Speculation is Rampant Ahead of 'Breaking Bad' Finale

Fans of "Breaking Bad" are looking forward to the second half of the series' final season, which begins airing Aug. 11 on AMC, with a mixture of anticipation and regret as the story of Walter White nears its conclusion. The Emmy-nominated series is scheduled to end with a final episode on Sept. 29.

The gritty series follows the descent of White (Bryan Cranston) as he transforms from an ordinary high-school chemistry teacher into a murderous drug lord. Series creator Vince Gilligan has always intended the story to be one of moral certainty, in which "bad people should get punished and good people should be rewarded," and now, as the story winds down and White has become more and more a truly bad person, the character's fate is a hot topic of speculation.

All the talk of morality doesn't mean that Gilligan will necessary bring White to justice, and of course, he's being cagey about how the series will end. The actors involved haven't been any more forthcoming. Cranston told the audience at the Television Critics Association, with gleeful irony, that White "spreads his joy throughout the last eight episodes," and Aaron Paul, who plays White's sidekick, Jesse, says simply, "I couldn’t be happier with the way that it ended. Hopefully, you all agree, and I feel pretty confident you will agree."

But how will it all end for White? Just about every possible fate that could befall the character has been suggested by commentators and fans. There is, of course, the possibility that White will die at the hands of his criminal associates or the police. He may be finally tracked down by his DEA-agent brother-in-law and spend a good long time in prison. Maybe the cancer that White was diagnosed with at the beginning of the series will return and kill him. In a discussion sponsored by The New York Times, Cranston laid out a particularly chilling possibility: "What if the thing [White] wanted the most, which was the togetherness of his family, what if he lived and they didn't? Wouldn't that be a worse hell to be in?" Or he could get away with all his evil-doing and live happily ever after. One way or another, we'll know after just eight more episodes.

The first half of Breaking Bad's final season is available for streaming on Netflix in the United States, and Netflix users in the UK and Ireland will be able to stream the new episodes the day after the air in the US.