(Spoilers for Breaking Bad, so go watch the whole series if that still counts as spoilers for you.)
Great TV — great TV finales especially — will open up plenty of discussion and interpretation well after the credits roll. While some divisive finales may deserve second chances, Breaking Bad nailed it with its series closer. Walter White ensured that his ill-gotten money would actually do some good, finally confessed that he broke bad for no one other than himself, took care of the lingering baddies, and had a cathartic and sacrificial death. And it all went off without a hitch!
But does that sound a little too good to be true? Pretty much right after the episode aired three years ago, some fans cooked up a theory: What if nearly the entire finale was the fantasy of a dying Heisenberg?
Over the series’ six seasons, Walt is always moving “one step forward and two steps back,” with almost all of his brilliant plans inevitably causing larger consequences. Breaking Bad teaches us that there are no perfect solutions, so why would it stop with the finale? Every play Walt makes in that episode is pulled off flawlessly. He’s the most wanted man in America, and yet he drives across country in a stolen car, moves around his hometown, and visits his wife without a hitch. Walt poisons the right Stevia packet to take out Lydia and kills all the Nazis in one enclosed room with his machine-gun trunk. He frees an imprisoned Jesse, thereby relieving a little more of his guilt and allowing him to die a somewhat heroic death.
The theory suggests that all these perfect moves take place in Walt’s mind. At the beginning of the episode, he’s surrounded by cops in a snow-blanketed car, and that’s where the fantasy starts. Walt envisions an ending that would befit the great Heisenberg, one without a messy arrest or a labored death from cancer. It’s an interesting theory that makes a lot of sense, even if creator Vince Gillian debunked it himself. But that’s the beauty of a good finale: It’s left up to the viewer’s interpretation. And who doesn’t like contemplating one of the best shows of all time years after its ending?
And fan theories continue their unblemished track record of being terrible. “What if Harry Potter was the made up fantasy of an abused kid in the cupboard?”
Uproxx posted about Norm MacDonald positing this exact idea on 10/2/2013. All that is old shall be new again, I guess.
Re: Lydia’s poisoning – she always sat at the exact same table, so replacing her Stevia with ricin would not have been too difficult.
All happy endings are a dream because the characters previously struggled throughout the story. -Fan Theories
yikes, this blog is so damn late. did the poster get mixed up and think it was 2013?
I will eagerly await your blog about how the guy in Members Only jacket might have murdered Tony Soprano and all the clues that support it.
I lol’d.
Was this article in draft mode for three years and you just forgot to hit “publish” until now?
“It’s an interesting theory that makes a lot of sense, even if creator Vince Gillian debunked it himself.” So apparently viewers and Uproxx know more about a made up show than the guy who made it up.
So dumb. Walt DID find the key to the car, Walt also knew Lydia sat at the same table and same seat every time she went to that cafe…. The final episode showcases Walter’s brilliance and ability plain and simple.
What if Walter White was transported by ambulance to a rundown hospital in Boston called St. Elsewhere, and then it started snowing, and then the camera pans back and shows a boy holding a snow globe with the hospital and ambulance in the middle… BOOM! The entire series was dream of a young boy with autism all along.