BREAKING BAD: two finale plot-theories…

1. Walt surveils Camp Swastika and confirms that Jesse is alive and cooking, chained up, for the $hitkickers. He puts together a plan to rescue him. He's not gonna walk thru the gate blasting away w that M-60. No, he needs help, but who? Badger and Skinny Pete! He also needs some transpo, an RV he buys off a Native American (they're BB's deus exes, no?), and the magnet-o-truck he manages to steal from police impound (or gets Junkyard Joe to recreate)!

Walt decides to attack in the afternoon, when Jesse is in the lab w Todd. Skinny Pete leads the charge in the magnet-o-truck. He does a zig-zagging circuit that yank nuts, bolts, and whatnot out of the camp's buildings and machinery and most of the weapons right out of the (Walter?) white supremacist jackholes' hands. Walt follows in the RV, letting Badger out on the edge of camp w the M-60 to perforate everything in sight but the lab. Walt exits the RV and enters the lab to find Jesse. Todd has left him to join Uncle Jack and the goons to deal with the obvious threats. When Walt cuts the chains, Jesse knocks him to the ground and backs away, flabbergasted, frightened, and enraged, still PTSD broken and hysterical after witnessing Andrea's execution. When Walt tries to talk him down, he's struck w a coughing jag that wracks his body and sprays blood on some machinery and the floor. Jesse softens just a bit at this, realizing how sick Walt is now, like his aunt was. Which is just when Todd enters the lab and gets the drop on them. He calls Uncle Jack and whoever else is still around. A few of the scumbags are dead or injured. The magnet-o-truck drove off out of the camp and the machine gunner is probably dead (his firing stopped abruptly). Todd starts a convo w Walt w the intent of recruiting him as their new master cook. Uncle Jack starts to put his foot down on that notion when Jesse yells, "Mask up, Mr. White!" Walt grabs the mask nearest him as Jesse grabs a mask for himself in one hand, a beaker of something or other with the other, and chucks that beaker into a bubbling part of the lab works, triggering a flash band and creating a cloud of phosphene gas. We see Walt make it out of the lab, half dragging Uncle Jack. Walt begins to explain the ways that Jack screwed up, but hey, he's lucky he caught him on a good day, and Walt explains what will happen to him given his exposure to the phosphene and then turns away from the gagging mostly blind Jack to find Jesse. Still sputtering, but apparently more able than he made out, Uncle Jack draws a blade from his boot and readies to lunge from behind at Walt. He's stopped by a bullet in his chest, and dropped by a second one. Walt looks to the gunshots and a cloud of smoke blows away to reveal Todd, mouth and nose covered with a rag, bandit style. He uncovers his face, revealing his smiling human mask. "Are you okay, sir?" We see that he's carrying a duffel from the lab, full of the most recent batches of Blue. Soulless dead-eyed homunculus that he is, Todd's done the math and realizes that Walt is way more valuable than Uncle Jack, and by killing him, he's proven his loyalty and trustworthiness. Todd approaches Walt and begins to parley, to paint a picture of a rebuilt Heisenberg empire with Todd as his apprentice, and maybe, one day, partner. Walt will have none of that, but he plays a receptive Heisenberg, and waits for an opening of some kind. He fingers the pack of smokes in his jacket (we see him earlier in the ep, alone, re-hiding the ricin this way).

Which is the same moment that Jesse (who made his own way out of the choke-smokey lab a while ago) chooses to whack Todd's legs out from under him—with a shovel, or no, the chain!—crumpling him to the ground. Jesse might have the presence of mind to explain to Walt that he has some unfinished business with Todd as he kicks Todd's weapon away. Walt graciously steps back, giving Jesse room to tenderize Todd viciously, delivering a slightly early eulogy that highlights his merciless inhuman acts, his f'd up excuse for a life, and his laughable attachment to both Walt and Lydia.

Bitch.

Todd's skull now crushed, Jesse turns to Walt. Walt hands him Todd's gun. I feel like they should be sitting, side-by-side, when they have their final conversation, so maybe they make their way to the RV, maybe they sit inside, maybe they sit on the ground in the shade against the vehicle. No, make it inside, cuz this RV is a better model in better shape than their first lab, inspiring Walt and Jesse to walk halfheartedly down memory lane again. Walt takes this to be a softening on Jesse's part, and he turns to his other, adopted, son now, to tell his story, for confession, forgiveness, and maybe to sell Jesse on carrying on his legacy as Heisenberg. I don't have the wordsmithing for it, but I'd have Walt deliver a speech about Heisenberg and how people get his principle wrong and what it really means. Part of him is still Mr. White, so of course he makes of it a teaching moment as well as a metaphor for their relationship, history, transformations, survival, and loyalty.

JP: I. Don't. Care. I only want to know two things. You watched Jane die?
WW: Yes.
JP: You poisoned Brock?
WW: Yes.
Jesse raises the gun.
WW: Do it. Yes. I deserve it and you deserve to do it. I *want* you to ki—
*BLAM*
JP: I don't give a $hit about what you want.

Jesse throws Walt's body out of the RV. We hear Walt groan—he's not dead, but bleeding and barely conscious. Jesse throws the duffel out after him.

Wouldn't want to forget your legacy…

From across the camp, we hear someone call Jesse's name. It's Skinny Pete, helping a limping Badger along. Jesse: "My boys! Yeah! Wait there, I'll pick you up!" And he gets back in the RV and helps get Badger inside. He gets Skinny Pete to follow him into one of the office buildings and they roll out and load the money barrels into the RV, then drive out of the camp and onto the road. Badger asks about the barrels, thinking that they're precursor so that Jesse will get back to cooking. Jesse ignores the question and asks the boys if they know anything about Belize.

Back to the blasted camp. All quiet and still except the wind… until a door swings open and out steps Lydia. She'd been at the camp to pick up the latest batch of 90-some percent. When the $hit started going down, Todd put her in a safe room and told her to wait. Sweet psychotic boy. Well, since the gunfire stopped, she's been watching what's been going on, and tracking the product. She apparently makes a bee line for Walt's body and finds his hands wrapped around the duffel. Walt might be conscious enough to say a few words, but Lydia cuts him short w some snarky pinched remark thanking Walt for taking care of loose ends for her. Walt blacks out and Lydia yanks the duffel bag out of his hands and shoulders it. She looks in the bag, assured by the baggies of Blue. She reaches in and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and smiles a tight little smile. She puts them in her pocket and begins walking to another building. We hear a garage door open, Lydia getting into her car, and then see her drive out of the garage, exit the camp, and get onto the dirt road. We then see her in the car as she puts on her music (I haven't figured out the perfect selection—opera? a broadway musical? learn-a-language? Andrew Carnegie?) pushes in the car's lighter, reaches over to the passenger side, where the duffel is, and pulls out the pack of smokes. She shakes out a cigarette and drops the pack back in the duffel. The car lighter pops.

Cut to black. Music continues. It should definitely be music. How about "Across The Sea?" (I *think* the show has already used "My Way," right? =)

Finish w a montage…

Flynn entertains Holly while Skylar takes her turn in front of Robert Forster's camera for their new IDs at the vacuum repair shop. Pan over to two money barrels in a corner of Forster's workspace.

Robert Forster is escorted into a bank vault. Once he's left alone w the unlocked safety deposit box, he transfers the contents of the carry-on bag he has with him into the box—a ton of cash, topped with an envelope that reads "To Kaylee on her 18th birthday - love, Grandpa."

Elliott and Gretchen fighting in Elliott's fancy library. On the screens of a couple of laptops are headlines about proof identifying Walter White as Heisenberg and open emails with attached legal docs with the word "patent" and "Walter White" and "Gray Matter" letter head.

Jesse in a Hawaiian shirt running on the wet sand, chased by Brock as waves lap their feet. Jesse stops and catches him and swings him around until they're both looking out at the water and waving. It's Skinny Pete at the controls of a motorboat, a girl at his side, with Badger yelling at him, being dragged on waterskis behind him.

Music fades down as voices come up and we see a hotel room. We don't see the two men in the room, but we hear a job interview wrapping up in a foreign language. Camera focuses on a painting of figures on a beach and a boat in the water a short way off. One of the men says, "You know, I'm certain I've seen that exact painting somewhere before… In another hotel room on the other side of the world. Who do you suppose paints these? Where do they come from? There must be a warehouse somewhere filled with the things, right? Oh, never mind. My mind does wander sometimes. Thanks for taking the time to speak with me." The interviewer explains that it's not final, but he's 95 percent certain that Madrigal will be calling him back later today, tomorrow at the latest. The camera slides from the painting across the room, passing the exit as the two men shake hands and the one departs, out of focus, and lands on the bed, at a black pork pie hat. The interviewer: "Oh, sir! Mr. Lambert? You've left your hat! Sir…?"

2. I'm unclear on the potency of the ricin, but hopefully there's enough in the vial to deliver a killing dose when mixed in with a batch of Blue. When Walt sneaks into the $hitkicker lab, without rescuing Jesse, he poisons the Blue, which ends up hitting all of his enemies where it hurts. The batch of lethal blue, which kills hundreds in the Southwest and Eastern Europe, is blamed on Heisenberg in the media. And, with a couple of emails with particular attachments sent to the right newspapers and stations, Walt leaks proof that he was *vital* to the foundation of Gray Matter Tech.

So, Elliott and Gretchen are undeniably tied to the drug dealer turned mass murderer known as Heisenberg. Gray Matter's stock plummets.

Lydia distributed the poison Blue, guaranteeing that she will either be outed or eliminated by upper management.

Todd, Uncle Jack, and the $hitkickers produced the deadly meth, ensuring their liquidation by some wetworks subdivision of Madrigal.

Walt manages to contact Skylar and get her to give him up (along with proof and the location of Hank and Gomez's bodies) in exchange for immunity and relocation for herself and her family. She does it, and the police find Walt, along with instructions and evidence, dead, sitting in a chair in a room at the Crossroads motor inn, facing a clone of that painting from the Hacienda motel where he contracted Uncle Jack to kill Mike's people.

Keep on keepin on~

BREAKING BAD: pre-"Felina" brain dump…

Getting some of my thoughts, hopes, and dreams for the BrBa finale out of my head and into words here. Will identify items or issues that appear to be in play and discuss a bit.

THE RICIN.
If it remains in the vial, then Walt must mean to use it to poison someone. The telegraphed option I'm seeing is Lydia's Stevia. Walt was ready to do it once before—he brought the ricin with him to a coffee shop meet w her. Not sure if he would have seen her Stevia habit, but he's gotta know that she's a tea drinker.

Does anyone have any idea what would happen to someone who took a drag of a cigarette w a plastic vial of ricin in it? I have this finale fantasy of seeing Walt hide the ricin like that again, having the pack on him when he's killed or knocked out, and then having someone (I'm thinking Lydia—does she smoke?) take the pack off of his body and walk off into the sunset, believing her/himself to have escaped Lambert's revenge.

A really dark use of it, a nuclear option that would take a nice chunk of flesh out of all of Walt's enemies, would be to drop it into the works of the lab at Camp $hitkicker. One ricin-tainted batch, distributed in the Southwest and/or Eastern Europe. With crystal blue as the vehicle, his supposed signature product, that would level up his horrific criminal rep to mass murder levels, taking Gray Matter further down by association, and the poisoned product would take Lydia and her network down as distributors, and frame Todd, Uncle Jack, and the shooting swastikas as the incompetent suppliers/producers. Heck, if everyone's afraid that the best product out there might kill them, Walt might even put a dent in meth trafficking and use as a whole! That's a special legacy, no?

Maybe it could be a piece of (vicious) leverage that Walt leaves for Skylar to work an immunity/relocation deal for herself.

THE M-60.
Having Walt and Jr. watch SCARFACE in the early part of the season was conspicuous, right? I mean, it was fitting, not at all forced, but c'mon, "Say hello" coupled with the junk in Walt's trunk. I think we know what we're meant to think and anticipate and, frankly, twistedly hope for. But wouldn't it be just the sly move to set us up for that and then yank the rug out from under us? Cuz frankly, I have a lot of trouble seeing Walter Lambert staying on his feet for more than 5 seconds once he pulls the trigger on that machine gun. So, who's gonna be that perforates the scenery?

I think Jesse would love being able to cut loose in the middle of Camp Swastika. Maybe Walt makes it into the lab to free Jesse but they get discovered and pinned down. Walt's injured, or maybe they're separated, and Jesse finds himself near Walt's oversized duffel, and inside, the M-60. Jesse straps that sucker on, steps out from his lab table cover, and starts blowing away the $hitkickers.

That would be pretty awesome.

Funny how the scumbags are WHITE supremacists, no?

ALLIES?
I know it's kind of goofy, and would be way too joyful a thing to see, given the hellish descent of these last episodes, but I would LOVE for Badger or Skinny Pete (I'm seeing Badger more =) get dropped off with the M-60 inside the NeoN camp gate as a machine gunning diversion, while Lambert goes after Jesse.

Even if they don't get to handle the machine gun, I do think that Badger and Skinny Pete would make for devoted, if not super-effective, agents and soldiers in Walt's action vs. the $hitkickers.

I'd love for Walt to get the magnet-o-truck out of police impound. Wouldn't it make for a wonderful, surreal, and disorienting first wave of an assault? Yanking nuts and bolts and weapons and all kinds of hardware out of hands, buildings, and vehicles.

And Joe, the junkyard wizard behind its creation. He could be enlisted to conjure something special for one attack or another.

WALT'S KILL LIST.
Elliott and Gretchen. I dunno bout this. I mean, Walt turned his back on his Gray Matter legacy a long time ago. Having them publicly disown him, well, it sucks to get kicked when you're down, but is that really the switch flipper for him in that NH bar? I definitely wanted Gray Matter to make an appearance at the end here, but I think it's used as the story-bait to draw Walt's attention to what comes next: the revelation that blue meth is back on the market.

Having Walt go Scarface at Gray Matter technologies would definitely be cathartic and fun, but I just don't buy it.

What would hit them where it hurts would be the release of documents that prove that Walt was instrumental in the foundation of Gray Matter as well as the revelation of further proof of Heisenberg's most heinous crimes.

I've had it pointed out to me that somewhere along the line we learned that Walt abruptly and most unceremoniously left Gretchen. I'm unclear on the timeline of Walt professoring, dating Gretchen, leaving Gretchen, meeting and marrying Skylar, and the founding of Gray Matter. I feel like what would fit is that Walt met Skylar while he was seeing Gretchen, got Skylar pregnant, and decided to do the Right Thing and leave Gretchen and marry Skylar and commit to a family life and a work life that didn't involve the complication of partnering with a jilted ex. IS this a mystery? I honestly haven't tracked the details and timing well enough to know, but if it IS, I'd like to see it "solved" in a way that hurts the Schwartzes.

Uncle Jack & the $hitkickers. They killed Hank (Jack pulled the trigger). They took his money. They broke their contract to kill Jesse. They used Jesse to produce a knock-off of his product. In the immediate wake of Hank's murder, Walt is keen to have them killed. After a few months' exile in the Granite State, however, that was no longer a priority. The reemergence of crystal blue (and thusly, Jesse's survival) put them back in his crosshairs.

I'd like to see this happen… Walt confront Jack, and either they both draw at the same time or Jack gets the drop on him. Just as Jack seems ready to dispatch Walt, Jack gets plugged by… Todd. Dead-eyed Todd does this to demonstrate his loyalty to and respect for Mr. White. Uncle Jack should never have made light of his feelings for lovely Lydia, either.

Todd. I don't think that Walt's got him singled out for a bullet. I mean, as far as Walt's concerned, Todd's been a good student (he applies himself, and that's all Walt can ask of him, right?) and altho he's basically soulless homunculus, he seems to follow a code, a vicious, calculating one, but a code.

Altho… If Walt has any contact with Skylar and discovers the ski-masked home invasion he led to protect his lovely Lydia, Todd would shoot right to the top of the hit list.

Jesse. He's no longer on the list. Walt regrets ordering Jesse's death. When he hears of the blue meth returning to market, he's just as relieved to realize that Jesse's still alive, being exploited by Uncle Jack, as he is furious that the neo-Nazi scumbags who killed Hank are profiting from it.

With his cancer going un/home-treated, Walt is ready and willing to pay for what he's done to Jesse and will ask or manipulate Jesse into killing him. In Walt's mind:

1. Death by execution will be faster than the cancer. 
2. It'll be his adopted son and apprentice who pulls the trigger, not some $hitkicker or usurper looking to make his rep. 
3. Jesse will get some justice, closure, and satisfaction. 

Thing is, I don't see Jesse letting Walt off that easy.

JESSE'S KILL LIST.
Walt. He let Jane die. He poisoned Brock (how the heck did that happen, exactly?). He killed Mike and had all of Mike's men killed. He manipulated Jesse with sickening natural ease throughout. Jesse doesn't want to just kill Mr. White, that would be too kind, a mercy. He wants to hurt him, badly. He's already taken a very effective swing along those lines by exposing Walt's money. Alas, more powerful in concept than execution.

Walt will ask Jesse to kill him, that he deserves it, that he wants it to happen—I want you to kill me, Jesse, I want *you* to kill m. Jesse will respond by incapacitating him, not killing him—I don't give a $hit what you want, bitch—and leaving him somewhere the authorities and/or rivals will find him.

Todd. This guy has got to go. Bad enough he tortured him, caged him, and extorted 92% purity out of him with the threat of hurting Andrea and Brock, the dead-eyed husk of a boy next door executed Andrea and orphaned Brock, right on their front porch! He has got to go. If Jesse doesn't get to hole punch him w the M-60 then I hope he can detonate him with a shard of fulminated mercury. Hrm… Maybe Walt brings a bag for Jesse to pass off as part of the latest cook batch and either uses it to destroy the lab and escape or lets Todd cart it off to be jostled in handling or transportation.

Uncle Jack & the $hitkickers. Well, sure. These guys are responsible for torturing, imprisoning, and basically enslaving him as their cook. Jesse will be more than pleased to see them die.

I'd be very happy to see JESSE do the Scarface routine on the Swastikas, but I'd *love* to see him drop some deadly chemistry on them in the lab. A flash bang and cloud of phosphene gas to knock out and kill as many of them as possible so that he can escape (perhaps together with a captured Walt). Alas, I doubt Jesse'd be able to create any fulminated mercury while chained under Todd's supervision.

THE MONEY.
It should all end up in Jesse's hands for redistribution. A sizable chunk set aside somewhere secure for orphaned Brock and Mike's granddaughter. A considerable contribution to the Wayfarer 515 Fund. Some arrangement for Walt's family if possible (regular donations via savewalterwhite.com, anyone?). And enough left over to get vacuum cleaner repaired to Hollywood with Skinny Pete and Badger. =)

WALT'S FAMILY.
Todd and the ski mask patrol have proven that they can get to Holly and fam in their new (temporary?) home. Sadly, the only roles I see for Skylar, Flynn, and Holly are as leverage for Walt's enemies against him, and hostages vs. the cops should the $hitkickers get caught there. A showdown/standoff would be pretty frickin prickly and intense, no?

Y'know, I totally believed that Walt taking proud credit for all of his Heisenbergian criminal activity was enough to save Skylar from prosecution, but Saul did a fine job of explaining the naivete of that.

Somewhere in the unfolding of his machinations, Walt needs to contact Skylar to present himself as a bargaining chip for Skylar's freedom. Once she gets an immunity agreement drawn up, she'll give up Walt's location, dead or alive, with a confession and/or hard physical evidence at the scene—Crossroads motel, anyone? Not sure if the cops will find him dead or alive, but he will have saved his wife from prison and his daughter from foster care.

Perhaps Walt will arrange to have his family vacuum cleaner repaired.

Longshot. And I don't really like it, cuz if it works, it gets Walt legally off the hook, but the bodies of Hank and Gomez haven't been found, right? MAYbe Walt can play his performance on the phone w Skylar as being delivered under duress, with madman Hank Heisenberg holding a gun to his head? Then Walt's DVD could still be in play, along with a story about Hank dumping Walt in some hole while he went to take care of business w Uncle Jack in the desert, never to be heard from again.

Or something…?

A PAINTING.
I'd love for the last thing Walt sees to be a clone of that painting from the wall of the hotel room where he contracts Uncle Jack for the deaths of Mike's men. I'm not sure what the subject was… There was a boat, several figures in robes/tunics, the water, and the shoreline—Jesus meets Peter? Any significance there?

Maybe… Maybe, after Jesse refuses to do him in, Walt ends up ricin-ing himself in a room at the Crossroads, and that painting hanging in it.

NATIVE AMERICANS?
I feel like they (and their vehicles) have been major and minor deus exes in a few episodes and the finale may need one or two of those to wrap up the stuff what needs wrapping. A longshot wish, Walt encounters the fellow who helped tow the RV out of the ditch way back when and either hitches a ride or buys his vehicle.

SAUL?
All right, enough crazy talk. Let me know if I'm way off on any of this and/or missed some detail in the show itself that renders any of my wishful thinking impossible.

Keep on keepin on~

P.S. Some earlier finale crazy talk…