University of Southern Maine professor David Pierson said he expects White will have a showdown with a gang of thugs that has stolen some $70 million of his money in the series’ final episode, which airs Sunday night.

Pierson’s new book, Breaking Bad: Critical Essays on the Context, Politics, Style and Reception of the Television Series, is scheduled to be published in November. The book contains 11 essays with different viewpoints of the series, written by scholars in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy.

One essay explores the role of masculinity in the series, while another looks at how Latinos are represented. Other essays examine the series’ cinematic style and its use of sound and music. Pierson edited the essays and also wrote one about how neo-liberalism is portrayed in White’s free-market criminal enterprise.

As for the “Breaking Bad” finale, Pierson predicts that White will come out of hiding to take on the gang that stole his millions – and maybe to set Jesse Pinkman free from captivity. He believes both White and Pinkman will survive.

White, he said, is still somewhat of a sympathetic character, even after his metamorphosis into a ruthless and feared killer.

“What he’s been doing has been for the good of his family,” he said. “However, with what’s happening the second half of this season, I think the chickens are coming home to roost on Walt because all the rationalizing and decisions he’s made are starting to come back on him.”