My review of last week's episode:
To go along with the good news that Breaking Bad has been renewed for another season to start filming in 2012 (instead of ending after this season as had been the original plan), I bring to the fine readers of 411 one humble fan's take on this week's episode. I've watched this show religiously from the very day it debuted on AMC and have been delighted by all of the success the great Vince Gilligan and others have achieved on this show (I was always a big X-Files fan beforehand so Gilligan's name was already very familiar to me) as well as the incredible quality of writing, acting, and direction this show has shown in all of it's episodes. People throw around "best show on TV" alot, but with shows like The Sopranos, The Wire, Lost, and others gone from the airwaves I think it's safe to say that right now at this present time in the summer of 2011, the best show on television is undoubtedly Breaking Bad.
The way they patiently build suspense on this show is simply incredible, and we saw another great example of that in the early stages of this episode through the sheer power of the conversations Jesse and Mike were having and the impact every word they say could have on their lives. The entire drive out to the desert with Mike was filmed beautifully as usual and the use of high-speed frame-rates helped to put over how tedious the work was in Jesse's eyes. It was great to see impatient and immature Jesse again as a reprieve from the dark and suicidal character he's become as of late.
I had fully expected Walt and Skyler to sleep together again considering how close they had become since this car-wash deal came into play, but I was totally not expecting it at the moment it did take place. I thought her reaction upon hearing the frenzied message on her answering machine from Walt where he ominously wanted to just tell her and the kids that he loved them would be one of shock and anger that Walt was keeping something from her again, as otherwise why would you just call and leave a message like that? The one idea that always flashes through most people's head when pondering the idea of their eventual death is that you'd like to be able to get out one last declaration of love to those that mattered the most to you in your life before it's all taken away, and that's what I heard the message as. But Skyler went the exact opposite reaction that I was expecting, and jumped on Walter like a horny college student! She must have seen it as another step in this quasi "rehab" in her eyes of making their lives somewhat normal and open now that they know and understand that Walt needs to keep cooking in order to pay for the mounting hospital bills of his brother-in-law. Whether Walter will actually be completely open with her going forward as she had requested right before hearing that message will be decided later, but you could see the hesitancy just in his eyes when he heard the message that he thought he had been caught again and was ready to start some elaborate explanation for the message. I was even more shocked that Walt didn't jump at the moment Skyler sort of asked him if he'd like to move back in, he seemed put off by that but I guess he had come to terms with their separation finally, and then this happens.
Seeing Jesse hop into action upon seeing those two random guys with guns looking to rip him and Mike off was great as well, as we further saw that indeed Jesse does in fact still care about his life a little bit and he does want to live. The fact that he turned around to pick up Mike afterwards was also pleasantly surprising, and so was Mike's reaction of letting Jesse have a cigarette almost like a reward as he had been preventing him from smoking in his car all day long. What this tells me is that Mike may be coming to realize that Jesse, while an addict and a general fuck-up, is more responsible and honest than Walter is, and that maybe Walter is the guy that needs to go in the equation and not Jesse as he had previously thought all along. Just a thought, but knowing this show's tendency to let ideas like this pester and stew for weeks at a time, I do believe we saw the seeds being sowed for just that on tonight's show.
The discovery towards the end of the episode that Gus had set up the apparent robbery all along to see how Jesse would respond to the situation was just the icing on the cake. Gus is already thinking ahead of how he can eliminate Walter from the picture altogether, and he realizes the best way to do that right now is to see if they can turn Jesse onto their side and perhaps stab Walter in the back. Jesse's in such a crazy state emotionally these days that it's not that unfeasible.
The ending scene of Walt, Skyler, their baby daughter, Walter Jr., Hank and Marie all together as a family just having a good time, laughing and enjoying dinner and wine was perfect and reminded me a bit of the spirit of The Sopranos in that although the motives were mixed and what they did to earn their living was always morally ambiguous at best, it was all done out of a desire to nourish and provide for the family unit because of those strong bonds.Seeing Walt drown his sorrows a bit in the red wine was a bit strange, and I'm actually perplexed as to what Walter's feelings and thoughts are these days about how his life is starting to regain some kind of normalcy again. He's still clearly troubled by Gale's death as well, as seen by the look on his face as Hank described how smart Gale was to Walter Jr. Seeing Walt blubber on drunkenly about how Gale's work wasn't that great and how he was probably just copying someone else's work was shocking, as Walt had gone to all that trouble earlier to convince Hank that Gale was the "Heisenberg" character and to end his investigation into the blue meth altogether, but saying something like that is only going to get Hank involved again and could possibly lead to the eventual downfall of Walt's whole life and scheme in the end. Hank indeed went ahead and got some more files from the case from his DEA buddy at the end of the episode and Hank having that renewed sense of purpose seemed to spark some of that old familiar normalcy between Hank and Marie for the first time in a while as well, so perhaps their relationship could be on the upswing with the closer Hank gets to discovering Walt (which of course would be the downfall of Walt's relationship with his entire family). Ending the episode with Hank wondering out loud why a self-proclaimed vegan (Gale) would have a flyer from a fried chicken restaurant with Gus's number on it. Oh yes, Hank is on the trail again ladies and gentlemen.
An excellent episode that saw intense development in most of the over-arching plots of our story and the show overall. A superb chapter in our on-going story.
9.0/10
