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Walter White, a meek, underpaid school teacher-turned-meth dealer and the protagonist of Breaking Bad, has become one of the most iconic characters from prestige television. While the finale of the show is now sealed, fans of the show cannot help but wonder—was the ending always set in stone?
The showmakers have addressed the issue, telling several media outlets over the years that the show's ending was well debated among the writers. This means that alternate endings were contemplated, even though the redemptive arc made it to the finale in the end.
Walter’s life was plagued with many troubles. Walt uses his knowledge of chemistry to engage in a little side activity—cooking meth. Initially, he does it for financial reasons, but soon enough, he does it for personal motivations and pride.
Over five seasons, Walter White grows into a cold-blooded drug kingpin, shedding his former, vulnerable self. In the process of gaining power and control over his circumstances, he grows into someone who puts everything in his orbit at stake.
His character is created carefully so as to keep the viewers interested in how Walter’s tale ends.
A short recap of the finale: What happened at the end?
In the much-debated farewell episode of Breaking Bad titled “Felina,” Walt comes back to Albuquerque in an effort to settle affairs. Walt takes some drastic steps here: he poisons Lydia, hands over his money to his son, settles scores with his former partners, and walks right into the Aryan Brotherhood's compound to rescue Jesse Pinkman.
Walt takes out the entire gang with his machine gun. Amidst the chaos, Walt gets wounded, and Jesse, upon seeing him in that condition, refuses to kill him. Jesse kills Todd, and just as the police arrive, Walt walks into his meth lab to relive the nostalgia, and soon he drops dead on the floor while Badfinger’s “Baby Blue” plays.
The ending is poetic and perfectly symmetrical — the man who was once the kingpin of a meth empire dies at the heart of it, in his lab. But was the ending sealed in stone?
Was the final scene set in stone?
Years after Breaking Bad’s finale aired, it all seems almost inevitable for the show to have ended the way it did. But the ending was not set in stone. Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad's creator, has mentioned many times how much of the series was conceived in the process of making itself.
The writers often determined the endings and major turns mid-season. A prominent example is Jesse’s arc — he was supposed to die in Season 1. Gus Fring’s arc was conceived shortly before his first few episodes aired.
Therefore, it makes perfect sense for Breaking Bad to have had other possible endings — particularly regarding Walt’s fate — it was flexible, subject to change during the writing process.
Gilligan himself admitted that the writers’ room spent a long time debating and discussing Walter White’s fate. Of course, the final version had a mix of many creative and narrative decisions.
What other considerations led to the final version of Breaking Bad's finale?
Part of what makes Breaking Bad a mass hit was that it managed to challenge audience expectations. It evaded predictability by leading characters toward myriad possibilities. Take Walt's example: it had many possibilities — redemption, downfall, imprisonment, escape — any of these outcomes could have influenced the finale.
Creators had to give ample consideration to moral satisfaction. Walt was not without fault; he had done terrible things: poisoning a child, letting Jane die, manipulating Jesse, and influencing many deaths. Some fans wanted him to pay for his deeds — but how much punishment would feel right? The makers couldn’t give him a glorious, heroic death. If he died too poorly, it would go against the grandness of his arc.
Gilligan chose a middle path. Walt dies, but not without saving Jesse from the Aryan Brotherhood, and not before eliminating the neo-Nazis. When Walter White dies, he dies on his own terms.
The alternate endings, explained
1.Walt Gets Arrested
One of the most discussed alternate endings of Breaking Bad involves Walt being arrested by law enforcement rather than dying. In this ending, local police or the DEA would catch him, stripping him of agency and control.
It would serve the moral argument that justice always catches up, no matter how powerful one becomes. However, this version did not offer dramatic finality, and the grandness of Walt's arc would have fallen flat. Walt would have suffered and died alone in a prison cell, but it wouldn't have lived up to Breaking Bad's viewers’ expectations.
2.Jesse Dies in the Final Showdown
One of the key events in the finale concerns Jesse Pinkman. Several drafts of the finale reportedly considered disposing of Jesse’s character in the rescue shootout. In this scenario, Jesse would lay down his life to help Walt take out the Brotherhood, giving him a tragic yet redemptive end.
Another possibility could involve Jesse dying in the crossfire while Walt survives — sending Walt into a spiral of guilt. But ultimately, Jesse's character had already endured immense suffering: pain, betrayal, torture. It would have been unfair to project any more trauma onto him than he had already suffered.
3.Walt Escapes and Disappears
The idea of Walt escaping and disappearing was also considered. In this version, he would evade the authorities, assume a new identity, and flee to another country. But it would not have ended happily for him. He could escape his country and past life, but guilt and unhappiness would still catch up to him. This turn in his arc would lack the drama and would undercut much of Breaking Bad's moral framework.
4.No Music, Just Silence
Walt dies on his own terms, after reliving the nostalgia of his time in the lab. He touches his equipment as the emotion builds. Soon, he collapses on the lab floor while “Baby Blue” plays — the scene is iconic.
But even this was not without debate in the writers’ room. Vince Gilligan considered ending the scene raw, without any music whatsoever. The silence would have been striking and memorable, letting the emotion linger unfiltered.
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Overall, each alternate ending offered a different path and led us to a different emotion. But the chosen finale delivered Walter White the poetic closure he deserved — it was fittingly brutal and true to Breaking Bad’s unflinching narrative.
Also read: Why does Kenny keep dying in South Park? The show’s most absurd running gag, explained in depth
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