When Do Characthers Deserve Their Endings?

Did Walter White and Saul Goodman deserve their ultimate fates? Are the endings we get always the ones we deserve? Examining the finales of Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, morality in art, and the death penalty.
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Visual Media: Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and El Camino
Music Used (in order):
Border Crossing (Breaking Bad), Medieval Overture (Return to Forever), White House Visit (Breaking Bad), Space Junk Galaxy (Super Mario Galaxy) Heaven Central Authority (Neon White), Measurehead (Disco Elysium), The Fields of Ard Skellig (The Witcher 3), Sorrowful Tazmily (Mother 3), 666 Kill Chop Deluxe (Lisa: The Joyful), To The Gateway (Super Mario Galaxy)
Shaun's Video: • The Death Penalty feat...
#videoessay #BetterCallSaul #breakingbad

[@sotirispanayides7551]

When saul, walt and jesse were having meetings I always thought and asked myself how this would end. The answer was either they get away with it, either they die, or either they get caught. Jesse got away with it. Walter died. And Saul got caught. What a masterpiece.

[@badgirlhollywood9741]

Well yes of course. I hate that Saul got caught. Jesse getting away with it is canon because young people who commit crimes tend to fair better especially if the partner in crime was dangerous. He could have always said he forced me. Saul going to jail was kind of ridiculous he didn’t commit those crimes he only gave (illegal) advice. It’s kind of angering that they made it end the way it did it’s a serious penalty for someone who never went so far as to kill someone himself. Walt died so technically he got away with it. The only person who got hard penance was their lawyer which I think is crazy

[@CookingWithJackDaniels]

@@badgirlhollywood9741 Saul definitely did enough to get put in jail homie

[@badgirlhollywood9741]

@@CookingWithJackDaniels Not for 86 fucking years much less the 190 they were wanting

[@heisenbergII]

@@badgirlhollywood9741 Saul had a major role in Walt’s crimes tho. He was a corrupted lawyer and had many connections the major crime work too other than just Gus. If anything I’d say his sentence was so big was because of other criminal connections he was involved with

[@badgirlhollywood9741]

@@heisenbergII Explain?

[@georgevelis4651]

i also think its interesting that Saul Gone put Jimmy in a situation were he would be punished if he did the right/moral thing and would get away with it if he did the wrong/immoral thing. He chose to do the right thing anyway and confess. To me, that was redemption for his character.

[@ceoofracism4869]

Greatest legal mind i ever knew

[@ceoofracism4869]

Ayo banger video tho

[@ignotuscapillary8313]

He must be if he can keep the CEO of Racism out of trouble.

[@Kyrieru]

Saul got away with it. Saul died. Jimmy ended up in jail.

[@onemoreminute0543]

The fates of Walt and Saul reminded me of certain line from Tony Soprano: " High profile guy like me? Dead, or in the can".

[@martinbogadomartinesi5135]

There is an interesting video by Macabre Storytelling comparing both shows' finales, and as much as I love Breaking Bad, the sopranos is a far superior show and the way it ended just makes that point. BCS is my all time favorite show tho.

[@onemoreminute0543]

@@martinbogadomartinesi5135 Oh yeah I've seen that vid. I do agree Sopranos has a much better and more thought provoking ending than BrBa

[@errwhattheflip]

I will never really agree that Walter was some pure evil character. Part of what makes the last 3 episodes so amazing is that they uncover Walt's humanity and show that he was never truly gone Thematically, it wouldn't make sense for Walter to be punished for his crimes. His whole story is about trying to break the chains that restrained him and be free to have true control over his life. That was what the ending showed. He did exactly what he wanted to do and went out on his terms, surrounded by the one thing he loved as much as himself. That's a genuinely poetic ending

[@GleePotter8468]

“Saul kinda got a happy ending” The name's McGill. I'm James McGill.

[@trallakid]

I understand your reasoning on why you think Walt didn’t necessarily deserve his ending, but i think it makes it more realistic the way it ended, as in reality plenty of good people get fucked over and evil people end up rewarded for their actions. as evil as he was he was a genius and i don’t see a reality where he would have let himself get caught.

[@wyattjoseph]

Totally! It's really up to interpretation and I think both views are equally valid

[@gabrielafonseca4034]

I agree with you. It shocked me to see Saul become a full blown low life thief, an older one, threatening an old lady. I loved both endings, I don't think I'm qualified to know what anyone deserves. What has caused me a lot of hate is saying Kim and Jimmy being the love story I didn't know I needed. People tell me to get help for admiring a "toxic" relationship. But I stand by what I've said. Kim and Jimmy didn't get a "happy end" but they knew true, reciprocal, unconditional love

[@darksidehero24]

Man I love that guy who did the Twitter voice in the video about breaking bad and better call Saul which was a show created by Vince Gilligan that had people working on a set in order to make breaking bad and better call Saul

[@ClintonKE]

Mother background music for the win.

[@mappingshaman5280]

I respectfully disagree. Walt got the best ending be could. Whilst you're right he could never fully redeem himself, just like Jimmy he got as close as he could. With Jimmy its different, the only one he has on the outside is kim who is largely unaffected if he goes to prison aside from regaining respect for him. With walt, if he goes to prison, skyler will likely join him as she won't know hanks burial site, his family will never receive their money holly will probably be raised by marie whom could get arrested for stealing at any moment without hank to bail her out, and jesse will spend the rest of his probably short life as a slave. With how walt really ended things, he sacrificed himself to save his loved ones.

[@Emileigggggh]

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul did such a good job of playing with unfairness. I really felt that the most when Mike had to kill that German dude who's name I forget.

[@wyattjoseph]

Werner 😭

[@LuxsorFlare]

Mother 3 and Lisa OST. Based af

[@soup3673]

GUESS I GOT WHAT I DESERVED

[@driftless7134]

Dude, Return to Forever in the background? Nice!

[@Ray_D_Tutto]

I wanted a crime does pay ending and i'm tired of pretending it doesn't.

[@snowset675]

I appreciate the use of Mario Galaxy music

[@EvilSnips]

I really appreciate this nuanced take on both of the shows, thank you. It's very hard to find people not blinding praising everything about these shows or hating on/'cancelling' it.

[@blueyellowandgreen]

Nice super Mario galaxy music toward the beginning It didn’t feel like it fit here but still made me smile because the music from that game slaps

[@wyattjoseph]

I thought it fit of course, otherwise I wouldn't have put it in, but most of the reason I put it in IS because it's just a beautiful song lol

[@chilispillin]

Yo did you seriously start playing Mikey’s theme from neon white in the middle of this review?! I love u man

[@milkthecow9415]

I LOVE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!

[@milkthecow9415]

@Dylan Inmon wrong

[@matheuspoli9768]

Rip Vargas

[@jakepayne2985]

Nothing has been able to fill the void of Better Call Saul, to me. I want it back. But it ended so perfectly, and I don’t want that fucked up. Tried “The Mayans MC”. My lord, I love Sons, but Mayans is so bad. When Sons definitely wasn’t the highest quality already. They make choices in Mayans that are so dumb. Aside from Sopranos, The Shield, (all the pretty well known heavy hitters), what’re some shows that compare to BCS for yall?

[@MegaSpideyman]

Have you watched The Many Saints of Newark or The Wire?

[@jakepayne2985]

@@MegaSpideyman The Wire, yes. Rules. Many Saints? I thought was fucking trash

[@secondcomingofbast9908]

The few people who watched BCS that did not also watch BB would really have no way of knowing with any comprehension whether Jimmy McGill deserved his ending because we spent practically zero time with Saul Goodman, at least not with Saul Goodman as we knew him from Breaking Bad. Just one year as full-blown Saul would have made the finale much more understandable and satisfying.

[@MustangGT4]

Nice Witcher music

[@maladictbilbiomort2778]

I saw Walt as a villain from basically the first time I saw him in episode 1. The fact was that he was basically incapable of seeing people as humans. he was already taking the chemists mindset to it's logical extreme seeing people as a collection of atoms and the only person he thought of as real was himself. It was ultimately nihilistic. It's why I had no surprise seeing him kill random people it was merely his sense of self he preserved by not killing sooner. As soon as he had an excuse he killed again and again. Jimmy is a similar case. Now is his brother worse? Absolutely. He shows signs that indicate a lack of seeing people as people from the beginning. That said Jimmy still shows those same signs of thinking people are tools. Perhaps not so nihilistic but absolutely as a tool. One can see that while Walt almost certainly embraced evil for absolutely no reason beyond it making him feel powerful to reduce everyone but himself to nothing but matter in his mind, Jimmy had a father who was focusing on ideals rather than doing good and a brother who got an ego trip from following his father's lead. That said Jimmy still is an extremely dangerous being. The core difference is fairly easy to see. Walt does evil because he likes it Jimmy simply benefits from it. It means that Jimmy won't act stupid or randomly while Walt will simply keep growing to the end where he feels all powerful and no one else is happy. In this sense they are thematically perfect. Jimmy just needs to find a place he feels like his needs are met, and he does, and Walt can only be stopped by his death, though a literal eternity in torture would be justified.

[@tf2freakshow870]

I don't think he was evil from the beggining, he didn't want to take Krazy 8's life and when he did kill him he cried a lot and said i'm sorry many times, he is rather more of a sociopath, he became evil while living in an evil enviroment, he broke bad, unlike Jesse who wanted to get away from the evil place he was in, Walter started to like it the longer he was in It.

[@twentysixbit]

Mother 3 OST 👌

[@NamelessvonIrgendwo]

Nice to see fellow enjoyers of great music😎

[@lulu4882]

holy shit i haven't listened to return to forever since i was 12

[@haanis5458]

Imagine having a bad rehabilitation system.

[@fordmodelT1957]

9:09 is that music from LISA?!

[@onemoreminute0543]

It's an interesting question to consider at what point in each show did we feel the protagonists had crossed the line. For me: - Walt crossed the line when he chose to start cooking meth again for Gus in season 3. That was the moment his TRUE, selfish motive revealed itself in an explicit fashion. He had enough money for his family from his previous deal, but was now choosing to re-enter the criminal world because of his greed, pride, and ego - Jimmy crossed the line around the second half of season 3. His bitterness towards Chuck was understandable, but the way in which he responded to it was too extreme. He literally exploited his brothers mental illness to humiliate him in front of his ex-wife and then pushed him over the edge to the point of suicide. Plus, the stuff he was pulling with Irene to get the Sandpiper money was unecessarily cruel too.

[@ClintonKE]

Jimmy crossed the line starting with just getting Mesa Verde back for Kim. Up until then I sort of felt like Chuck was being too hard on him. Jimmy was rough around the edges but he wasn't the worse. Which I guess was just the show tricking me onto Jimmy's side like how BB tricks you into taking Walt's side. For one thing yeah it sucks Kim lost them 1st after Chuck showed them HHM was better for them than just 1 person but the issues Kim had with HHM were Howard's doing more than Chuck's. Even Kim being unhappy at HHM was because of Howard. Jimmy took advantage of his brother's condition and scammed him, yet acts all holy when Chuck does it to him? Funny enough Jimmy showed he can sure dish out scams but can't take it when Chuck tricked him into admitting he forged those documents as well. That air force guy who did nothing wrong that Jimmy took advantage of to film his commercial didn't like being lied to and scammed by Jimmy just like Jimmy didn't enjoy Chuck acting like his mental issues were getting worse to con a confession out of him. If Kim and Chuck would have known about the air force guy I bet they would have just said man sucks to be you after the taped recording.

[@onemoreminute0543]

@@ClintonKE I think I was still somewhat able to root for Jimmy even after the 1216 (one AFTER Magna Carta) fiasco. I agree that he should have just let Chuck have the case, but neither he (nor the audience) had any idea of how Chuck would respond. Jimmy was ready to risk it all when he ran into the copy shop to get Chuck medical attention, and he did tell him the truth when he thought he saw his brothers medical condition playing up again. Stuff like that still kept him in a favourable light for me. Of course, that latter move was exploited by Chuck to then arrest Jimmy, which turned their relationship from an already tense one to an all out war of who could hurt who the most. That's where things escalated. Chuck weaponized Jimmys remaining affection against him. Jimmy weaponized Chuck's mental condition against him. It's such brilliant writing on the part of Gilligan and Gould. I don't really like it when people solely root for Jimmy or Chuck in regards to who is in the 'right', as it ignores the complexity of the situation. Both brothers hurt each other over the course of their lives that constantly molded them into more spiteful human beings.

[@sal6695]

You used fucking Lisa music, respect

[@Dumpsterhuggies]

I heard your claim about prisons and recidivism and I'd like to give a counterpoint that while it's not the sole point of prison (I'd argue keeping criminals off the street is another one) a lot of people do get rehabilitated by prison, it depends on the person and their circumstances outside of prison probably more than anything about actually being in prison. Where the rate of rehabilitation is low, it is probably caused by broader societal issues, not the prison system itself. There's only so much you can do directly to change a person's life and some people are predisposed to criminality. This information relates to Saul himself in funny ways

[@vol10O000]

Wyatt Joseph

[@jessicaholt8078]

There aren't any good guys in real life.

[@coachacola3755]

That is one of the most pointless video title I have ever read because anyone who has at least watched 1 season of Breaking Bad has already answered these questions.

[@ungratefulbastard212]

*Walter deserved what he got (and the same goes for Saul) he was offered to change his life without delving into crime and that was to work back at Gray Matter and make enough money or more with his relationship with them and been able to provide for his family but instead of that because of his pride and selfishness he couldn't accept the deal...the truth is we're are all animals but like that saying goes "you have great power that gives you strength but if you use it will destroy you..." Walter used his skill to make poison and make money off of it, and yes he was good at it which makes it worse, if he had just put his pride aside he could had forgotten the past worked backed with Gray Matter and actually mature he wouldn't have had to Break Bad to become a "man"*

[@1person389]

Asking what kind of ending Walter really deserved is very difficult for me because I'm not even sure what moral point he actually has at the end of the series. After 6 months in the wilderness of New Hampshire, during which there was a lot of time for possible self-reflection and the phone call with Walter jr. that was a reality check for Walt, I think something definitely changed in him. It's just that we don't spend enough time with Walter to see the exact extent of this change and how it makes him feel about himself and what he has already done and is planning to do. For example when he forces Grechen and Elliot to give the money to his family. I'm not sure how exactly he thinks of this act, whether it brings him fun and satisfaction or whether he only sees the whole thing as a necessary evil, which does not necessarily make him feel good, but he accepts this in order to give his family the money . in the same scene he talks about himself as a monster. Here you don't know if he's just saying the whole thing sarcastically or if he simply accepts that this is the role he has given himself and which he now has to play. For me it was just never quite clear how Walter thinks about himself and his actions (which for me is also important for the question of what kind of ending he ultimately deserves). Whether he just continues to justify all his actions in his head or whether he finally realizes what suffering he has brought into this world and maybe even feels a little guilty for everything. And what exactly he himself thought he deserved. Personally, I find the ending of Breaking Bad so fascinating because I can never be sure what Walter deserves at the end. Not just because I'm not sure myself what I think he deserves, but because I'm not sure what Walter thinks he deserves. But that's just my thoughts on the whole thing. Hope I could convey my way of thinking good enough.

[@jamesmmcgill]

Until now, the prison treating me well. Many prison inmates respect me instead of intimidate me. They even start to call me “Don Corleone of Montrose”, to be honest.

[@stevechrollo8074]

Thank you for your service, Jimmy

[@joshtwiddy]

Bro the clip of him throwing the fulminated mercury at tucos hideout was awesome. You took out the kinda weird part where tuco just stares at him. They should’ve done it like that in the show

[@shtrurtle]

People use the ending of BCS to say "see? People can change! Chuck was wrong. Jimmy DID change" but like ...did he? Yeah he owned up to his crimes (well most of them. Not the recent ones where he was drugging and robbing people), but he kind of made that decision on a whim. Days prior he was smugly making more and more outrageous demands to make his prison sentence more comfortable. Then he sees Kim there, dissatisfied with him, and makes a bold choice to win back her favor. Does that really indicate change?

[@uhhcallmejefe]

Ok.

[@Ejnoxx]

I like this video a lot. I'm happy the background music wasn't as distracting as it sometimes was in your previous works. Good job!

[@leavanstarr2390]

My brother has your name but turned around

[@swillm3ister]

What are we building 🤖

[@CommanderMT101]

Return to forever ❤️❤️❤️

[@Idontevenknowyouong]

I love return to forever

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

What made the Tryptic (BB, EC, BCS) so interesting to me is that any of the cast could die. Heard even Holly was considered(in what Vince referred to as a particularly dark writers meeting).

[@wyattjoseph]

He mentions this in the podcast detailing the Breaking Bad finale, very disturbing details lol! The man has some twisted ideas. He had a fucked up plot line involving Jr early on too.

[@mikhailiagacesa3406]

@@wyattjoseph Jr replaces a dead Jesse after season 1?! Wow. Ouch. Keeping it in the family. Jr's relationship with Hank would have been be agonizing to watch!

[@EPMTUNES]

I loved hearing what you had to say here. Great video!

[@nedalsoned9940]

i think that in terms of a narrative sense of just desserts, having sat on it i like where jimmy ends up more than i initally did after watching the finale: the point that jimmy was truly miserable hiding & could only be domewhat content having owned up to his mistakes is something that is very real and can be seen in his character from the jump (his confession in klick/salvaging irenes reputation in lantern). the issues i still have with it are largely about how i feel the leap to reconciliation with his past and the ghost of his brother felt jarring imo, especially in light of how waterworks plunged him into his most villainous point just an episode previously. there are issues i can raise with my own personal philosophy: i dont believe that locking people up actually makes them more moral or helps in any way to redress or prevent crime. however prison can kind of be understood broadly as narrative shorthand for "facing up to the consequences of your actions" and i think that works here. a lot of brilliant art interrogates prison and what it does to people, but i dont think that breaking bad is really about that and thats ok to me. felina still really works for me as an ending that is in some ways jubilantly amoral. everything good and worthwhile in walters life crumbles to ash in ozymandias, and all he thinks he has left in felina is exacting his revenge: walter has consigned himself to the idea that he is essentially a damned soul, and watching that kind of evil that is still so unmistakably human work is very engaging. the fact that walters only moment of grace in the episode, other than the moment he shares with holly, is spontaneously saving jesse after coming to kill him, works so well for me. it cant redeem him. im not even sure i can call it compassionate or loving. i think felina is the type of ending that was going to be crowdpleasing, but in a weird way i also respect that it kind of stood by giving walter what mattered to him. he was twisted, broken and lost either way.

[@malayjoshi1098]

Ozymandias is the actual conclusion of breaking bad....Granite State is aftermath and Felina is basically a slight redemption

[@yPGzRicardo]

quoting juniper is so funny

[@ClintonKE]

Walt's family (well Walt Jr and Holly) didn't do anything wrong so I'm glad at least Walt Jr will get the money. Walt being punished is fine but it sucks innocents have to take it. At least this brings some return to those who were victims of the situation.

[@sigmabidan]

thank you for using music from lisa and mother 3 (my two favourite games)

[@Void7.4.14]

I kinda saw the BB ending coming. But I hated the BCS ending. One of the biggest flaws in BB and BCS is the tired morality that says criminals are inherently bad people (Walt is often described in a number of horrible ways simply because he broke the law and not because of who he is), that prison is the answer to anything, and people can't and/or don't change. Most people just don't think this way yet it's the ethics Vince Gilligan baked into both shows and it makes em difficult to stomach at times. I have no issue with the bad one winning sometimes but I hate the good one or the flawed one losing.

[@onemoreminute0543]

I think with Breaking Bads ending it's important to remember that the show near constantly aligned us with Walt in order to give us a protagonist to be invested in. His decisions in Felina were ultimately selfish, and his only moral acts in that episode were admitting to Skyler why he did what he did and choosing to spare Jesse at the neo-nazi compound (people forget that he was originally going to kill him before he saw his dishevelled state, comparable to his own). His actions in the final scene were framed as successful and triumphant, as the people he was choosing to mow down were literal white supremacists who we knew little about humanity wise (which imo was kind of cheap and not intellectually challenging) - they were easy for us to boo at COMPARED to Walt, who we were more aligned with and had more insight into as a human being. I think I do prefer BCS's ending as it's more poignant and thought provoking.

[@wintaffy23]

You’re so smart.

[@GamesWithBrainz]

7:34 please tell me thats not an actual collaboration with prageru

[@wyattjoseph]

It's not lol they're just in part the subject of the video

[@GamesWithBrainz]

@@wyattjoseph thank god lol

[@MegaSpideyman]

@@GamesWithBrainz Why, what's your problem with them?

[@reincarnated95]

Breaking Bad’s ending was perfection.💫