Holy shit !
Sep. 3rd, 2012 06:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniI could talk about my first day at school and how tired I was after hearing a thousand times the 'how is your thesis going" question, but right now all I can think about is how wonderful my tv show is.
I'll have to rewatch the episode, because it's a gem, but here are my first thoughts:
Breaking Bad is just so great at delivering things you don't expect and yet it seems just so perfect afterwards and you're left thinking. Of course this had to happen!
Well, I didn't expect that!
I mean I didn't expect Walter White to quit so quickly, to realise that there was no fun anymore in cooking meth, to be all nostalgic about the old R.V and his partnership with Jesse, to be tired of doing a job he is actually too good at. It wasn't about having an empire and running it, it was about conquering one. I think Walt was high on the struggle, struggle for survival, struggle for winning, it was what turned him on, what drove him: to overcome fate, to win against all odds. He needed the rage to carry on. But, as Buffy sang it once, this time the fire was gone.
And of course, the minute Walt decided that he was out, something had to happen to shatter his delusion of going back to his old life, of resuming a family life.
Aaron Paul told us on twitter that "shit will hit the fan" but no I definitely didn't expect that Hank would discover the truth when being seated on the toilet !!!!!!!!! And yet, Hank has always been anal when it comes to Heisenberg.
The cold open was very significant. Walt's inertia foreshadowed his later conversation with Jesse, and the fly was both a wonderful call-back to what remains my favourite episode (and to all the themes of contamination, guilt and death it encapsulated) and a big clue that shit was to come, and the Vamonos business will fail in the end (when the pest you're supposed to exterminate already rules in the office it's quite meaningful).
There were two great montages during the episode, with perfect pop song as soundtrack: the Two minutes killing-spree in jail and the cooking/shipping meth."The blue crystal persuasion" was of course perfect.
And Devil from Justified was there!!!!!!!
BTW when I wrote my silly ideas of crossovers weeks ago and said that Walt stole Schillinger's look I didn't expect to see Aryan Brotherhood in Breaking Bad! Once upon a time Mr White would have been scared by the wannabe-Nazis, but Heisenberg didn't blink.
The two Walt/Jesse scenes were heartbreaking. Jesse's face when Walt closed the garage door on him...damn it was worse than their last fight. It was painful to watch. And later, how sad it was to see that Jesse was afraid of Mr White...
And how tragic given that Walt of course just wanted to see his meth son, one last time, remember the good old time with him and give him two bags full of money. "I left something for you" sounded like a last will...and the fact it happened just after the MRI scene, and after Walt saw the paper dispenser he had punched in season 2 when hearing about his cancer remission, all those details seemed to point out that the cancer was back for real this time.
We expected Walt to embrace a Godfather role after he got a juicy new deal with Lydia and he got rid of the 9 men in prison, but his journey took a turn and w saw the steps towards a choice that went against what we thought we knew about Walt's huge ego. The fly from the cold-open; Hank line about "chasing MONSTERS"; the big pile of money that Skyler could not launder and nobody could spend even in ten lifetimes, and finally the hospital sequence, they all played a part in Walt's decision : quit the game and just enjoy the time he's left.
During the happy family scene in the sun by the pool, I was on the edge of my seat, bracing myself for something really bad to happen. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I thought that the other bad guys wouldn't let Walt quit so they would do something horrible. Violence had to happen and ruin the idyllic moment! It couldn't be so easy to walk away from a business that others may want to carry on.
But this is Breaking Bad a show that never goes the conventional and predictable route.
To break everything, it only took Hank going to the bathroom, obviously for a Number Two. And shit ensued indeed. It was simple and wonderful. Of course the minute we saw the basket with the magazines, we remembered Walt's shower from earlier and the fact he kept Walt Whitman's book in there. No Chekhov's ricin, no Chekhov's gun, but a Chekhov's book. And there was the quote that would make everything crystal clear for Hank.
Why did Walt keep that book? Inertia again? Misplaced sentimentality (in this case it's rather twisted given that walt had Gale killed!). When we saw the copy at the beginning of the season I had assumed that he had bought the book because of Gale, not that Gale had given him the book and had dedicated it!
Now Hank knows. The memory of the conversation with Walt from "Bullet Points", "to my other favorite W.W" and the initials of the dedication are enough to clue him in. What is he going to do?
The flashforward seems to suggest that Hank will do something, either try to arrest Walt or – if he wants to spare the kids and Skyler– confront him and force him to leave everything and his family and never come back.
Even though speculating seems pointless, I'm trying to imagine a possible scenario here:
Hank will take his time, and we'll have two or three episodes of him building a solid case against Walt, putting pieces together – and yes I expect him to harass Jesse a little –, and finally confronting him in episode 12. The showdown will happen and from there Walt will be on the run, alone, having left and lost everybody and dying from cancer. Will he give Lydia and Madrigal to Hank before leaving? Will he betray Jesse as well?
But Declan and the meth-heads from the Czec Republic won't want to stay sans cook, especially now that a new market has been conquered by the blue product. And they know that Walter isn't the only one who can cook said product. But I don't think that even after three months Todd can do it on his own. So Jesse will be kidnapped by Declan's crew (I still want him to be flipped by Hank before that and "work" for the DEA), and eventually Walt will heard about it via Saul, and he will come back, with the machine gun, for Jesse.
This is the best love story on television these days, the show has to end with them.
I'll have to rewatch the episode, because it's a gem, but here are my first thoughts:
Breaking Bad is just so great at delivering things you don't expect and yet it seems just so perfect afterwards and you're left thinking. Of course this had to happen!
Well, I didn't expect that!
I mean I didn't expect Walter White to quit so quickly, to realise that there was no fun anymore in cooking meth, to be all nostalgic about the old R.V and his partnership with Jesse, to be tired of doing a job he is actually too good at. It wasn't about having an empire and running it, it was about conquering one. I think Walt was high on the struggle, struggle for survival, struggle for winning, it was what turned him on, what drove him: to overcome fate, to win against all odds. He needed the rage to carry on. But, as Buffy sang it once, this time the fire was gone.
And of course, the minute Walt decided that he was out, something had to happen to shatter his delusion of going back to his old life, of resuming a family life.
Aaron Paul told us on twitter that "shit will hit the fan" but no I definitely didn't expect that Hank would discover the truth when being seated on the toilet !!!!!!!!! And yet, Hank has always been anal when it comes to Heisenberg.
The cold open was very significant. Walt's inertia foreshadowed his later conversation with Jesse, and the fly was both a wonderful call-back to what remains my favourite episode (and to all the themes of contamination, guilt and death it encapsulated) and a big clue that shit was to come, and the Vamonos business will fail in the end (when the pest you're supposed to exterminate already rules in the office it's quite meaningful).
There were two great montages during the episode, with perfect pop song as soundtrack: the Two minutes killing-spree in jail and the cooking/shipping meth."The blue crystal persuasion" was of course perfect.
And Devil from Justified was there!!!!!!!
BTW when I wrote my silly ideas of crossovers weeks ago and said that Walt stole Schillinger's look I didn't expect to see Aryan Brotherhood in Breaking Bad! Once upon a time Mr White would have been scared by the wannabe-Nazis, but Heisenberg didn't blink.
The two Walt/Jesse scenes were heartbreaking. Jesse's face when Walt closed the garage door on him...damn it was worse than their last fight. It was painful to watch. And later, how sad it was to see that Jesse was afraid of Mr White...
And how tragic given that Walt of course just wanted to see his meth son, one last time, remember the good old time with him and give him two bags full of money. "I left something for you" sounded like a last will...and the fact it happened just after the MRI scene, and after Walt saw the paper dispenser he had punched in season 2 when hearing about his cancer remission, all those details seemed to point out that the cancer was back for real this time.
We expected Walt to embrace a Godfather role after he got a juicy new deal with Lydia and he got rid of the 9 men in prison, but his journey took a turn and w saw the steps towards a choice that went against what we thought we knew about Walt's huge ego. The fly from the cold-open; Hank line about "chasing MONSTERS"; the big pile of money that Skyler could not launder and nobody could spend even in ten lifetimes, and finally the hospital sequence, they all played a part in Walt's decision : quit the game and just enjoy the time he's left.
During the happy family scene in the sun by the pool, I was on the edge of my seat, bracing myself for something really bad to happen. I'm sure I wasn't the only one. I thought that the other bad guys wouldn't let Walt quit so they would do something horrible. Violence had to happen and ruin the idyllic moment! It couldn't be so easy to walk away from a business that others may want to carry on.
But this is Breaking Bad a show that never goes the conventional and predictable route.
To break everything, it only took Hank going to the bathroom, obviously for a Number Two. And shit ensued indeed. It was simple and wonderful. Of course the minute we saw the basket with the magazines, we remembered Walt's shower from earlier and the fact he kept Walt Whitman's book in there. No Chekhov's ricin, no Chekhov's gun, but a Chekhov's book. And there was the quote that would make everything crystal clear for Hank.
Why did Walt keep that book? Inertia again? Misplaced sentimentality (in this case it's rather twisted given that walt had Gale killed!). When we saw the copy at the beginning of the season I had assumed that he had bought the book because of Gale, not that Gale had given him the book and had dedicated it!
Now Hank knows. The memory of the conversation with Walt from "Bullet Points", "to my other favorite W.W" and the initials of the dedication are enough to clue him in. What is he going to do?
The flashforward seems to suggest that Hank will do something, either try to arrest Walt or – if he wants to spare the kids and Skyler– confront him and force him to leave everything and his family and never come back.
Even though speculating seems pointless, I'm trying to imagine a possible scenario here:
Hank will take his time, and we'll have two or three episodes of him building a solid case against Walt, putting pieces together – and yes I expect him to harass Jesse a little –, and finally confronting him in episode 12. The showdown will happen and from there Walt will be on the run, alone, having left and lost everybody and dying from cancer. Will he give Lydia and Madrigal to Hank before leaving? Will he betray Jesse as well?
But Declan and the meth-heads from the Czec Republic won't want to stay sans cook, especially now that a new market has been conquered by the blue product. And they know that Walter isn't the only one who can cook said product. But I don't think that even after three months Todd can do it on his own. So Jesse will be kidnapped by Declan's crew (I still want him to be flipped by Hank before that and "work" for the DEA), and eventually Walt will heard about it via Saul, and he will come back, with the machine gun, for Jesse.
This is the best love story on television these days, the show has to end with them.