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Dead Tree Alert: Its Not Breaking Bads Job to Punishalter White

It's Breaking Bad's responsibility to make us think about what Walt deserves. But it's not the show's responsibility

o give it to him.

y James Poniewozik@poniewozik Aug. 01, 2013 10 Comments

reaking Bad begins its final run of episodes on Aug. 11 . Ive

een the first episode, and Ill have more to say about it after

t airs, but in the current issue of TIME my column

subscription required) looks back on one thing that makes it

istinctive among the dozens of antihero dramas over the

ast decade or so of cable T V: it is the most moral show on

elevision.

y moral, I dont mean preachy , or aimed at making you a

etter person, or a wholesome hours entertainment for you

nd your small children toenjoytogether. Rather, from

eginning to (it would seem) the end, it has been a show

ystematically about morality: how it works, how it fails,

hat makes a good and bad person, how the seed of evil finds

urchase and grows.

hat I will say about the first new episodebesides that it jams the accelerator o n the

lot as it steers toward the brick wall of its end dateis that it continues that investigation, with

new twist suggested by last y ears midseason finale. When we last left Walter White, he had

ade his pile of money in the meth business and retired.

n the process, he sets himself up for one more act of hubris: believing, after lying and killing

nd peddling death, that he can be a good person again. T he past is the past, he tells Jesse in

he new episode. Nothing can change what weve done. But now thats over there is nothing

eft for us to do except to try to live ordinary, decent lives.

an Walt really redeem himself without doing penance? Is morality a simple matter of

utward behavior: as scientist Walt might look at it, is he no longer ev il so long as he does not exhibit the outward properties of evil?

ecause Breaking Bad is so probing about morality, the finale alsoraises the inevitable questionas did The So pranos, as

id The Shieldof what Walter White deserves in the end, what would constitute justice. Is death the only fitting end for him or (a la

he Shields Vic Mack ey) a long time spent living with himself? Given how he used his family to rationalize his crimes, is his only

itting punishment to lose his familyand if so, is there any way that he can face the consequences without more innocents having touffer too?

ts important, and necessary , and unavoidable, that we should ask what Walter White deserves. Its a sign of Breaking Bads power

E n t e r t a i n m e n t

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nd moral seriousness that the show should make us ask, and care about itand wonder why, in spite of everything weve seen, some

iewers might want to see Walt get away.

ut it would be a mistake to decide that Breaking Bad has a responsibility to give Walter that just punishmentthat it owes it to him,

nd to us, and that if it doesnt, or if it comes up with the wrong sentence for his crimes, then Breaking Bad is a bad show, both

ramatically and morally, and its finale has failed.

ts an understandable mistake, I think, because series finalesare often statements not only of how a show sees its

haracters but also of how it sees the universe: if that universe is morally random, if it tends toward justice, if its animated by larger

rinciples or higher powers. T hats one reason finales can be so divisive: some detractors thought the endings of Lost or Battlestar

alactica or The Sopranos were bad storytelling, but others objected to the very worldview implied by a glowing doorway, or angels

rom space, or a maddening cut to black.

ecause Breaking Bad is so much about morality, down to the title, I suspect it will be judged even more intensely by what it serves

p for Walter. But theres a difference between a drama like this one saying that the world is a certain way and saying that the world

houldbe that way.

f youre telling a story for young children, theres a strong case to say you have a moral responsibility to show that evil gets

unished. Before a certain stage of dev elopment, kids understand right and wrong in terms of consequences: yo u shouldnt do bad

hings because you will get caught and suffer for it.

ut at some point you get old enough to realize that evil acts dont necessarily get punished, even if they should. Any system of

orality that has a chance of working in the world, among grown-ups, has to make the case for doing the right thing even if y ou wont

e rewardedeven, in fact, if you will suffer for it and bad people prosper. Thats what keeps us decent even as we hear about killers

ho lived full lives without being caught, or crooked businessmen who get fat buyouts. (You could argue that some religions offer an

nswer to this dilemmado right or yo u will go to hell / suffer bad karma / &c. But even they have to argue for being moral in this life

ven when its not the expedient choice.)

o me, this is what Breaking Bad has always been about:the kind of tough but necessary morality that says the right thing

s the right thing, even if the wrong thing can pay for your kids futures, ev en if the right thing would leave you washing cars and

uried in medical bills.

his isnt to say that Breaking Bad has an obligation notto punish Walter White, eitherjust that whether or not he gets his just

eserts in the world of the show is beside the point. What matters is that the series keeps showing, clear-ey ed and movingly, how evil

appens and how its consequences are fe lt.

endering judgment, finally, is not Breaking Bads job. Its ours.