I don't know. I'm going to be mulling over "Felina" for a while, and mulling over what, if anything, it has to say about this show's place in the larger pantheon. This last stretch of episodes has been so incredible that nothing short of epic failure at the very end would have knocked "Breaking Bad" off its perch. This was far from epic failure, and to a degree the previous three episodes were so messy and so devastating that the show practically earned the right for this vaguely happy ending. Walt defeats all his enemies, but dies in the process. Flynn may be getting $9.7 million (give or take taxes and legal fees), and Skyler may be avoiding prosecution, but I imagine both would rather have Hank alive, and their family intact. Jesse goes free, and for a moment seems genuinely happy as he roars down the open road, but he'll be carrying the physical and emotional scars of his association with Mr. White for the rest of his life.
Because of all that, "Felina" doesn't feel like a cheat, or a massive misstep, or an overreach. This is one of the greatest shows of my lifetime, and nothing in this concluding chapter changes that.
But it also felt so neat, and so orderly, in such an un-"Breaking Bad" sort of way, that I don't think I can give the show bonus points for its last episode in the same way that "The Shield" or "Six Feet Under" get extra credit for their finales. Most of this last half-season was astonishing, but I don't think Gilligan was just being self-effacing when he said "Ozymandias" was the best episode they ever made. That was, essentially, where the story of Walter White ended. These last two weeks have been an extended epilogue, the first half ("Granite State") gut-wrenching, the second half satisfying and tidy.
I understand why Hardwick, and so many of the people I follow on Twitter, were so pleased with the ending. In an era where the great dramas so often overreach, obfuscate or stumble in their conclusions, this was definitive. These were the final, unmistakable steps on the path Walter White put us on nearly six years ago.
But given everything that Walt had been through, and put us through, over these 62 episodes, I think I might have preferred the whole package be wrapped in a bow that wasn't so tight. "Granite State" suggested a world in which Heisenberg was dead and useless, but "Felina" brought him back to life, briefly more potent than ever before. It's a more cathartic, upbeat conclusion than if the series had ended with Walt getting into Robert Forster's van or living alone in that snowy cabin, but is it ultimately a more fitting one for this series?
