The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Credit: AMC)
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Philosophers and writers much smarter than me have pontificated long and hard about the idea of permanence. Most people lead their lives believing in the stability and permanence of their belief system. And that goes beyond a belief in God and spirituality to believing in certain structures and norms. When people get up out of the bed in the morning, most tend to go into it believing that it might be a day better than the one that came before it. Maybe it'll be the day you bump into the person you'll spend the rest of your life with. Maybe it'll be the day you find out you're going to be a mother or father. Maybe it'll be the day the promotion comes in. Hell, maybe it'll be the day you win the lottery. Otherwise, if you can't hold onto that smidgen of hope, what's the point?
But as Albert Camus once pointed out, there are no guarantees that the structure is anything more than a Sisyphean struggle of routine and repetition that becomes fully tragic when we become conscious of it. By and large, people want to believe their lives have relevance and meaning. They latch onto dreams of doing great things and building great wonders, but only some can move beyond the fear of failure to actually achieve those goals. And in the end, some of those goals require a great deal of suffering and have no permanence.
Breaking Bad begins with Walter White leading a sad life of unfulfilled potential, and that last smidgen of hope is taken away with the cancer diagnosis. That leads to a man who feels like life has never been fair to him saying "fuck it," letting go of the fear that had paralyzed him, and attempting to take control of his own destiny by building an empire. This episode is where all the chickens come home to roost. This is the episode where what's left of that empire crumbles and everything and everyone gets caught in its wake.
The episode takes its title from the sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, and many of the themes of the poem are present in the story. To say this hour of television was amazing seems like an understatement. It is one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen. Almost every loose end the show had is referenced and resolved to some degree, but it resolves some of those threads in the most horrific way possible.
"L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés et désirs" (Credit: AMC)
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From Alan Sepinwall at
Hitfix.com:
I didn't imagine "Breaking Bad" could top the final sequence of last week's episode for tension and power and ability to induce a state of complete, nauseous panic. I was wrong. "Ozymandias" is one of the very best episodes of this great, cruel show, but also one of the most sickening ... this was incredible, and horrible. Hank and Gomez are dead. The Nazis have Walt's fortune, and have a brutalized Jesse as their prisoner to help Todd cook meth. Marie is a widow. Flynn has had his entire worldview shattered. Nearly everything bad that could happen to these people has happened. And we still have two hours, a machine gun and a ricin capsule to get through.
- In The Beginning: The episode begins with a flashback. We see Walt and Jesse's first cook in the RV (aka the Crystal Ship), but we also witness the certain innocence that Jesse had in the beginning compared to the hardened, bitter person he is now. And we also witness Walt formulating and using his first lie to Skyler about his new line of work. It's the first bit of cement poured for the road to hell. The contrast is amazing, since we see what Walt has destroyed in pursuit of an empire; the home life of husband and wife that no longer exists between Walt and Skyler as they discuss whether to name their new baby "Holly." As the scene closes, Walt, then Jesse, and finally the RV fade out of existence.
"Do you want me to beg? You're the smartest guy I've ever met, and you're too stupid to see that he made up his mind ten minutes ago. Do what you're gonna..." -Hank
- All For Nothing: As the first act begins, we return to the same static shot of To'hajiilee where Walt, Jesse, and the RV were at, and then we catch up to the present on the same spot, as Hank, Gomez, Walt, Jesse, and Uncle Jack and his crew materialize. Gomie is dead, and Hank is shot in the leg and bleeding out. Uncle Jack is about to finish the job on Hank only to be stopped by Walt's begging and pleading. Breaking Bad has at its core big themes of identity and purpose. And I think it's interesting to compare Walt to Hank in how they deal with the loss of hope. Walt refuses to "lay down" when his cancer diagnosis comes and loses himself in his Heisenberg persona and finds a new purpose. Hank, when confronted with his death at the hands of Jack, refuses to compromise his identity or purpose. He's content dying as the man he is, rather than becoming something different to scratch and claw his way to living for maybe another moment. The one thing I didn't quite buy is that Walt would offer up the $80 million to save Hank's life. I believe he would do what he could to save him, but does it really square that Walt, who has fought and bled to leave that money for his children, would sacrifice it just to save Hank? One other interesting side note; after Hank is killed and the crew of White Power assholes start pulling up Walt's money from the ground, Walt collapses to the ground in the same pose that Gus was in when the cartel shot his partner Max as he watches Jack's crew throw Hank and Gomie into the same hole the money was buried in.
From Donna Bowman at the
A.V. Club:
When Jack and his henchmen hit the money barrels after only four shovelfulls of dirt, with Walt lying defeated behind them, all I could think was how easy and fast it was for him to go from having everything to having nothing. The coordinates that told Jack the nature of the location, his last-ditch effort to save Hank—it took him from plotter to patsy in no time at all.
- I'm Sorry For Your Loss: Last week, I mentioned how creepy Todd is, and how he's basically a sociopath. However, when Walt is sobbing in the dirt, Todd seems genuinely bothered by the sight of it. So when Todd says "I'm sorry for your loss" to Walt, is he saying that about Hank or the money?
"I watched Jane die. I was there and I watched her die. I watched her overdose and choke to death. I could have saved her, but I didn't." -Walt
- Salt In The Wound: Walt's decision to not only leave Jesse at the mercy of the Aryan Brotherhood, but to tell Jesse about Jane out of spite, is motivated out of Walt's disgust that Jesse has betrayed him and his belief that Jesse is responsible for Hank's death and the entire mess that happens at To'hajiilee. I audibly gasped when Walt said "I watched Jane die." Of all the ways I could have imagined the information about Jane's death coming to light, I never thought it would come out of Walt's mouth. And I thought the way Aaron Paul plays it, I almost got the feeling that Jesse doesn't really know what to make of it. (i.e. Is Walt telling the truth or is he just saying this to fuck with me?)
Walter White and the last barrel of cash (Credit: AMC)
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- Times Are Getting Hard Boys, Money Is Getting Scarce: After he runs out of gas from a bullet-punctured gas tank, Walt is relegated to rolling the last bit of cash he has across the New Mexico desert. In an episode as dark as this one, it's amazing the writers still found a way to inject some comedy.
"If this is true, how could you keep this a secret?!? I mean why? Why? Why would you go along?" -Walter Jr.
"I'll be asking myself that for the rest of my life." -Skyler
- The Lies My Parents Told Me: Marie decides to deliver the bad news of Walter's arrest in person and forces Skyler to reveal the truth to Walter Jr. The scene in which Marie confronts Skyler is interesting to analyze, since Skyler becomes submissive once she believes what Marie is saying. And Betsy Brandt plays Marie as laying down the law to Skyler, but I got the feeling that Marie was also gloating to a certain degree, in that she came to the car wash because she wanted Skyler to know that Hank had "won." Walter Jr.'s reaction is disbelief at not only the idea that his father is a drug lord, but the idea that his mother stayed in the situation and both his parents have been lying to him. And it's a horrifying situation in almost every respect. Walter Jr. goes from believing that he has a normal family to everything being ripped apart and collapsing in the span of around 30 minutes.
- A Fate Worse Than Death: You knew things were not going to end well for Jesse the moment Todd mentioned that he had "history" with Jesse. I think if I had the choice, I would of chosen the bullet in the back of the head rather than being slave labor to the White Power assholes. By episode's end, Jesse is basically chained up like a dog (foreshadowed in some ways by all of the "Rabid Dog" and Old Yeller references) and becomes the new cook/mentor for Todd and Uncle Jack's crew. Although, don't fret. Todd was nice enough to pin up a picture of Andrea and Brock to give Jesse inspiration.
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold (Credit: AMC)
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"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? WE'RE A FAMILY!!!" -Walt
- Where's Hank?: That question is repeated over and over by Skyler as Walt frantically tries to get Skyler and Walt Jr. to go along with his plan to run. She knows it's over, and just went through the humiliation of admitting the truth to her son. The murder of Hank is just another abomination added to the mess. Rian Johnson was the director of this episode, and he sets up the moment where Skyler decides to break from Walt with her being position between a phone and the knives. If you rewatch the opening flashback, Skyler is positioned in almost the same way during her conversation with Walt. When she reached for the knife, I honestly thought it was possible Skyler might not survive the episode. After she cuts Walt, wrestles with him over the knife, and Walt Jr. steps in to throw Walt off of her, it's over. All of the rationalizations, all of the blood, all of the suffering will come to naught. Walt has lost the one thing he still believed he was doing it all for; his family. His wife and son now see him as a monster, and the money is almost meaningless to their happiness. So what is there left to do?
- Taking Holly: When Walt takes Holly and Skyler chases after him screaming her head off, it's the frantic and desperate actions of a man who has nothing left. Or, more specifically, Walt is taking with him the only family who doesn't think he's a psychopath. She's also the only innocent thing that's untouched from his actions that he has left in the world. Holly hasn't been ruined by the situation (yet?). She has all of the potential of a young child, in that she has the possibilities do anything and lead a wonderful life. I think its that realization and Holly's calling for her mother at the KoalaKare changing station that forces Walt back to reality.
(sobbing) "I've still got things left to do" -Walt
Walter White phones home (Credit: AMC)
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- Owning Heisenberg: Walter performs the only selfless action he has left to do for his family; he does what he can to absolve Skyler of culpability. When Walt phones home and the conversation began, I don't know what I was expecting. Both Anna Gunn and Bryan Cranston are magnificent in the scene, with Walt both doing his best to portray himself as an abusive husband and sobbing as he realizes this might be the last time he gets to speak with Skyler. He's cutting the final connections to his family, and weeping at the significance of what that means and how far he's sunk. And that ultimately means abandoning Holly inside a fire station and leaving town.
- Heading To New Hampshire: Now time for speculation. We've almost caught up to the flash forward, and I think it's a pretty safe bet that the M60 is to be used on Uncle Jack's crew. But will Walt try to get his family back? Is he trying to save Jesse or is this all about getting vengeance?