Don't think I'd rather have seen Declan as the final villain over Jack, but would like to have seen more of the Declan story. Had they been given 13 episodes instead of 8, for S5A & S5B, expect they could have done much more with Declan, likely by extending the timeline taken up by the Crystal Blue Persuasion montage. Fun exercise might be to contemplate the extra plot lines they'd add with 5 more episodes injected here.

Making Jack the final villain also made sense, tying up revenge for Hank, etc. But really, the final villain was Lydia, who was behind the Gus era as well as the Jack era. Remember, she's the one who put the hit on Walt at the end...likely her orders to Jack.

@Swolbach said:

Don't think I'd rather have seen Declan as the final villain over Jack, but would like to have seen more of the Declan story. Had they been given 13 episodes instead of 8, for S5A & S5B, expect they could have done much more with Declan, likely by extending the timeline taken up by the Crystal Blue Persuasion montage. Fun exercise might be to contemplate the extra plot lines they'd add with 5 more episodes injected here.

Making Jack the final villain also made sense, tying up revenge for Hank, etc. But really, the final villain was Lydia, who was behind the Gus era as well as the Jack era. Remember, she's the one who put the hit on Walt at the end...likely her orders to Jack.

I agree, the show would have been better served with a full 13-episode Season 5 and 6 than a slightly rushed season five with only a few extra episodes. I don't why they took the quick way out.

How about this for 5 extra episodes in Season 5A...along with titles, just for fun...

E7 - "Say My Name" - No changes, Mike dies in the end.

E8 - "2 Minutes" - Walt orders the hit on Mike's guys. The rest of Gliding Over All is moved to E13.

E9 - "Vamonos" - With Jesse gone (vamonos), expanded story of Todd taking over as Walt's partner. Uncle Jack learns more about the business.

E10 - "Family Matters" - Jack (& family) starts planning to take over Declan's business, using Todd for information. He starts by sabotaging Declan's operations, making him look incompetent to handle distribution. He tips off the DEA to one of Declan's shipments...Hank gets closer, again. Meanwhile, Junior expresses his unhappiness with spending so much time away from home. After being out of the business for a while, Jesse pays a visit to Walt to discuss getting back with Andrea and possibly marriage. Walt tries to work some more magic on Jesse but Jesse decides to move ahead with his relationship. He wrestles with the idea of telling Andrea about his past.

E11 - "Lady Banjo Eyes" - Declan discovers that it's Jack who's been sabotaging his operations. He gives Walt an ultimatum, including a threat to Walt's family, to disconnect all ties with Jack and replace Todd as his cook. After Walt's blessing, in order to save his cook partner & his family, he suggests that Lydia go with Jack's guys for distribution. Lydia gives the go ahead for Jack to take out the Declan gang and take over the distribution operations (instead of the cook operations, in S5B).

E12 - "Show Down" - The Declan/Nazi show down. Saul is reluctantly used as a pawn to setup Declan. Jack wins. Another show down at home as Walt and Skyler battle over bringing the kids back home. Throw in a scene with Jesse meeting Junior.

E13 - "Gliding Over All" - Focuses on the remaining passage of time, CBP montage, Walt's fat stack and retirement from the business. Todd takes over the cook operations, which is moved to the Nazi camp. Walt gives Todd one final cooking lesson, at the new camp lab. As before, ends with Heisenberg's retirement and Hank's revelation.

@Lockard The GOAT said:

I didn't mind Jack and the Nazi's per se, but I wished we had gotten to see more of Declan and his gang than we did. Declan seemed like a charismatic cat, and that scene between he and Walt in the desert in 5x07 (the "Say My Name" scene) felt like the beginning of some kind of future animosity between them. It makes me wonder what would things have been like if they had pushed Declan as the final antagonist of the series over Jack.

What do you think?

I agree. I would've liked to see more of Declan. He was a pretty handsome dude and seemed pretty composed and self-contained. Perhaps the character will make an appearance in Better Call Saul!

@Swolbach said:

How about this for 5 extra episodes in Season 5A...along with titles, just for fun...

E7 - "Say My Name" - No changes, Mike dies in the end.

E8 - "2 Minutes" - Walt orders the hit on Mike's guys. The rest of Gliding Over All is moved to E13.

E9 - "Vamonos" - With Jesse gone (vamonos), expanded story of Todd taking over as Walt's partner. Uncle Jack learns more about the business.

E10 - "Family Matters" - Jack (& family) starts planning to take over Declan's business, using Todd for information. He starts by sabotaging Declan's operations, making him look incompetent to handle distribution. He tips off the DEA to one of Declan's shipments...Hank gets closer, again. Meanwhile, Junior expresses his unhappiness with spending so much time away from home. After being out of the business for a while, Jesse pays a visit to Walt to discuss getting back with Andrea and possibly marriage. Walt tries to work some more magic on Jesse but Jesse decides to move ahead with his relationship. He wrestles with the idea of telling Andrea about his past.

E11 - "Lady Banjo Eyes" - Declan discovers that it's Jack who's been sabotaging his operations. He gives Walt an ultimatum, including a threat to Walt's family, to disconnect all ties with Jack and replace Todd as his cook. After Walt's blessing, in order to save his cook partner & his family, he suggests that Lydia go with Jack's guys for distribution. Lydia gives the go ahead for Jack to take out the Declan gang and take over the distribution operations (instead of the cook operations, in S5B).

E12 - "Show Down" - The Declan/Nazi show down. Saul is reluctantly used as a pawn to setup Declan. Jack wins. Another show down at home as Walt and Skyler battle over bringing the kids back home. Throw in a scene with Jesse meeting Junior.

E13 - "Gliding Over All" - Focuses on the remaining passage of time, CBP montage, Walt's fat stack and retirement from the business. Todd takes over the cook operations, which is moved to the Nazi camp. Walt gives Todd one final cooking lesson, at the new camp lab. As before, ends with Heisenberg's retirement and Hank's revelation.

All of that is good, but IMO a 13-episode Season five would have probably just seen a longer, drawn out partnership between Walt, Jesse, and Mike. That would have been my personal preference as well. You'd have to tweek some things, rearrange events, create new events, etc. to draw it out, but it could have easily been done. I'd still do the same ending, except that the season would end with Walt still in the business and still on top, and maybe successfully talking Skyler into bringing the kids back home using the fact that he's been at it again for several months by that point and yet no danger of any kind has reared its head. (The final scene would still be Hank finding the book, of course.)

@Angel8080 said:

@Lockard The GOAT said:

I didn't mind Jack and the Nazi's per se, but I wished we had gotten to see more of Declan and his gang than we did. Declan seemed like a charismatic cat, and that scene between he and Walt in the desert in 5x07 (the "Say My Name" scene) felt like the beginning of some kind of future animosity between them. It makes me wonder what would things have been like if they had pushed Declan as the final antagonist of the series over Jack.

What do you think?

I agree. I would've liked to see more of Declan. He was a pretty handsome dude and seemed pretty composed and self-contained. Perhaps the character will make an appearance in Better Call Saul!

I hope. But given that Declan's character is all the way out in Pheonix, it'd be a stretch (unless he was originally from ABQ, and this was how Mike first got into contct with him in the first place... I suppose that could work.)