After years of relative obscurity, no one would’ve expected the conclusion of Breaking Bad to amass much fanfare. By the time Season 5 of the critically acclaimed AMC drama hit the airwaves, a mass audience caught up with the show thanks to its popularity on Netflix’s streaming service — an early indicator of where the industry was shifting toward. Unlike most shows that garner a seismic critical following, creator Vince Gilligan did not want to overstay his welcome, deciding to end the series after five seasons and 60 episodes. On September 29, 2013, the world eagerly awaited to see how Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) Shakesperean rise-and-fall saga would end in the series finale, “Felina.” After all was said and done, Breaking Bad signed off under satisfactory terms, perhaps too satisfactory. Despite being a show about how a mild-mannered, decent man destroys his life and others around him to ruins, Gilligan opted to find resolution amid Walt’s self-destruction.

Walter White Settles Old Scores in the ‘Breaking Bad’ Series Finale
In Breaking Bad’s penultimate episode, “Granite State,” Walt is at his lowest. The former high school chemistry teacher who became a reluctant meth cook is gone, as a disheveled Walt has embraced his monstrous self. Hank (Dean Norris) is dead at the hands of Jack Welker (Michael Bowen) and his gang. They stole his drug money, and he is isolated in a cabin in the woods of New Hampshire as a fugitive. His family, the virtue that his criminal empire and Heisenberg alter-ego were founded on, now loathes him. He is about to turn himself in to the police, but then, a television inside a bar gives him a Hail Mary opportunity. Walt watches his old friends and colleagues Gretchen (Jessica Hecht) and Elliot (Adam Godley) appear on Charlie Rose, providing him with another ingenious scheme.

“Felina,” written and directed by Gilligan, follows Walt tying up loose ends by threatening the two philanthropists to donate Walt’s remaining cash to Walter Jr. (R.J. Mitte) on his 18th birthday. On his return to Albuquerque, he talks to Skyler (Anna Gunn) and gazes at his son from afar one final time. Like a dying Western cowboy, he strolls up to Jack’s hideout and meth lab for a bloody showdown with the gang of Nazis while rescuing Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) from captivity.