"Face Off" a first post
Oct. 10th, 2011 08:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniHere are my first reactions!
So they chose to have Walter win (for now cancer is going to defeat him anyway)and be badass. Okay.
Ricin was a red herring as I thought, but Walter being guilty was not. Unless the last shot is a red herring...but I guess it isn't, it's supposed to be a twist.
But Walter poisoning Brock to make him sick enough (the point wasn't to kill the kid, just to make Jesse think that Gus had poisoned him) to manipulate Jesse wasn't the best writing ever because the logistics did suck and to believe it we have to believe that not only Walter found the time and the way to have the kid ingest it, but also that he knew what Brock meant to Jesse. I said in my previous post that it was a possibility but I didn't like the idea because it asked too much in terms of suspending disbelief.
A bit far fetched, really...
If the whole point was to show that Walter is willing to use the innocent and even expose them to harm, well it isn't that new, is it? He has been exposing "innocent people" to danger since season 1. It has been established that Walter White is toxic for other people, especially those close to him. Maybe the poisoning Brock thing is mainly to be taken as a metaphor and we must forget the logistics issues...
I found the scene with the poor neighbour, Becky, even more effective on that matter. He sent her to his home, putting her "dans la gueule du loup", at risk of being killed by Gus' men! I was just fearing for her during the whole scene!
And there's the fact that Walt brough a bomb in a hospital, near the pediatric ward! Jesse was shocked and even reprimanded Walter for doing so. I prefered those nice touches rather than the big final reveal about Walt's plant.
Did Walter sink even lower because he made a child severly sick? I suppose that it's a way to read it. He knew that Brock could be saved (he didn't use Ricin because there's no cure, so he didn't intend to kill the child) but he took the risk of being wrong with the dose and therefore causing his death nonetheless. Is it worst than his watching Jane choke to death in her own vomit after accidentally causing the situation, without doing anything to save her? I am not so sure, honestly. Of course, Walter has calculated the whole thing this time while he didn't premeditate what happened to Jane, yet he did cause her death which is quite final, while he only made Brock sick and manipulated Jesse with the illness (still totally wrong of course). I bet that Walter feel more guilt about Jane's death than he is going to feel about Brock's Lily poisoning.
Actuallly, the Brock thing, at least to me, says a lot more about Walt's relationship with Jesse (and the lines he's willing to cross to have his boy back on his side) than about Walter's morality issues in general. Walter has a way of rationalizing things and telling himself that he does the bad and the wrong but it's necessary and for a greater good. He is a "the goal justifies the means" kind of guy.
And here, I think that Walter took an even bigger risk( in his eyes) than endangering Brock's life: not only he took the risk of getting himself killed by Jesse (had Jesse not listened to him) or to destroy his relationship with Jesse for ever (if Jesse ever discovers the truth). Walter used Jesse's soft/weak spot for children (his Achilles' heel) to get what he wanted, and it's extremely sad given his feelings for Jesse, the soft way he said his name in the previous episodes, and his freudian slip when talking to Junior .
If there is anything that I firmly believe, even after this finale, it is that Walter does love Jesse. Yet loving someone doesn't mean that you're good for them.
By the way I'm convinced that Walter was sincerly relieved to hear that Brock would pull through.
However I would have liked the ambiguity to remain and I think that the last shot showing the Lilly of the Valley lacked subtlety.
That said, there were fine moments in the episode: the scenes with Walter calling and watching Becky or Walter picking the money up in his house were terrific (great tension) and the scenes with Tio were simply fantastic (especially the one with the nurse and DEA!!!!!) and I also loved the elevator scene with the magnetic bomb (little details like that make the show for me) !
Also gotta love Saul's "he's a wordsmith" and so many lines (the bell ringing thing was phoned though).
The minute Walt told Tio "let's go to work", I just knew that the bell wasn't going to be the weapon and it was a neat exit for Bell Man (the true badass of the story). What a send off!
I know the title was very punable (or is it punny), and I enjoyed the irony of Walter not never meeting face to gace with Gus (the face off was between Hector and Gus) but the last shot of a half-faced Gus was over the top though...
ETA: I forgot to mention how brilliant Bryan and Aaron were again in that last episode. In their last scene together I was crushed because, as much as I like seeing them as father/son, it felt that Walt didn't deserve it. Jesse was looking at him seeking reassurance, his eyes teary and his heart in his sleeve, just in that puppy way that makes him so endearing...and yes Walt could say that he won, not only because he was standing while Gus was no more, but because he had won his boy back, right under his science spell...
And about that last shot of Terminator Gus...someone at breaking_bad made a neat connection!
So they chose to have Walter win (for now cancer is going to defeat him anyway)and be badass. Okay.
Ricin was a red herring as I thought, but Walter being guilty was not. Unless the last shot is a red herring...but I guess it isn't, it's supposed to be a twist.
But Walter poisoning Brock to make him sick enough (the point wasn't to kill the kid, just to make Jesse think that Gus had poisoned him) to manipulate Jesse wasn't the best writing ever because the logistics did suck and to believe it we have to believe that not only Walter found the time and the way to have the kid ingest it, but also that he knew what Brock meant to Jesse. I said in my previous post that it was a possibility but I didn't like the idea because it asked too much in terms of suspending disbelief.
A bit far fetched, really...
If the whole point was to show that Walter is willing to use the innocent and even expose them to harm, well it isn't that new, is it? He has been exposing "innocent people" to danger since season 1. It has been established that Walter White is toxic for other people, especially those close to him. Maybe the poisoning Brock thing is mainly to be taken as a metaphor and we must forget the logistics issues...
I found the scene with the poor neighbour, Becky, even more effective on that matter. He sent her to his home, putting her "dans la gueule du loup", at risk of being killed by Gus' men! I was just fearing for her during the whole scene!
And there's the fact that Walt brough a bomb in a hospital, near the pediatric ward! Jesse was shocked and even reprimanded Walter for doing so. I prefered those nice touches rather than the big final reveal about Walt's plant.
Did Walter sink even lower because he made a child severly sick? I suppose that it's a way to read it. He knew that Brock could be saved (he didn't use Ricin because there's no cure, so he didn't intend to kill the child) but he took the risk of being wrong with the dose and therefore causing his death nonetheless. Is it worst than his watching Jane choke to death in her own vomit after accidentally causing the situation, without doing anything to save her? I am not so sure, honestly. Of course, Walter has calculated the whole thing this time while he didn't premeditate what happened to Jane, yet he did cause her death which is quite final, while he only made Brock sick and manipulated Jesse with the illness (still totally wrong of course). I bet that Walter feel more guilt about Jane's death than he is going to feel about Brock's Lily poisoning.
Actuallly, the Brock thing, at least to me, says a lot more about Walt's relationship with Jesse (and the lines he's willing to cross to have his boy back on his side) than about Walter's morality issues in general. Walter has a way of rationalizing things and telling himself that he does the bad and the wrong but it's necessary and for a greater good. He is a "the goal justifies the means" kind of guy.
And here, I think that Walter took an even bigger risk( in his eyes) than endangering Brock's life: not only he took the risk of getting himself killed by Jesse (had Jesse not listened to him) or to destroy his relationship with Jesse for ever (if Jesse ever discovers the truth). Walter used Jesse's soft/weak spot for children (his Achilles' heel) to get what he wanted, and it's extremely sad given his feelings for Jesse, the soft way he said his name in the previous episodes, and his freudian slip when talking to Junior .
If there is anything that I firmly believe, even after this finale, it is that Walter does love Jesse. Yet loving someone doesn't mean that you're good for them.
By the way I'm convinced that Walter was sincerly relieved to hear that Brock would pull through.
However I would have liked the ambiguity to remain and I think that the last shot showing the Lilly of the Valley lacked subtlety.
That said, there were fine moments in the episode: the scenes with Walter calling and watching Becky or Walter picking the money up in his house were terrific (great tension) and the scenes with Tio were simply fantastic (especially the one with the nurse and DEA!!!!!) and I also loved the elevator scene with the magnetic bomb (little details like that make the show for me) !
Also gotta love Saul's "he's a wordsmith" and so many lines (the bell ringing thing was phoned though).
The minute Walt told Tio "let's go to work", I just knew that the bell wasn't going to be the weapon and it was a neat exit for Bell Man (the true badass of the story). What a send off!
I know the title was very punable (or is it punny), and I enjoyed the irony of Walter not never meeting face to gace with Gus (the face off was between Hector and Gus) but the last shot of a half-faced Gus was over the top though...
ETA: I forgot to mention how brilliant Bryan and Aaron were again in that last episode. In their last scene together I was crushed because, as much as I like seeing them as father/son, it felt that Walt didn't deserve it. Jesse was looking at him seeking reassurance, his eyes teary and his heart in his sleeve, just in that puppy way that makes him so endearing...and yes Walt could say that he won, not only because he was standing while Gus was no more, but because he had won his boy back, right under his science spell...
And about that last shot of Terminator Gus...someone at breaking_bad made a neat connection!
