This image says it all.
Sunday night's Breaking Bad season finale was yet another amazing hour of television. After a season that brought the show, and I would say television as a whole to new emotional heights (I strongly hope the "One Minute" episode helps the show win the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy this year) and lows (I would like to forget that "Fly" even existed, because it spent much too much time proving the simple point that Walt was losing his mind, and took 42 minutes to kill a fly), the season ended on a high note.
"Full Measures" was an episode that showed Walt at his most cunning and desperate, and Jesse, in the same scene (pictured), reached his highest and lowest emotional moments. In an act of desperation, Walt required Jesse kill Gale, a good-natured meth cooker who could leave Walt's entire existence irrelevant if he were to master Walt's skills. Throughout the episode, Jesse pleaded with Walt not to force him to commit such a heinous crime which showed that, while at the beginning of the series he seemed to be the burnt out meth addict who did not care much about anything, Jesse did have plenty of emotional depth.
However, as the episode ended with both Jesse and Walt's lives in danger, Jesse had to declare his alliance, and went to Gale's apartment to kill him. This wasn't an easy decision for Jesse to make, and he was visibly traumatized by the idea of killing a man who, even as a meth cooker, was innocent in other respects. However, the above pictured scene was the last moment the audience saw. An audible gunshot was heard as the screen went black, Sopranos-style.
This opens up numerous theories as to what the show's creator and episode scribe Vince Gilligan intended the scene to mean. On the obvious level, Jesse killed Gale, proving his willingness to survive and helping Walt remain the gold standard for Albuquerque meth cookers.
Or, and this is what I believe happened, when Jesse moved the gun slightly before the screen went black, he only shot up Gale's apartment to make it appear as though he killed Gale. Jesse was awarded the privilege of being able to go on the run after his season-long incidents (including last week's ending), so I wouldn't be surprised if he offered Gale the same.
Another option? Did Jesse get shot by someone else, such as Gus? We don't know for sure that the gunshot came from Jesse's gun. I would be very saddened to see Jesse to go, so I truly hope this isn't true (even if it would be a great twist).
No matter the ending, this episode just proved that Aaron Paul deserves the Emmy for Oustanding Supporting Actor this year. His performance made it impossible not to feel Jesse's anguish and emotional turmoil throughout the season (and this episode, in particular).
Have any other theories or thoughts about Breaking Bad this season, or where it could go next? Leave a comment!
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