Felina (Breaking Bad)

"Felina" is the series finale of the American television drama series Breaking Bad. It is the sixteenth episode of season five and the 62nd overall episode of the series. Written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on September 29, 2013.

The plot finds Walter White (Bryan Cranston) evading a nationwide manhunt for him in order to return to New Mexico to deliver the remaining profits from his illegal methamphetamine empire to his family, and to eliminate the neo-Nazi gang who double-crossed him.

Plot

After leaving the bar, Walt leaves New Hampshire in a stolen Volvo, with Marty Robbins' song "El Paso" playing on the radio. Upon returning to New Mexico, he tracks down Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz (Jessica Hecht and Adam Godley) at their new house in Santa Fe, after posing as a reporter for The New York Times. In order to circumvent the suspicions of the DEA and Skyler he orders them to give his remaining $9.72 million to Walt Jr., who will inherit it upon turning eighteen, saying this is their chance to "make things right". Under the threat of apparent snipers waiting outside, the Schwartzes agree. After Walt leaves, he pays Badger Mayhew (Matt L. Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) for aiming red laser pointers at the Schwartzes and posing as hitmen. He learns Jack Welker's (Michael Bowen) gang has been cooking and distributing blue meth and deduces that Jesse (Aaron Paul) is still alive.

On his 52nd birthday, after purchasing an M60 machine gun and retrieving the ricin from his abandoned house, Walt intercepts Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia's (Laura Fraser) meeting at a coffee shop and makes a business proposal, offering a new formula for methylamine-free meth. Todd turns him down, but Lydia feigns interest so that Walt can be lured into getting killed by Jack. Later, Skyler (Anna Gunn) receives a phone call from Marie (Betsy Brandt), who informs her Walt is back in town, unaware that Walt is already with Skyler. Walt leaves Skyler with the lottery ticket on which the coordinates of Hank and Steve Gomez's grave is printed, advising her to use it to negotiate a plea deal. Walt also admits that his life as a drug manufacturer was for himself, rather than the family, stating that he did it because he enjoyed it, was good at it, and it made him feel alive. He holds Holly, then watches from afar as Walt Jr. arrives home from school.

Walt meets with Jack and his men at their hideout, where Jesse is still performing slave labor for the gang in an adjacent Quonset hut. Jack refuses Walt's offer and orders him killed. Walt insults Jack for partnering with Jesse, but Jack calls for Jesse to be brought to them, to show Walt they aren't partners and Jesse is Jack's prisoner. When Jesse is brought in, Walt tackles him to the ground and uses his car keys to remotely fire the machine gun from his car. The ensuing gunfire kills Jack's men and wounds Jack and Walt, but leaves Todd and Jesse unharmed. Jesse strangles Todd with his handcuffs and breaks his neck, killing him. Walt takes Jack's gun and kills him, despite his insistence that Walt will never find the stolen money if he does. Walt gives the gun to Jesse and asks Jesse to kill him. Realizing that Walt has been mortally wounded by a stray bullet, he refuses. As Jesse and Walt leave Jack's house, Walt answers a call on Todd's phone from a visibly ill Lydia. He gloats that her business partners are dead and informs her that she is about to die from ricin poisoning, as he laced her stevia with it at the coffee shop. Jesse and Walt nod farewell to one another. Jesse then flees in Todd's El Camino, crying and screaming with relief.

Walt goes to Todd's lab and admires the equipment, holding a gas mask and rubbing a kettle. Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is heard as he succumbs to his bullet wound and dies,^[1] his body collapsing to the ground just as police arrive. Officers storm the lab, and two of them approach the now motionless Walt, who has a frozen smile on his face.

Reception

Ratings

"Felina" had the highest ratings of any episode of Breaking Bad: 10.28 million in the United States, including 5.3 million adults aged 18–49.^[2][3] The episode generated millions of online comments and Nielsen Holdings rankings established that it was the most-discussed episode on Twitter for that week.^[4] The popularity of the episode resulted in a 2,981 percent increase of sales of the Badfinger song "Baby Blue" as well as a 9,000 percent increase in streaming over Spotify.^[5]

Critical reception

Upon airing, the episode received universal critical acclaim, with critics agreeing that the finale lived up to the hype that was generated around it.^[6][7] In her review of "Felina", Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A rating, writing that, "Walt’s purpose is fulfilled, and he just stops".^[8] Seth Amitin at IGN also praised the episode, calling it fully satisfying and awarding it a score of 9.8 out of 10.^[9] Katey Rich agreed with the above sentiments, calling the episode "a deeply satisfying and surprisingly emotional finale."^[10]

Production

Series creator Vince Gilligan wrote and directed "Felina"

On September 18, 2013, it was announced that both "Granite State" and "Felina" would run 75 minutes, including commercials.^[11] The actual runtime of the episode is 55 minutes.^[12] The episode was written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan.

Title reference and music

The episode title, "Felina", is inspired in the character Feleena from the cowboy ballad "El Paso" by Marty Robbins, which plays a major role during the episode.^[8] The writers tweaked the name from Feleena to Felina so that it would also be an anagram for Finale.^[13][14] Moreover, the word Felina can also be broken up into three different symbols of chemical elements found on the periodic table: Iron (Fe), Lithium (Li), and Sodium (Na).

Badfinger's "Baby Blue" is played during the final scene. According to series creator Vince Gilligan, this is reference to the high-quality blue meth Walt had produced over the previous seasons and his life as a drug kingpin which the main character lastly recognizes he had enjoyed.^[13] According to Rolling Stone, the music supervisors on the show disagreed with Gilligan's choice for the final song;^[13] however music supervisor Thomas Golubić stated that "journalists sometimes try to create drama where there isn't any" and that his quotes were "mis-represented."^[15] "Baby Blue" became an obvious choice as the editing came closer to completion with Golubić describing the process of finalizing the song:

Before I saw the scene, I pulled together a number of ideas – one which I thought worked pretty beautifully against picture: The Bees "No More Excuses" – but once I saw that beautiful shot, and saw the scene in context, I realized why Vince was so strongly attached to the Badfinger song. It's tricky for us as music supervisors in that we keep pulling together ideas and revising them. None of us know the right answer until we are at the very end of that process and have cut and locked picture to work with. Vince is just really talented at knowing what the final effect he is looking for, and knew early on that Badfinger's "Baby Blue" was the right choice for what he was looking to do. It took until the final picture was assembled that I was able to also see what a fantastic choice it was.^[16]

—Thomas Golubić

References

External links

• "Felina" at the official Breaking Bad site
• "Felina" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Felina" at TV.com

v t e Breaking Bad Created by: Vince Gilligan Characters Walter White Skyler White Jesse Pinkman Hank Schrader Saul Goodman Gus Fring Todd Alquist Episodes Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Season 5 Related articles Awards and nominations Better Call Saul Metástasis AMC "to break bad" Quotations Media Database entry Category