tv: Fear is an interesting thing. It is said that how we deal with it defines us. But is what often meant by that is that how we deal with it is what separates strong people from weak people. While there may be truth in the latter statement, it is more a combination of the two that is the most accurate. How we deal with our fears is what both defines us and separates us. But this has nothing to do with strength. It is simply to be taken at face value. Individually, our reactions to facing something that frightens us is a defining part of what separates us and defines a part of who we are. And often our fears are different, making our reactions different. If you fear fire, do you run towards the burning building or keep a safe distance? If you fear an alien invasion, do you bust out the tin foil and go to work?
In the third episode of Breaking Bad's final season, Confessions, the fear of all of the characters was brought into focus. The episode began with Todd retelling the story of the train heist in dead freight with both a fear and admiration for Walt, the mastermind behind what he called the biggest heist ever. He also took care to leave Walt a voicemail about the shoot out in Phoenix and the change of management. He just thought Walt would want to know, because well, you know. Or not just, you know, but because Todd is still in firm belief that if his former boss doesn't know all the details there will be hell to pay, despite the fact that Walt is trying to live in a world where the word former still applies. And just before the periodic table comes into view we see the very methlamine from the train heist, no doubt fatefully, heading back to Albuquerque.
Post teaser the episode picks up right where we left off last week. Hank is getting his golden opportunity to swim instead of sink in his investigation of his brother-in law by interviewing Jesse. Hank has totally reversed his feelings about Jesse. Or at least he has gone from hating him to just not caring what happens to him. His focus is on Walt. He tells Jesse he has no interest in him and is just after the man known as Heisenberg. At the sound of that name Jesse can't help but react. And thus the dance begins as they trade knowing glances over the monster they both are dealing with. Hank just wants him to be brought to justice. Jesse just wants out of that cell. He knows that even prison can't keep him safe from Walt's wrath. But before any progress can be made Saul comes to Jesse's rescue and firmly reminds him that because of what Walt has become and what his rage can bring people, this is about as bad a situation can be.
Walt meanwhile is trying to deal with his sister-in-law. After a pulse pounding attempt to take the kids out of his house in last weeks episode, Marie tries a more subtle approach. But Walt is wise to the true meaning of computer problems and decides to keep his son at home. He does so trough the guilt Junior feels over leaving his dad after being told that Walt's cancer has returned. But evil as the Joker himself, Walt fits his story to his new situation. I don't know if we will ever know what the truth is about his cancer. I don't know if I need to. Its use as just another tool in his manipulative box is more effective at this point.
Knowing that these acts to separate his family makes a bold move against Hank. He makes a confession tape. But first the Whites and Schraders meet for dinner. Walt and Skylar look talk there way out of there troubles one least time in a scene tailor made for Breaking Bad. As the tension ratchets to a breaking point it ends up being only broken by comedy relief and an offer of fresh guacamole that few besides these four could resist. Hell, its made at your table! But through it all Marie gets in her mata-commentary when she asks if Walt will kill himself. "All of this will just end if you die," she pleads. And isn't that just the truth.
And then we see The Confession. A jarring retelling of the plot of the entire series in an alternate reality that plays itself as threat to every fiber of Hank's credibility as a good guy, portraying him as the mastermind behind all of Walt's evil doings. The only thing more frightening than the fact that I can actually imagine a show of what Walt confesses is the performance itself. We have seen actors act within acting before, playing a person pretending to be something they are not. And while I don't doubt the difficulty of that type of performance or the imagination it takes, there is always one defining characteristic. You can always tell the character is acting. What made Bryan Cranston's performance during his confession so jarring was that he seemed to decide not play it as if acting. He played it as if this was the story that he had actually been telling for five years and the one his character's foundation was built upon. And while I doubt there is anyone who will doubt Cranston's ability as actor, it was that decision that made the performance so jarring, terrifying, and sociopathic.
Walt's confession is followed by a meeting in the dessert to to assess the damage of Jesse's being interviewed by Hank. Once Walt has heard everything he decides to advise Jesse. He puts on the fatherly hat and asks Jesse to call Saul's carpet cleaner and leave and start anew. But instead of Jesse just accepting Walt's manipulation quietly he fires back. Jesse asks him to just ask that this favor be done for Walt's own good. And then throws the final dagger by showing that he knows that this meeting is in its chosen location so that if he refuses Walt will kill him "like he killed Mike". And finally Heisenberg is speechless.
The episodes strongest symbol of fear happened in the following scene as Walt returned to his carwash. He finds Skylar in their office clearly grappling with the morality of The Confession. Hidden in shadows, Walt is allowed to embody his wife's fears about whether or not the right decision was made and the monster behind that decision. The entire scene is shot from Skylar's height. From her point of view she is looking up at the shadow and specter of evil looming over her. When the discussion is shown from Walt's point of view he appears as a shadow hovering above her. But always just a shadow. The dark presence he as so totally become.
From there the episodes breath taking final sequence begins as Jesse prepares to get lost for good. Sitting in Saul's office as he is reminded as the call is made for the vacuum cleaner to come and suck away the dirt and wipe clean the slate for Jesse's new life (I know, but those were just too easy.) Saul tells Jesse there are no take backs, revisiting a familiar theme most commonly known through the titles of the third seasons final two episodes. In this world you cannot go half measure. You can only go to the full measure. But as Jesse is getting to go, Saul's careful lifting of his weed lifts the vale off of something from his past. He realizes now who stole the ricen cigarette and poisoned Brock. And if there is one thing we know about Jesse it is that he loves kids. And while Walt has been complicit in some terrible things that have happened to kids, Jesse now knows he actually did something to a kid, and one he cared about on a personal level. And as the episode steamrolled towards its final scene we saw Jesse snap out of it, and when he did the wheels came off the bus as he literally through gasoline on the growing fire that is the journey towards the end of this series. He knows there are no take backs. And with his decision to go after Walt for what he did to Brock it seems he has no interest in them anymore.
Confessions may end up being remembered as the finest episode of this last half season. It seems that Vince Gilligan and the writing staff are bent on confounding our expectations and blowing up every "how's it going to end?" by pushing the pace of these final episodes and allowing the characters act as there own agents of destruction. But more importantly it will be one of, if not this seasons finest episodes because it showed the the best of what it had to offer. Walt acted as a Beacon of terror and fear at the center of everything that unfolded and we got to watch the rest of the characters react around him each in their own turn. And the finest cast on television showed that they were up to the task. And in doing so they showed that there characters strength was not defined by how they dealt with that fear. But in dealing with it differently, their fear was part of what did define a piece of them and was just one more part of the separation between these compelling individuals. Their fear, however, was rooted in the same evil.
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