Felina (Breaking Bad)

"Felina" is the series nale of the American drama television series Breaking Bad. It is the sixteenth episode
of season ve and the 62nd overall episode of the series. Written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on
September 29, 2013.

Quezada) graves are printed, advising her to use it to negotiate a plea bargain with the authorities. Walt also admits that his life as a drug kingpin was for himself, rather
than his family, stating that he did it because he enjoyed it,
was good at it, and it made him feel alive. Skyler allows
Walt to see Holly one last time while she sleeps. After
leaving, Walt watches from afar as Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte)
The plot nds Walt evading a nationwide manhunt for him
in order to return to New Mexico to deliver the remaining arrives home from school.
prots from his illegal methamphetamine empire to his Walt meets with Jack and his men at their hideout, where
family, and to eliminate the neo-Nazi gang who double- Jesse is still performing slave labor for the gang in an adcrossed him, killed his brother-in-law Hank, took Jesse jacent Quonset hut. Jack refuses Walts oer and orders
captive and present a threat to his wife Skyler, son Walter him killed. Walt insults Jack for partnering with Jesse,
Jr. and sister-in-law Marie. Before doing so however, but Jack calls for Jesse to be brought to them, to show
knowing the cancer will soon kill him, Walt takes a trip Walt they aren't partners and Jesse is Jacks prisoner.
down memory lane to properly prepare himself for his When Jesse is brought in, Walt tackles him to the ground
death.
and uses his car keys to remotely re the machine gun
(which he had connected to a pivoting turret rigged to the
car keys remote unlock button) from his car. The ensuing
gunre kills Jacks men and wounds Jack and Walt, but
1 Plot
leaves Todd and Jesse unharmed. Jesse strangles Todd
with his handcus, killing him. Walt takes Jacks gun and
After leaving the bar, Walt leaves New Hampshire in a kills Jack, despite Jacks insistence that Walt will never
Volvo, with Marty Robbins' song "El Paso" playing on nd the stolen money if he does. Walt gives the gun to
the radio. Upon returning to New Mexico, he tracks Jesse and asks Jesse to kill him. Jesse refuses after seeing
down Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz (Jessica Hecht and a bullet wound on Walt. As Jesse and Walt leave Jacks
Adam Godley) at their new house in Santa Fe, after pos- house, Walt answers a call on Todds phone from a visiing as a reporter for The New York Times. In order to cir- bly ill Lydia. He informs her that her business partners
cumvent the suspicions of the DEA and Skyler he orders are dead and that she has ricin poisoning, as he laced her
them to give his remaining $9.72 million to Walt Jr., who stevia with it at the coee shop. Jesse and Walt, having
will inherit it upon turning eighteen, saying this is their made peace, nod farewell to one another one last time.
chance to make things right. Under the threat of appar- Jesse then ees in Todds El Camino, crying and screament snipers waiting outside, the Schwartzes agree. After ing with relief.
Walt leaves, he pays Badger Mayhew (Matt L. Jones) and
Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) for aiming red laser point- Walt enters the lab and nostalgically admires the
ers at the Schwartzes and posing as hitmen. He learns equipment, holding a gas mask and rubbing a kettle.
Jack Welker's (Michael Bowen) gang has been cooking Badnger's "Baby Blue" is heard as he succumbs to his
just as the poand distributing blue meth and deduces that Jesse (Aaron bullet wound and collapses with a smile,
[1]
lice
rush
in
to
nd
his
motionless
body.
Paul) is still alive.
On his 52nd birthday, after purchasing an M60 machine
gun and retrieving the ricin from his abandoned house,
Walt intercepts Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia's (Laura
Fraser) meeting at a coee shop and makes a business
proposal, oering a new formula for methylamine-free
meth. Todd turns him down, but Lydia feigns interest
so that Walt can be lured into getting killed by Jack.
Later, Skyler (Anna Gunn) receives a phone call from
Marie (Betsy Brandt), who informs her Walt is back in
town, unaware that Walt is already with Skyler. Walt
leaves Skyler with the lottery ticket on which the coordinates of Hank (Dean Norris) and Steve's (Steven Michael

2 Reception
2.1 Ratings
Felina had the highest ratings of any episode of Breaking Bad: 10.28 million in the United States, including
5.3 million adults aged 1849.[2][3] The episode generated
millions of online comments and Nielsen Holdings rankings established that it was the most-discussed episode on
Twitter for that week.[4] The popularity of the episode re1

PRODUCTION

Critics praised Bryan Cranstons performance in Felina.

sulted in a 2,981 percent increase of sales of the Badnger

song "Baby Blue" as well as a 9,000 percent increase in
streaming over Spotify.[5]

2.2

Critical reception

Upon airing, the episode received universal critical acclaim, with several critics calling it one of the greatest
series nales of all time.[6][7] In her review of Felina,
Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode an A
rating, writing that Walts purpose is fullled, and he just
stops.[8] Seth Amitin at IGN also praised the episode,
calling it fully satisfying and awarding it a score of 9.8
out of 10.[9] Katey Rich agreed with these sentiments,
calling the episode a deeply satisfying and surprisingly
emotional nale.[10]

2.3

Alternative theory concerning death

Many fans of Breaking Bad, including actor Norm

MacDonald and New York Magazine writer Emily
Nussbaum,[11] proposed a theory, in which most of the
episode happened in Walts mind, and he really died in the
stolen Volvo in the beginning of it.[12] While Nussbaum
merely stated that it would be her preferred ending,[13]
MacDonald emphasized the seemingly unreal scenarios
of Walts nal day, as well as what he deemed as unreliable acting.[14] However, series creator Vince Gilligan
debunked this theory, explaining that Walter could not
possibly have known several things that happened, like
Jesse being held in captivity.[15]

2.4

Awards and nominations

Production

On September 18, 2013, it was announced that both

"Granite State" and Felina would run 75 minutes,
including commercials.[16] The actual runtime of the

Series creator Vince Gilligan wrote and directed Felina

episode is 55 minutes.[17] The episode was written and

directed by series creator Vince Gilligan.

3.1 Title reference and music

The episode title, Felina, is inspired by the character Feleena from the song "El Paso" by Marty Robbins,
which plays a major role during the episode.[8] The writers tweaked the name from Feleena to Felina so that it
would also be an anagram for Finale.[18][19] Moreover,
the word Felina can also be broken up into three dierent symbols of chemical elements found in the periodic
table: iron (Fe), lithium (Li), and sodium (Na). Since
iron is a predominant element in blood, lithium is sometimes used in methamphetamine production, and sodium
is a component of tears, the title was interpreted by some
as "blood, meth and tears".[20] According to Eric Brown
of International Business Times:
In its pure form (...) methamphetamine is
composed solely of carbon (C), hydrogen (H)
and nitrogen (N), no lithium involved. However, there are multiple ways to synthesize
meth from other ingredients, and several involve lithium. The Birch reduction, also called
the Nazi method, mixes lithium and ammonia to create a reaction. Another, called
the Shake 'n' Bake method, involved throwing lithium and several other ingredients into
a single pot to create the drug. Both methods are extremely dangerous, as lithium is a

3
highly volatile element. Unfortunately, theres
a big hole in this theory: Walt never uses a
lithium-based synthesis in the show. (...) Walt
uses two methods throughout the show: rst
the Nagai method involving red phosphorus
and later a methylamine P2P reaction resulting in the famous blue meth. Neither one uses
lithium at any point, shooting at big hole in this
theory.[21][22][20]

1849. Zap2it. Tribune Media Services. Retrieved

September 30, 2013.
[4] Chmielewski, Dawn C. (September 30, 2013). "Breaking
Bad generates millions of comments on Twitter, Facebook. Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved
September 30, 2013.
[5] Subramanian, Courtney (October 2, 2013). "Breaking
Bad 's Final Scene Boosts Sales for 1970s Band Badnger. TIME. Time Inc.

Badnger's "Baby Blue" is played during the nal scene. [6] Dietz, Jason (September 29, 2013). Episode Review:
According to series creator Vince Gilligan, this is referBreaking Bad Series Finale. Retrieved September 30,
ence to the high-quality blue meth Walt had produced
2013.
over the previous seasons and his life as a drug kingpin which the main character lastly recognizes he had [7] Breaking Bad nale is a hit with TV critics. BBC.
September 30, 2013. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
enjoyed.[18] According to Rolling Stone, the music supervisors on the show disagreed with Gilligans choice for the [8] Bowman, Donna (September 29, 2013). ""Felina"". The
nal song;[18] however music supervisor Thomas GoluA.V. Club. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
bi stated that journalists sometimes try to create drama
where there isn't any and that his quotes were mis- [9] Amitin, Seth (September 29, 2013). Breaking Bad: Felina Review. IGN. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
represented.[23] Baby Blue became an obvious choice
as the editing came closer to completion with Golubi de- [10] Breaking Bad Finale: Was That Really The Ending Walt
scribing the process of nalizing the song:
Deserved?". CinemaBlend.com. September 29, 2013.
Before I saw the scene, I pulled together a
number of ideas one which I thought worked
pretty beautifully against picture: The Bees
No More Excuses but once I saw that
beautiful shot, and saw the scene in context, I
realized why Vince was so strongly attached to
the Badnger song. Its tricky for us as music
supervisors in that we keep pulling together
ideas and revising them. None of us know the
right answer until we are at the very end of
that process and have cut and locked picture
to work with. Vince is just really talented at
knowing what the nal eect he is looking
for, and knew early on that Badngers Baby
Blue was the right choice for what he was
looking to do. It took until the nal picture
was assembled that I was able to also see what
a fantastic choice it was.[23]
Thomas Golubi

References

[1] Snierson, Dan (September 30, 2013). "'Breaking Bad':

Creator Vince Gilligan explains series nale. ew.com.
Retrieved October 14, 2013. ... hes expired before the
cops show up.
[2] Bibel, Sara (October 1, 2013). Sunday Cable Ratings: 'Breaking Bad' Wins Big, 'Talking Bad', 'Homeland',
'Boardwalk Empire', 'Masters of Sex' & More. TV by the
Numbers. Retrieved October 3, 2013.
[3] Bibel, Sara (September 30, 2013). "Breaking Bad Finale
Scores Record 10.3 Million Viewers, 6.7 Million Adults

Retrieved September 30, 2013.

[11] Ellis, Warren (October 3, 2013). Warren Ellis on Breaking Bad and the Horrible Glory of Heisenberg. Vulture.
Retrieved January 11, 2014.
[12] Stopera, Dave (October 2, 2013). Was The Breaking
Bad Finale All Just A Fantasy In Walter Whites Head?".
BuzzFeed. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
[13] Moaba, Alex (October 3, 2013). Was The 'Breaking Bad'
Finale A Fantasy Playing Out In Walter Whites Mind?".
The Hungton Post. Retrieved January 11, 2014.
[14] Norm MacDonald Thinks The Breaking Bad Finale
Was A Fantasy That Played Out In Walter Whites Sick
Mind. Uproxx. October 2, 2013. Retrieved January 11,
2014.
[15] Couch, Aaron (October 16, 2013). Vince Gilligan Tackles Four 'Breaking Bad' Myths. The Hollywood Reporter.
Retrieved January 11, 2014.
[16] Couch, Aaron (September 18, 2013). "Breaking Bad: Final Two Episodes Get Extended Run Times. The Hollywood Reporter. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved
September 30, 2013.
[17] Breaking Bad, The Final Season. iTunes. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
[18] Knopper, Steve (October 1, 2013). Why 'Breaking Bad'
Chose Badngers 'Baby Blue'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved
October 7, 2013.
[19] Breaking Bad - Insider Podcast Season 5. AMC. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
[20] Dibdin, Emma (September 30, 2013). "'Breaking Bad'
series nale recap: Blood, meth and tears in 'Felina'".
Digital Spy. Retrieved May 5, 2014.

[21] Decoding the 'Breaking Bad' nale. International Business Times. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
[22] Locker, Melissa (September 25, 2013). Is Felina the
Secret to the Breaking Bad Finale?". Time magazine. Retrieved May 5, 2014.
[23] I am Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead music supervisor, Thomas Golubi, ASK ME ANYTHIN. Reddit.
October 5, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013.

External links
Felina at the ocial Breaking Bad site
Felina at the Internet Movie Database
Felina at TV.com

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1

Text

Felina (Breaking Bad) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felina%20(Breaking%20Bad)?oldid=638907379 Contributors: Tpbradbury,

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6.2

Images

File:Bryan_Cranston_as_Walter_White_in_\char"0022\relax{}Felina,_the_series_finale_of_\char"0022\relax{}Breaking_
Bad.jpg Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Bryan_Cranston_as_Walter_White_in_%22Felina%22%2C_the_
series_finale_of_%22Breaking_Bad%22.jpg License: Fair use Contributors: http://www.zimbio.com/TV+Recaps/articles/5I27btXCe-h/
Breaking+Down+Breaking+Bad+Felina Original artist: AMC (TV channel)
File:Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/48/Folder_Hexagonal_Icon.svg License: Cc-bysa-3.0 Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:Vince_Gilligan_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg Source:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Vince_Gilligan_by_
Gage_Skidmore.jpg License: CC BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Gage Skidmore

6.3

Content license

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