Last week in our podcast covering “To’Hajiilee”, I refused to judge the wisdom of ending the episode in the middle of what everyone expected to be a fatal gunfight for Hank, Gomie, Jesse, Walt or maybe just everyone. After seeing this week’s episode – “Ozymandias” – I’m glad I held that judgement.
This series constantly takes the audience to places we’re uncomfortable going. Could Hank, being nearly the only character who refuses to abandon his morality for the sake of making his life easier, actually be killed? Most shows don’t have the balls to kill the good guy.
And in the next beat, could we then feel sorry for Walt, the man who is certainly responsible for his death in the ways that matter, when his attempts to protect Hank fail?
Or maybe that’s the point, and the reason that “To’Hajiilee’ had to end the way it did.
What purpose would it serve to kill Hank if we couldn’t then immediately see Walt’s reaction? A bullet-riddled Hank and a fade to black isn’t meaningful. A Hank casually shot dead in front of Walt provides further insight into a character that we, at times, question the motives of. If there was ever any doubt as to whether Walt was in it for his family (and I certainly had my doubts after his manic drive to the burial spot last week), that has been cleared up. He’s completely devastated by the death of Hank. Which makes it even harder to watch his family turn on him later in the episode.
Should we feel bad for Walter when his wife stabs him and his son calls the cops on him? After all, he didn’t kill Hank directly and certainly tried to protect him. Or maybe I should be on the side of the family who has been tormented by the consequences of the things he has done for their sake?
Even if we can’t answer that, and the questions I posed earlier, in any definitive way, Breaking Bad has served it’s purpose; more so in that case.
That’s it for the review. I realize there’s plenty I didn’t even mention (#HolyShitJesse) but we’ll cover it on Tuesday in our recap podcast.