SPOILERS FOR BOTH "DEXTER" AND "BREAKING BAD." BE WARNED.
A cafe review, of sorts, of the last episode of "Dexter," and the next-to-last episode of "Breaking Bad." On one level, you can contrast the two as "Hollywood Ending" vs. "Anti-Hollywood Ending." In Hollywood, image reigns supreme. Even the most evil characters can die relatively happy if they manage to escape the real-world consequences of their actions. In the world of anti-hero cinema, often the anti-heros get away Scot-free, and never have to "face the music" of their carefully-constructed projected image being revealed as the sham it is. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the whole "Dexter" series, I honestly feel that its creators took the Hollywood "low road" when ending the series. They went for "the ending that will make the most people 'feel good' while at the same time satisfying their 'moral' desires for a 'moral' ending." In other words, they chose the fantasy ending, not the real-world ending. "Breaking Bad" is taking that cliche and turning it on its head, allowing Walter White all the agony of Having Been Found Out, And In Public. It's showing -- both to him and to us in the audience -- all the real-world consequences of his actions, and the karma those actions have wrought, for both him and his family. The series' creators are allowing Walt and Jesse not only to FEEL the consequences of their actions, but to wallow in them. The Mighty Heisenberg is holed up in a cabin in the Granite State (in more ways than one) reading month-old newspapers brought to him by his only human contact, and learning that his son hates him, that his wife is being harassed by the cops, that he can't even control *Saul* any more, that his former drug empire is now being run by Todd (the 'kid' he treated as his inferior, just as he had treated Jesse) and by his relatives Uncle Jack and the Nazis, that they're still cooking his signature blue meth, that they and Lydia are not only still marketing it, but marketing it abroad, and that the *first* fantasy of his extraordinary fantasy life (being the co-founder of a multi-billion-dollar company) is being dismantled in front of his eyes. This is Walter White Hell. In "Dexter," we only get to see a glimmer of his. But in "Breaking Bad," we get to see Walter snap! and finally drop all the pretense, all the Narcissistic Personality Disorder lies and posturing, and give up. Walter White is dead. And then the last "learning" above happens, and he snaps! again. Seeing his former lover and former business partner dissing him on the TV causes the second snap!, and that the Walter White they knew is dead. And at the bar where Walter White was sitting only moments before, ready to give everything up, now there is only a partially-finished drink. Walter may be dead, but Heisenberg is not.
