I cannot stop thinking about Walter White. His downfall is epic. No, his entire character arc is epic. I can't recall a man I loved then hated, really hated, then felt some need for redemption for. I mean, you watched this man create something for nothing. You watched a man who had no clue what his short life may bring become a different person once they have some power. Walt is what happens to lottery winners with the exception of working for your money. But, it came so quickly, and that is the man's demise.
There are times you understand his lies, his cover ups, his desire to not really see what he had become. And that is why, by the end of fit all, you want the best for Walt. He pulled it off. Those initial lacks of responsibility became realities by the end of the show. There were these moments, and if you add them all up and make a sum of it, you realize so much of the death.....perhaps, all of the death in the show is all Walt's making. Not his making per se, but his inability to take responsibility for his initial action of grabbing Jesse and making a cook. I felt as if Walt had been in a sort of denial of everything until New Hampshire. It hit home for him. It sucks to be so alone when you haven't been for such a long, long time. Yet, there is Walt, disconnected and paying someone to just spend time with him. It is sad, and that is where you really re-connect with him as a character. I think it is that moment when you forgive him.
Alas, the finale. He does, somehow, and rather believably, make everything right. And, at first, after watching the last episode, I thought he took the bullet for Jesse when he hit the remote. Yet, he did take the bullet for Jesse by staying on top of him as he set of the barrage of gunfire. The bullet would have hit him and by Walt lying on top of him, he saved Jesse. Finally, Walt dies with a very Taxi Driver camera set up with the overhead views. That is also another fitting ending to the show and a great homage to an amazing film. The camera, like a hawk, spins slowly, so we see the cops. Oddly enough, you have to ask is Walter White the Travis Bickle of 2013? Were his actions, after all of its said and done, good for society? A world without Gus is a better world in a way. The morality of the show is one that will resonate for a long time. Walter White is one of the best written and complex characters of our modern era. He is our Ahab. He will go down with so many mixed emotions; some good, lots bad.
His death is like reality. It is conflicted and awful. It is something you want to forget, yet never can. Finally, it is a memory. Those become clouded and odd as time passes. Yet, you never forget the moment death happens. I will never forget Walt's bloody prints on the canister he last touched. Nor will I forget his coldness when a child dies in the desert. Yet, I will mourn his absence: the good, the bad and the ugly parts of it
