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.

Breaking Bad- Titles and Meanings

It's safe to say that nothing in Breaking Bad is coincidental- including the episode titles. While the meaning to most of the episode titles are made clear by the end of said episode, there were a handful that forced me to resort to Google. Here are some of my favorites:

• Cancer Man (Season 1 episode 4)- This is the episode where Walt finds out he has Cancer. Simple enough. It turns out that Cancer Man is also a tie to a character on The X-Files, Smoking Man- also referred to as Cancer Man. Vince Gilligan was the co-executive producer on the X-Files, and that's actually where Vince met Bryan Cranston, when Cranston appeared on the show.
• Caballo Sin Nombre (Season 3 episode 2)- My seven years of spanish classes finally paid off- I actually was able to translate the title on my own. It means horse with no name. Horse with no name is the name of the song that Walt is singing along to in the opener. 
• I See You (Season 3 episode 8)- Throughout the episode, Walt makes various attempts to outsmart Gus (which proves impossible). I think I See You is meant to shed light on the fact that Walt is being watched by Gus every waking second, and to try and outsmart him would only backfire. Also, I See You is a play on words- I See You = ICU, as in Intensive Care Unit. Hank spends the entirety of the episode in the ICU.
• Gliding Over All (season 5 episode 8)- Gliding Over All is a poem by Walt Whitman. Walt Whitman is obviously  important to this episode, as a book of his work turns out to be the reason why Walt will have some major 'splaining to  do.    

 GLIDING o'er all, through all,
Through Nature, Time, and Space,
As a ship on the waters advancing,
The voyage of the soul--not life alone,
Death, many deaths I'll sing. While the poem shares many themes with the series, I wonder if it's also Gilligan's way of foreshadowing the final season. "Death, many deaths I'll sing."

• IFT (Season 3 episode 3)- My personal favorite. IFT= I Fucked Ted.

Breaking Bad Review- Say My Name

From this week’s title alone it was safe to say that we’d see an appearance from Walt’s ever-growing-ego, but I could have never anticipated the depth of crazy it reached in Say My Name. While last week’s opener was certainly the most disturbing of the series, this week’s made us pretty uncomfortable as well. Claiming that your crystal meth is the Coca-Cola of the drug realm doesn’t make you king Walt, it makes you a d-bag. We have to give it to him for having such a complex that he thinks he can make himself everyone happy through his deal making ways, but only one problem- Jesse and Mike both wind up as unhappy as ever by the end of this episode. “Everybody wins” once again translated to “I win.”
Back at the illegal car wash, things aren’t going so great for Mrs. White. Oddly enough, the massive tanks of stolen methylamine being stored in the family business are unsettling, pushing her to ask out of line questions like, “What is this?”. Walt basically tells Skyler to fuck off and mind her own business, and you can tell by the way Jesse looks at her when she walks away that he feels bad for her, maybe even relates to the way she falls victim to Walt. I would love nothing more than to see these two collaborate in some way against Walt, but for now I can only dream. I don’t know if Skyler would reach out to Jesse or if she respects him in any way, but Skyler has pretty much proved time after time that she’s smart. Really Smart.
Mike tells Walt and Jesse that he’s out- out out. I never thought I’d see the day where Mike voluntarily disposes of all of his guns, but it was also kind of relieving. I like this character. He has a grand-daughter that he enjoys spending time with. He’s old now. He doesn’t need to be running around erasing people’s mistakes all day anymore.  All of the hard work- the assassinating, the money laundering, the-getting-a chunk-of-your-ear-shot-off- it’s paid off because now little Kaylee has a nice big fund waiting for her. Awww.
 While Mike is getting his house searched by the DEA, Jesse decides to pay Mr. White a quick visit, yo. To Walt’s annoyance, the young twenty something year old former student of his actually wants to get out of the dirty meth business and make something of himself.  Walt scolds Jesse-“Look at you. What have you got in your life? Nothing, nobody.” As if that wasn’t harsh enough, Mr. White wanted to throw in a, “How soon ‘til you start using again?” Nice, Walter. The conversation between Walt and Jesse felt like a bad break up. “You and I are done.” Finally. After everything that Walt has dragged Jesse through, he basically dangles his fair share of the money above his head until Jesse walks out empty handed. It was gratifying to see Jesse avoid the black hole that is Walter White’s persuasive monologues, but it’s hard to think that after all that Jesse could be broke and out of luck again.
 If this show has taught me one thing, it’s that a DEA agent is usually wrong unless their name is Henry R. Schrader. Seriously, DEA guy on Skype, have you learned nothing from the Fring case? Hank was right all along but it was too late because nobody listened to him. Hank’s persistence is pretty much what keeps this show going, so it was no surprise when he told sidekick Gomie to start tailing Ehrmantraut’s Lawyer. Mike really should’ve called Saul.
 Walt has said before the cooking meth is a two man job, and who else to replace Jesse other than the infamous child murdering Todd? It’s obvious that Todd is able and willing to learn the methy ways of the business, ya know, if he’s not too busy playing with that dead kid’s tarantula.
 Seeing Mike leave his grand daughter at the park was the worst thing in the world ever to happen ever. The scene ended and cut straight to a gathering in Saul’s office, but I was left wondering what Kaylee did when she turned around and saw her grandpa gone. In a last attempt to get out of town as quickly as possible, Mike asks for Saul to bring him his ‘go bag’, but of course Walt goes instead and fucks everything up. It’s not enough that Mike has to leave town forever, no. Walt needs Mike’s recognition before he leaves. In a rare act of stupidity, Walt lets his anger get the best of him. Almost immediately Walt realizes what he’s done.
“This whole thing could have been avoided.”