Skinny Pete live tweeted this episode for EW.

I think that means we can assume that he stopped his chemo, not that he is in remission.

Marie intensely hates Walt, and she heard his phone call. She may easily buy that Schyler was forced into doing what she did.

Wait, when did Kurt Sutter start working on the show?

Probably will support the family as you said, which is exactly another thing Walt probably wanted. I wonder how much Hank told Marie about Walt past the Meth. For example, I wonder if she has any clue about the prison murders.

Atonement, redemption, those aren't made up words. That's fine if you have no sympathy for the characters. I do. As immoral as cooking meth is, the only reason they made money from it was demand. The free "black" market at its best. The idea of free will is gone from the customer side is bs. There's plenty of blame to go around. For one, the drug war is a losing battle. Just ask Hank. Oh wait, he's dead.

Something else noticeable in the scene where Walt leaves Holly in the fire truck is that some of the firefighters inside the fire station were playing chess, which is the most well-known game of strategy. I think this is foreshadowing that Walt is now busy forming his strategy and setting up his future moves - moves which will unfold as the final 2 episodes of the series.

I like it! It would give reason to all of their irreverence.

Wondering.... why is the show ending? People want to move on? I think they could have easily done 2-3 more seasons. Why decide to end it now?

Because they are smart. How many shows dragged on for an extra 2 or 3 seasons and ended up going out on a low note (Weeds and Dexter for example).

I think Dexter lost it's touch, but it's still a good show. Looking foward to how it ends.

No, Dexter is not a good show. It's bad. very very bad. it's a bad show that took a shit all over the carpet.

Breaking Bad is ending because the creators want to end it. Why push for stories it doesn't need to have?

This is sarcasm right?

Not that Dexter was ever as effective as Breaking Bad, but it is a great example of a good show falling off of a cliff.

My favorite piece of the show was the "I saw Jane Die" reveal to Jesse. Like everyone else, I had been waiting nearly 4 seasons for that and it came at the perfect moment for the final twist of the knife. I was cheering my TV when those words left Walt's lips and hit Jesse's disbelieving ears.

You're kind of comparing peas and carrots with these two shows.

No sarcasm. It didn't completely fall apart as far as mood and a character study.

A great example of a good show falling off a cliff was Nip/Tuck.

I'm also firmly in the camp of "Dexter has not only fallen off the cliff, but it's broken corpse is twitching on the rocks below." That show is a complete joke at this point.

So why are you watching it, out of some sort of strange obligation to do so?

Inertia primarily. And curiosity about how it ends.

Dexter was pretty great in the first 2-3 seasons, but it has degraded over time, and this last season was completely phoned in.

finishing dexter to just "complete" the series
finishing breakin bad becuase it's a freaking masterpiece...

Hey, that's what I say too...!

Probably watching the finale would suffice. I've given up a lot of shows I liked that started out really good but turned to crap.

The Vogel character was a nice touch. And I liked Zack a lot. But Saxton has been a disappointment, as if it was an afterthought. Not a great season, but I like the characters enough and knowing this was the last season made the decision easier to watch. Had they announced more seasons, I admit I wouldn't watch them.

The main problem with Dexter, for me, was always the supporting characters and their subplots, as if we really cared, i.e. Quinn with his stripper girlfriend, Masuka having a daughter, and countless other examples that had nothing to do with Dexter. It's not that those stories weren't okay to watch, but they were distractions that limited where Dexter could have gone as a show. A more character-driven show would have made it a better show. Plus Dexter getting away with his actions over and over led me to believe the show would never punish the title character. Perhaps the finale will surprise me/us.

With Breaking Bad, there's never a dull moment. Every character and action seems important. It never meandered. The perfect example of a character-driven show. It's sad to see it go, but I'm glad it's ending on such a strong mark (at least so far). I already want to watch the whole series all over again, and I can say that about very few dramas, if any at all.

The white king was pretty close to being checked.

I wonder who said it. Was it Walt, or was it Heisenberg? This show has seen the evolution of Walt into Heisenberg, but I think Heisenberg died with Hank.

Walt saw Jesse as a drug-addict screwup. Heisenberg saw Jesse as a son. If Heisenberg is gone, and all that is left is Walter White, it makes sense that he is back to seeing Jesse as a drug-addict screw up again, giving him a reason to really twist that knife.

I can see that, but I think it had more with Walt having nothing but complete hatred for Jesse. Walt was always conflicted about Jesse. They had a love/hate relationship of sorts. It's all hate now.

That's a shame. One of the most powerful moments in the series was when Walt Jr. puts a drunken Walt to bed and Walt calls him Jesse. I suppose it says something about the fact that, for all that he came to see Jesse as a kind of son, that bond was superficial and ultimately fragile. It makes me wonder if ultimately it will be Walt Jr. that somehow draws Walt back to Albequerque with his giant gun.