I first began watching “Breaking Bad” on a cold winter night back in January 2008. I remember having seen ads for the first episode of the show, and it looked decent enough to check out, so I flipped the television on and watched the pilot episode. Since then I’ve regarded “Breaking Bad” as television’s greatest show, and this past Sunday, as it all came to a close, my opinion held strongly.

The journey of Walter White, played by the truly great Bryan Cranston as he transforms from  average high school chemistry teacher to Heisenberg, the West’s biggest drug kingpin, has been a gruelingly devastating and shocking process. Over the past five seasons we’ve seen Walter lie, cheat, manipulate and murder his way out of every tight situation he’s gotten himself into. The series finale showed us something that we’ve never seen before, though: honesty. Walter, tired and weak, his cancer beginning to show, is finally completely honest with the people around him. He understands the damage he has caused in people’s lives.

“I did it for me,” Walter grumbles to wife Skyler, talking about his actions. “I liked it. I was good at it. And I was really… I was alive.”

For years, fans of the show have been waiting to hear those words. It was Walter’s final goodbye and apology, not only to his wife, but to the audience. It was the most honest thing he’s said throughout the entire series.

And in his final words with partner and former student Jesse later in the episode, he maintains his honesty.  After killing the neo-Nazis who were holding Jesse hostage, Walter slides a gun over to Jesse, who stands up, grabs the gun and points it at Walter’s head.

“You want this,” Walter says.

But he’s wrong, and Jesse knows it.

“You want this!” Jesse yells.

And Walter, racked with guilt, realizes that Jesse is right, and finally says, “I want this.” More honesty, leaking from Walt like the blood from the gunshot wound inflicted upon him from the massive shootout that just occurred.

In an honorable move by Jesse, he drops the gun and leaves Walter with a simple, “Then do it yourself.”

Sunday’s season finale was easily the most satisfying ending the audience could have received. Jesse, the most tormented character on the show, is freed and escapes with the hope of a better life.

Todd, perhaps the show’s most sociopathic character, is killed off. Uncle Jack, the neo-Nazi introduced to us just eight short episodes ago, pays his dues as Walter shoots him, mid-sentence, just as Jack killed Hank, Walt’s brother in law and a DEA agent.

Lydia gets her fair dose of ricin, which kills her too. And finally, Walter, the show’s anti-hero, dies as well. We didn’t want him to die, but he certainly deserved it. After seeing a more worn-down, honest side of him, Walter saves Jesse from the auto-cannon he has set up in the trunk of his Cadillac, but is shot doing so.

In his dying breath, Walter looks at himself, through a reflection on a steel tank in Todd’s meth lab. He doesn’t see Heisenberg. He sees Walter White. His humility is back, his job is done, and he’s satisfied with himself. He falls down, dead from the stray bullet that struck him earlier, the camera pulls away from his dead body, and like that, the series ends.

The ending of the show, though filled with so much death and despair, showed us not only the punishment characters deserved, but the redemptions too. “Breaking Bad” is certainly not a religious show, but strong undertones were certainly used in this final episode.

Near the beginning of the episode, as Walter sits in a car he’s broken into, a police car pulls up from behind. Walter prays to God, just to get him home so he can finish his business. God answers. The police car drives by, and the keys of the car Walter is trying to steal fall into his lap from the sun visor. Does this mean that God helps meth dealers who have a taste for vengeance? No, but He does help a man desperate to set things right. And that’s all that matters.

Walter set things right. The finale tied up loose ends and went out with a bang in doing so. Through my years of continuous re-watches, and flat out studies of the show, I can say there will never be another show as good as “Breaking Bad.” In fact, “Breaking Bad” marks the peak of film and television as a whole.

For those who haven’t seen it, I beg you to watch it. For those who have viewed it along the way, what an experience we’ve had. Because that’s exactly what “Breaking Bad” is – an experience.

This past Sunday marked the end of an era, in the most satisfying way.