Written and directed by series creator Vince Gilligan, the finale first aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on September 29, 2013.
The plot involves Walter White evading a nationwide manhunt for him in order to return to New Mexico and deliver the remaining profits from his illegal methamphetamine empire to his family, as well as tie up loose ends with his friends and enemies.
Knowing his lung cancer will soon kill him, Walt revisits his family and former acquaintances to settle his affairs and prepare for his death.
He claims he hired hitmen, while Badger and Skinny Pete scare them with laser pointers that spoof rifle sights.
He pays Badger and Pete, obtains confirmation that blue meth is still distributed, and deduces that Jesse Pinkman is alive.
Walt retrieves the ricin from his abandoned house,[a] connects an M60 machine gun[b] to a pivoting turret in the trunk of the car he is now driving, and rigs it to a remote unlock button.
Walt is already with Skyler and leaves her the lottery ticket containing the coordinates for Hank Schrader and Steve Gomez's grave,[c] which he advises her to use to obtain a favorable plea bargain.
Walt answers Lydia's call to Todd's phone and tells her she will soon die because he put ricin into her coffee shop stevia.
[3] The story of "El Paso" closely mirrors Walter White's character arc in the final season of Breaking Bad.
According to series creator Vince Gilligan, this is a reference to the high-quality blue meth Walt had produced over the previous seasons and his life as a drug kingpin which the main character, at last, recognizes he had enjoyed.
[6] "Baby Blue" became an obvious choice as the editing came closer to completion, with Golubić describing the process of finalizing the song: "Before I saw the scene, I pulled together a number of ideas – one which I thought worked pretty beautifully against picture: The Bees' "No More Excuses" – but once I saw that beautiful shot, and saw the scene in context, I realized why Vince was so strongly attached to the Badfinger song.
[8] He had mulled this idea over for some years, and as the tenth anniversary of Breaking Bad neared, became interested in producing a work to follow Jesse's fate after this episode.
[9] This ultimately resulted in the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which first aired on Netflix on October 11, 2019, and had limited theatrical runs that weekend.
[18] However, Emily Nussbaum, writing in the New Yorker, criticized the episode, claiming it so neatly wrapped up the series in Walt's favor that it seemed more like "the dying fantasy on the part of Walter White, not something that was actually happening".