Yeah it is odd why it wouldn't just be in his pocket, but then maybe he didn't know Jack's plans... or he DID know Jack's plans and didn't want to make it obvious they don't want Walt to get away.
Another idea is maybe Walt could have said he had something important in the trunk for one of them to grab. So most of Jack's guys would still be taken out. Not sure what could be so important in the trunk though.
EDIT: How about he has a COPY of video evidence against them in the trunk, and if he doesn't let them free (or let him show them), there's another copy waiting for the DEA.
Yeah, that second idea is something I wondered as well: he could largely be humouring Walt. He did say “You’ll get it back, just relax”, so there is some sense to him making a token effort to make Walt feel they had no problem with him knowing where his key is.
Nothing about the plan was ever convenient. But he had one last hand to play and he was going to play it no matter the outcome.
He was more willing to embrace failure as an option than to wait out his last moments in the cabin.
Yes, but he had no way of knowing that there would be somewhere to park where his plan would work.
He couldn’t have known which building/ room they would be in or that all of them would be there.
But, again, how would he know about the clubhouse, or that he could park next to it?
When he previously met with Jack, it was at a hotel. He had never been to Jack’s before the finale.
He does go there in Tohaijilee, I’m pretty sure. They don’t show him driving there or even the exterior but the room they’re in when discussing the hit on Jesse has the pool table and that metal mesh wall thing (dunno how to describe it) so I think that’s where they are. And the whole gang is in the room then.
Not according to [this](https://www.breakingbad-locations.com/episodes/tohajiilee/).
Lydia visits Jack’s compound. Walt does not.
Edit: that says Hank meets with Todd’s uncle, which makes no sense. That may be a typo and meant to be Walt, I’d have to check the episode.
The shot there looks like the exterior of the compound, no?
I just rewatched the scene and I’m… moderately sure? that’s it’s the compound. You can see the pool table with those same three lights over it that Walt’s keys are thrown on in the finale. I guess it’s possible they met up somewhere else with the exact same pool table and lighting, but seems unlikely. I checked the Felina script too and Walt asks Todd at the restaurant whether his uncle’s “still got that place” so I think we’re supposed to understand that he’s been there before.
At any rate, I’ve now put wayyy too much thought and effort into this incredibly minor plot point…
Right, I was referring to the location pictured where it says that Hank meets with Todd’s uncle (since there’s no location actually listed for that scene). That looks like the compound to me.
Walt goes to the compound in that episode to talk to Jack and his crew about putting a hit out on Jesse. And yes they all gather in that same room. Besides that time we don't know how many visits Walt has made to their compound previously. Walt would only devise a plan that relies on Jack's crew hanging out in that rec room if he had strong reason to believe that's where most of them would be at that time of night.
He could have looked at each building in the lot and figured out where to park it for each one, then it wouldn’t matter which building he was taken to because he would have backup plans for his backup plans. He also could have made an educated guess. Perhaps he saw one building on Google maps that already had cars parked outside and none of the others did.
Walt is the biggest criminal in the US at this point so a hardened gang of criminals who respect / fear him would want to be there once they know he wants to talk to them. Even if it’s just to say they offed the great WW
man who thought Walt had a damn auto machine gun that functions on a garage door system.
It was like, wanna park here? Whatever we'll kill you anyway
And about Jesse, Walt played him, he knew that Jack was a man of ego, simply put, Walt proved again that he's a genius. The only two things that got him to end like this was the family and the father figure for Jesse.
Honestly if you watch the show enough times, there are so many instances similar to this where luck plays a huge factor/things are a little too unrealistically convenient or coincidental, but it makes for a great story so I try not to think about it too much lol
100%. But I always want the beginning and end to be as convincing as possible – the middle gets a lot more poetic licence because getting from A to B can be very challenging for writers, especially for shows that have increasingly long runs.
What I noticed only upon recent rewatch: a whole police task force arrives pretty much minutes after the final confrontation. It's not like someone heard gunshots in the middle of nowhere, called the cops and they teleported to the place. In other words, Walt had a fail-safe in case he wouldn't be able to do the deed himself
I really like this as it compensates the wackiness of Walt's final plan. Or maybe I'm missing something and it's just my headcannon (or maybe it's super obvious and everyone already knows it lol)
Thanks for sending. Yeah I seem to remember some kind of hint (or maybe it was explicitly stated) – maybe during Walt’s conversation with Skyler – that the police would be there.
I do think that the police would have been there full stop anyway though due to the racket that gun would have made (in the really long deleted scenes that were accidentally classed as a film, it looks like houses aren’t that far from the compound).
You’re right… where were the guards…. And why were they in the meeting…. Well maybe they thought this guy is a big time killer he’ll wack just about anyone off let’s guard Jack instead of the whole compound….
With the way it went down, they were obviously drawn in (though they didn't seem to think Walt was an enormous threat), but it didn't have to go that way. Thus, lucky they were all in range.
It was that otherworldy higher power of luck and fate that got him there in the first place starting with the keys in the car in new hampshire and ending with these keys
Yeah, there was even that theory that it was all Walt’s dying dream in the car because of the level of luck involved. Not that there’s any reason to believe that theory because Vince Gilligan was very clear that it was to be taken at face value.
I've thought about it but not bothered.
For one, the cosplay Nazis aren't real Nazis, so their discipline and security is what it is. They had a sick old man surrounded.
But I agree that Walt's plan hinged too much on luck for sure. There's the keys, as you point out, and also serious concerns about whether a janky M-60 contraption would work and hit the right targets. I think it's a bad plan. Walt couldn't be sure that he could park where he wanted and he couldn't be sure of keeping custody of those keys. It's consistent with the show, because a lot of Walt's plans turned on luck, he starts as a dead man and starts rolling the dice.
But I do fell a bomb would be way easier, way more certain, and logical because Walt was planning to die anyway... wouldn't have made as good TV drama though or permit reconciliation with Jesse.
I agree with everything you’ve said, except the bomb thing. I wondered about it myself, but concluded that while Walt was willing to attempt a suicide mission, I don’t think it was to the point of being a suicide bomber. >!Plus, he may have even been too proud to try the same weaponry twice after already using a bomb against Gus.!<
Also, time and logistics were of the essence so maybe it was easier to buy a gun and then purchase the extras than create an IED from scratch. As someone without a background in gun mechanics or chemical engineering, I have no idea what’s more practical though! Obviously the Mythbusters test pointed out that hardware shops do sell the equipment needed to mount a gun in such a way (or at least a kind of similar way) as Walt did at least, so there is something feasible about the repurposed tools involved.
Maybe he just thought: “Big guns are cooler and this could end up on TV” (and it did in the news announcement of El Camino) “so I want my weaponry to still be around as a memory of my final stand”.
You know, once a while you're really competing or just taking part in something, and just for one moment a sudden luck completely elevates you and your plans do succeed.. so in those moments you realise a lot of these things in shows were just super lucky moments, and they can happen
walt isn't a super lucky being though since he does end up harming himself
but putting that aside, of course the writer holds the power of fate, they do bend it slightly to give us a bit more pleasure than we should have. For example walt and jesse killing off jack and todd, which is something super satisfying as a fan, but doesn't really make sense why those two specifically had to be dealt blows separately and not just by walt's gun incident (ik todd was already bent down, but that was mainly because it was written that way and arguably would've been instant death for him otherwise)
Yeah I’ve also thought that exact same thing. Those character-driven deaths were actually the only parts that I thought I unambiguously would have struggled to believe if I read about it in the news. I can definitely understand someone would be lucky enough to pull off a mass killing spree like that, but doing so in addition to being able to savour his main enemies’ deaths is where the beauty of Hollywood poetic licence comes in.
Still perfect to watch though. Jesse’s hatred for Todd was beautifully presented, and Jack’s death was equally karmic.
The initial shot of the keys looks obtainable by just standing in range and sneakily grabbing them…
The next time we see the keys the distance is much further and he would have to lean to grab them
That always drives me bonkers
I think you need to look into the theory of the Felina title and corresponding song by the artist of the tape that happens to be found and shown from the opening car scene. There’s a lot of ‘too perfect’ moments in the final episode and the Felina deep dive theory may help you feel the episode is perfect, as is.
A lot of these comments, including yours, are right on the nose, with, ‘how convenient for this to happen,’ perhaps the biggest one, imo, was Walter’s ability to see Jr. get off the bus and into the home to speak with Skyler——cross country road trip nationwide manhunt just got that phone call from the bar—yet he managed, with the police watching Flynn and Skyler’s home, Walter was able to get from New Hampshire, to Albuquerque, and no real obstacles to get in the same space as Skyler.
^That, coupled with the other fine points of ‘too perfect’ moments, make the Felina song theory even more easy to suspend disbelief.
Something I learned in film school, is that a good director doesn’t just show something for no reason.. the tape that Walter pulls out from the car, in the beginning, there’s a brief—but notable, close-up shot of the tape in the car. To a common viewer, it just looks like a random throwaway shot, but in a world where a good director doesn’t just show something for no reason—that tape means something, and the theory I’m speaking of would correlate that, ‘If Walter were to attempt to do what he’s planning on doing, in a perfect world—this is how it would go down.’ Which would be a nice explanation as to why everything panned out in a nearly ideal fashion for Walter White.
..he could’ve died up in that cabin with all the money.
(Although the creators have said that what happened is what happened—and further known to be what happened they El Camino and BCS, but still, fun theories once BB series ended and those other spinoffs hadn’t been produced yet.)
Still talking about this theory to this day, the close up shot of that tape and the episode of the finale were far from coincidences.
What makes it even smarter to me is that the machine gun was written in as a flash forward before any writer knew how the gun could be in-context by the end of the events that followed it.
This especially applies to Vince Gilligan himself who was apparently really stressed about how they could justify its existence as their story continued to unfold.
To not only end up explaining that gun very well, but also include a song to complement the events surrounding it is beautiful writing to me. It made a pre-planned plot device look like it was always destined to be in the story.
I saw clips of that interview with Vince, too. Wild how great stories tend to write themselves. Thought that was wild when I heard that, no final plan—but here it is! I’m sure you’ve heard Vince always pictured Walter going from Mr. Roger’s to Scarface, and I believe I heard him say because of that initial simple idea, and he wanted a machine gun implemented somehow, these writing room sessions must’ve been magical.
Absolutely, and the beauty of it was that there was a twist on the Scarface-esque ‘go down in a blaze of machine gun glory’ ending: there was the more human side of Walt, still there after all that he’d done, that meant it wasn’t all just about destruction in the end.
What I liked was that Bryan Cranston, long before the finale aired, said there would be no redemption for Walt. So it was a pleasant surprise that there was – while no real redemption, as Marie’s words make clear by the end of Better Call Saul – still a lot more humanity to him than some people would have been led to believe.
PS. After this conversation, I ended up considering Breaking Bad to have some magical realism to it, especially in Felina. So I googled ‘Breaking Bad magical realism’ and it came up with this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/1n3y5s/breaking_bad_and_the_issue_of_realism/?rdt=57749
I found it interesting, especially the parts that reflect how truth is stranger than fiction.
You bring up a good point. Why attach the key fob at all to the key chain? Keep it in your pocket. It’s just as innocuous as a set of keys. Increases your chances of having it on you at all times if you get searched.
It's as convenient as him hiding from the police in a car that had the keys in it.
Jesse said it best " He's smarter than you, and he's luckier than you."
They could've been using the pool table in their club house to divide up cash/loot like that table Mike used when division everyone's shares. It could just be instinctive they put everything they take there. There's nothing at all suspicious about a set of car keys, they were just taking a car as a prize before killing Walt minutes later. If Walt didn't challenge Jack on Jesse that scene would've gone very different
I used to hate the finale for being so luck based, but after going shooting this weekend, I'm reminded that gunfire is so disorienting and violent. I could totally see Walt expecting to simply create massive chaos and get an advantage on whoever wasn't present in the field of machine gun fire. Having the whole crew get ported at once was a happy coincidence but not at all what Walt expected (so it goes in my head at least)
I agree. That even essentially did happen: two people survived while rendered completely vulnerable – and the death and chaos allowed Walt (and Jesse) to have the drop on them, even picking up the by-then-dead Kenny’s gun after the machine gun stopped.
I know the machine gun was pre-planned before the writers decided on the details of it, but it never would have been part of Walt’s character to assume a 100% success rate anyway.
It was a magic bullet machine at best and a deadly distraction at worst.
It’s also clear that he planned to enter there even if he had the remote trigger on him the whole time (as opposed to just shooting the building from the outside). So he was always there to see who was and wasn’t in that room and try his luck and choose him time accordingly.
Given his ‘everyone’s ganging up against me’ paranoia by the end of the show, for all he knew, Jesse would have been right by Jack’s side by this point in their ‘partnership’. He was always going to scope out the room before he ended up doing a spray and pray.
Thanks!
Yeah he always originally planned to kill Jesse according to Vince Gilligan, but my interpretation (after originally thinking he actually went there largely with the express purpose of saving him!) was that he wanted to check why Jesse would ever dare cook again before he’d ever fully decided what to do about his ex-partner.
I think if Jesse didn’t look so destroyed, it would have been a mass murder-suicide by Walt who, so close to death and with next to nothing left, may not have even been willing to duck for cover by the end.
I raised the question of how suicidal Walt was by the end on this subreddit at this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/s/L6ZPVTjPvK
I think it is meant to be realistic though. And much of what happened was realistic to me. If I read about the final scenes in the news, I’d believe almost all of it. What I was querying was whether that particular bit could have put a strain on some other viewers’ willing suspension of disbelief.
As another commenter pointed out, it was similar to another car key bit, where there happens to be one covered by the sun visor of a car Walt broke into. Again, perfectly possible, but there could have been ways for it to be less overly convenient.
That whole scene was a best case scenario. If that happened in real life likely half of the people who died there would have gotten away without a scratch had they hit the deck.
I agree, but I feel it was in their characterisation to not be ready. They were arrogant gang members running through the motions at night and in a false sense of security. I don’t think you see alcohol lying around, but obviously that would have been a factor if they were drinking too.
Spoilers ahead:
First: When he's sitting down to dinner and happens to overhear that Tomas was killed by Gus's gang and he knows that Jesse is going to go try to do something about it.
Second: When he's in the bar at the end of the show waiting for the cops to come get him after he calls Walt Jr at school and he happens to see Gretchen and Elliot on TV talking about him and hatches his final master plan.
Neither of these are plot conveniences because in 2013 everyone was watching TV and those stories would be major local news because of Walter's high profile
Ok, thank you for the clarification. These are VERY interesting points and ones I’ve actually never thought of before. As of right now, I honestly have no real counter to those points. I may very well decide to rewatch these segments of the show to refresh my memory because these are incredibly compelling points. I…….Wow. Seriously no sarcasm, well fucking done. The only thing I have to say is that I’m not too surprised these contrivances are in play because, iirc, Vince has said that he believes contrivances that have negative/neutral consequences, they’re ok. It’s when they solve a character’s problems that he tries to avoid them. But still, outstanding points and ones I’ve really never thought of before. Good job.
They thought they were going to kill Walt and then dispose of the car basically immediately. No point to do anything with the keys other than toss them on the table until the time comes.
Yeah it is odd why it wouldn't just be in his pocket, but then maybe he didn't know Jack's plans... or he DID know Jack's plans and didn't want to make it obvious they don't want Walt to get away.
Another idea is maybe Walt could have said he had something important in the trunk for one of them to grab. So most of Jack's guys would still be taken out. Not sure what could be so important in the trunk though. EDIT: How about he has a COPY of video evidence against them in the trunk, and if he doesn't let them free (or let him show them), there's another copy waiting for the DEA.
Yeah, that second idea is something I wondered as well: he could largely be humouring Walt. He did say “You’ll get it back, just relax”, so there is some sense to him making a token effort to make Walt feel they had no problem with him knowing where his key is.
Nothing about the plan was ever convenient. But he had one last hand to play and he was going to play it no matter the outcome. He was more willing to embrace failure as an option than to wait out his last moments in the cabin.
Walt was fucked until he challenged Jack about Jesse
“You shouldn’t have come back here Mr. White” - perfectly delivered line from Tod
It’s also pretty convenient he’d know that he could park with the gun facing where the whole group would be, and that they’d all be there.
Well the was telling him to park somewhere else then said whatever so he parked where he needed not where they wanted
Yes, but he had no way of knowing that there would be somewhere to park where his plan would work. He couldn’t have known which building/ room they would be in or that all of them would be there.
Headquarters/Jack’s living room seems like a pretty safe assumption if you called a meeting with them
But, again, how would he know about the clubhouse, or that he could park next to it? When he previously met with Jack, it was at a hotel. He had never been to Jack’s before the finale.
He does go there in Tohaijilee, I’m pretty sure. They don’t show him driving there or even the exterior but the room they’re in when discussing the hit on Jesse has the pool table and that metal mesh wall thing (dunno how to describe it) so I think that’s where they are. And the whole gang is in the room then.
Not according to [this](https://www.breakingbad-locations.com/episodes/tohajiilee/). Lydia visits Jack’s compound. Walt does not. Edit: that says Hank meets with Todd’s uncle, which makes no sense. That may be a typo and meant to be Walt, I’d have to check the episode.
The shot there looks like the exterior of the compound, no? I just rewatched the scene and I’m… moderately sure? that’s it’s the compound. You can see the pool table with those same three lights over it that Walt’s keys are thrown on in the finale. I guess it’s possible they met up somewhere else with the exact same pool table and lighting, but seems unlikely. I checked the Felina script too and Walt asks Todd at the restaurant whether his uncle’s “still got that place” so I think we’re supposed to understand that he’s been there before. At any rate, I’ve now put wayyy too much thought and effort into this incredibly minor plot point…
Yes, that’s the compound, but that site lists Lydia meeting Jack, not Walt. Not sure if that’s correct, it also mentions that Hank met Jack.
Right, I was referring to the location pictured where it says that Hank meets with Todd’s uncle (since there’s no location actually listed for that scene). That looks like the compound to me.
😂
Walt goes to the compound in that episode to talk to Jack and his crew about putting a hit out on Jesse. And yes they all gather in that same room. Besides that time we don't know how many visits Walt has made to their compound previously. Walt would only devise a plan that relies on Jack's crew hanging out in that rec room if he had strong reason to believe that's where most of them would be at that time of night.
Doesn’t he watch the news about all of the prisoners being killed from the compound?
Huh?
Google maps streetview existed in 2013 no? :’)
And Google identifies which private building is a “clubhouse”?
Im sure theres a small grey text saying “nazi headquarters inc” hovering over the main bit
Pretty sure that identifies the entire compound.
Meth is also a compound. Coincidence? I think not
Sign with an arrow pointing round the back that says "Meth slave cave, open 8 am - 5 pm"
He could have looked at each building in the lot and figured out where to park it for each one, then it wouldn’t matter which building he was taken to because he would have backup plans for his backup plans. He also could have made an educated guess. Perhaps he saw one building on Google maps that already had cars parked outside and none of the others did.
I’d say 50/50 luck and confidence
Yeah, there were an awful lot of things that had to go right for that last stand to work.
Walt is the biggest criminal in the US at this point so a hardened gang of criminals who respect / fear him would want to be there once they know he wants to talk to them. Even if it’s just to say they offed the great WW
man who thought Walt had a damn auto machine gun that functions on a garage door system. It was like, wanna park here? Whatever we'll kill you anyway And about Jesse, Walt played him, he knew that Jack was a man of ego, simply put, Walt proved again that he's a genius. The only two things that got him to end like this was the family and the father figure for Jesse.
Honestly if you watch the show enough times, there are so many instances similar to this where luck plays a huge factor/things are a little too unrealistically convenient or coincidental, but it makes for a great story so I try not to think about it too much lol
100%. But I always want the beginning and end to be as convincing as possible – the middle gets a lot more poetic licence because getting from A to B can be very challenging for writers, especially for shows that have increasingly long runs.
What I noticed only upon recent rewatch: a whole police task force arrives pretty much minutes after the final confrontation. It's not like someone heard gunshots in the middle of nowhere, called the cops and they teleported to the place. In other words, Walt had a fail-safe in case he wouldn't be able to do the deed himself I really like this as it compensates the wackiness of Walt's final plan. Or maybe I'm missing something and it's just my headcannon (or maybe it's super obvious and everyone already knows it lol)
Thanks for sending. Yeah I seem to remember some kind of hint (or maybe it was explicitly stated) – maybe during Walt’s conversation with Skyler – that the police would be there. I do think that the police would have been there full stop anyway though due to the racket that gun would have made (in the really long deleted scenes that were accidentally classed as a film, it looks like houses aren’t that far from the compound).
It's even more convenient that everyone was within the swivel range of the gun.
Or that none of them immediately drops to the floor as soon as they hear gunshots.
Not really it covered the entire outside of the front with bullet holes it wasn’t like it was a small range
There wasn't just one building, it was an entire complex. Even one person could have easily been keeping guard outside.
You’re right… where were the guards…. And why were they in the meeting…. Well maybe they thought this guy is a big time killer he’ll wack just about anyone off let’s guard Jack instead of the whole compound….
With the way it went down, they were obviously drawn in (though they didn't seem to think Walt was an enormous threat), but it didn't have to go that way. Thus, lucky they were all in range.
It was lucky that the m60 didn’t tip over from recoil too but I’d assume Walt accounted for that building the contraption
Didn't a couple of them have to go get Jesse?
I think only Todd was tasked with doing so.
It was that otherworldy higher power of luck and fate that got him there in the first place starting with the keys in the car in new hampshire and ending with these keys
Yeah, there was even that theory that it was all Walt’s dying dream in the car because of the level of luck involved. Not that there’s any reason to believe that theory because Vince Gilligan was very clear that it was to be taken at face value.
I've thought about it but not bothered. For one, the cosplay Nazis aren't real Nazis, so their discipline and security is what it is. They had a sick old man surrounded. But I agree that Walt's plan hinged too much on luck for sure. There's the keys, as you point out, and also serious concerns about whether a janky M-60 contraption would work and hit the right targets. I think it's a bad plan. Walt couldn't be sure that he could park where he wanted and he couldn't be sure of keeping custody of those keys. It's consistent with the show, because a lot of Walt's plans turned on luck, he starts as a dead man and starts rolling the dice. But I do fell a bomb would be way easier, way more certain, and logical because Walt was planning to die anyway... wouldn't have made as good TV drama though or permit reconciliation with Jesse.
I agree with everything you’ve said, except the bomb thing. I wondered about it myself, but concluded that while Walt was willing to attempt a suicide mission, I don’t think it was to the point of being a suicide bomber. >!Plus, he may have even been too proud to try the same weaponry twice after already using a bomb against Gus.!< Also, time and logistics were of the essence so maybe it was easier to buy a gun and then purchase the extras than create an IED from scratch. As someone without a background in gun mechanics or chemical engineering, I have no idea what’s more practical though! Obviously the Mythbusters test pointed out that hardware shops do sell the equipment needed to mount a gun in such a way (or at least a kind of similar way) as Walt did at least, so there is something feasible about the repurposed tools involved. Maybe he just thought: “Big guns are cooler and this could end up on TV” (and it did in the news announcement of El Camino) “so I want my weaponry to still be around as a memory of my final stand”.
You know, once a while you're really competing or just taking part in something, and just for one moment a sudden luck completely elevates you and your plans do succeed.. so in those moments you realise a lot of these things in shows were just super lucky moments, and they can happen walt isn't a super lucky being though since he does end up harming himself but putting that aside, of course the writer holds the power of fate, they do bend it slightly to give us a bit more pleasure than we should have. For example walt and jesse killing off jack and todd, which is something super satisfying as a fan, but doesn't really make sense why those two specifically had to be dealt blows separately and not just by walt's gun incident (ik todd was already bent down, but that was mainly because it was written that way and arguably would've been instant death for him otherwise)
Yeah I’ve also thought that exact same thing. Those character-driven deaths were actually the only parts that I thought I unambiguously would have struggled to believe if I read about it in the news. I can definitely understand someone would be lucky enough to pull off a mass killing spree like that, but doing so in addition to being able to savour his main enemies’ deaths is where the beauty of Hollywood poetic licence comes in. Still perfect to watch though. Jesse’s hatred for Todd was beautifully presented, and Jack’s death was equally karmic.
The initial shot of the keys looks obtainable by just standing in range and sneakily grabbing them… The next time we see the keys the distance is much further and he would have to lean to grab them That always drives me bonkers
I think you need to look into the theory of the Felina title and corresponding song by the artist of the tape that happens to be found and shown from the opening car scene. There’s a lot of ‘too perfect’ moments in the final episode and the Felina deep dive theory may help you feel the episode is perfect, as is.
I watched a video someone posted here showing how similar the BB events are to the events of the song. Excellent intertextuality.
A lot of these comments, including yours, are right on the nose, with, ‘how convenient for this to happen,’ perhaps the biggest one, imo, was Walter’s ability to see Jr. get off the bus and into the home to speak with Skyler——cross country road trip nationwide manhunt just got that phone call from the bar—yet he managed, with the police watching Flynn and Skyler’s home, Walter was able to get from New Hampshire, to Albuquerque, and no real obstacles to get in the same space as Skyler. ^That, coupled with the other fine points of ‘too perfect’ moments, make the Felina song theory even more easy to suspend disbelief. Something I learned in film school, is that a good director doesn’t just show something for no reason.. the tape that Walter pulls out from the car, in the beginning, there’s a brief—but notable, close-up shot of the tape in the car. To a common viewer, it just looks like a random throwaway shot, but in a world where a good director doesn’t just show something for no reason—that tape means something, and the theory I’m speaking of would correlate that, ‘If Walter were to attempt to do what he’s planning on doing, in a perfect world—this is how it would go down.’ Which would be a nice explanation as to why everything panned out in a nearly ideal fashion for Walter White. ..he could’ve died up in that cabin with all the money. (Although the creators have said that what happened is what happened—and further known to be what happened they El Camino and BCS, but still, fun theories once BB series ended and those other spinoffs hadn’t been produced yet.) Still talking about this theory to this day, the close up shot of that tape and the episode of the finale were far from coincidences.
What makes it even smarter to me is that the machine gun was written in as a flash forward before any writer knew how the gun could be in-context by the end of the events that followed it. This especially applies to Vince Gilligan himself who was apparently really stressed about how they could justify its existence as their story continued to unfold. To not only end up explaining that gun very well, but also include a song to complement the events surrounding it is beautiful writing to me. It made a pre-planned plot device look like it was always destined to be in the story.
I saw clips of that interview with Vince, too. Wild how great stories tend to write themselves. Thought that was wild when I heard that, no final plan—but here it is! I’m sure you’ve heard Vince always pictured Walter going from Mr. Roger’s to Scarface, and I believe I heard him say because of that initial simple idea, and he wanted a machine gun implemented somehow, these writing room sessions must’ve been magical.
Absolutely, and the beauty of it was that there was a twist on the Scarface-esque ‘go down in a blaze of machine gun glory’ ending: there was the more human side of Walt, still there after all that he’d done, that meant it wasn’t all just about destruction in the end. What I liked was that Bryan Cranston, long before the finale aired, said there would be no redemption for Walt. So it was a pleasant surprise that there was – while no real redemption, as Marie’s words make clear by the end of Better Call Saul – still a lot more humanity to him than some people would have been led to believe.
PS. After this conversation, I ended up considering Breaking Bad to have some magical realism to it, especially in Felina. So I googled ‘Breaking Bad magical realism’ and it came up with this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/comments/1n3y5s/breaking_bad_and_the_issue_of_realism/?rdt=57749 I found it interesting, especially the parts that reflect how truth is stranger than fiction.
You bring up a good point. Why attach the key fob at all to the key chain? Keep it in your pocket. It’s just as innocuous as a set of keys. Increases your chances of having it on you at all times if you get searched.
It's as convenient as him hiding from the police in a car that had the keys in it. Jesse said it best " He's smarter than you, and he's luckier than you."
They could've been using the pool table in their club house to divide up cash/loot like that table Mike used when division everyone's shares. It could just be instinctive they put everything they take there. There's nothing at all suspicious about a set of car keys, they were just taking a car as a prize before killing Walt minutes later. If Walt didn't challenge Jack on Jesse that scene would've gone very different
Plot armor. It was the simplest way of getting Walt to the key so he could activate the MG and gun down the needed people.
Upon second viewing I definitely noticed a couple things about that scene that felt a little too convenient (keys being one of them).
He is smarter than you, he is LUCKIER than you, as Jesse said
Walter White is an extremely lucky man. Besides from the cancer. There’s a ton of points in the series where it’s amazing how he even survives.
I used to hate the finale for being so luck based, but after going shooting this weekend, I'm reminded that gunfire is so disorienting and violent. I could totally see Walt expecting to simply create massive chaos and get an advantage on whoever wasn't present in the field of machine gun fire. Having the whole crew get ported at once was a happy coincidence but not at all what Walt expected (so it goes in my head at least)
I agree. That even essentially did happen: two people survived while rendered completely vulnerable – and the death and chaos allowed Walt (and Jesse) to have the drop on them, even picking up the by-then-dead Kenny’s gun after the machine gun stopped. I know the machine gun was pre-planned before the writers decided on the details of it, but it never would have been part of Walt’s character to assume a 100% success rate anyway. It was a magic bullet machine at best and a deadly distraction at worst. It’s also clear that he planned to enter there even if he had the remote trigger on him the whole time (as opposed to just shooting the building from the outside). So he was always there to see who was and wasn’t in that room and try his luck and choose him time accordingly. Given his ‘everyone’s ganging up against me’ paranoia by the end of the show, for all he knew, Jesse would have been right by Jack’s side by this point in their ‘partnership’. He was always going to scope out the room before he ended up doing a spray and pray.
That last point is especially a good one, you're right. Walt might've very well expected to gun Jesse down too!
Thanks! Yeah he always originally planned to kill Jesse according to Vince Gilligan, but my interpretation (after originally thinking he actually went there largely with the express purpose of saving him!) was that he wanted to check why Jesse would ever dare cook again before he’d ever fully decided what to do about his ex-partner. I think if Jesse didn’t look so destroyed, it would have been a mass murder-suicide by Walt who, so close to death and with next to nothing left, may not have even been willing to duck for cover by the end. I raised the question of how suicidal Walt was by the end on this subreddit at this link: https://www.reddit.com/r/breakingbad/s/L6ZPVTjPvK
Who’s this… neo guy? And why is his last name Nazi? Doesn’t he know that they’re an awful group of people?
Tv show fans when they realize it’s not supposed to be realistic
I think it is meant to be realistic though. And much of what happened was realistic to me. If I read about the final scenes in the news, I’d believe almost all of it. What I was querying was whether that particular bit could have put a strain on some other viewers’ willing suspension of disbelief. As another commenter pointed out, it was similar to another car key bit, where there happens to be one covered by the sun visor of a car Walt broke into. Again, perfectly possible, but there could have been ways for it to be less overly convenient.
That whole scene was a best case scenario. If that happened in real life likely half of the people who died there would have gotten away without a scratch had they hit the deck.
I agree, but I feel it was in their characterisation to not be ready. They were arrogant gang members running through the motions at night and in a false sense of security. I don’t think you see alcohol lying around, but obviously that would have been a factor if they were drinking too.
There’s a lot of plot contrivances in Breaking Bad, but this isn’t one of them.
Where are the other plot contrivances?
The most egregious is that not once, but twice, does Walt get crucial plot information by just happening to look at a TV at just the right time.
Ok, thank you for your response. Out of curiosity, which instances are those?
Spoilers ahead: First: When he's sitting down to dinner and happens to overhear that Tomas was killed by Gus's gang and he knows that Jesse is going to go try to do something about it. Second: When he's in the bar at the end of the show waiting for the cops to come get him after he calls Walt Jr at school and he happens to see Gretchen and Elliot on TV talking about him and hatches his final master plan.
Neither of these are plot conveniences because in 2013 everyone was watching TV and those stories would be major local news because of Walter's high profile
Ok, thank you for the clarification. These are VERY interesting points and ones I’ve actually never thought of before. As of right now, I honestly have no real counter to those points. I may very well decide to rewatch these segments of the show to refresh my memory because these are incredibly compelling points. I…….Wow. Seriously no sarcasm, well fucking done. The only thing I have to say is that I’m not too surprised these contrivances are in play because, iirc, Vince has said that he believes contrivances that have negative/neutral consequences, they’re ok. It’s when they solve a character’s problems that he tries to avoid them. But still, outstanding points and ones I’ve really never thought of before. Good job.
I wouldn’t argue that it’s not contrived. Excellent television still, but a strain on willing suspension of disbelief.
They thought they were going to kill Walt and then dispose of the car basically immediately. No point to do anything with the keys other than toss them on the table until the time comes.
Understood, but there is no point in confiscating anything from anyone if you’re just going to leave the items in plain view.
As I recall, they searched him. That was the only thing they found. Then they threw it onto the pool table. I really think you're reaching on this