before 'Felina'

There are absolutely spoilers below. Do not read, if you have not watched the Breaking Bad series in its entirety. I plead. The joy of episodic narrative is that the audience gets to play the guessing game. We get to suppose what is coming next, week after week, testing our theories and validating our assumptions and essentially judging our own intelligence or predictive abilities. We take joy in the cliffhanger endings, that lead to cold opens, jumping to our own conclusions about what will come next, trying to stay a step ahead of the participants.But Heisenberg, both the real quantum physicist and television's Walter White, will not let us engage our prophesying peacefully.Heisenberg, the real-life physicist from whom the fictional Walter White took his pseudonym, is credited with discovering the Uncertainty Principle of quantum mechanics, which states...

The more precisely the position (momentum) of a particle is given, the less precisely can one say what its momentum (position) is.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/If the audience of an episodic narrative subscribes to this principle, we can translate the language of science to the formula of story -  The more precisely the position (current feelings, attitude, desires) of a character is given, the less precisely can one say what is the characters momentum (future intentions and plans.) This calculation works naturally against our human instinct to form logical expectations about people and their objectives.I can't recall any story, in any format, having illustrated the uncertainty principle so gracefully as Breaking Bad. At every point when the position of a character seems to gain clarity, their momentum becomes exponentially more ambiguous. Every new door opened throws shadow on some corner to be backed into. I could litter this essay with examples, but frankly, every single scene of the sixty-some episodes of the show is evidence.I have one episode left to watch, titled 'Felina.' The series finale. A true easter egg, this title - an acronym for the elements Fe, Li, and Na - Iron, Lithium, and Sodium - key components of blood, methamphetamine, and tears. And in truly uncertain glory, the combination of those acronyms form a beautifully poetic word, something like 'finale,' something like 'felled,' something like 'felon.' In the last scene which we saw Walter, he watched his former business partner on television explaining to the world Walter's contribution to their billion dollar company. He said it was just the name - Grey Matter - a combination of their names, Black and White.And now we have this new word, 'Felina', a combination of Fella and Niña, 'boy' and the Spanish for 'girl', all that Walter allegedly ever cared about, his two children. What uncertain momentum awaits for the the White children? We last saw Holly surrounded by masked men as she slept in her crib, and Walter Jr. wishing death for his father who called him in a desperate plea for forgiveness. Their positions are known, but their momentum is all the more uncertain. The position of this word as the series finale's title could indicate momentum toward resolution for the White children. Or it could mean nothing at all. To test the theory of narrative uncertainty, I want to write out what I feel are the position and momentum of the characters, before I witness their literary conclusions. Much foundation has been laid to give me a plausible idea of what could or could not happen. But as fixed as the positions for every character seem, at this point, I've learned better than to hold tight any expectations of what drama will unfold.Jesse has just witnessed the death of yet another person whom he cared for, another person to which he can ascribe himself guilt in their undoing. He is a caged animal, a used tool, and he despises everything about his life. This is the crystal clear position he is in, but what does it say of his momentum? Where will he end up? His position is more fixed than ever, he appears to be absolutely powerless, outnumbered, alone. But the Uncertainty Principle explains that this fixed position means his momentum is more difficult to perceive. It feels completely plausible to me, given the position of all the other characters, that he will be killed, finally, for refusing to cook meth, or by trying to escape again, or by Walter himself. His death seems almost certain... yet it feels emotionally impossible.Somehow, Jesse is the last character the audience might have any emotional investment in. Despite the often disastrous consequences of his actions, he has repeatedly tried to do what he thought was right, giving away his 'blood money' and trying to prevent Walter from the destruction of any more lives. His slivers of righteousness have the audience hoping, just maybe... that he will find peace, despite the obviously bleak choices available to him. Jesse's final road will either be one that satisfies the cold reality of his current circumstances (death), or one that redeems him for the muffled justice he has tried to inject into all of the wrongdoing.Walter's position also seems quite fixed. His broken and bloodied family rejects him, his identity is compromised, his partner became his enemy. His name and face are recognized in public as belonging to a murderous criminal mastermind. His 80 million dollar empire has reduced to a lonely, snowy cabin with two copies of a shitty DVD and a monthly newspaper delivery. His character, as has been meticulously revealed throughout the season, has lost all credibility and hope of redemption. There will never be a way out for him, there will never be a family for him again. This position is abundantly clear.Mike helped illustrate this precise position earlier in the season, by telling him he's a ticking bomb. Yet, Walter won't sit quietly. He is last seen leaving his sanctuary, trotting back into the fray, begging the question of momentum - what will be the direction of the explosion, when that bomb goes off?Who will Walter take down with him? Jesse, by going after the drug-makers and engaging one final showdown? Skylar and his children, by attempting to contact the family or transfer money? Or can his clear, evident, irrefutably destructive position - can the simplicity of that explosive position shroud the direction of his momentum to such an extraordinary degree that he simply fizzes out, quietly faces capture, or innocently succumbs to cancer? There is no reasonable guess.All of these paths of momentum seem equally likely, so anything is fair game. As Heisenberg taught, momentum is uncertain... and as Walter taught, in episode 1, chemistry is not the study of chemicals, but of change.(A big round of applause for the A.V. Club in guiding me through the Breaking Bad viewing experience with brilliant insight)