I’m usually not one for fan predictions… but in this case, I really just can’t help myself.
Today, the saga of “The One Who Knocks” comes to an ultimate conclusion. For this Agent, it’s been a pretty awesome ride so far. Some people out there are already lamenting a world with no more Breaking Bad, asking the TV-gods, “WHY? Why must the good shows always end so early?” I, however, find solace in the fact that Breaking Bad will not have gone down in history as another TV series whose episode list far outlasted its story.
That being said, if you’re all caught up, to Season 6, Episode 15, “Granite State,” you know that there are quite a few threads to close up if we’re going to get the nice, tidy series ender I’m hoping for. That will most likely not happen, but I have faith. Let’s go Vince Gilligan!
What Will Walter White Do? WWWWD. W^4D.
Anyway, as of “Granite State,” we have the following unresolved character objectives/obstacles:
Ok, so 6 and 7 aren’t exactly serious and 8 is a big meh. If Marie has anything to do with the finale, I’d be both surprised and ambivalent. How does that work, right? She’s kind of like Sansa in Game of Thrones at the moment. She’s only interesting because she’s anchored to a character that’s interesting. Sansa : Tyrion :: Marie : Hank. Now that Hank is prevented from influencing the course of events, because he’s dead, Marie no longer matters. Of course, her wants do still exist, but they’re a bit unclear at this point. I’m sure that maybe she might want Walt dead, but that’s me projecting. It hasn’t been indicated in show. Also, there’s Jack. While he and his cohorts are definitely a force to deal with in the world, they’re little more than tools for Todd the Soulless.
That’s quite a lot to tie up in an hour and a half. How’re they going to do it? The easy answer would be to kill of everyone. That, however, might not make for the most interesting endpiece. And of course, a few of these threads could be dropped/taken care of in montage. Again, that might not be ideal, but it might be a neccessity. Or, they could get paid off in the Saul Goodman spinoff.
The way I’m looking at this, though, is “Whose story is it?”
This is a story about Walter White, a 50-year old chemistry teacher who found out one day that he had advance stage lung cancer. Walt was once a research scientist, whose seemingly groundbreaking research data was used to create a multi-billion dollar biotech company. However, he sold his interest in the company before it became financially viable. Not wanting to leave his family destitute after he passes away, he decided to put his chemistry brains to work by cooking crystal meth. What leads him to this? Desperation and pride.
Desperation and pride. This is what drives Walter White. Sure, over the 5 seasons we’ve been following Walter White, we’ve seen him change a lot. We’ve watched as he slowly (sometimes not so slowly) descended down a slippery moral slope, into sociopathy. Desperation and pride, however have always been at the core of his being, it seems.
Knowing what we know about Walt’s state of mind at the end of “Granite State,” where do you think desperation and pride will carry him? I’m not sure he’s going to take direct action against the Schwartzes, but he’s going to want to prove, at least to himself that he can end things on his own terms.
I think he’s resigned himself to the fact that he’s probably going to die very soon. Surviving this ordeal is no longer his concern. In fact, redemption in his family’s (mostly Walt Jr.’s) eyes may no longer be a concern to him. Still, he’ll want to leave some money to his family, because that was part of his plan from the beginning. It’s a point of pride. That means, all his money, even the cash that’s being held by Jack & Co. Is that what the M60 machine gun is for? Taking on the Neo Nazis camp? Would he, by himself, be able to take them all out single-handedly, even with the element of surprise? Not without help, I’d think.
What if, Lydia hires a hit squad to take out Jack & Co, because she’s so keen on the blue meth, which Todd only seems to be able to produce with Jesse around. She’s also all about keeping things as clean as possible. Perhaps she takes a crew in to clean out the Neo Nazi camp, using Todd as an in, and then murdalizes all of them… Todd included, to sever all ties to her. She makes Jesse a proposition, who takes it, because he likes living.
In the meantime, Walt makes his way to the camp, and arrives to see the aforementioned happenings. His work done for him, he goes in and liberates his millions. He thinks he’s made a clean getaway, only as Jesse is being thrown into a car, he catches a glimpse of Walter White hauling away the drums of money.
Walter figures out some genius delivery system for the money to get to his family, much like Mike’s safe deposit box scheme. Or, he could use all $80 million (by Walter’s Count) to buy a controlling share in Gray Matter Technology, under his new pseudonym, Mr. Lambert. Then he wrecks them from the inside by releasing that news to the press.
In the meantime, Jesse is hell-bent on revenge against Mr. White. Not sure what Jesse has to leverage against him at this point, so he’s going to try and attack Walt directly. Walt doesn’t know Jesse’s still alive, so he’s be caught off guard, but that’s almost of no consequence. Jesse won’t be able to capitalize on that because 1) he’s prone to emotional action, and will probably just rush in 2) deep down inside, he’s not a killer and will probably still hesitate. Final confrontation time.
What happens from here, I’m not sure. It could go anywhere, really.
Perhaps Walter is able to talk down Jesse, saying he’s going to die anyway. Might as well allow Walter to die in prison, paying for his crimes, instead of the quick death Jesse might be offering at that point. At which point, Walt will allow himself to be captured. Then he’ll pop the ricin for good measure and die in custody after a few days of seizures and explosive diarrhea.
Perhaps Jesse will finally really say enough is enough and just bust a cap in Walt’s dome.
If that’s the case… who’s the ricin for? Or, who was it meant to poison? And where will it end up?
Whatever happens tonight… part of me hopes it has ABSOLUTELY NO SEMBLANCE to what I just outlined above, for a couple reasons: 1) I do still want to be surprised. I love surprises, and 2) I don’t want Vince Gilligan showing up on my shabby doorstep and smacking in the face with a court order or something.
What do you think will be a fit farewell for The One Who Knocks?