Just over a month away until the new season starts. You know, I remember how upset we all were when we first found out that the final season would be split between two years, and now I am so glad it was. I don’t want the ride to be over. I’m not ready to leave the world of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, no matter how dark that world has become, or how much darker it could get before the end.

But the final eight episodes are upon us. Time to make predictions, revisit last year’s predictions and pull together everything that’s out there to try to make some guesses. Some of this, no doubt, will be pure speculation and wishful thinking.

So, let’s get right to it, bitches!

Walt dies. I said it last year, and I’ll say it this year. Walt dies. I stand by that prediction. The new “Remember My Name” poster of Walt put out by AMC only strengthens my conviction that Walt will indeed meet his end in the final episode. I know that Vince Gilligan has said a few times that he was rethinking original ideas he had about the ending, and I think that was partly to throw us off, make us think the ending could be otherwise, but I don’t think it will be. For me, it wasn’t the words on the poster but the green smokiness around Walt that cinched it.

VG did say that the ending is non-ambiguous. He also said it’s strangely victorious. Again, I don’t read that as any possibility that Walt lives, but rather that the victory could be for someone else (Jesse or Hank most likely, Skyler possibly) or more likely, the victory is the legacy Walt leaves behind as Heisenberg. He worried about his legacy aloud to Jr in 410 “Salud” and the whole phrase “remember my name” suggests a legacy lasting after he’s gone. I think that’s the victory.

I still think cancer is a pretty good contender for the ultimate killer. After the first eight episodes of Season Five, I am fairly sure it’s back. In that flashforward, he’s coughing and taking a pill. In 508, in the montage, we see the paper towel dispenser at his oncologist’s office after showing him getting a scan (same angle–upside down–as the shot in the pilot when Walt first finds out he has cancer) and that has to be significant. How many times has Vince Gilligan said that this is a show about cancer? And Walt got a long reprieve from his literal cancer. I want to restate something I said last year: if Walt’s cancer was really gone for good, that’s just a little too miraculous for this show. It’s always been lurking in the background, and it’s bound to surface soon. I will go out on a limb and say I think it’ll come up within the first episode, possibly second of this summer.

Another good contender for Walt’s death is that he dies to save someone else, which would also feel victorious in a way. I think it’s a real possibility, and it would have some justice, because so many people have suffered because of him.

Hank is in a really complex situation, a subject for another upcoming post that will address all the many angles and facets of Hank’s toilet discovery. I think, whatever Hank decides, he will not make any moves right away. He will stay ahead of Walt by not letting on that he knows. The funny thing is that no matter how much he pieces together now, Walt’s out, so it may be hard to find any actual evidence of any current wrongdoings. It may take some time for Hank to build his case. I think he’ll also have to keep any investigation under the radar not just from Walt but also from the DEA because this is career suicide. That stage was set with what happened to Merkert last summer.

Hank may try to get info out of Skyler or Jesse. But I don’t know if either would sell Walt out, especially since they’re both complicit. On the other hand, they’re both afraid of Walt, so out of fear, they might be willing to turn on him. But I don’t know, loyalty is so strong on this show that I’d like to think it’ll still hold in these final eight episodes. Some have suggested Hank may team up with Jesse, which I was not seeing at all, until I watched that extra scene on the Season Five Part One DVD called “Chicks ‘N’ Guns” which suggests that Saul has definitely figured out that Walt killed Mike and hinted at this strongly to Jesse. Now I think Jesse’s at a new level of fear of Walt, and had some serious loyalty to Mike, so given all that, maybe he’ll team up with Hank.

But maybe not. Maybe Jesse will end up in jail, but somehow I have a feeling that whatever does happen to him this season, it may be worse than jail. Still thinking and hoping he might make it through though.

In that flashforward, Walt is not wearing his wedding ring, and in his fake identity, he’s using Skyler’s maiden name as his last name. And he’s doing the bacon the way she did on his birthdays. So, to me, this suggests mourning, missing her. Walt always really loved her, as much as Walt is capable of loving anyone. I’m torn on whether to think they’re split up, or something final happens to her or one of the kids. Skyler has stayed with Walt through a lot of turmoil, through finding out he’s a meth cook and a murderer, through being afraid of him, through fear for her family and their safety, all without leaving him. So something drastic must happen to split them up. I think it’s possible she dies, but I have another little theory I’ll get to in a bit because it may be more far-fetched.

Jesse on the other hand, I think might live. I know it’s wishful thinking, I could just see him alive at the end of this. If there’s any justice, that is, and there might not be. He’s the one character I really want a happy ending for and it’s hard to separate my attachment to the character from any intuition or insight about the directions the writers might take his character.

I do not think Jesse will kill Walt. I would be very surprised and disappointed if that happened. I just don’t think Jesse is, at heart, a killer. And he loves Walt and has loyalty to him, even if he shouldn’t. But I think the damage to his soul would just be too much. He was such a mess after Gale, who he wasn’t particularly attached to, and has never been the same since. And he’s been getting more good, becoming more of a moral compass throughout the episodes last summer. Even when Todd did that horrible thing of shooting the kid, and one of Walt’s suggestions of what to do was to get rid of Todd, as much as Jesse thought Todd was a psycho, he didn’t want any more death. And yes, he did once threaten to kill Walt in the heat of rage, but if he had done it, I don’t think he would’ve lived with himself. Honestly, if Jesse kills Walt, I would find that to be a big stretch in believability, unless a lot more happens between now and then to make it a possibility for who Jesse is. Still, I would bet against it.

There are still other loose ends, people who could cause trouble for Walt. As much as the Hank thing is going to be a big deal during these final episodes, I think that other major things must be going on, partly because I see Hank playing it cool at first, working in the background, before going after Walt full force. So there must be other drama, especially in the early episodes for Walt to deal with directly. The loose ends still out there are Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, Todd, Todd’s Uncle Jack and his guys, Declan and his guys. I have a strong feeling one of them, or a few, may try to cause trouble for Walt, or try to get him or Jesse cooking again. Or Walt could just see them as a threat now that he’s out, because in the timeline of the show, he’s just recently gotten out and could feel he has more loose ends to tie up. Ted is also still out there, keeping his silence for now, and that could always change. I’m not sure which of these people will cause Walt trouble but I think one (or more) of them will occupy him until he figures out Hank’s onto him (and maybe it’ll continue after as well).

Now here’s my weird little theory. I’ve always thought Marie was the more likely, out of Hank and Marie, to be suspicious of Walt. She’s the one who thought Walt was up to more than just an affair, and Hank didn’t. She brought up Walt’s connection to Jesse at several different points. She went to the White house to confront Walt when Skyler yelled “Shut up!” fourteen times. I think as Skyler’s sister, she sees Walt a little clearer than Hank can.

So I think she’ll figure out what Hank suspects, either because he’ll confide in her (he’s done this before, and he may get to a similar place about his job and who he is as a man and how to do the right thing) or because she’ll suss it out. And then she may let something slip to Skyler, on purpose out of sisterly loyalty or on accident. They may even believe Skyler doesn’t know about the meth, that she believes the gambling story, so yeah maybe Marie would try to hint something to Skyler. Then Skyler will let Walt know, and that’s when he’ll disappear. And unlike last time when he felt he had to disappear the whole family because of Gus’s threats, this time the best thing he can do will be to just disappear himself to NH. Maybe fake his own death or something along the way. And he’ll be missing Skyler because he left without her, because he knows he can never go back.

But he does come back and buy that M60 and is looking very Walt (as opposed to Heisi) in that flashforward scene, very humbled. I think it’ll be a “Walt’s last stand” type of deal, something he goes into without expecting to come out alive. He’s back to protect someone, and the obvious thought would be Skyler or the kids, and that would make sense–family has always been central to the show–but I’d kinda like it to be Jesse (of course) or even Hank, which seems unlikely but a lot of twists do happen. It just seems right because these two men have been hurt and have suffered A LOT for knowing Walter White. I’d like to see some sort of karmic justice in whatever the final showdown is, and also something unexpected. Skyler has suffered too but for some reason I don’t see her as the person he’s coming back to protect. It would make sense though, starting and ending with this thought of trying to protect the family. So to make a clearer, less wishy-washy prediction, I’ll say I think Walt will come back to protect someone in his family, but I personally would rather see it be Hank or especially Jesse.

As for the ricin, I don’t have any clear theories. Maybe he uses it on Lydia or Todd or Declan or someone. Maybe it gets ingested by accident and Walt gets consumed by guilt. Maybe it stays behind the socket indefinitely. Any thoughts?

I’d still like to see more with Gretchen and Elliot, but will there be time?

What do you think is coming in the final eight episodes?

~Emilia J

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