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Kim Hollis: Breaking Bad has come to an end. Please use this space to reflect on the finale and the show itself. (NOTE: There will be spoilers here. Please proceed at your own risk.)

Reagen Sulewski: I think it was a perfectly fine finale in that everything that needed to happen happened, and in generally the right order and way, but it almost felt a little bit too pat. There were some crowning moments of awesome that fit the thematic flow of the series, but there was nothing that really surprised me in the way that the series has surprised me in the past. It was a bit like a poker hand where all the cards were face up. It occurred to me today that it's a structural issue for me, not plot-wise: I think the two big flash-forwards for the final season were a mistake. Maybe just show one of them, the gun or the ricin, but not both. Because we had so much lead time to think about these issues, basically all of the possible developments were figured out beforehand. Not that anyone got the finale exactly right in totality, but all of the big potential developments were figured out by *somebody*, so when all of them happened, we were able to see just where it was going. I just think it was a mistake to give a tip-off to the audience what was going to be used in the finale, even if we didn't entirely know how. They didn't even have to foreshadow the ricin since they re-used that scene in the finale anyway.

Max Braden: I've probably seen just over a dozen episodes of the series full run. Typical of AMC shows, it's dark and broody and ponderous in pace, and I don't always feel up to tuning in for that. (I've nearly quit Walking Dead and Mad Men a number of times for this reason. Also, in my mind the show is akin to The Sopranos, which I didn't really watch either). In the episodes I saw, I was not a fan of the actors and scenes depicting his family. I did really like the *ding-ding-ding* wheelchair bomb assassination episode, and the giant magnet evidence theft, and I was hooting at the machine gun in the trunk in the season finale. Those moments in the series were fun. Lately I've been thinking about TV characters who have been villains but are working for redemption. Person of Interest in particular features a character who feels guilty about the things he's done and even though he still breaks the law, he's doing it in an attempt to make things right. That's a tried and true storytelling element, but sometimes it can become tedious. I found it annoying rather than interesting that outwardly, Walter White claimed to be doing his bad deeds for a good purpose when it was obvious to everyone that that was a lie, and that if he was serious he could have found a way out far earlier. I actually turned off the episodes I saw where Jesse was moping and giving away his money because I just didn't feel sorry for him. I think the series had to put an end to White, but I'm not moved much either way on whether he had to die - I think he could have been caught. I did love the song selection over the final montage a lot.

Kim Hollis: Although I agree with Reagen that there were no *huge* surprises in the finale, it nonetheless was satisfying to me. I wasn't sure what Walt was going to do with his former Gray Matter partners, but I liked that he used them in a way that benefited him in multiple ways (they both served a specific purpose and he had a chance to terrorize them as compensation for what they did to him). The scene between Walt and Skyler hit all the right notes. Jesse's killing Todd was surprisingly appropriate, and I loved that he got to ride off into the sunset. And Max is right - the machine gun in the trunk was fantastic. I was content with Walt's final moments, too. He's with his one true love and then he dies right beside it. This final season was terrific.

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