On Sunday night I was going through my Instagram feed and ran across a few photos my lovely friend Adrianne Breaux was posting from Aaron Paul’s Breaking Bad finale party at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Since she did such a bang-up job recapping her experiences with Nick Offerman at Tulane last year, I asked her if she’d be willing to share her experiences at the party with us, complete with photos. She graciously agreed. Her account is what follows below.
Sunday night started as most of my Sunday nights start: A bottle of wine, a new Breaking Bad episode, a couple thousand people, and a bag of pure, blue methamphetamine.
Aaron Paul knows how to throw a farewell party. His Breaking Bad finale screening at the fitting Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which managed to raise 1.8 million dollars for the Kind Campaign, was a night to remember.
Waiting in line was, of course, an event in itself. There were many fans dressed in complete hazmat suits and Walt lookalikes donning Heisenberg hats.
Two employees from a local candy shop handed out bags of “blue meth” from Los Pollos Hermanos buckets.
One fan — dressed as the pink, eyeless teddy bear — held up a sign reminding us to “Have An A1 Day”.
Aaron Paul rode past the waiting crowd and let out a solid “Yeah, bitch!”, to which everyone cheered feverishly. He then threw out his own baggies of blue meth.
Once inside, I made my way through the dark cemetery to the massive lawn. On my way to find a prime spot, I stopped off to visit the infamous RV, which was on display in front of a blue-sky backdrop.
Fans lined up to take pictures in front of the (once) mobile meth lab. Various cast members, such as Bob Odenkirk and Matt Jones (“Badger”), stopped by throughout the night to take photos with fans.
The event truly began when a second RV rumbled toward the stage, smoke billowing from the top. Aaron Paul, decked out in a hazmat suit, exited and jumped on stage where he let out another “Yeah, bitch!” to the pumped up crowd.
After a screening of the pilot, which created a beautiful juxtaposition with the finale, Paul got back on stage to introduce the moment we’ve all been waiting with baited breath for: the finale. He and Bryan Cranston shared a moment and a hug on stage, and it is so painfully obvious that these two men truly have some strong, high school chemistry.
Gauging from the crowd’s reactions to certain key moments of the episode (see: lots of cheering and clapping as creepy Todd met his demise at the hands of Jesse), it seemed to be a very well-received ending to one of the most well-written shows in television history.
Afterwards, the stage filled with stars Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Giancarlo Esposito, Bob Odenkirk, RJ Mitte, Jonathan Banks, and creator Vince Gilligan (sadly, the wonderfully talented women of the show were absent last night). The Q&A session, led by host Jimmy Kimmel, began with an assortment of audience questions regarding the finale. Vince Gilligan spoke of previous alternate endings ideas, one of which included Walt being “the only one left alive, and everyone else was dead”.
Since the majority of the cast and crew were present in the audience, Kimmel invited practically everyone who’s ever played a character on the show to climb up onto the tiny stage. The “cousins” aren’t so scary when they’re smiling and snapping shots of the audience and no, Huell isn’t still waiting in that motel room (he was snapping pictures and signing autographs by the RV).
Aaron Paul gave us the ultimate Breaking Bad fan experience last night. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to send off Walt and Jesse. I don’t know what to do with myself now that it’s all over. I better call Saul.
Follow Adrianne on Instagram here.
