The second half of the fifth season of Breaking Bad premiered on Sunday night and for those of you who aren't in the know, it's not too late to catch up before one of television's best series concludes. Here is everything you need to know before catching the next episode of Breaking Bad on AMC.
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) started in life as a good man: a schoolteacher with a wife and son who love him dearly. To make ends meet he works part-time at a car wash for a man who treats him like garbage. Then a cancer diagnosis changes his whole existence. He has lung cancer and not much time left.
Suddenly, the unremarkable life Walt led isn't enough anymore. He can't leave his pregnant wife and son with the debts that are bound to plague them with a stage four cancer diagnosis. In the hopes of leaving his family with something--anything--he teams up with former student and current burnout Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Jesse knows the business of meth, Walt knows the chemistry. They have to be careful though, Walt's brother-in-law Hank is a DEA agent, so the duo cook in secret in an RV out in the wilderness.
Their start is an mixed one: the first drug deal is a success, but ends with two dead and a hole in Jesse's house. To protect himself from the dangers of the meth market and Tuco, Walt creates a persona: Heisenberg. Still, Heisenberg isn't enough to scare off men like Tuco. Walt and Jesse find themselves kidnapped by Tuco and taken to a home in desert, presumably to be murdered. They escape that situation by the skin of their teeth and an appearance by Hank, who kills Tuco.
Of course that disappearance needs an explanation, so Walt fakes a nervous breakdown and Jesse talks his way out of a police interrogation room. With Tuco out of the way, Albuquerque is theirs for the taking. A new influx of cash prompts them the two to hire ambulance chaser, Saul Goodman.
Roses aren't all that blooms for Walt and a new set of challenges spring up. Jesse's new relationship with a new girlfriend prompts him and Walt to part ways after a financial disagreement. Jane takes it upon herself to blackmail Walt and he eventually gives in, but Walt feels obligated to make sure the money goes to Jesse. Walt returns to the apartment to discover that they have taken heroin again and this time Jane chokes to death right before Walt's eyes. Paralyzed by indecision, Walt could save her, but Jane could also send Walt to prison for a long time. Walt never tells Jesse her death wasn't his fault, and Jesse falls into a deep depression blaming himself.
To boot, Skyler discovers that Walt is a drug dealer through his second cell phone and she tells him she wants a divorce. After she leaves the house, Walt witnesses a large explosion in the sky. Jane's father, an air traffic controller, distraught by his daughter's death mistakenly directed two planes into one another and the wreckage rains upon Walt's home.
The aftermath of all that has transpired has worn on Walt: his family has left him, Jesse is no longer as close as he once was, and Jane's death is a guilt he has to shoulder alone. The 737 carnage rained down on him literally and his role in that disaster is quickly becoming a harder one to distinguish. Walt may only manufacture crystal meth, but his cold-hearted rationalization in the ordeal is a reach for certain. The big dilemma for viewers throughout the series is how much can one enjoy a show where almost all of the characters are morally reprehensible?
The third season opens with a simple premise - death is coming for Walt. Two identical twins, nameless for a majority of the season, make their march across Mexico into Albuquerque with as many casualties as possible. Even innocent bystanders suffer brutal deaths as exhibited when they blow up an entire caravan of immigrants traveling to the states just because one talkative teen recognized their boots. The twins are undoubtedly used as an example of the horrifying violence taking place in the Tijuana drug wars. Driven by a single purpose - killing Walter - the two wait in plain sight only to be called off by Gustavo Fring in a move that has horrific reverberations throughout the season.
Gustavo Fring runs a large meth operations behind his fast food chicken business and, thanks to the beckoning of Goodman, Walt is convinced to quit playing small potatoes and cook enough so that they can sell to Fring. Gus is another plateau for Walt to reach. The quiet man exudes a stone-cold authority that forces Walt to swallow his pride. He can calmy waltz into work at the chicken fast food joint in the morning and ,with no qualms at all, order the death of his competitors at night before going to bed. He earns the majority of the profits put forth from the crystal meth trade, but does not bloody himself in the process. He is the banality of crime that is such a dangerous step in the evolution of the drug trade.
Jesse and Walt's relationship shifts from a father-son bond to one at odds over the course of the show. When Walt tries to warn him that he can't protect them both any longer Jesse can only respond with indifference. How long Walt and Jesse can work together again after Gus became involved in their operation is anyone's guess. Jesse seemed like a tragic figure at the beginning at the season pining for his dead girlfriend Jane, but it doesn't take long for him to fall under Saul's spell to start cooking again (the most disgusting scene of the season is when he uses the recovery sessions to put out his product). Walt insists to himself that, "he can't be the bad guy" but Jesse seems to revel in it. After being informed by Gus that he is only kept alive by Walt's wishes, Jesse is told and to keep peace between himself and the dealers. Jesse replies with an indignant "No." This is the first time this season that someone has shown a backbone against Gus, and Jesse refuses to let the dealers continue to have children do their business. A deal is struck and the issue is resolved, or so we think.
Andrea (Jesse's new girlfriend) receives a call from her grandmother and her son's death is a clear signal that Gus intervened. Jesse, distraught after the boy's death decides to end his long sobriety streak and to take justice into his own hands. Pistol cocked, he attempts to get rid of these bastards personally. Unfortunately, the dealers know he is coming and are waiting for him. When it looks like Jesse is a goner Walt comes rampaging through in his Aztec mowing down the one dealer shooting the other in the head. Although Walt never wanted to be the bad guy, he is completely consumed by Heisenberg now.
Gus is furious that Walt had his dealers killed and rehires Gale, implying that Jesse and Walt will be killed once he learns their process. Convinced that Walt will to be too valuable to be killed if he is the only high quality cook, he persuades Jesse to kill Gale.
The finale of season three conflicts beautifully with the way Walt looked at the beginning of the season. Walt and Skyler, looking considerably younger, touring a house for sale. Skyler seems insistent that this house should be theirs, but Walt is hesitant. They could aim so much higher than this "fixer-upper". The hope that Walt used to possess in his heart is gone and you can see it in his face. Walt stands idly by the pool he once obsessively kept clean and abruptly decides to burn the money on a gas grill. Within seconds he panics and shoves the grill - cash and all - into the pool to save it. Walt was a conflicted man then. That is not the case anymore.
Originally, Walt had only become a meth manufacturer to regain control of his existence and to set aside money for the inevitable point when he would no longer be around to support his family. In an effort to create a more financially stable future for Skyler, Walt Jr. and his infant daughter he put himself in shackles again - only instead of fate being his master, it is simply one man.
Held hostage in the lab, Walt and Jesse await Gus's decision following Gale's death. Gus promptly arrives and, in silence, dresses into lab gear and slits the throat of one of his crew members. Gus leaves the body for Walt to dispose of and business returns to usual. Skyler and Walt buy a carwash to launder their profits and he moves back home. Jesse falls back on drugs and parties and Hank begins investigating Gus for Gale's murder. Gus is not one to let go of his empire that he has built, so he turns on Walt and his family.
Thinking he can circumvent Walt out of his business, Gus brings Jesse to Mexico to see if he can replicate Walt's methods. While there, Gus finishes some old business and wipes out an entire cartel in Mexico with poisoned drinks, his bodyguard Mike is injured in the following shootout and he and Jesse hideout in Mexico.
Later on, Walt is captured, blindfold and brought to the desert where Gus tells Walt he is fired and that he'll murder Hank and if Walt intervenes, he'll kill Skyler and the children. A panicked Walt rushes home to find that there's not enough money in the crawlspace to disappear, Skyler gave the money to her old boss, Ted, so he could pay back the IRS and she could avoid an audit.
With disaster eminent, Skyler and the kids go into DEA protection with Hank and Marie and Andrea's son, Brock, is rushed to the hospital. Jesse is arrested under suspicion for poisoning the boy and when Jesse finds the ricin cigarette missing (originally intended to kill Gus), he assumes Walt intended on killing the boy. Jesse races to Walt's house ready to kill him, but Walt convinces him that Gus was behind the poisoning. The two devise a plan to rig Gus' car with explosives, but before Walt can detonate the bomb Gus suspects something is wrong and walks away.
Left with no other alternative, Walt visits Tuco's uncle Hector, who hates Walt with a passion for his nephew's death, yet his intense hatred for Gus manages to convince the old man to help kill the druglord. After Hector leads Hank on a DEA goose chase, Gus comes in, furious that he spoke with the authorities. Ringing his bell, Hector sets off a crudely made bomb and blows up the wing of the nursing home talking Gus with him. Jesse and Walt torch the lab under that Gus provided them and, with that, they are in the clear.
With Gus out of the picture and Mike joining Walt and Jesse, the sky is looking bluer than Walt's crystal. But what started out as a means to an end has turned into a inherent greed, nothing will ever be enough for Heisenberg to leave the game. The events afterward unfold with Walt convincing himself that all of the menace is gone from their equation, that everything can continue free of complications. That a man with his recent past could think that is almost enough to make the viewer wonder if Walt is deluding himself or everyone around him.
Not content with simply being the largest meth operation in the West Coast, Walt uses a connection of Mike's to go global. Jesse and Mike are hesitant, this new associate could make them empire-builders, but he also comes with a much larger risk: there is no one to blame if the Feds figure it all out. It all lands square on their shoulders. Jesse drops out completely and when Mike wants to be bought out, Walt becomes paranoid, any number of loose ends could send his way of life crashing down. Once again, Walt becomes the danger who knocks on the door and he send Mike to an early grave before a DEA investigation sends him to prison.
Jesse is replaced by an apprentice with no scruples and Walt is finally complacent with his lot in life. Millions come pouring in from his overseas meth trade and Walt can claim to be the King that his ego has told him he was for so long. Noting that, he leaves the business for good.
Seemingly, everything is over. Walt is out clean and he and Skyler have enough to live comfortably without working ever again. Last year's finale ends with Walt, Skyler, Marie, Hank and the children sitting and enjoying a pleasant meal together. Maybe they really will just start over again. Any hopes of that are dashed as Hank discovers a misplaced copy of a Walt Whitman novel that implicates Walt as the chemist behind Gale's murder. Now the house of cards that Walt has built is crumbling upon itself. Hank, is just beginning to uncover the many layers of what was Gustavo Fring's and now Walt's drug enterprise.
The last image we see of Walt, he is eating alone at a Denny's celebrating a birthday he never anticipated living to see. There is no Skyler or Walt Jr. or daughter to comfort him, only a presence that scares him enough to purchase a small armory that he stores in a car in the parking lot. Where Walt goes from here is a mystery, but Hank is definitely after him, as is a Czech meth ring. How can this end without bloodshed?
By dispatching Tuco, Jane, Gale, Gus, and Mike, Walt shreds a little more of his humanity with each new notch on the wall of bodies. I sit writing this and still find it hard to depict Walt as evil. Whether that will ever change is beyond me. It took four seasons for Walter White to get here and as you sit watching a man doomed to fall to an inoperable tumor you root for him. From his first run-in against a crazed drug dealer in Tuco, to a showdown against a benignly sadistic corporate man in Gus Fring. After all he is only providing for his family. What harm is there in that?
Do you remember the beginning of season one five years ago? When a drugged-out loser named Jesse told Walter that you can't "break bad," well he was wrong. The little decisions along the way have proven most instrumental in defining a man in such stark contrasts. We might have agreed with some of the choices Walt has made, but the fact is Walt is a changed man. When he didn't turn over a sleeping Jane, when he found himself choosing between Jesse and Gale, when he found no other way to make Jesse change his mind about Gus. These are all his conscious decisions. Being bad isn't a product of your environment, genetics, or attitude, it's about choices.
You can't "break bad," but you can sure as hell not be good. The irony of Breaking Bad is that if Walt had died he would have been better off than he is now. The tragedy is he didn't.
0 comments:
Post a Comment