Bryan Cranston as Walter White (courtesy AMCtv)
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When the story of Walter White began, the audience was introduced to a pitiable man, struggling through a frustrating existence. The character is confronted with a horrible diagnosis, from which he makes a choice. Walt rationalizes that choice as doing horrible things for the greater good of his family's well-being. While that may have been true, the choice the character made was also about his damaged ego, and reclaiming his "
manhood" and some control over his life. This has led to one of the central questions at the heart of the series. Was Walter White a good man who became corrupted by his bad choices? Or was "
Heisenberg" always there, and the circumstances allowed Walt's true nature to come to the surface? This has also left the audience in the position of having to continually evaluate how far they'll sympathize and root for Walt.
The first half of the fifth season of Breaking Bad dealt with the "Empire Business" and Walt finally cementing himself as the king of that empire in brutal fashion. The second half of this final season has the characters having to confront, or continue to deny, the consequences of their actions.
When we last left the Breaking Bad universe, things seemed almost perfect for Walt... Almost. Walt had a storage locker full of cash, and Skyler (Anna Gunn) seemed to have convinced him that it was time to stop and for their kids to come home. Things seemed to be happy in the White home again. After all the lies. After all the death and misery. For the briefest of moments, it must have all seemed worth it for Walt. And then Hank (Dean Norris) found Gale's copy of Leaves Of Grass while sitting on the toilet. Similar to his slip of a "second cellphone" in tipping off Skyler that something was going on, Walter White's undoing will come from the hubris of keeping a souvenir and being careless with it.
"It was you! All along, it was YOU!" -Hank
Many have argued that, from the beginning of this story, we've known in the back of our heads this can't end well for the characters. Last week, I wrote about the
broad themes of the show, and the view that this show is a modern-day Shakespearean tragedy, with Walter White being the protagonist who's been "
doomed" all along, even as he triumphed over his adversaries. And we've reached the point in the story where the piper has to be paid.
"Jesse, I need you to believe me." -Walt
- The Show's Conscience: When people talk about Breaking Bad, most seem to root for Jesse (Aaron Paul), especially as Walt has become more and more Heisenberg-ish. But the truth is that Jesse has done some pretty despicable things over the show's run as well. It's just that Jesse displays guilt for what he's done, where Walter does whatever needs to be done to survive and then rationalizes his actions. This is at least the third time Jesse has become this despondent (e.g. after Jane's death, after Gale's murder). So while this turn makes sense in a way, it also feels like a road we've already traveled down. This current bout of depression comes from Jesse's (correct) belief that Mike is dead, Mike's granddaughter being left without her nest egg, Jesse's part in the murder of a child during their train robbery, and the $5 million of drug money in duffel bags. Walt does what Walt usually does, and attempts to rationalize the situation to Jesse and lie through his teeth about killing Mike in an attempt to get Jesse to see the $5 million as something other than "blood money" to be given away to Mike's granddaughter and the murdered child's family. Of particular note was Walt's use of "son" when he was talking with Jesse. The bond between Walt and Jesse has always been one that's a sort of "dark" father-son relationship. Jesse has always had a respect for Walt none of the other characters had, just in the way that he always calls him "Mr. White." And while he treated him like crap most of the time, there have been moments where Walt has seemed to care about Jesse like he was his son (e.g. saving Jesse from the gang-bangers in the third season, or in a drugged up haze tearfully apologizing to Walt Jr. when he thought he was speaking to Jesse in the fourth season). But this seemed to be an occasion where Walt's lies have worn thin, and the look on Jesse's face was of someone who was trying their best to disguise their disgust. At the very least, the fact that Jesse is out in the middle of the night doing his best "Paperboy" impression with stacks of cash seems to indicate that Walt's pep talk didn't have its desired effect. And this also means that there are now three different events that could come back to bite Walt in the ass, if Jesse should find out the truth about Jane, Brock, and now Mike.
- The Cancer Is Back: There have been hints of it before (e.g. a cough here and there, Walt taking pills in the first flash forward, etc.), but this episode confirms Walter's cancer has returned, and he's being treated with chemo. As another nod to Walt's attempt at normalcy, he is keeping his diagnosis secret from his family. Although, the look on Skyler's face when Walt jumps up from dinner to run to the bathroom, as she glances at him and his plate of food, seems to indicate that she might have an inkling as to what's going on. And her reaction, when the truth is revealed, will be interesting since one of the most devastating moments of the first half of this season was Skyler telling Walt she was waiting for his cancer to return so she could be free. Also of note is the scene of Walt puking in the bathroom. There's a theory that Walt takes on the traits of the people he kills. For example, after killing Crazy 8 in the first season, Walter starts eating his sandwiches the same way Crazy 8 liked 'em. When Walt pukes into the toilet, he turns the faucet on and arranges the towel on the floor in the same manner that Gus did before puking up the poison in Mexico.
"I don't know who you are. (voice shaking) I don't even know who I'm talking to." -Hank
"If that's true, if you don't know who I am, then ... maybe your best course would be to tread lightly." -Walt
- A New Adversary: Walt puking his guts out leads him to wonder where his bathroom copy of Leaves of Grass has gone? Putting two and two together, the missing book and Hank's continuing "illness," Walt decides to search his car in the middle of the night and finds a GPS tracker. At that point, each man knows the other is up to something, and that leads to the confrontation that ends the episode. Those five minutes are among the most tense the show has ever produced. It begins with Walt trying to feel Hank out, but each man can see the other is full of shit and Walt decides to push the issue by confronting Hank with the bugging of his car. Hank's response is to lower the garage door and beat on Walt, while recounting all of the things that Walt has done. Walt retorts in three ways. At first he denies ("wild accusations"), then he pleads for sympathy ("my cancer is back... I'm a dying man that runs a car wash! My right hand to God, that's all that I am!"), and finally he lets Heisenberg out to play with Hank ("tread lightly").
From Donna Bowman at the A.V. Club:
With this cliffhanger, Vince Gilligan and his creative team set up Hank as Walter’s new archenemy—or maybe, depending which way our sympathies are twisted, Walter as Hank’s... Now it’s Hank’s move, and how he plays it will depend on where his priorities lay. Justice? Walter argues that cancer will take care of that before the law can. Family? The fragile peace they’ve achieved is built on death and deceit, but it still might be better than the alternative. Vengeance? Hank has been crippled and unmanned, quite literally, by Walt’s quest for power. He’s always fixated on bringing down Heisenberg as the key to reclaiming his self. Maybe we’re going to find out if that project is indeed the cure for his wounded psyche … which would bring him full-tilt up against Walt’s project to mow down anything that threatens him. There doesn’t seem to be a way for both of them to win. But I can think of plenty of ways both of them could lose.