking after her? It seemed like an incredibly risky thing for him to do. If I have a criticism for the finale (which I found very satisfying on the whole), its that Walt wrapping up all the loose ends in the way he did seemed almost superhuman. It seemed like he did all this stuff within the span of a few days. But it would have required weeks (maybe months) of planning, I'd think. Maybe he was using his time in New Hampshire to prepare for this in some way.
I laughed so hard when they went from that to him in chains. It seems people forgive Jesse for his mistakes and feel bad for him. I've laughed at all the bad karma he's gotten. He's not without blame for the crap end of the stick he receives. He's too emotional and it leads him to being crapped on.
Yup. Figured. Though you were able to straddle the fence nicely. You should have stopped after the first paragraph. You also really drew a nice outline around my argument and made it indisputable and air tight in this short post though, so thanks for that. I'm going to end my discussion on the matter here though, and not going to continue to defend myself against all the posters coming out of the woodwork shamefully attempting to keep the crow out of their mouths.
I assume he called her (who knows at what point in the past), and she told him where, and how to sneak in. Cops not having a tap on the phone at all times was questionable.
He knew she worked at the taxi dispatch. He could have followed her home. He could have called her cell phone and told her he was coming over. She obviously let him in. How did he make it into the house? Maybe he...went in the back way? Just like the Nazi's did when the threatened Holly. Why didn't they show it? Because if they showed every single step he took around town, the finale would be 5 hours long. Then everyone would complain it was too long and had a bunch of unnecessary explanation. Do you really think adding 3-5 minutes of Walt sneaking around an apartment complex, then hopping a fence would have added anything to the show? The important part was that he get the face-to-face with Skyler and reveal that he "did it for himself", give her the lotto ticket, and see Holly one last time. After watching 5 seasons of this show, if finding a car key, sneaking into a house/apartment or finding where Skyler lives is too unbelievable for Walt, then you weren't going to be satisfied no matter what happened.
If it included him following her home from the taxi dispatch, I do think that would have added something to the show. Do you think showing him building his gun contraption added anything to the show? That can be left to the imagination easier than him tracking down Skylar's location could, and we'd have been given a nice shocker of a surprise with the massacre scene.
You said they were irrelevant. He explained why they were relevant characters, and his point was absolutely valid. Video was posted (twice) which clearly indicated that the Schwartzes still weighed heavily on Walt's mind through all of this (his speech in episode 6 of season 5). If the source of your agitation was the so-called "convoluted reasons" (Walt has been obsessing over the Schwartzes and their success through all of this -- which the show itself has told us is the case), and not the prediction itself, then nothing in the finale indicates that you were right and others were wrong. It could be said that Walt killed two birds with one stone: (1) used them as a conduit for transferring his money to his children, (2) exacting revenge on them by putting them in a position where they'd be fearing for their lives for the years ahead. I'll just make one final point on this. All the traumatic experiences Walt endured in his final months could have easily put him right at the edge of doing something very crazy -- like going on a rampage against people he felt wronged him. That was one of the possibilities heading into the finale, so the potential for Walt trying to kill the Schwartez was "in play". It didn't turn out that way. Walt, to the end, was methodical and strategic in his actions, and I'm happy with that.
I actually enjoyed the surprise reveal of the support beam hiding Walt in the a apartment. People b**** about not being surprised then b**** again when there is a surprise.
But then everyone would be complaining and wondering "How the hell did he make that contraption?" I get leaving some of Walt's brilliance to the imagination like how he was able to get to Skylar, how he put the Ricin in the Stevia etc. but occasionally its best to see Walt's genius and methodical planning in action.
A good ending to this show. I need to take a breaking bad break and just watch the series as a whole in a few months. Todd's ringtone at the end: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/n4zRe_wvJw8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
It was "in play" in the minds of everybody who incorrectly thought it was, I'll certainly grant you that. It was never in play in the minds of everybody who correctly assessed that it would be bizarre, poor, sloppy storytelling that Gilligan is clearly above.
Yeah, I think you needed him testing it 100%. That helped build up the suspense around them confiscating the key and his shuffling around trying to get his hands on it. Otherwise we would have thought he was trying to get outside to get in the trunk to use it himself. Then when it popped out of the trunk people would have been facepalming.
I agree with you as far as the key goes. We were talking about this a few pages back. I'd trade the key suspense for a way for the rigged up car to be a spine-tingling surprise though. Not sure how he could have pulled that off.
On the after show, Gilligan said that his writing team went over countless permutations for how things could end. Just because something (Walt going full-tilt nuts) didn't happen in the finale, you can't assume it was never an option that was considered. Maybe this will be addressed in some way in an interview or on the DVD set, but for now this is mere speculation on your part.
Well there's a convenient way to say you are never wrong about anything ever. Give it a rest dude. This is getting tiresome.
The ending was great. It's not like any of you suckers can match writing skills with Vince Gilligan. What the hell did you want? Flynn doing a drive by on the Nazis?
