The fifth and final season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad premiered on July 15, 2012, and concluded on September 29, 2013, on AMC in the United States and Canada. The 16-episode season is split into two parts, each containing eight episodes. The first part of the season was broadcast from July 15 to September 2, 2012, and aired on Sundays at 10:00 pm ET. The second part was broadcast from August 11 to September 29, 2013, and aired on Sundays at 9:00 pm ET.[1] It debuted in the UK and Ireland on Netflix, showing one day after the episodes aired in the U.S. and Canada.[2] Part 1 was released on region 1 DVD and region A Blu-ray on June 4, 2013,[3] and part 2 was released on November 26, 2013.[4]
Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a terminally ill man who cooks meth to provide for his family, though he tries to distance himself from the criminal life.
Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman, Walt's former student and assistant with his meth production who turns against him.
Dean Norris as Hank Schrader, Walt's brother-in-law who is the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Albuquerque DEA office who learns about Walt's crimes.
Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut (Season 5A only), one of Saul's associates who used to work for Gus Fring before he was killed. He helps Walt continue his meth production.
Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (main, Season 5B; recurring Season 5A), Gus' former business associate who helps distribute Walt's meth into Europe.
Jesse Plemons as Todd Alquist (main, Season 5B; recurring Season 5A), a psychopathic former pest exterminator who becomes involved with Walt's crimes.
Michael Shamus Wiles as ASAC George Merkert, the former head of the Albuquerque DEA office and Hank and Gomez's former boss, who's let go of his position because of his friendship with Gus Fring.
In a flashforward, a ragged, bearded Walt, living under a different identity, has breakfast at a Denny's restaurant in Albuquerque on his 52nd birthday (a little over a year into the future). He pays for and receives a key from a patron, which he uses to open a car trunk containing an M60 machine gun. In the present, news of the three deaths at the senior center Casa Tranquila spreads as Walt heads over to see his family. Walt uses a giant magnet to destroy evidence of his and Jesse's activities stored on Gus Fring's laptop in the police evidence lockup.
A German businessman from Madrigal, the parent company of Los Pollos Hermanos, kills himself to evade questioning about his ties to Gus Fring. The DEA filters through various leads in hopes of finding something. In order to rebuild their lives and form a new profitable drug business, Walt and Jesse decide to look to Mike as a new partner. Mike refuses but soon learns that a Cayman Islands account Gus set up for Mike's granddaughter has been frozen by the DEA. Skyler's mental state continues to deteriorate due to Walter's criminal activity. Madrigal executive Lydia Rodarte-Quayle hires an assassin to kill off Gus' and Mike's former employees who can incriminate her, including the latter. Mike thwarts this plan and almost kills Lydia, but relents and instead asks her to continue supplying methylamine to Walter White.
Walter moves back into the house, to Skyler's dismay. Walter, Mike, and Jesse meet with Saul to discuss finding a new place to cook. They use Vamonos Pest (a pest control business) as a cover, cooking in the houses that have been tented over. When it comes time to divide the earnings of their first cook, Walter is upset about the amount of money going to Mike's former men, whose assets were seized when they were arrested.
Lydia offers up her own employee to the DEA and Mike offers her a replacement: Jesse. Together, she and Jesse spot a tracking device on a barrel of methylamine. Mike believes she placed the device herself. Skyler ignores Walter's birthday as her depression and frustration grow more severe. After Skyler has a mental breakdown, Walter admits to cooking again, and they argue about the safety of the children. Skyler tells Walter she's waiting for him to die and decides that the children are safer staying with the Schraders. Meanwhile, Hank gets a promotion to ASAC.
After Walter bugs Hank's new office and Mike learns he was wrong about Lydia placing the tracking device, the team works through several ideas to obtain methylamine from another source. They decide on a train heist, with Todd, a Vamonos Pest employee, assisting in the operation. The heist goes almost as smoothly as planned, but Todd notices a young boy stopping by on his dirtbike and witnessing the operation. Having been told by Jesse that no one should find out about the heist, he immediately shoots and kills the boy, much to Jesse's horror.
Following the boy's killing and new developments with the DEA, Jesse and Mike decide to quit. Mike strikes a deal to sell the methylamine to another drug dealer, Declan, but Walter refuses to cooperate. Walter invites Jesse to his home and confides to him his regret about selling his share of Gray Matter and his plans to build another empire. Skyler returns home; the three dine together at Walter's request, during which Skyler openly discusses her affair. Afterward, Walter discloses to Jesse that Skyler is awaiting his death, and that the meth business is all he has left. Walter steals the methylamine from Mike to sabotage the deal with Declan. When Mike finds out, he threatens to kill Walter, but the latter suggests he can strike a better deal that would let him keep the business running.
Walter, Jesse, and Mike meet with Declan so Walter can negotiate a deal: Declan will distribute Walter's meth. Jesse still wants to quit the business, so Walter employs Todd as his assistant. Told to end his pursuit of Mike, Hank instead follows Dan Wachsberger, the lawyer who is laundering Mike's money. After Jesse demands his cut of the deal so he can leave, Walter attempts to manipulate him into staying and refuses to pay him. Dan gives in to the DEA, but Walter finds out and warns Mike. When they meet, Walter demands that Mike tell him the names of the people in prison whose silence Mike has been paying for. Mike refuses and berates Walter; telling him they could have kept working for Gus Fring if Walter hadn't ruined that with his pride and ego. Insulted, Walter shoots him in a fit of anger. Horrified by his own action, he realizes he could have gotten the names from Lydia. The two watch the sunset on the riverbank as Mike succumbs to his wound.
Walter meets with Lydia to obtain the names of Mike's associates. Lydia partners with him to expand his distribution overseas to the Czech Republic. Walter takes the names to Todd's uncle, Jack Welker, who has ties with Aryan Brotherhood prison gangs. Mike's lawyer and the nine prisoners are killed under Walter's orders. The meth production runs profitably for months. Skyler makes another effort to convince Walter to give up his criminal life, and Walter ultimately relents after realizing they now have more money than can even be counted. Walter visits Jesse to pay him his cut of the deal with Declan, Jesse expects Walter came to kill him and sighs in relief. The Whites' children move back in. During a family cookout, Hank flips through Leaves of Grass in Walt's bathroom and sees the dedication from Gale Boetticher. He realizes that Walt is Heisenberg.[13]
In a flashforward, Walter arrives at his dilapidated and fenced-off abandoned house to retrieve a hidden vial of ricin. In the present, Hank requests all files of the Fring case and matches the handwriting in Walter's copy of Leaves of Grass with that of Gale. Meanwhile, Jesse throws his money away in a residential neighborhood. Walt's cancer returns and after a chemo treatment, he finds his copy of Leaves of Grass missing. Walt immediately searches for and finds a GPS tracker on his car, suspecting that Hank has now uncovered the truth. Walt confronts Hank, who accuses him of being Heisenberg. Walt warns Hank to "tread lightly".
Hank reaches Skyler before Walt. He attempts to obtain a statement from Skyler, but she refuses to talk. Skyler also refuses to say anything incriminating when Marie visits, only saying "I'm so sorry." Walter buries his money in the desert at the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation. Lydia, facing pressure from her Czech Republic customers, tries to convince Declan to use Todd as his chemist. When Declan refuses, Uncle Jack's gang kills him and his associates and takes the meth production equipment. Hank, unable to obtain information from Skyler or Walt, returns to his office at the DEA to learn that Jesse is being detained and questioned.
Jesse refuses to cut a deal with Hank. At an arranged meeting in public, Walt, Skyler, Hank, and Marie try to negotiate. When Walt's attempts to negotiate with Hank fail, he leaves Hank and Marie with a DVD of Walt implicating Hank as the mastermind of the methamphetamine business. Walt offers Jesse money to leave town for good and assume a new identity. Jesse agrees until he realizes that Saul took the ricin cigarette from him so that Walt could frame Fring for poisoning Brock. Jesse flies into a rage, breaks into the White home, and douses it with gasoline.
Walt finds Jesse's car crashed in his driveway and his house unoccupied and doused in gasoline. He leaves a message on Jesse's voicemail to meet in order to explain himself. Skyler pushes Walt to kill Jesse. Hank is revealed to have stopped Jesse from torching the Whites' house. Jesse agrees to cooperate with Hank, who videotapes Jesse's confession. Jesse goes to meet Walt while wearing a wire. He instead calls Walt, refusing to meet and threatening to "get him where he really lives." Walt calls Todd to say he has another job for his uncle.
Walt calls Todd to negotiate a hit on Jesse. Todd's uncle, Jack Welker, agrees on the condition that Walt cooks one more time so that Todd can observe him. Hank attempts to learn the whereabouts of Walter's money through Huell, whom he detains; Saul reports Huell's disappearance to Walt. Walt attempts to lure Jesse out of hiding by having Andrea call him, but Hank intercepts the message. Aware that Walt has buried his money somewhere, Hank stages a photo to convince Walt that Jesse found the money. Walt panics and frantically drives to To'hajiilee, where the money is buried, pleading with Jesse by phone not to burn the money, and unintentionally confessing to various murders. Walt calls Jack and demands that he and his crew come to his rescue. Upon seeing Hank and Gomez with Jesse, however, he orders them off. Walt surrenders, but Jack and his crew arrive. A shootout ensues between Jack's crew and Hank and Gomez.
Jack and his team remain unscathed while Agent Gomez lies dead and Hank has been shot in the thigh. Walt begs Jack not to kill Hank, offering Jack $80 million in cash in exchange for Hank's life. Nonetheless, Jack executes Hank and his men dig up all seven barrels, leaving one for Walt. At Todd's suggestion, they take Jesse hostage in order to get information from him about how much he told the DEA. After being beaten and tortured for information, Jesse is forced by Todd to help him cook meth. Marie tells Skyler that Hank has Walt in custody, and Skyler agrees to tell the truth to Walt, Jr. When they return home, they find Walt packing and insisting the family leave immediately. Realizing Hank is dead, Skyler threatens Walt with a knife, demanding he leave the house. When Walt refuses and approaches Skyler, she slashes his hand and a tussle ensues. As Walt gains the upper hand, Walt, Jr. comes to the defence of his mother, and calls the police on Walt, who escapes with Holly. After taking full responsibility for the meth business during a call to Skyler that is monitored by the police, he leaves Holly at a fire station and assumes a new identity through Saul's contact.
Assisted by Saul's contact Ed, Walt relocates to a cabin in New Hampshire while Saul leaves for Nebraska. After being interrogated by the DEA, Skyler is threatened by Todd not to talk about Lydia. Jesse tries to escape from the Aryan Brotherhood's compound but is caught. As punishment, Jesse is taken to Andrea's house in a van and forced to watch Todd murder her. Walt calls Walter, Jr. from a pay phone in a bar, but Walter, Jr. gets enraged and hangs up the phone after wishing death upon his father. Walt then calls the DEA to turn himself in. While sitting at the bar, Walt watches Charlie Rose interview Elliott and Gretchen and becomes incensed when they deny the significance of Walt's contributions to Gray Matter. The police soon encircle the bar, but Walt has already left.
Walt locates Gretchen and Elliott and gives them $9,720,000 to give to Walt, Jr. when he turns 18, threatening that he has hired hitmen who will kill them should they fail to do so, who turn out to be Badger and Skinny Pete with laser pointers who Walt paid to intimidate Gretchen and Elliott. He then crashes a meeting between Lydia and Todd, putting the ricin in Lydia's stevia. He visits Skyler and gives her the coordinates of Hank and Gomez's burial site, imploring her to use it to bargain for a plea deal. He then drives to the Aryan Brotherhood's headquarters with the M60 machine gun which he has jury rigged in the trunk. When Jack brings Jesse in from cooking to show him to Walter, Walt tackles Jesse to the ground and triggers the M60, which mortally wounds Walt and kills everyone else, except for Todd, whom Jesse strangles to death, and Jack, whom Walt shoots in the head. Jesse refuses to shoot Walt, though Walt asks him to. When Lydia calls Todd, Walt answers and informs her within earshot of Jesse about the poisoned stevia. Walt and Jesse acknowledge each other one final time before Jesse escapes in Todd's car, crying in joy. As he succumbs to his gunshot wound, Walt spends his last moments gazing around the meth lab before suddenly collapsing and dying. The police find his body in the lab moments later.
Development and production
In July 2011, series creator Vince Gilligan indicated that he intended to conclude Breaking Bad with the fifth season.[23] In early August 2011, negotiations began over a deal regarding the fifth and possibly final season between AMC and Sony Pictures Television, the production company of the series. AMC proposed a shortened fifth season (six to eight episodes, instead of thirteen) to cut costs, but the producers declined. Sony then approached other cable networks about possibly picking up the show if a deal could not be made.[24] On August 14, 2011, a deal was made in which AMC renewed the series for a final 16-episode season.[25] Filming began for the season on March 26, 2012.[26] Then in April 2012 Bryan Cranston revealed that the final season would be split into two halves, with the first half airing in 2012 and the second in 2013.[27] After a four-month break,[27] filming for the second half of the season began on December 7, 2012, during which AMC sent the cast and crew cupcakes decorated with characters and props used throughout the show's run.[28][29]
Vince Gilligan explained that the season was split at his request in order to have more time to write the final episodes. Thomas Schnauz revealed that the writers initially tried to conceive a 16-episode arc in advance of completing the first eight episodes, but that most of these plans were scrapped as new plot points emerged "that threw everything into a little bit of chaos."[30]
Dean Norris had asked Gilligan to kill off Hank during the first half of the season after being cast in a comedy pilot. However, Gilligan declined his request, citing the importance of Hank in the final eight episodes.[31]
Gilligan stated that the introduction of the M60 machine gun in the season's first episode created several problems down the line in writing. When the premiere script was developed, the machine gun was written in as a thought-provoking idea to suggest to the audience that something significant was going to happen later in the season and draw them in. However, at that time, they did not plan out how the gun would be used, and Gilligan believed that with sixteen episodes, they would be able to figure something out. As Gilligan started writing the last four to five episodes, his staff reminded him about the machine gun. Gilligan was of a mind to simply drop the machine gun but realized this would not work. He eventually had a eureka moment where Walter would need to use the machine gun to kill multiple people at once rather than a single individual, leading to the development of the character of Jack Welker and the white supremacist gang to be the target of Walter's wrath.[32]
Reception
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the fifth season has an approval rating of 97% based on 99 reviews, with an average rating of 9.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Breaking Bad's final season cements its status as one of television's great series, propelling its narrative to an explosive conclusion with sharp direction and assured storytelling."[33] On Metacritic, it holds a 99 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, making it the highest-rated season of any show on the site.[34] In his review of the second half of the season, Seth Amitin of IGN stated, "Whether you call it a 'half-season' or consider these final eight episodes its own season, this final batch of Breaking Bad is one of the best runs of episodes TV has ever offered."[35] "Ozymandias" in particular was widely praised and has since been called the greatest television episode ever broadcast.[36]
The first half of season five was watched by an average of 2.6 million viewers per episode; the second half averaged 6.04 million viewers. As a whole, season five averaged roughly 4.32 million viewers per episode.
Accolades
For the 65th Writers Guild of America Awards, the series received four nominations for Best Episodic Drama, for "Buyout" (written by Gennifer Hutchison), "Dead Freight" (George Mastras), "Fifty-One" (Sam Catlin) and "Say My Name" (Thomas Schnauz), and won for Best Dramatic Series.[38][39] For the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received 13 nominations, with three wins. It won for Outstanding Drama Series, Anna Gunn won for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and it won for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Drama Series. Nominations included Bryan Cranston for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Jonathan Banks and Aaron Paul for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, George Mastras and Thomas Schnauz for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series ("Dead Freight" and "Say My Name"), and Michelle MacLaren for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series ("Gliding Over All").[40] For the 29th TCA Awards, Breaking Bad was named Program of the Year, and also was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Individual Achievement in Drama for Bryan Cranston.[41]
For the 66th Writers Guild of America Awards, the series won for Best Dramatic Series and Gennifer Hutchison won for Best Episodic Drama for "Confessions".[42] The series received two other Best Episodic Drama nominations, Thomas Schnauz for "Buried" and Peter Gould for "Granite State".[43] For the 20th Screen Actors Guild Awards, the cast won for Best Drama Ensemble, Bryan Cranston won for Best Drama Actor, Anna Gunn was nominated for Best Drama Actress, and the series was nominated for Best Stunt Team.[44] For the 71st Golden Globe Awards, the series won awards for Best Drama Series and Best Drama Actor (Cranston), while Aaron Paul was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.[45] For the 30th TCA Awards, the series won for Program of the Year and received a nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Drama, and Bryan Cranston was nominated for Individual Achievement in Drama.[46] For the 4th Critics' Choice Television Awards, the series won for Best Drama Series and Aaron Paul won for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Bryan Cranston received a nomination for Best Actor in a Drama Series and Anna Gunn received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.[47] For the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, the series won Outstanding Drama Series, Bryan Cranston won Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Aaron Paul won Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, Anna Gunn won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama, Moira Walley-Beckett won Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for "Ozymandias", and Vince Gilligan was nominated for both Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for "Felina".[48]
Related media
Chicks 'N' Guns
An eight-minute bonus scene titled Chicks 'N' Guns was included with Breaking Bad's fifth season DVD and Blu-ray sets.[49] Written by Jenn Carroll and Gordon Smith and directed by Michelle MacLaren, the scene offers a backstory on how Jesse Pinkman obtained the gun seen in the episode "Gliding Over All". Sony Pictures released a behind-the-scenes featurette discussing the scene on its YouTube channel.[50]
After the success of the live talk show Talking Dead, which aired immediately following new episodes of The Walking Dead, AMC decided to create a similar series, titled Talking Bad, for the remaining episodes of Breaking Bad. Chris Hardwick, host of Talking Dead, also hosted this series; Talking Bad also had a similar logo and theme music to Talking Dead. Talking Bad featured crew members, actors, producers, and television enthusiasts, recapping the most recent episode, and taking questions and comments from viewers.[51]
^Dixon, Kelley (July 17, 2012). "Breaking Bad Insider Podcast"(Podcast). iTunes. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
