Because 1) Jesse has a conscience, he feels remorse and he empathizes with others, which in turn allows us to empathize with him. Walt has no conscience, and no concern for how his actions negatively impact others. Ever. Hence, Walt forfeits audience sympathy.

Stylistically, it was off. No nuance, no depth, no honesty (except for two minutes with Skyler, and one minute with Jesse). It felt like items being checked off on a punch-list. I have some quibbles over plot-points, but mainly I was really disappointed with the presentation.

Um, hello? Jesse is ugly? Not hardly. He's VERY good-looking, damn near pretty.

As someone lamenting the "happy" ending, I hadn't thought of it this way, and you're right about the bleakness of everyone's situation. It occurred to me while reading this that maybe the "happy" that we are talking about that we don't like is that in the end, after all the damage and destruction he most…

YES! It's not the plot details so much as the execution. This felt like by-the-numbers writing, and it was much, much too tidy a wrap-up. The thing that has been so beautiful about "Breaking Bad" from the beginning is its daring to depict that life is MESSY, and often without the resolutions - or closure - that we…

@ Spiny Creature: Agree 100%. I thought the writing and direction were lazy. We got a connect-the-dots, by-the-numbers, tie-up-all-the-loose-ends-with-a-big-red-bow ending, that was jarringly out of keeping with every single episode of the series since its inception. It wasn't the plot points (although the Lydia…

"For most of the season, everything went to hell. Here, everything went perfectly."

Although I would never try to predict anything on BB, I do like a lot of these ideas. However, I disagree with one aspect here: Walt "knowing that he killed his own son and can't blame another person for it."

This is funny. Props. =)

@ cub: Jesse has understood that from the first episode, when Walt mustard gasses Crazy 8 (and his cousin) and is incredulous that Walt thinks he can just go to his job the next day, as usual, and leave the bodies at Jesse's house until he *feels like* dealing with it. Jesse made  a lot of very poor choices in the…

Go back and watch the restaurant episode in Season 2. Gretchen is looking at Walt with shock, incredulity and perhaps mild despair as she watches him re-write history, shift blame to her, and then get indignant over his "victimization."  That is one of the first scenes where we see Walter White's personality disorder.…

Oh, for sure Jesse doesn't "forgive" Walt because, unlike Walt, Jesse understands that actions have consequences, and that it is our CHOICES that make us who we are. Jesse does not allow himself the indulgence of rationalizing away the horror his decisions have resulted in, and a great deal of his disgust for Walt is…

"it's the story of a man owning up to himself."

Walt's disgusting attempt to BUY his son's respect and sabotage his integrity would have worked on you, obviously.

Technically, Walt did not admit he killed Hank. What he said was, "You'll never see Hank again." Walt admits no wrong-doing, ever. EVER. He is a pathological narcissist, and he will blame shift until he draws his last breath.

Well, he's got $100K cash. He could just buy a bus ticket. Or take a taxi. Or buy a used car. Or hitchhike…

No. He yelled "F-CK YOU" because he was becoming increasingly agitated that Gretchen's presentation of REALITY was not supporting his self-aggrandizing revisionist history. He was out of words, his mask of sanity slipped, and he reacted viscerally, like the sociopath he is.

Okay, so, I've read several pages of comments and haven't yet come across this particular theory for the final episode so, although I NEVER attempt predictions for "Breaking Bad", I'm going to drop it here just to get it out there. I wouldn't even call it a prediction, really, so much as a "this was the first thing I…