Cast arriving in the famous van. Aaron Paul in haz mat suit.  [This post has been updated]  David Blaine is doing card tricks by flashlight as we all sit in the dark waiting.  We're not done yet! Now it's time for a West Coast report.  Devon Spurgeon is at a screening of the "Breaking Bad" finale at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary with various celebrities and notables from the cast. She's going to be filing dispatches on the event.  And that's it for Walter White, folks. He dies in a lab, where he always belonged, as Badfinger's "Baby Blue" plays over the end.  Is this a victory for Walt?  What did you think of the episode? Leave your thoughts in the comments.  One last nod. After all that, Jesse and Walt still respect each other at some level.  How about it, Walt -- one last cook?  No, Jack. Walt does not want his money back. You can have this nice, shiny bullet, though.  Reunited ... and it feels so bad. Walt and Jesse, face to face. Back to where it all began.  Walter White unleashes fury on Uncle Jack and the Nazis in an explosion of gunfire and bullets that would make Peckinpah proud!  And yet he managed to save Jesse Pinkman's life while doing it, months after damning him.  Walt is in the lion's den. What does he have in store for the Nazis? He's going to need those keys back, though. Chekhov's key fob?  Walt shows up at Nazi Jack's compound and very carefully positions his car to face the meth lab. Methinks this may lead to something big in the next few minutes...  I see a lot of folks on Twitter griping about the amount of commercials so far. Perhaps this means the final 20 minutes or so are going to be relatively uninterrupted? Hope so.  Man, I'm so spoiled by Netflix binge-watching.  Finally, in a tense confessional between husband and wife, Walt shared the truth: There was no great, honorable motive. His adventures in the meth trade, his conversion to Heisenberg was, in the end, all about ego. "I liked it. I was good at it." People died and lives were ruined so that Walt could feel alive.  I'm not so sure the coordinates to Hank's burial ground is enough to get Skyler off the hook with the DEA. That seems like wishful thinking.  Out of everything we expected from this finale, will the most shocking thing end up being that Walter White told the truth?  Once those lottery numbers (GPS coordinates to Hank and Gomie's desert grave) were the ticket to Walt's fortune, but now it's just a dark reminder of how everything went wrong.  "I did it for me. I liked it." And, finally, Walter White is honest with Skyler.  Ah, there's Skyler, and she's taken up smoking again, while Marie, by phone, relays the news that Walt's back in town. "She said he looked exactly like the Unabomber!"  Hey, look, there's Walt in the kitchen. The whole time Skyler was on the phone. Poor old sentimental Walt. He wanted a "proper goodbye" with his wife.  So as we move forward through the time line, Walt has a meeting with Lydia and Todd during which he pleads for money, promising a new formula that will free them of the need for methylamine. Poor Walt, that cough is getting worse and worse.  Of course we know he has the ricin which conveniently looks a lot like Stevia. Did Lydia just stir poison into her cup?  No Skyler, Flynn, Holly or Marie so far ... interesting choice here. Surely we'll see them again before this all ends?  Marshall, I think you're onto something there. Jesse's been enduring quite the passion, if you will. And was that a dream sequence or a memory of more halcyon days, when he actually, uh, applied himself?  Meanwhile, I think we have an answer for whom Walt intended the ricin. More Stevia, Lydia?  And now we're back at the beginning of season five: Mr. Lambert's birthday. He's got that big old gun in his trunk, the ricin out of the light socket, and he's ready to rock and roll, even as he drifts through the ruins of his house.  Awww ... a flashback to Hank, holding forth on the meth trade. "Easy money!"  Mike, I'm struggling to remember, but regarding the "Jesse as Carpenter" scene we just watched, was that the first proper dream sequence in the show's run? Should we read much into the whole carpenter thing? Especially as it pertains to, you know, sacrifice?  Walt's relatively paltry payoff of Badger and Skinny Pete (certainly not $200,000) reminded me of the great Sam Peckinpah film "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia." All of these high-priced contract killers are sent out with the promise of being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, but poor Benny (Warren Oates) only gets offered ten grand.  So, all those predictions about Walt "saving" Jesse? Not so sure about that now.  "That whole thing felt kinda shady...morality wise." The Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of this series nicely summarize all that came before. I was right about the money...wasn't expecting the red dots.  Where do you think that money came from, Gretchen?  Anyway, Walt is still dedicated to getting his drug money to his kids, and he's using Gretchen and Elliott to do it. It's actually a shrewd move on Walt's part. Who would ask questions if they set some money aside for Flynn and Holly?  But true to Walt's bitter pride, he won't let them pay a cent out of their own pockets to cover any taxes or extra expenses.  Oh, but there's a catch, quite a catch at that. Two of the best hitmen west of the Mississippi? Ha, no. Badget and Skinny Pete with laser pointers, of course.  Mike, does he kill the Grey Matter couple? Or does Walt hand off the money for them to hold for his family?  I have to say, I enjoyed "Silent Home Invasion Walt." He could have his own specialty action figure.  Mike, does he kill the Grey Matter couple? Or does Walt hand off the money for them to hold for his family?  I have to say, I enjoyed "Silent Home Invasion Walt." He could have his own specialty action figure.  And Walter White channels his inner Crocodile Dundee ... and Chief Brody. "You're gonna need a bigger knife." Elliott wisely backs down ...  Man, what a tense scene, one that would fit well in a slasher film. But, true to the "Breaking Bad" style, there was as much dark comedy as there was dread.  In a silent home invasion Walt imagines what could have been.  That song was "El Paso" by Marty Robbins, who also has a song called "Feleena." The title of this episode? "Felina."  Oh yeah...I forgot about "Mad Men."  Like me, Walter White doesn't know much about cars.  "Just get me home ... " Is Walter White actually praying? The nerve of this guy ...  Aaaaand ... here ... we ... GO!  Here's my prediction, Mike: We see Walt and Jesse standing in the desert. Cancer-ravaged Walt coughs blood and trembles. Jesse slowly raises a gun. The camera pulls back, up up up and they both gradually become two minute specs in the vast wasteland of New Mexico. We deep into the universe "Men in Black"-style until the image twists and distorts and the stars become molecules. The image twists and distorts and we emerge from the cellular structure of a shard of vibrant blue crystal meth.  It is immediately crushed and snorted by a giant green alien.  I just want to get my sole prediction out of the way for tonight, and I want you all to hold me to it: I don't think there's any way Walter Hartwell White makes it out of the finale alive. Not exactly a bold prediction, I know, but I know some folks out there on Team Walt are holding out for Mr. White to make it.  Oh yeah, I feel the butterflies, too, Marshall. "The electricity's so thick, you can cut it with a knife," as Gorilla Monsoon used to say. I'll probably have to re-watch the finale later so I can absorb it all without feeling so amped up.  I'm going to get the ball rolling on the "Breaking Bad" finale live blog. I've been tweaking with psycho-levels of anticipation all weekend and need to vent. I want to point out that I am thirty years old. I am comfortably an adult. But I've had so much manic excitement leading up to tonight that throughout this bright and sunny day I re-watched, via YouTube, many my favorite WWF (I know, I know, it's the WWE, but let's be real) match-ups from my childhood. That's a risky admission to make on a public platform owned by my employer...but so be it.  Anyone else going nuts waiting for this show to start?
The "Breaking Bad" finale has finally arrived.  Speakeasy is live blogging the end of the Walter White saga. Join us and follow along.