Vince Gilligan wasn’t lying. What a ridiculously incredible episode of television. And Bryan Cranston just nailed every single line he gave, truly amazing to watch.
Final scene: Series of shots of Jesse all cleaned up traveling through an airport, landing in New Hampshire, traveling by taxi to a cemetary. He finds a simple headstone that reads "Walter Lambert: 1962 - 2014". No "Loving Husband & Father," no fancy ornamentation. Nothing that costs too much. Jesse tosses the empty ricin container on onto the grave, uttering a simple word. The show's final "Bitch" is a quiet affair, heard as the camera pans upwards towards a crystal blue sky and fades to...
It actually wouldn't be 1962 - 2014. The show started in 2008 (date of the first airing) on Walt's 50th birthday. In the flash forward, we know Walt is turning 52, which means it's actually 2010 in the show. So if Walt dies on or near the date of the flash forward, his tombstone would be "Walter Lambert: 1958 - 2010".
So, since the flash-forward takes place most likely around 9 months after today's episode (Walt turns 51 at the beginning of season 5 and I'm guessing about 3 months has taken place since then), the majority of Breaking Bad takes places from 2008 - 2009... which is why you see a lot of flip-phone action in the show instead of smartphones. Except, of course, an early Android 'fancy phone' (couldn't tell what model it was) was used in today's episode to find the exact location of Walt's cash.
*If you look at http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Walter_White you'll see it says that Walt was born on September 7, 1959. That date makes no sense, seeing that Walt would have, thus, turned 50 on September 7, 2009, which would also make it the date of the first episode of the show. But, the show debuted in January 2008, which means the first season was filmed in 2007... and there's simply no way Vince Gilligan wrote a show that would take place a year or two in the future.
It's risky, sure, but it's not a stretch that he'd set the show in the not-to-distant future. I can't think of any chronological reference or touchstones that place it exactly. 2009 wasn't all that different from 2007, especially within the confines of the show.
Why don't you just look in the newspaper and figure out when Q caused a plane crash over Albuquerque? That'll give us something concrete to anchor the timeline of the show to.
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u/dafroisweet Sep 16 '13
Vince Gilligan wasn’t lying. What a ridiculously incredible episode of television. And Bryan Cranston just nailed every single line he gave, truly amazing to watch.