Walter White’s fate was set in stone long before Breaking Bad reached its explosive finale. No twist or turn could have modified the destiny of the once-humble chemistry teacher who transformed into essentially the most notorious drug kingpin, as his story was all the time resulting in death.
But the precise consequence of those final episodes was removed from certain. Vince Gilligan, the series’ mastermind, once revealed within the Breaking Bad insider podcast that the writers toyed with countless alternative versions before deciding on the one which aired.
Iconic Heisenberg Death Scene
The M-60 and Its Many Possible Targets
One major marker was a flash-forward within the season five premiere,“Live Free or Die,” where Walt, who was living under an alias in Recent Hampshire, returns to Albuquerque to buy an M-60 machine gun.
What wasn’t set in stone was why he needed that weapon, who he intended to apply it to, or how he ended up in hiding in the primary place. That single moment served as a narrative flag planted in the gap, guiding the writers as they pieced together his final act.
The probabilities were infinite. At one point, the team considered having Walt unleash his newly acquired firepower to interrupt Jesse out of prison. The principle of Chekhov’s gun, the concept if a weapon appears early in a story, it should be fired before the top, is actually applied here.
However the writers weren’t sure who the goal could be. That uncertainty actually led to the creation of Uncle Jack’s gang since a machine gun seemed more fitted to mowing down a gaggle of villains than taking out a single foe. An alternate, more chaotic idea involved Walt turning the gun on cops, but that was quickly dismissed. In spite of everything, as much as Walt had develop into an antihero, the show never positioned him as someone who would slaughter innocent people.
Walter saves Jesses’s Life
Walter White’s Aftermath: Teacher, Family Man Or a Candy Maker?
Other versions of the ending took Walt in entirely different directions. The Recent Hampshire exile was all the time a part of the plan, but what he did there was up for debate.
Perhaps he’d start a brand new life, complete with a brand new job or perhaps a latest family. Some ideas were more mundane, like Walt teaching at a neighborhood education center or channeling his meticulous nature into making a flawless batch of peanut brittle, a subtle nod to his lost passion for cooking meth.
A Darker Fate For Skyler White and Walter White Jr
Not all scrapped ideas revolved around Walt. Skyler, his wife, nearly had a much darker fate. In a single chilling draft, she agreed to go on the run with Walt, only later to take her own life in a dingy motel bathroom. Gilligan pitched this version during an early discussion with AMC and Sony executives, however the writing team ultimately rejected it as too bleak, even for Breaking Bad.
After which there was Walt Jr. While Jesse famously dodged an early demise with the unique plan to kill him off in season one, Walt’s son was also in peril of meeting a tragic end.
One particularly grisly storyline involved Walt capturing and torturing the person who had killed Jesse, amputating and cauterizing his limbs one after the other. Things would take an excellent darker turn when Walt Jr. stumbled upon the horrifying scene. Attempting to free the victim, he would inadvertently trigger a booby-trapped gun, leading to each their deaths in a storm of bullets. The thought was, thankfully, abandoned.
“This show would have been, as you may tell from the story I just told, a really different show, indeed, if not for all of the collaboration, starting within the writing room,” said Gilligan.
Skyler Gets To Know The Truth
The Ending That Just Felt Right
Looking back, it’s clear that Breaking Bad could have resulted in countless ways, a lot of them much more twisted than what fans ultimately saw. But Gilligan stays content with the version that made it to screen, one where Walt frees Jesse, provides for his family in his own warped way, and at last drops the facade, admitting that his meth empire was never about anything but himself.
In the long run, he dies on his terms, neither redeemed nor forgiven, but on top of things. And for Breaking Bad, that felt good.
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