‘Breaking Bad’: The Last 2 Songs in the Series Finale Explain Walter White Perfectly
Breaking Bad is well known for doing a lot of things well, and the musical score is an essential part of that. Fans might not immediately notice how much the music shapes the story of Walter White transforming from a mild-mannered high school chemistry teacher into a drug kingpin.
The lyrics and the tone of the music throughout all five seasons tells a deeper story about the characters on Breaking Bad. But perhaps the most fitting musical moments happen at the end of the series in the finale episode, “Felina.”
Walter White becomes obsessed with gaining power
The series Breaking Bad shows Walter White falling in love with power. For most of the series, Walt tries to convince everyone that he keeps trying to get ahead to help his family, and that was his original intention. But eventually that quest turns into Walt losing his morality as he gains more and more power.
In the finale, Walt finally admits to Skyler that he wasn’t just making drugs for his family’s benefit. “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really — I was alive,” he said during his last interaction with his estranged wife.
And the song that plays when Walt finally collapses fits that mood perfectly, CinemaBlend reported.
The last song on ‘Breaking Bad’ is so fitting for Heisenberg
The final scene of the show depicts Walt walking around the meth lab at Uncle Jack’s white supremacist compound and admiring the equipment. He doesn’t say anything, but the lyrics of the song praising “baby blue” — a reference to the pure blue meth he and Jesse marketed — exemplified exactly what mattered most to Walt in the end.
The lyrics said: “Guess I got what I deserved/Kept you waiting there too long, my love; All that time without a word/Didn’t know you’d think that I’d forget or I’d regret; The special love I had for you, my baby blue.”
The song equates Walt’s love for his meth, and the power that came from it to romantic love. Creepily enough, it’s a fitting sentiment.
‘El Paso’ is also a fitting song
“Baby Blue” gets most of the attention in the finale but a second song in “Felina” also has deeper meaning for Walt’s journey. The word “felina” is obviously an anagram for finale, but the episode includes a love song about a cowboy who loves a girl named Felina and dies because of it.
It’s yet another reference to Walt’s tragic love for making meth, which cost him his family and eventually, his life.
The “El Paso” lyrics say:
Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
A deep burning pain in my side.
Though I am trying
To stay in the saddle,
I’m getting weary,
Unable to ride.
But my love for
Felina is strong and I rise where I’ve fallen,
Though I am weary I can’t stop to rest,
I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle.
I feel the bullet go deep in my chest.
From out of nowhere Felina has found me,
Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.
Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for,
One little kiss and Felina, good-bye.
These two songs perfectly conclude the love story between Walt and power, or Walt and his blue meth, that fans didn’t realize was happening all along.
