Hard to watch for all the right reasons. Breaking Bad has transcended past a
television show, it’s become an experience that hits you, and hits you hard.
What separates it from so many similar shows/movies/books is that there are appropriate
repercussions for every awful decision that these people make, even if they’re
remorseful.
Jesse Pinkman is the model for this case of devastation, as
he never had bigger aspirations than maybe buying his aunt’s house, all the
weed he, Badger, and Skinny Pete can smoke, and maybe eventually find a nice
girl to settle down with. But in order to accomplish this he cooked and sold
meth and he killed a man along the way. Granted it was for his preservation, it
was either Gale’s life or his and Walt’s, but it was a life he took away from
this world and, unfortunately, no bad deed goes unnoticed. Jesse was sorry and
he wanted out, especially after he witnessed Todd murder an innocent child for
their cause, but in the world of Breaking
Bad he doesn’t get off just because he’s regretful. He’s not innocent and
so he gets what’s coming to him for the poor decisions he made in the past,
which hurts both him, and us.
See, Vince Gilligan doesn’t let the viewers get off either.
This is what we get for rooting for these guys. This is our punishment for
cheering on Walt and Jesse as they profited off of the destruction of others.
The depression for every character left standing is so great, and so intense,
that it is boiling out of the screens and into our world. Because in our world
there are repercussions too. You simply can’t run a meth empire and get away
with it without losing a whole lot along the way.
The easy way out would have been if the Nazis just killed
Jesse in the desert, moments after Hank was laid to waste. Instead we have to
endure wade through the wallowing waters of the life that belongs to Jesse
Pinkman, where rock bottom doesn’t seem to exist. Even in as late of a chapter
that we find ourselves, there was still a glimmer of hope though when Jesse
takes a page out of the book of Mr. White and MacGyvers his way out of Todd’s torture
chamber. For a brief moment there escape and triumph in the world where it
otherwise seemed so bleak. But again, there’s no escaping to any other life
beyond death. Jesse can’t even make it over the fence before the neo-Nazis
catch him and then force his to watch Todd execute possibly the most
traumatizing murder we’ve seen to date on this show. That Opie, dead-eye
monster kills Andrea, a rare truly innocent person on the show, and Jesse can
do nothing but scream helplessly, just as Walt did before him when they started
the shootout with Hank, and any minimal amount of hope he had left was squashed
out.
And then there’s Walter White, the pinnacle of pathetic. A
man who’s now almost unrecognizable after spending his last few dying months in
the isolated mountains of New Hampshire. When he retreats there in hiding he
literally has nothing left to do but count his money and wait out the rest of
his dying days. This was the great Heisenberg(*), the man who once ran an
international meth conglomerate that started from a simple RV. And now he’s
nothing. From trying to pay a man $10,000 for a couple hours of his time to
having his son demand that he just die, Walt is a shell so hollowed out that
there’s no reason for him to going on like this. He makes a phone call to the
DEA to turn himself in once and for all so maybe he can at least allow his
family to get on with their lives. That is until Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz
happen upon the television in his local bar.
(*) We do get one last
look at the former legend when Walt makes an attempt to brave the weather and
don the hat we’ve grown accustomed to associating with treachery. But in his
fragile, cancer-riddled state Walt promises himself a “tomorrow” that doesn’t
come for quite a while.
In an interview with Charlie Rose the Schwartz’s explain how
Walter White had nothing to do with building their company other than being one
half of the name of Gray Matters. Boy, if there was ever something someone
could say that could cause Walter White to reignite his flame, it would be to
say that he wasn’t important. We learned a long time ago that Walter White was
in this game for more than money, he wanted to be revered. He wanted people to
see him for the powerful genius he always knew he truly was, not as the hard luck
chemistry teacher who barely has a dollar to his name (sadly this is the only
man that Walt Jr. needed him to be). So now Walt knows he’s going out, let’s
see how many people he deems worthy enough to take with him.
Other moments of note:
- This show always does such a fantastic job of creating characters and making them seem insanely interesting. There was no exception here with Saul’s “guy,” Ed, played by Robert Forster. Immediately we became invested in this guy as he sets up these new lives for Saul and Walt and I would totally watch a spin-off show where Ed has to make other criminals disappear off into the wild blue yonder.
- Speaking of spin-offs, it’s clear now why Better Call Saul is going to be a prequel. I’m guessing we won’t be seeing Saul next week as he’s off to run the Cinnabon in Nebraska but there’s still plenty of his story to tell on his next show. Heck maybe after season four they’ll flash-forward to present day and we can see him restart his life and buy his three pairs of Dockers.
- Jesse got his cook up to 96%? Walt really did teach him well. At least Todd was nice enough to reward him with some ice cream.
- Todd has become such a creepy villain. The scene where he intimidates Skyler in Holly’s room is truly terrifying and I can only hope he bites the bullet next week.
- I wonder how many times Walt has watched Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium by now…
What did everyone else
think? Comments are always welcome.
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