As I said on the instant take podcast, one of my pet peeves is when sportscasters immediately declare that something they just saw was the greatest “game”, “performance”, “comeback”, “catch” etc. in the history of the sport! As humans, we tend to overvalue new experiences and discount older ones. Our memories play tricks on us, and our adrenaline and dopamine receptors override our better judgment when sober analysis would reveal several flaws and shortcomings that are all too obvious later. It’s how Forrest Gump won an Oscar over Pulp Fiction or Shawshank Redemption, either of which looks much better than the saccharine Gump even five years later.
Having said that, I still want to say tonight’s episode of Breaking Bad is at least in the top 3 great episodes of all time, judging by gut level impact. I felt this sick watching The Wire during “Cleaning Up“, and “Final Grades“. But that was only during specific scenes. This was the whole damn episode.
Everyone had all the pieces, but nobody put them together. I’ve read hundreds of theories about how this season would go down, from our listeners, from Jim, from myself, from around the internet. I never saw anything that nailed this. Walt’s “confession” was a masterstroke. It completely trapped and de-fanged Hank in a way I didn’t think was possible. In fact, and ironically, if Walt had killed Jesse out there in the desert, I don’t know that Walt wouldn’t have completely gotten away with his crimes and carried them to his grave. It’s hilarious to me that people are flipping out over next week’s episode title potentially spoiling things when Vince is so far beyond what we’re thinking of right now. Think about last week’s cliffhanger and “confessions” and of COURSE Hank connects with Jesse and gets him to spill the beans. Of course. Except not even!
And the best part is Walt is killing people with just enough truth and just enough genuine emotion to make each lie hit home like a laser guided bunker buster. They just can’t help themselves.
Although… surely it wasn’t for nothing Vince Gilligan spent five minutes with Todd and Team Panzer Grey (AKA the Uncles of Anarchy), right? Wouldn’t that karma be a bitch, if Walt ends up killing Jesse only to be undone by a bunch of murderous neo-nazis fronted by a man child with bland/blonde all-American good looks?
Another episode and another cliffhanger, Vince and company are absolutely crushing this last season. He and his stable of talented writers is paying the series, and us as fans, total respect.
I don’t have much more deep analysis, I need to see this episode lots more times, but I do have a few more thoughts as per usual:
* More characteristic Breaking Bad “look at me” camera work. Jesse’s altered state during his interrogation, the zoom in for effect of Walt’s confession, and of course, wild, crazy gas-can cam.
* Speaking of that confession; I thought it was brilliant the layers of irony and meta-analysis that built up in that scene. Here we have a video recording of a man, pretending to be another man, making a video recording of a man, pretending to be another man, while simultaneously watching two characters pretending to watch the performance on television while we watched them watch it. It almost makes me dizzy; like looking at two mirrors facing each other.
* Saul got one last moment to shine, breaking of Hank and Jesse’s reunion, before his own smarts did him in. If he had trusted Jesse to get rid of the weed himself, it’s unlikely Jesse makes the connection between Huell’s all beef brats and the ricin cigarette. And I think Jesse would have done the right thing, that’s why he was searching himself; he’d allowed himself to hope that he could find peace following the Path of Wolverine to Alaska.
* Walt’s middle name is “Hartwell”? A more inappropriate, less fitting name could not be devised. Walt’s heart, if there is one left at all, is black as night.
* Loved the callback symbolism of Drew’s spider being prominently featured crawling across the desert right after Walt put Hank in a glass jar, trapped.
* Loved the callbacks to the other awkward White dinner during the epic White vs. Schrader showdown at the texmex joint.
* I was terrified Walt was going to kill Jesse and Saul during their scene in the desert. And Jesse’s breakdown after he realized that despite everything, there was still enough love/affection for this shitty, abusive, surrogate father left in him to do his bidding one final time, and he was powerless to resist. Heartbreaking.
* Very light on the comic relief in this episode. My gut could have used a bit more lightening than we got with “Hello Kitty”.
* Aaron Paul was electric playing Jesse as a man on fire after he put 2+2 together regarding Walt’s play on Brock. Equally amazing was Bob Oedekerk’s performance as Saul in full on pants shitting mode. The performance was so outside his envelope that Jim and I debated if that was in fact his voice during the 30 second teaser for this week’s episode. Everybody is just giving it their best this season, and I love them for it.
* I have a theory that Walt will somehow use an “I killed Jane” moment to short circuit Jesse’s brain to get a temporary upper hand in a confrontation, thus killing him. Vague, I know, but the best I can do on short notice.
Can’t wait to see what you all thought, and do a complete break down for you on Tuesday night!