Breaking Bad Series Finale Review: “Felina” (Season 5, Episode 16)

“Felina” may be the most anticipated episode in Breaking Bad history, but it is not necessarily the first ‘series finale’ the show has produced. Both the Season 2 and Season 4 conclusions, “ABQ” and “Face Off,” could easily have served as spectacular send-offs, as each expertly culminated upon everything that had happened up to that point, and brought closure – either literal, thematic, or both – to the story and characters. “ABQ” saw Jesse’s life utterly destroyed by Walt’s actions after the death of Jane, featured Skyler finally calling Walt on all his bullshit, and ended with Walt’s many sins becoming personified by two planes colliding in midair, right above his house. Had the show ended there, we would have been robbed of three all-time great seasons of television, but there would be no regrets as to the power of the conclusion.

Jonathan R. Lack

Published: Sep 30, 2013 12:52 am

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As I sat watching the final moments play out, with a bleeding, dying Walter White walking through the Nazi meth lab, the slightest hint of a smile on his face as he spent his dying moments in the one place he ever truly felt alive, I could not help myself – I broke out laughing, and it was the use of the Badfinger song “Baby Blue” that really sent me over the edge. Listening to this immensely cheesy, completely overblown love song play out over Walter White’s dying moments, watching in awe as Vince Gilligan boiled down the entire arc of his all-time great television series into a strange, perverse, utterly pathetic ‘romance’ between a man and his meth, I found myself laughing harder than I have ever laughed at this series. Maybe as hard as I have ever laughed in my life.

Part of my unstoppable laughing spasm stemmed, I think, from the simple ‘release’ that ending provided. “Felina” is a quiet episode, a slow and methodical one that takes its time putting everything in place, but it is also an incredibly tense one, not quite so much as “Face Off,” but similar in how it keeps the viewer wound as tight as possible even when very little is happening on screen.

Is Walt going to kill Gretchen and Elliot? What exactly is Walt doing meeting with Lydia and Todd? Does Walt have something nefarious in mind for Skyler? How is this final standoff with the Nazis really going to pay off? Is Jesse going to kill Walt? What will Walt do now that Jesse has driven away? The viewer watches with gradually mounting pressure as all these moments unfold, right up until Walt steps into that meth lab, “Baby Blue” kicks in, and 62 episodes worth of tension snaps, like a rubber band breaking in one’s face. And I couldn’t stop myself. That sudden lack of tension, and the crazy feeling of whiplash it induced, forced me to burst out laughing.

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Author

Jonathan R. Lack

With ten years of experience writing about movies and television, including an ongoing weekly column in The Denver Post's YourHub section, Jonathan R. Lack is a passionate voice in the field of film criticism. Writing is his favorite hobby, closely followed by watching movies and TV (which makes this his ideal gig), and is working on his first film-focused book.