It's all coming to a close. The final eight episodes of AMC's original series "Breaking Bad" will document the long awaited finale of our favorite chemistry teacher's crystal meth empire. We've seen cold-blooded murder, drug addiction and family betrayal at its best, but all good things must come to an end. The second half of the fifth and final season of "Breaking Bad" will begin August 11, and creator Vince Gilligan promises that all unanswered questions will be addressed during the series' spectacular conclusion.
"Anyone anxious that there won't be resolution enough at the end of these eight episodes can rest assured that the story very much reaches resolution," Gilligan told The Daily Beast. "It will not end in any kind of open-ended sense."
Although Gilligan was wary to not give away any of the finale's secrets, he did describe the finale as "victorious."
"I'll say this much," he said. "I'm surprised by how victorious, in a certain sense, the ending feels to me." This could mean that the normally dark drama will end on a high note, leaving fans with a feeling of satisfaction and understanding, a rare and unique occurrence for "Breaking Bad" fans. Could this mean that Walt (Bryan Cranston) gets away scott free? Could he leave his meth empire behind, rekindle his relationship with Skyler (Anna Gunn) and live happily ever after? That seems too good to be true, especially in the wake of his mass killing spree and his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank (Dean Norris), hot on his tail.
Whatever the ending entails, it wasn't easy for Gilligan and his team to decide on Walt's fate. "I was very nervous for the last year that we didn't have an interesting enough way to wrap up Breaking Bad," he said. "I have to say that we were in the woods for a long time with these final eight episodes. Creatively, I felt like I couldn't see the forest for the trees, and I was sort of trying to hack my way through the jungle of this story."
Gilligan finally found his way and is pleased with the finished result. "I'm very proud of these final eight," he said. "They go like gangbusters. There is no downtime in them. We are racing to the finish. I think they end the show in as satisfying a manner as we could possibly come up with."
"Breaking Bad" returns to AMC August 11 and will push straight through to the series epic finale.