Breakdown
So this is my very first Breaking Bad Break Down on this site, previously I posted this on a forum I frequent. Yes, yes, forum frequenting - geeky shit. Get over it. These will be SPOILER HEAVY so I will create a deliberate gap just in case you don't want anything well.. spoiled. Scroll down if you've already seen the episode/just want to read.
Here's a quick summary of what happened:
- Walt has the kids stay with Hank and Marie, trying to win Skyler's faith and trust in him again
- Walt bugs Hanks office and phone in order to extort information from the DEA
- Walt, Mike and Jessie deal with Lydia and find out she has been honest about the tracking devices placed under the methlamine barrels
- The three rob a train with the help of Todd
- Todd shoots a young boy when he accidently happens on the crime scene
Breakdown and Predictions:
In classic Breaking Bad style, we are presented with an opening that
seems completely detached to the rest of the episode. Seemingly
irrelevant to the episode we are watching, we discard the information of
the intro and try concentrating on the rest of the story line which we
tend to regard as much more important to the lives of the characters we
are following.
Midway through the episode we are introduced to Todd. He came on as too
much of a goodie two shoes to act as any real threat. With his Josh
Homme look, the worse we could have seen him be would have been a police
informant. After all, Jessie and Walt seem content to explain their
devious plan in a James Bond-villain style summary. Whilst he at first
appeared to have been used as little more than a narrative device for
the viewer to understand what the pair were actually getting up to, I
wasn't completely convinced.
Likewise, when Walt really pushed his luck with the train and refused to
have Jessie and Todd disconnect the two liquid transferring cables and
just about succeeded, I knew that the episode could not end without
incident. The extremely late timing of the incident was on the other
hand pretty shocking.
I suspect the fate of the young boy carrying the tarantula in the next
episode will determine the true nature of the main characters over the
rest of the series. In all likelihood, the boy is dead, meaning that
the characters will have to find a way to dispose of the body. Walt
seems fairly un-phased about death any more. He has had less and less
qualms about killing since the first murder he commits in the first
series, choking the chained meth dealer up in the basement. The show is
truly about his complete descent into darkness (hence the title,
Breaking Bad). Jessie on the other hand, has never found killing easy.
He is like an insecure child that on some level wants to do the right
thing, just is completely misguided. In season four he became
incredibly adept at killing. We saw him slaughter Mexican gangsters
like he did the bad guys of his computer games. Over the last season,
he has shown remorse, a desire to prevent anyone else from dying -
innocent or otherwise. For him, the death toll shouldn't rise. It's as
if he is trying to "break good".
If the child is alive, he will do his best to save him, get him to
hospital even if he jeapordizes himself in the process. I think the end
of the season will either have him do something completely heroic and
self sacrificing or have him behind bars, confessing his past crimes.
In this season, guilt has already forced him to break up with his
girlfriend and panic about the missing ricin, in the past it has made
him make far more drastic decisions. If the child is dead, he may just
completely lose his shit.
Admittedly, I just haven't cracked the whole imagery of the jar-ridden tarantula, perhaps it represents incoming captivity.
Again in this episode, I respected Skyler's strength, sticking to her
guns, even if it seems unfair. She asked whether Walt was off to bury
bodies and despite his honesty, this episode could prove that her
prediction was right. Walt will have to see a point where he can't
continue because Jessie understands the death toll has to end somewhere.
This is perfect mid season drama. Walt's character development never slows down, he plays with Hank like a puppet, his use of deception is ungodly. In previous seasons we saw him jittery, letting his nerves get the better of him causing him to make rash decisions like crashing his car to prevent Hank from getting any closer to the laundromat operation, in this one he just walks into his office and bugs the shit clean out of it. We are being shown his arrogance time and time again though, ignoring the advice of others just to push everything to the limit. When he succeeds we are jubilant with him when he fails, we grow tired and angry of his stubborness. I found myself yelling "GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE! GIVE IT UP! GO GO GO GO GOGO GO!" Perhaps this is the writers' way of reminding us that Walt is his own character, we don't have a say in his behaviour. We have lost control of him like he is a run away car. One minute he is cool and calculating in his interactions (i.e. with Lydia), the next making rash decisions and acting like he is above contempt.
