Sunday night's conclusion of the Emmy Award-winning series Breaking Bad was the culmination of five seasons of crushed dreams, character development, awful (and by awful I mean exhilarating) cliffhangers and emotional distress. It took me about 10 minutes after the end of the show to break from fetal position to begin writing this review.

A chemistry experiment gone wrong does not even begin to describe this series. What happens when you put a chemistry teacher-who is expecting to die of cancer, and has no sense of self-worth because he can't pay his medical bills or support his family-in the crystal meth industry? 

All of the hit men, including Todd Alquist, die. Jesse Pinkman is freed from the hands of the hit men, but he is not free from his past and the fact that he has so much emotional baggage as a result of Walt's abuse and manipulation of him. Saul Goodman relocates himself to start a new life. Skyler, Holly and Walt Jr. "Flynn" White are starting over. Lydia Rodarte-Quayle was the target of the ricin. It's sort of disappointing that both Lydia and Todd could die before Todd was able to make a move that wasn't "Nice shirt," after his building crush on her. It sort of sounds like a Shakespearian drama to me. Walt dies. But most importantly, he finally tells the truth.

The final scene, which was accompanied by "Baby Blue" by Badfinger-the perfect song to convey Walt's undying love for his own creation-was a long awaited close to a painful story. Walt dying in a meth lab was symbolic: his first step into a meth lab was truly the day that he died anyway. 

This series made several poignant cases, other than the ever so obvious: "Don't become a meth dealer. Or make meth. Or do meth." 

The first one is that clearly our health care system sucks. There is no reason why some poor guy who is diagnosed with cancer should feel like he has no choice other than to start cooking meth in order to afford his medical bills. The show was pretty up front about this flaw. It was even brought up again when Hank Schrader, Walt's brother-in-law, needed to pay for his physical therapy after being shot. 

The show proved that one decision often changes everything. Once you make one bad call after another, there is a certain point of no return. Walt's demise was essentially a landslide of awful ideas, beginning with his production of meth, and shortly after, his campaign to go wholesale instead of remaining content with the money he and Jesse had been making locally. 

Separating yourself from your line of work is also not the best idea. Jesse had been selling meth for a long time, but had never actually realized the effects it could have on individuals and their neglected children. Through his business with Walt, Jesse finally saw the negative impact the product had on his costumers, but at that point it was already too late. If only Jesse had understood these consequences beforehand, he could have lived a pretty good life. 

Perhaps the most distressing lesson is that we should be making decisions based upon what is certain. The sentiment that "I'm going to die anyway, so why not smoke cigars and run a meth lab?" is invalid. Walt went into the business assuming that he would die anyway due to his cancer and that everything would dissipate with his inevitably near death. Ironically, he did not even die of cancer. He died of a bullet wound. You never know what the future will bring, even if you are told, "Hey. You have cancer. You're going to die." Things can always turn around. We are only humans. We are not God. Besides, he cooked meth to help pay for his treatment, did he not? Seems kind of silly to me.

Arguably, Walt did not have to start cooking meth to pay for it, either. There were other options. He could have taken the job he was offered with Gray Matter Technologies or taken the money from Elliot Schwartz, but he was too proud. He needed to make the money on his own. He needed to take care of his family himself. His life is basically the fulfillment of the American dream gone wrong, or as I like to call it, the Willy Loman complex.

Throughout the series, there is the sense that, after he "broke bad," Walt was no longer cooking meth to support his family, rather he was doing it for himself. In their final encounter, Walt finally tells Skyler the truth. Skyler says, "If I have to hear one more time that you did this for the family" and is cut off by Walt's "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. I was alive." 

Now I'm not really sure how to spend my life. Maybe I'll become addicted to another series and binge-watch it on Netflix. But a phenomenal show with an incredible cast has ended.
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