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chaniIf Breaking Bad were a lesser show I'd say that there are, at least, two scenes "Buyout" is worth watching for. Of course, the series being so well-written, beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted, the whole episode is first class television, so the other scenes are quite compelling too.
Still two scenes were the highlights of night (well, afternoon in my case):
The first one was the cold open. How devastating! The farewell to the A.R was moving, but how sad and horrifying it was to see Walt, Mike and Todd tear apart the dirt bike, before throwing the parts into the barrel where they would be dissolved. Even though Walt did fetch a second barrel, and we saw Todd digging a hand from the sand, there was no need to see the kid's corpse in the barrel. The dirt bike worked as a perfect surrogate. And it emphasized the idea that, in the drug business, a human being may be just an item to dispose of. It was well-filmed, well acted and a great take on reification.
Todd seemed completely guilt-free, Mike all in Cleaner-mode yet unsurprisingly not happy (and later we understood why he looked gloomy, Todd brought a gun and Mike didn't know it!)...and Walt. Well, I'm sure few viewers will give Cranston credits for that scene but I found his acting stellar. It was the right mix of "this job needs to be done, period" , "Oh no, we're going to dissolve a kid's body who's been killed because of us" and "I don't want to think of the horrible thing that just happened, let's get it done and move on". There was a flicker of regret and true sadness in his eyes, that recalled the man we met in season 1, but Walt didn't dwell on it; he lives in the moment now, and what he's feeling at some point is gone a few seconds later. It reminded me of the scene in Hank's office, how Walter went from wiping his tears and composing himself to installing a bug spy-style.
Walter crossed the Rubicon of guilt a long time ago, learning that no matter how bad he feels for what he's got to do, he will do what is necessary again, and again...so what's the point of lingering on any feeling of guilt? Walt has become very good at acting the part, at compartmentalizing and at switching off his conscience. Yet, it doesn't mean he is emotionless or a cold-hearted monster. He's still a human being, but he's so driven by "his demons" that he can't quit and therefore is ready to do unthinkable things...like dissolving the body of a boy who wasn't far from Junior's age.
Of course, Jesse didn't take part in the cleaning process. He was already OUT. Jesse isn't very good at compartmentalizing and putting his conscience aside.
Todd's boyish looks and behaviour reminded me of those child-soldiers in Africa. They are useful and merciless killers because being so young they aren't morally grown up. I didn't take his keeping the jar with the tarantula as a trophy as much as a way to show that he shared his victim's interests. It took a child-like man to kill a kid in cold blood.
The second scene I found thrilling took place in Walter's house. I was spoiled abou it, because I had seen a picture. I was one of the BrBa fans who had been waiting for years to see Jesse and Skyler in a scene together!
What a twisted family scene? How awkward it was for Jesse to be in the middle of the Whites' cold war (after being in the middle so many times between Walt and Mike, Jesse had to play the same role between Walt and Skyler!), to be seated on the empty chair that was in front of the one Junior usually sits on; a chair that has been waiting for him for 4 seasons, and maybe longer in Walter's life (remember the cold-open with the flashback of a pregnant Skyler and a younger Walt entering the house for the first time, and Walt foreseeing three children in it?!).
Poor Jesse trying to make small-talk while Walt and Skyler were giving each other the silent treatment. And the subject of the conversation? Cooking or not cooking!!! It was simply perfect, with Jesse trying to guess the cooking method and ingredient like the good student he has become. Of course Skyler didn't cook the beans, Walter is the cook in the family! And I loved Jesse's monologue about frozen food, especially the disparity between attractive packaging and the dreadful reality of the lasagna he eats. "Yeah, it's bad" An allegory of the meth business itself!
Leaving the food talk, Jesse asked about the car wash business and Skyler realised that he knew much more about her than what she knew about Walt's double life. Skyler asking Jesse what else Walter told about him, sounded like a wife angry to hear that her unfaithful husband shared private stuff about her with his lover, but then she bounced back asking whether he also told Jesse about her affair with Ted, which was a way to tell Walt she knew about his talking to Marie behind her back and to humiliate him in front of Jesse with mentioning that he has been cuckold. That was, of course, the most uncomfortable things for Jesse to hear and witness. As the surrogate son, Jesse had to undergo the very stuff Junior has been protected from, that is the truth.
It also worked because of the previous scene with Jesse, Walt and Mike, when Walter kinda accused Jesse of betrayal by breaking their partnership and selling methylamine to his competitors. Jesse felt already guilty for leaving Walt, and now he's aware that Mrs White also deceived him, had an affair with another man, and is hoping for his death!
But before the meal, there was the Walt/Jesse scene, and before that Walter resting and thinking...and receiving Jesse's phone call. Of course nothing happened by accident. Walter had thought this through. He knew he couldn't keep Jesse on board with rationalizing, so he had to let Jesse "IN", not only in the house, but also IN the family...and IN Walter's mind...hence the confession time about Grey Matter, and Walter's little smile when Skyler came back (the glee he obviously felt at the prospect of Skyler having to be in the same room as Jesse!).
I have no doubt that Walter wanted to be "caught" with Jesse by Skyler. It was a true provocation towards her, but also a new way to manipulate Jesse, to reinforce the bond between them. If Jesse had been his mistress it would have worked just as well.It was so twisted I loved it! The scene was both a "fuck you!" to Skyler – and in my head, Walt was thinking "you got to send our children away from me, then meet my meth son, he's my child and will eat with us at my table, in my house, deal with it!"– and Walt acknowledging that Jesse was an important part of his life. It echoed his introducing himself as Jesse's "friend" to Andrea and staying with them for drink. The message to Jesse was clear: we are not just business partners, you matter to me, I care about you and that thing between us is no longer a dirty secret.
Add to that the personal/intimate stuff Walter shared with Jesse about checking every week the value of Grey Matter, or the horrible truth about Skyler waiting for the cancer to come back, and we were back into "4 Days Out" and "The Fly" territory, those moments when Walter opened up to Jesse the way he never did to anyone else. Of course he did it to guilt-trip Jesse, but as usual with Walter it doesn't mean that the stuff he said was not true, and it doesn't change the fact that he let Jesse in.
I believe he never got over his failure regarding Gretchen, Elliott and the promising future that seemed ahead for a man as scientifically gifted as he knows he is, so I totally bought that he weekly checks what Grey Matter is worth, and that he aims at having an empire so he can achieve his potential in the illegal business, something he couldn't do in the legal one. It isn't about the money, it is about success and recognition, and it is about getting back at a world that screwed with him so many times (quitting Grey Matter, the lousy and demeaning jobs, the cancer...). There has always been a frustrated angry man in Walter White and his journey in the meth world, the cancer and the dangers he has put himself in, have unleashed a beast whose recklessness is just as unbelieveable as his ressourcefulness is impressive, to say the least.
And this is a man Mike doesn't truly get, hence his mistake (something Hank prophetised!). I said it before, Mike keeps underestimating Walter because he only sees the personality flaws and the reckless amateurish approach, he doesn't understand the genius in Walter, and by genius I mean, not only the brillant mind, but also the ability to come up with crazy ideas in time of crisis and the true madness that goes with such magic – a word Skyler used about Walter's skills and I think it's extremely relevant.
Mike is a former cop who knows the game, which means he is prepared for other cops and for gangsters; but he isn't prepared for a guy like Walt. Mike is tired and all the half-measures he's been indulging in lately might point out that he really is getting too old and sloppy (after all Todd brought a gun and Mike was clueless!), but as competent as he is in his line of work, Mike isn't a superman. Walt pulling a McGyver on him was something he couldn't have expected.
So about the escape scene, what I loved was that it carried on the theme of electricity I stressed out in my previous reviews, and that Walter behaved like a rodent in order to free the wires. There's something so animal in Walter's survival spirit that seeing him use his teeth was spot-on.
The Skyler/Marie scene: baby Holly was her adorable self, and it was nice to have a sister bonding moment. But then when Skyler was so in need of support, and on the verge of finding a way out, Marie dropped the info about the affair with Ted thinking that it would tell her sister that she must not worry about being judged, that Marie could be understanding. Hell paved with good intentions, again. Skyler's face was priceless. Donna Bowman puts it beautifully in her review on the AV/TV Club: " It’s devastating to watch Skyler close down as she realizes that Walter has already poisoned that oasis."
The scene in the tented house had a feel of déjà-vu with Jesse being Jesse, and Walter using words of compassion, ruthless rationalizing (let's save the soul-searching for later we've got a business to run), comforting promises (it won't happen again) and gestures of affection to deal with his partner's états d'âme...until the whistling. That's when Jesse realised he could no longer do it and had to find a way out. I don't think that hearing Walt whistle served as an epiphany about Walt's "evil nature" after Jesse had been fooled by his lies; I believe that Jesse mostly realised that he just wasn't like Walt and couldn't move on so quickly from something so utterly devastating, or maybe that he didn't want to become like Walt. I think he realised that Walter White was far gone, too far gone to come back. At that moment Walt stopped being a model to admire and follow, and a mentor to listen to.
The whistling showed what I said above, Walter compartmentalizes and is able to quickly switch from one mode into another. Yes he was sorry that the boy got killed but that didn't prevent him from carrying on his cooking routine and going "hei ho hei ho I've got a batch to do" a few seconds after he deplored that death and told Jesse he couldn't sleep because of it (Was it true or not? It sounded like a cliched phrase Walter served on cue because that's the sort of things people say in such situation, but it's possible that Walter didn't lie...). Walter just doesn't let anything, not even his conscience get in the way, no matter the burns he inflicts on himself in the process. This train does not stop indeed. BTW his whistling reminded me of a train's tchoo-tchoo noise in the distance.
Jesse doesn't want to switch his conscience off. Mike offered him a way out – btw I'm glad that the matter of Walt's "competitors" was finally addressed and that we met one of them – , so he took it. He obviously felt bad for leaving Mr White but could no longer bear the meth business, and the deaths it causes. Also I guess that the idea of going on working with someone who killed a child in cold-blood was a bit too much for Jesse.
At the end of the episode, Jesse is back, though, but I don't think it's because he's naive and stupid and has already forgotten about the whistling. He has no illusion left – in a touching role-reversal moment he played the wiser and the adviser suggesting to Walt that a meth empire is not something to be proud of.
He wants out, he sees Walt for what he is but when Mike shows up with a gun Jesse still sides with Walt, protecting him from Mike's wrath, backing his new plan out of love, because Mr White needs him, because he's all that Walter has left.
Still two scenes were the highlights of night (well, afternoon in my case):
The first one was the cold open. How devastating! The farewell to the A.R was moving, but how sad and horrifying it was to see Walt, Mike and Todd tear apart the dirt bike, before throwing the parts into the barrel where they would be dissolved. Even though Walt did fetch a second barrel, and we saw Todd digging a hand from the sand, there was no need to see the kid's corpse in the barrel. The dirt bike worked as a perfect surrogate. And it emphasized the idea that, in the drug business, a human being may be just an item to dispose of. It was well-filmed, well acted and a great take on reification.
Todd seemed completely guilt-free, Mike all in Cleaner-mode yet unsurprisingly not happy (and later we understood why he looked gloomy, Todd brought a gun and Mike didn't know it!)...and Walt. Well, I'm sure few viewers will give Cranston credits for that scene but I found his acting stellar. It was the right mix of "this job needs to be done, period" , "Oh no, we're going to dissolve a kid's body who's been killed because of us" and "I don't want to think of the horrible thing that just happened, let's get it done and move on". There was a flicker of regret and true sadness in his eyes, that recalled the man we met in season 1, but Walt didn't dwell on it; he lives in the moment now, and what he's feeling at some point is gone a few seconds later. It reminded me of the scene in Hank's office, how Walter went from wiping his tears and composing himself to installing a bug spy-style.
Walter crossed the Rubicon of guilt a long time ago, learning that no matter how bad he feels for what he's got to do, he will do what is necessary again, and again...so what's the point of lingering on any feeling of guilt? Walt has become very good at acting the part, at compartmentalizing and at switching off his conscience. Yet, it doesn't mean he is emotionless or a cold-hearted monster. He's still a human being, but he's so driven by "his demons" that he can't quit and therefore is ready to do unthinkable things...like dissolving the body of a boy who wasn't far from Junior's age.
Of course, Jesse didn't take part in the cleaning process. He was already OUT. Jesse isn't very good at compartmentalizing and putting his conscience aside.
Todd's boyish looks and behaviour reminded me of those child-soldiers in Africa. They are useful and merciless killers because being so young they aren't morally grown up. I didn't take his keeping the jar with the tarantula as a trophy as much as a way to show that he shared his victim's interests. It took a child-like man to kill a kid in cold blood.
The second scene I found thrilling took place in Walter's house. I was spoiled abou it, because I had seen a picture. I was one of the BrBa fans who had been waiting for years to see Jesse and Skyler in a scene together!
What a twisted family scene? How awkward it was for Jesse to be in the middle of the Whites' cold war (after being in the middle so many times between Walt and Mike, Jesse had to play the same role between Walt and Skyler!), to be seated on the empty chair that was in front of the one Junior usually sits on; a chair that has been waiting for him for 4 seasons, and maybe longer in Walter's life (remember the cold-open with the flashback of a pregnant Skyler and a younger Walt entering the house for the first time, and Walt foreseeing three children in it?!).
Poor Jesse trying to make small-talk while Walt and Skyler were giving each other the silent treatment. And the subject of the conversation? Cooking or not cooking!!! It was simply perfect, with Jesse trying to guess the cooking method and ingredient like the good student he has become. Of course Skyler didn't cook the beans, Walter is the cook in the family! And I loved Jesse's monologue about frozen food, especially the disparity between attractive packaging and the dreadful reality of the lasagna he eats. "Yeah, it's bad" An allegory of the meth business itself!
Leaving the food talk, Jesse asked about the car wash business and Skyler realised that he knew much more about her than what she knew about Walt's double life. Skyler asking Jesse what else Walter told about him, sounded like a wife angry to hear that her unfaithful husband shared private stuff about her with his lover, but then she bounced back asking whether he also told Jesse about her affair with Ted, which was a way to tell Walt she knew about his talking to Marie behind her back and to humiliate him in front of Jesse with mentioning that he has been cuckold. That was, of course, the most uncomfortable things for Jesse to hear and witness. As the surrogate son, Jesse had to undergo the very stuff Junior has been protected from, that is the truth.
It also worked because of the previous scene with Jesse, Walt and Mike, when Walter kinda accused Jesse of betrayal by breaking their partnership and selling methylamine to his competitors. Jesse felt already guilty for leaving Walt, and now he's aware that Mrs White also deceived him, had an affair with another man, and is hoping for his death!
But before the meal, there was the Walt/Jesse scene, and before that Walter resting and thinking...and receiving Jesse's phone call. Of course nothing happened by accident. Walter had thought this through. He knew he couldn't keep Jesse on board with rationalizing, so he had to let Jesse "IN", not only in the house, but also IN the family...and IN Walter's mind...hence the confession time about Grey Matter, and Walter's little smile when Skyler came back (the glee he obviously felt at the prospect of Skyler having to be in the same room as Jesse!).
I have no doubt that Walter wanted to be "caught" with Jesse by Skyler. It was a true provocation towards her, but also a new way to manipulate Jesse, to reinforce the bond between them. If Jesse had been his mistress it would have worked just as well.It was so twisted I loved it! The scene was both a "fuck you!" to Skyler – and in my head, Walt was thinking "you got to send our children away from me, then meet my meth son, he's my child and will eat with us at my table, in my house, deal with it!"– and Walt acknowledging that Jesse was an important part of his life. It echoed his introducing himself as Jesse's "friend" to Andrea and staying with them for drink. The message to Jesse was clear: we are not just business partners, you matter to me, I care about you and that thing between us is no longer a dirty secret.
Add to that the personal/intimate stuff Walter shared with Jesse about checking every week the value of Grey Matter, or the horrible truth about Skyler waiting for the cancer to come back, and we were back into "4 Days Out" and "The Fly" territory, those moments when Walter opened up to Jesse the way he never did to anyone else. Of course he did it to guilt-trip Jesse, but as usual with Walter it doesn't mean that the stuff he said was not true, and it doesn't change the fact that he let Jesse in.
I believe he never got over his failure regarding Gretchen, Elliott and the promising future that seemed ahead for a man as scientifically gifted as he knows he is, so I totally bought that he weekly checks what Grey Matter is worth, and that he aims at having an empire so he can achieve his potential in the illegal business, something he couldn't do in the legal one. It isn't about the money, it is about success and recognition, and it is about getting back at a world that screwed with him so many times (quitting Grey Matter, the lousy and demeaning jobs, the cancer...). There has always been a frustrated angry man in Walter White and his journey in the meth world, the cancer and the dangers he has put himself in, have unleashed a beast whose recklessness is just as unbelieveable as his ressourcefulness is impressive, to say the least.
And this is a man Mike doesn't truly get, hence his mistake (something Hank prophetised!). I said it before, Mike keeps underestimating Walter because he only sees the personality flaws and the reckless amateurish approach, he doesn't understand the genius in Walter, and by genius I mean, not only the brillant mind, but also the ability to come up with crazy ideas in time of crisis and the true madness that goes with such magic – a word Skyler used about Walter's skills and I think it's extremely relevant.
Mike is a former cop who knows the game, which means he is prepared for other cops and for gangsters; but he isn't prepared for a guy like Walt. Mike is tired and all the half-measures he's been indulging in lately might point out that he really is getting too old and sloppy (after all Todd brought a gun and Mike was clueless!), but as competent as he is in his line of work, Mike isn't a superman. Walt pulling a McGyver on him was something he couldn't have expected.
So about the escape scene, what I loved was that it carried on the theme of electricity I stressed out in my previous reviews, and that Walter behaved like a rodent in order to free the wires. There's something so animal in Walter's survival spirit that seeing him use his teeth was spot-on.
The Skyler/Marie scene: baby Holly was her adorable self, and it was nice to have a sister bonding moment. But then when Skyler was so in need of support, and on the verge of finding a way out, Marie dropped the info about the affair with Ted thinking that it would tell her sister that she must not worry about being judged, that Marie could be understanding. Hell paved with good intentions, again. Skyler's face was priceless. Donna Bowman puts it beautifully in her review on the AV/TV Club: " It’s devastating to watch Skyler close down as she realizes that Walter has already poisoned that oasis."
The scene in the tented house had a feel of déjà-vu with Jesse being Jesse, and Walter using words of compassion, ruthless rationalizing (let's save the soul-searching for later we've got a business to run), comforting promises (it won't happen again) and gestures of affection to deal with his partner's états d'âme...until the whistling. That's when Jesse realised he could no longer do it and had to find a way out. I don't think that hearing Walt whistle served as an epiphany about Walt's "evil nature" after Jesse had been fooled by his lies; I believe that Jesse mostly realised that he just wasn't like Walt and couldn't move on so quickly from something so utterly devastating, or maybe that he didn't want to become like Walt. I think he realised that Walter White was far gone, too far gone to come back. At that moment Walt stopped being a model to admire and follow, and a mentor to listen to.
The whistling showed what I said above, Walter compartmentalizes and is able to quickly switch from one mode into another. Yes he was sorry that the boy got killed but that didn't prevent him from carrying on his cooking routine and going "hei ho hei ho I've got a batch to do" a few seconds after he deplored that death and told Jesse he couldn't sleep because of it (Was it true or not? It sounded like a cliched phrase Walter served on cue because that's the sort of things people say in such situation, but it's possible that Walter didn't lie...). Walter just doesn't let anything, not even his conscience get in the way, no matter the burns he inflicts on himself in the process. This train does not stop indeed. BTW his whistling reminded me of a train's tchoo-tchoo noise in the distance.
Jesse doesn't want to switch his conscience off. Mike offered him a way out – btw I'm glad that the matter of Walt's "competitors" was finally addressed and that we met one of them – , so he took it. He obviously felt bad for leaving Mr White but could no longer bear the meth business, and the deaths it causes. Also I guess that the idea of going on working with someone who killed a child in cold-blood was a bit too much for Jesse.
At the end of the episode, Jesse is back, though, but I don't think it's because he's naive and stupid and has already forgotten about the whistling. He has no illusion left – in a touching role-reversal moment he played the wiser and the adviser suggesting to Walt that a meth empire is not something to be proud of.
He wants out, he sees Walt for what he is but when Mike shows up with a gun Jesse still sides with Walt, protecting him from Mike's wrath, backing his new plan out of love, because Mr White needs him, because he's all that Walter has left.