Breaking Bad's Coda

Breaking Bad returns on Sunday.  How will it end?

The well known pitch of the show "Mr. Chips to Scarface" may provide a glance into what's going to happen.  In this case, Walt's last stand.  He's slowly progressed from Hero to Villain over each season, with stops in between as an anti-hero and an anti-villian (good aims, bad means).  Each season represented a solid progression on that scale. Who knew Hal would come this far?

In the premiere of the most recent season, we saw Walt celebrating his 52nd birthday, alone, in a diner.  The scene also served to show two years had passed between the pilot and that scene, and that Walt's cancer has returned.  Walt purchases a BFG from the same man who sold him the side arm, along with a car to get out of town.  He's on the run.  If his cancer is back and he's unable to seek treatment, it's possible Walt is a man with nothing to lose, perhaps already embarrassed by being exposed by Hank  to the public including the last two members of his family who don't know, Betsy and most importantly Walter Junior.

How does it end?  Well, how does Scarface end?  Walt's not going down meekly.  His son may or may not want anything to do with him toward the end of the series.  Back in the first season, Walt told his family he did not want to undergo treatment in order to avoid the financial cost of a procedure that was far from guaranteed to work, a cold but pragmatic approach.  Walt may take a similar pragmatic approach, understanding he's going down anyways but engineer it in a way where he comes out looking like a good guy.

Additionally, it's not often the innocent get out of Albuquerque.  Between planes crashing, or Gale, or a kid riding his bike into the desert to catch spiders, there's plenty of blood spilled, not to mention near misses including Hank's attack and the kid Walt poisoned, thanks to Walt's actions and decisions.  Whether it's Junior or another family member who suffers as a direct, indirect or six degrees from a result of some decision Walt makes, it will no doubt be devastating.

Breaking Bad airs on AMC and is available on Netflix streaming.