BREAKING BAD's Ending Was Sad, But It Could Have Been Much Sadder
The ending to Breaking Bad was sad, but it could have been much sadder as Vince Gilligan and former staff recently shared two alternate endings to the series that were pitched before they settled on the actual ending. Gilligan mentioned one of the endings during a discussion of the show's 10th anniversary with Variety, which saw Walt as the sole survivor:
I remember one afternoon, somebody said --- and I was kind of into it for a while --- 'Wouldn't it be really ironic if Walt is the only one to survive this?' Because it does seem so obvious that Walt should expire at the end of the final episode --- but maybe he's the only one left alive. Maybe he still does have a death sentence, but we go out on him alive, and maybe his whole family's been wiped out. That would have been really fucking dark.
It definitely would have, but with Walt alive, I can't imagine Gilligan and company getting any rest as fans would've no doubt been begging for more Heisenberg following that ending.
A second idea, mentioned by writer Sam Catlin, kept Walt's family alive, but had Walt ultimately dying in obscurity:
There was debate about that, and there was one pitch that he would die ignominiously on a gurney in a hospital, sort of pushed aside as a John Doe while life continued without him. I think the thinking behind that was, so much of what he chased was a sense of status and a sense of importance. It would have been more grim for him to be just tossed aside and overlooked at the end.
I have to say I almost like that ending better than the actual one. No disrespect to the end of the series, but Walt taking on a bunch of skinheads with a rotating gun in his trunk felt like the one part of the series where things felt a little fantastical. Seeing Walt ultimately die alone and away from his family sounds like a sadder and grounded ending, albeit less satisfying for fans of the series. Any Breaking Bad fans want to weigh in on this? Feel free to do so in the comments.