1. There will never be a better season of a show or a better finale. While I initially criticized this season for starting slowly, this was everything and exactly what the final episode for any television show should be. It was intense. It was creative. It was brilliant. It tied up all loose ends. It was perfect.
2. The imagery in the episode was flawless and Vince Gilligan’s brilliance cannot be understated. The necklace in Hector’s room, the scene of Gustavo Fring’s face being blown off, Jesse and Mr. White’s final walk out of the meth lab that once was everything and now was literally nothing. The handshake between the pair was superb. You wanted the hug and Gilligan left you wanting more.
3. Hector was particularly used effectively. I was initially critical of his role on the show as I thought he was an unnecessary relic of the past and while he was useful in explaining elements of Fring’s past, I thought Gus continuing to visit him was getting to the point of overkill. There is a delicious irony of him overkilling Gus but, more importantly, it emphasized why he needed to be in so many episodes this season. It was worth the payoff.
4. Saul was spectacular as usual. While his use in the final episode was limited to his scene with Jesse, he hit the mark.
5. The symmetry of Jesse shooting Gale to end season three and Walter shooting one of Gus’ henchmen to save his pupil was not lost on me. There was an increasing belief that a flaw in the writing of the series was that Walter always seemed to ‘take the easy way out’ and for all of his villainous characteristics was lacking the most important one, the ability to kill. This was addressed with meaning and purpose (saving Jesse) and the prolonged wait for it made it even sweeter.
6. Missed Mike and how does he fit into the new scene?
7. The way that the season opened with Gus viciously gutting his own soldier and ends with his own gruesome finish again tied the beginning and the end together about as well as it can be done.
8. I am sick of the Brock storyline. Part of me wish it had ended here. Does anyone think Walt did it to regain Jesse’s loyalty? I don’t. I think it was still Gus trying to use something that would have Jesse pin it on his mentor.
9. Where does the show go from here? Since Walter “won” does he completely stop cooking or does he try to assume control?
10. Anyone else feel like ordering some chicken from Los Pollos Hermanos?
