“He really did a
number on you, didn’t he?” – Hank Schrader
Here’s a confession: I’m going to cry when Breaking Bad ends in 5 weeks. The
attempt at a rare “perfect season” is still intact as we’re now three episodes
in and have seen three masterpieces of television. Just when we thought that maybe
this episode would be a bit of a breather for us after last week’s teaser had Hank going in to approach Jesse, presuming a long conversation between the two of
them on the inner workings of the Heisenberg empire would cover 15 minutes
worth of story, was instead reduced to Hank striking out in a matter of seconds
before Saul Goodman busts up his party. Or possibly we would be privy to some
tactical planning between all the parties involved before we hit any action
sequences. Or heck maybe even Badger would come by and explain his theory about
what really happened at Stonehenge.
But it seems that what Breaking
Bad has intended for this final eight is to give at least a dozen people a
heart attack before it’s all said and done by throwing one more intense scene at us after another. That’s how truly evil Walter White
has become, he's actually affecting the health of people in the real world with
this insanely awesome meth ride we’ve all been strapped into, with the final leg
of this crystal blue coaster hidden from sight where literally anything can happen. Which makes the anticipation truly terrifying. It’s disturbing to be rooting for a guy that is continually
one-upping himself in horrific acts time after time and it starts to bring into
question our ability to empathize with the good in humanity. And yet here we
are.
Watching Walt’s “confession” tape was gut wrenching. The
looks on Hank and Marie’s faces were as shell-shocked as if they had gone to a
Mexican restaurant and weren’t offered some table-side guacamole(*). The
greatest part (worst part?) about that tape was how many elements were
essentially true and could be almost impossible for Hank to argue otherwise.
And kudos the show for having the tape be grainy and ominous making the
situation seem that much more frightening for Hank, Marie, and all of us
watching it. Put another notch in the “Dean Norris better get nominated for a
supporting actor” column for this one, the devastation that he expressed when
he found out Marie had accepted $177,000 to pay for his medical expenses really
made it feel like Walt had knocked him out for good on this one.
(*)How hilarious was
that scene in the restaurant between Hank, Walt, the Lambert sisters and Trent
the interrupting waiter? I can only hope that Hank and Marie stuck around to
try some of that guacamole so they had one final moment of enjoyment before
witnessing the message from hell.
And while everything that transpired here between Walt and
Hank would have justified this episode to be fantastic, it wasn’t even the most
exhilarating part as Jesse finally gets to speak for the first time in what
seems like a year. First, Walt tries one more time to play the protective
father card on Jesse but as we saw in this season’s opener Jesse has become
immune to his conniving ways and finally calls him out for it suggesting that
if he doesn’t agree to disappear that Walt will shoot him just as he did Mike
beforehand. And let’s just hope for Jesse’s sake that his new found
anti-Walt-BS-meter won’t be his downfall. I’m not sure what to make of the Walt
Jesse hug. Whether if it occurred because Walt truly does feel a little bad for
what he’s put this poor kid through or if it was just him adapting to Jesse not
believing his words anymore. Also, was Jesse crying because he knows Walt will
never stop working him or because he finally just needed to break down and let
it all out?
Either way, Jesse ultimately agrees to take advantage of
Saul’s guy that makes people disappear by giving them new identities and even
settles on Alaska as his destination of choice(**). But when Jess busts out
some dope in Saul’s office prior to getting picked up, Saul has Huell pull the
old switcheroo once again and swaps out the weed for a pack of cigarettes. Then
finally, after tons of searching, Jesse finds that final puzzle piece and the
picture of how Brock got poisoned is clear in its full entirety. And that’s the
straw that broke the camel’s back. Jesse rightfully goes into a full on rage
mode with the intent to put down this monster that has wreaked havoc on so
many, maybe no one more so than him. First he delivers a well-deserved beating
to Saul Goodman before grabbing Saul’s gun and having the episode end on a
cliffhanger with him throwing gasoline all over the White residence. Based on
the flash-forwards we’ve seen this season it appears that the house is absent
of any kind of fire damage but even if a match is never lit, it’s still a great
“what the heck is going to happen” next moment for an episode to end on.
(**) Eskimos bitch!
Other moments of note:
- Theory Time: Since the house doesn’t burn down something, or someone is going to have to prevent Jesse from doing it. Based on the fact that there are five episodes left I don’t think it will be Walt because I don’t think the show would kill off Jesse with 4 full episodes left (although who knows at this rate) and considering the frame of mind of the two characters right now there would almost certainly be a fatality coming out of that confrontation. So I’m guessing Walt Jr. comes waltzing into the house right before Jesse is about to put it up in flames, thus leading to Jesse freaking out at the idea of another innocent person getting hurt and simply give Junior a message saying that “his Dad’s days are numbered” or something along those lines, opening the door for Junior to lose his appetite for breakfast after discovering his Dad’s secret life.
- Really great opening scene with Todd and his outlaw family enjoying a little breakfast at the Route 66 Diner. The cinematography of the scene was really fun (and very Tarantino-esque) and did a great job of whetting our appetites for what is to come between Walt and this rag-tag band of meth cookers. Also, funny how Todd left out a pretty pivotal part about the end of that train heist story…
- Very cool how the show continues to repeat actions of the past in very different contexts. This time it’s Walt stating at the beginning of his confession tape his full name and his address in the exact same way he did in the pilot when he thought he was going to be arrested by the police.
- “Oh Jesus. It’s always the desert.” – So true Saul. You have to appreciate that the best drama on television can make self-aware jokes about itself.
- That guy who works in Hank’s office has the coolest mustache of all time: http://www.newscastic.com/news/the-man-behind-that-breaking-bad-mustache-817728/
What did everyone else
think? Comments are always welcome.
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