Breaking Bad season 4 Ending explained

It's really happening: Aaron Paul is back on TV screens as Jesse Pinkman in the El Camino Netflix movie. The new flick picks up right after what happened in the Breaking Bad finale, which means that he's on the run from police and the DEA who know that he's been cooking meth and killing people. But while El Camino is all about Jesse's story post-finale, the actual finale was all about Walter White (Bryan Cranston) tying up loose ends.

Table of Contents Show

Episode Guide
Click Here To Go Back To Our TV Show Reviews
How did Jesse figure out Walt poisoned Brock?
Did Brock know Walt poisoned?
Did Walt poison the kid?
How did Gus know not to get in the car?

In the final season of Breaking Bad, Walter's drug dealing identity was discovered by his DEA brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris), which eventually led to Hank's death at the hands of Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Jack (Michael Bowen), two meth-making white supremacists who also captured Jesse and held him prisoner. Walter's cancer also returned in the final season, making his time left limited. That ticking clock on his life led to many of his steps in the finale to right any wrongs before his death. Here's where the final season and episode left all the major players.

Walter White Helps His Family One Last Time

Walter briefly escaped to New Hampshire in season 5, but decided to turn himself in after realizing that he'd lost everything already (like his home and his family). But before the DEA could get ahold of him, Walter drove to his former college friends' home and left his remaining nine million dollars there. He threatened to have them killed if they didn't give it to his family after his death.

He then visited his estranged wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) and gave her the coordinates to where Hank's body could be found. He encouraged her to use the information to ensure that she would not be prosecuted by the DEA for his own crimes. Before he left, he got one last look at his baby daughter Holly and his teenage son Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte).

The White Supremacist Drug Dealers And Lydia Quayle Die

When Walter learned that Todd and Jack were forcing Jesse to cook meth for them, he concocted a plan to free Jesse. He met with Todd and his partner Lydia Quayle (Laura Fraser) who used to work with Jesse and Walt before turned on them. Walt offered to show them a new, better way to cook meth. They pretend to be interested in order to lure Walt to the white supremacist compound and kill him that night. But Walt rigged a machine gun in his car trunk which he set off, killing all the men there. When a wounded Jack survived, Walt shot him, despite Jack's promise that he could take Walt to his money. It reinforced that Walt was done with this business, since he no longer cared about getting his money back. Walt also poisoned Lydia with ricin during their earlier meeting and called to tell her that she was dying and that her men were dead too.

The final scene in the show showed Mr. White exploring the lab at the compound. He was badly injured from his gunshot wound, and he spent his precious final moments surrounded by all the machines and devices used to cook meth. It's where Walter always felt his best, and it's where he died. In the final shot, he is shown dead on the ground in the lab as the DEA approaches.

After Walter killed most of the men, Jesse strangled Todd. Jesse then almost shot Walt as payback for all that he'd been put through by the rival drug dealers, which included physical torture and forcing Jesse to watch as Todd and his men killed his girlfriend. But Jesse decided not to kill Walt when he noticed that Walt has already been hit with one of the bullets. He told Walt that if he wanted to die, he had to do it himself. Jesse then escaped the compound in Todd's El Camino.

His final shot in the show is him laughing and screaming as he drives away to supposed safety. Of course, the El Camino movie trailer quickly showed that safety is not what he was met with. Earlier in the season, Jesse had confessed on tape and started working with Hank and the DEA against Walt. The DEA may still be on the lookout for him for all his crimes, especially now that Walt is dead and Jesse is the only one left who can be prosecuted. That's what the movie will contend with when it picks back up on Jesse's story on Oct. 11.

Episode Guide

Box Cutter
Thirty-Eight Snub
Open House
Bullet Points
Shotgun
Cornered
Problem Dog
Hermanos
Bug
Salud
Crawl Space
End Times
Face Off

Do be aware, there are a few light spoilers below regarding certain characters and their fate this season!

Season 3 of Breaking Bad felt like two story-arcs coming together to form a cohesive whole. Season 4 by comparison is all about one consistent pressure pot of tension. With the central theme of rage and anger consuming every character, Breaking Bad manages to transcend beyond excellent TV into something timelessly epic on the small screen. From the tight writing and memorable characters to the constant juxtapositions and changing fortunes for both Walt and Jesse, Season 4 is a non-stop thrill ride and the perfect pay-off for last season’s slow burn.

The story picks up right where we left off from the previous season. Gale Boetticher is dead. Walt and Jesse’s life hangs in the balance and at the centre of all this lies the ice-cold Gus Fring. The first 10 minutes produce an outstanding tour-de-force of show don’t tell and from there, the season only grows more confident and tense. Walter and Jesse’s relationship sees its biggest test yet as Walter is sidelined in favour of Jesse working with Mike and Gus more closely. This changed fortune spills over into the main conflict as both characters essentially flip 180 degrees from their original characters we saw in the first season.

With the “will he/won’t he” threat of Gus killing Walter and Jesse at any moment, a lot of the sub-plots that have been kept at room temperature hit boiling point. Skyler shows her true colours and winds up working with Walter, showing her credentials as the excellent book-keeper she is. At the same time, Hank’s given a renewed lease of life, thanks in part to Walt’s jealousy, and relentlessly hunts down whom he believes is responsible for selling the blue meth. All of these stories entwine together for some of the best episodes of the show thus far, with a beautifully written climax that leaves the door wide open for the fifth and final season.

What’s particularly interesting with season 4 is the way it uses these themes and ideas of jealousy and anger to drive the story forward. It’s not only the driving force for our characters, it’s ultimately both their undoing and their triumph. Some of this is shown quite literally, with a couple of specifically framed shots of video-game Rage sitting on a bookshelf. Other times it’s a lot more subtle and well hidden, with Gus’ true vengeance-fueled mission revealed late on in the game.

This season could have so easily descended into a good VS evil conflict but what’s intriguing here are the many shades of grey painted over these episodes. There’s a whole episode dedicated to Gus Fring, complete with flashbacks and repeated scenes from his perspective, while another late on sees Jesse head down to Mexico with his new employers where you genuinely want everyone to come out of the conflict unscathed.

This changed vision extends to everyone this season and the transformative nature of how Breaking Bad breaks down these conventional ideas and builds them up into something new is quite simply staggering. Skyler is painted in a much more empathetic light this time around and in doing so, you understand why she’s been acting the way she has. Walter’s irrational and paranoia-induced behaviour makes him much closer to how Jesse was in season 1. Jesse meanwhile becomes a lot more mature and starts to assert his own dominance on the established order of things.

All of this would be for nothing if it wasn’t for the masterful acting from all involved. Walter goes through a whole range of emotions here and his panicked, paranoia-induced outbursts are beautifully portrayed by Bryan Cranston. While Aaron Paul is given a bit more range to work with, his real forte comes from playing a man out of his depth and thankfully there are a few moments that show this. For me though, the real master here is Giancarlo Esposito, who plays the cool and calm Gus Fring. Everything from his mannerisms to the cold and unpredictable stares make him a force to be reckoned with.

Stylistically the series is every bit as pretty and well-shot as it was before with those teasing foreshadowed glimpses showing up in certain episodes while the hard-cut endings leave you desperate for more. The music this year is great too and the moments with Gus late on using the appropriate “Goodbye by Apparat” (also the main theme in Netflix’s Dark) is such a fitting use of character work. All of this is poetically brought back to that recurring visual motif of the teddy bear in season 2. The missing eye, the half-burnt face and symbology of innocence destroyed in favour of something more twisted and sinister.

The way Breaking Bad manages to tie the past with the present is ultimately what makes it such a consistent and outstanding series. While the different seasons advance the plot and add new characters to the fold, it’s the way the show constantly changes our own perception and thoughts on these characters that make it such an enjoyable watch. The season finale is one of the best episodes so far and the way everything is brought together is nothing short of mastery.

Breaking Bad is one of the best shows broadcast on the small screen for a reason. Season 4 is a rage-fueled, thematically consistent and transcendent series that subverts expectations in the best possible way. It’s a must-watch series and one that sets a very high bar for the small screen.

Click Here To Go Back To Our TV Show Reviews

How did Jesse figure out Walt poisoned Brock?

In the season 5 episode Confessions Jesse realises that Saul and Huell took his ricin cigerette on the orders of Walt (Jesse finds this out by threatening them with a gun) which causes him to also realise that Walter was behind the whole false story of Gus poisoning Brock when it had been him all along.

Did Brock know Walt poisoned?

1. Brock obviously recognized and was scared of him when he went to Andrea's house in the last season, but based on his actual reaction to Walt, I don't think Brock knew for certain that Walt had been the one who poisoned him. Otherwise he would have reacted much more violently to Walt's presence in his home.