Breaking Bad Review- Blood Money

   It felt like the return of Breaking Bad would never come. I remember sitting in my living room immediately after last year’s mid season finale thinking that I would give anything in the world to fast forward a year to see what happens next, and yet here I am dreading the coming weeks and what lies ahead for these characters. The episode started with a flash forward similar to last year’s premiere, with Walt looking as unruly and delinquent as ever. I feel like one of the most difficult tasks for the writers must be coming up with these cold openers. They tend to set the mood for the entire episode, and the possibilities are endless in terms of style (i.e Season 2 Episode 7 with the mariachi band). The most familiar scene of the show, the White residence, is barricaded like the crime scene of a massacre, with no wooden-panelled station wagon anywhere to be found. Side note- I remember reading once that both the White and Schrader houses are rented out, and when the show isn’t being filmed, perfectly normal people live there. I wonder how the owner of the White house felt about it being pretty much destroyed in ‘Blood Money’. Walt breaks into his old home, and it’s perfectly clear that he’s not there to reminisce.

    The most suspenseful, beautiful slow pan I’ve ever seen takes us to exactly where we left off last year- the White’s master bathroom. The show takes no side roads or delays in the reveal of Hank’s revelation. He knows. It’s a fact and it’s written all over his face and this is how it’s going to be and it’s just a matter of when everything starts unravelling. Luckily for us, there’s only eight episodes for the unravelling to occur, so it happens rather fast. As Julie Bowen mentioned on ‘Talking Bad’, the first thing you hear as Hank rejoins everyone in the backyard is Marie sarcastically joking to Walt, “You’re the devil!”. It’s a pretty straight forward bit on the writer’s part, but I see it as more of a wake-up call to the audience (THIS MAN IS LITERALLY THE DEVIL HE HURTS EVERYONE HE COMES IN CONTACT WITH EVERYONE RUN) than just foreshadowing. Side note- I’m still not over Marie not wearing purple in this scene.

    Business seems to be booming over at A1, which is no surprise. Skyler is a business bitch, and even if the car wash is just a way to launder illegal drug money, it’s still going to be a successful one, damnit. Considering just a few episodes ago Skyler was literally praying for this man’s cancer to come back, the two seem to be doing alright. When Walt confronts Skyler about possibly expanding the business, they civilly agree with each other without being condescending. Mr and Mrs White are even in head to toe matching colors-bland beige and off-white hues, where in season three, they were in corresponding shades of vivid, money hungry green. You have to think that a man who was involved in a high intensity life style for the past year might just find waking up everyday and ringing up air fresheners a little boring. I’m sure there’s even a little bit of Skyler that craves the adrenaline rush she got from creating cover stories of gambling addictions and such, but when Lydia appears with an opportunity to re-enter the game, Skyler is not having it. While I usually look for an opportunity to praise any and every female character on this show, there’s something about Lydia that I just don’t like.

   Jesse Pinkman’s house is as just as we remembered- devoid of any reliable furniture, and with no shortage of week-old pizza boxes. I’ve always paid close attention to the way the show fills in sets, specifically houses, and Jesse’s is a perfect example of how much it reveals about a character. I especially loved pausing the show the few times we were invited into Gale’s house. While Pete and Badger ramble on about pop culture references I don’t understand, Jesse looks like he’s going to dissolve into a puddle of tears at any moment. The writer’s are definitely building up the sympathy card for this one. Someone give this kid a hug (and another Emmy!) I don’t even see how there could be a satisfying ending for this character considering all he’s been through, and unlike Walt, he has this weird thing called empathy.  I understand why he’s the fan favorite, but at the end of the day if there was any indication of what was to come by teaming up with his old chem teacher to cook, it was apparent from the earliest episode of the series. A day into cooking with this guy, and he’s killing people and dissolving them in acid to avoid getting locked up.

    The Breaking Bad Wiki page mentions how the way Walt places a towel under his knees before vomiting mimics the way Gus did so in ‘Salud’. The similarities between Walt and Gus grow with every episode, but as a wise Mike once said. "Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James." I guess that’s how things work in the meth cooking world, but the problem is that Walt had to betray everyone who ever cared about him to get there, and for what, a trip to Europe? Walt could’ve just taken the job at Grey Matters back in season one to be able to afford a nice family vacation. It was never about the money, as made clear when he surpassed the 737,000 dollar mark he claimed would be his end point, and continued cooking. Walt tells Hank in the epic garage scene that his cancer is back, and he has very few months of life left. From the opener we can tell that he at least lives to his fifty second birthday, but he’s also weezing up a storm. I think the obvious guess is that he is on the run at this point and had to stop chemo, hence the full head of hair. Either way, if the cancer doesn’t kill him, something else will.