tv: Staring out into the New Mexico dessert, empty and desolate, we see a stationary RV fade into view. And inside is the beginning of the long journey we are now at the end of. The bubbling beaker, the science experiment that started it all and the two men who conduct that experiment. Walt explaining in detail the science behind what they are doing. As they step outside for a break, one of them, Walter White, walks away to make a phone call. We see him practicing his lines. Working out the first lie. At that time he needed to practice. Over the course of that phone call, through the lies he tells, we see the most tender version of the White family we have seen through the entire show. As they discuss pizza and Ebay and work and the name of their new daughter with love. It was the very first lie. After Walt hangs up the phone, that scene fades away, back into the dessert. And so did everything from it. The science is now gone. Any love that may have been there is gone. The nerves are gone. And all that remains is what Heisenberg has left in his wake.
Breaking Bad is in itself a science experiment. The meticulous detailed nature with which Vince Gilligan has told his story is like watching science unfold. You are presented with something that can happen. Then you see logical steps that are required for it to unfold. That could be said of both episodes and of the series as a whole. No stone is left unturned and everything is there for a reason. But as the plain dessert returns and the new scene fades into view, we see something very horrifying. What if science was tossed away? What if the experiment was governed by the man Walter White became after that phone call; a man driven by insecurity and ego, a man who believed he could make the experiment yield the results he wanted to simply because he said so. Chances are the results of that experiment would not produce the results one sought.
The results of the Breaking Bad experiment were played out to the most terrifying ends in Ozymandias. Our new scene that faded into view was a familiar one. It was the end of the shootout that ended last weeks episode, To'hajiilee. From there the episode plays out as our worst fears coming true. Hank is wounded and staring his fate down bravely as a gun is pointed at his head with Gomie lying dead next to him. Walt continues to fight for Hank's life, offering up even his 80 million that is buried under their feet. But finally Hank gives Walt the harsh truth he was needing: "You're the smartest guy I know. How can you not see he made up his mind ten minutes ago?" Hank seems to realize that Walt can't just make things work out the way he wants because he says so. And as Hank falls to the ground with the life having left him, Walt seems to do the same. Lying there it appears that all of his power, all of Heisenberg is leaving him and he is going to be left there to suffer in a pathetic state similar to the one we met him in five years ago when he found out about his cancer as a broke teacher. But as Todd and his family are taking their money and doing their cleanup work, Walt seems drag back to life as Heisenberg fights his way back into his being. And as the pain leaves, the hate re-appears forcing him to commit yet another unthinkable act.
He turns Jesse in. Seeing him under the car Walt gives him up. He wants the job he paid for to be done. But Todd decides it would be better to find out what Jesse told Hank. Jesse clearly knows his fate. The fear that sets is on Aaron Paul's face is heart breaking as his character gets offered up to the most viscous of men. But before they leave Walt decides he has one more favor to return to Jesse. And in one of the show's greatest callbacks he tells Jesse in gruesome detail about how he watched Jane die. One good spit in the face deserves another I guess.
As if all of this weren't enough emotional terror to put a viewer through in one hour, after those opening fifteen minutes (fifteen minutes!) it only got worse. And this is the point at which I have to stop describing every scene as if there is subtext. The horror is just played out for all of us to suffer through. Marie goes to the car wash to tell Skylar that Walt has been captured and to force her to tell Flynn (I'm pretty sure he is never going by Walt Jr. ever again.). The pain and disbelief that burst out of R.J. Mitte was spectacular. Throughout the series he has not always been given a lot to do. But this season he has, and he delivered at every turn, showing real versatility.
We get a brief respite from the pain, grief and terror of the White's to see Jesse beaten, getting chained to the ceiling as he stares with tear filled eyes at picture of Andrea and Brock as Todd walks and says "Lets cook", as pleasant as ever. But we quickly return to the White's who are now back at home. Skylar and Flynn come home to find Walt packing for an imminent departure. But as the truth of why he is not in jail as they had been told by Marie becomes revealed and things quickly boil over.
The shot was so simple and beautiful. Would she go for the knife or the phone? And Skylar went for the knife. And then I actually had to get up and leave. I was literally shaking! And I couldn't stop! I have to say it only helped a little. Just the noise of that fight was enough to keep me at my wit's ends. But then Flynn saved his mom, along with my emotional state. And just as we thought all possible awful acts had been exhausted Walt kidnaps his own daughter!
Then comes the phone call. Walt calls Skylar. When he is told by a very generous pause that the police are listening in, he begins his final lie. And with all the bile of Heisenberg at his worst he rips Skylar apart, and in the process exonerates her. It was a gut wrenching scene that ended one of the most gut wrenching episodes of television ever. Watching Bryan Cranston thunder away so abusively was just horrifying. Watching him do it with the pauses to correct his lies mid-sentence and the tears running down his face was otherworldly. And then just like that, after leaving Holly behind for her mother, Walt leaves. We all knew the trip to New Hampshire was coming but what a relief it was to get there the end of that hour.
As I said earlier, Breaking Bad plays out like the science experiments cooked up in that beat up RV. But unlike those, in which the outcome is the spectacular blue that prints green, the shows experiment didn't end so well. Let me reiterate after that understatement that I almost had a nervous breakdown during a scene that is described as the most horrifying five words possible: HUSBAND AND WIFE KNIFE FIGHT!!! And that was because the shows main character didn't treat the lives of his fellow characters or the plot of his life with the same respect he treated a cook of meth. And in this episode we saw the outcome. And it was carried out mercilessly in one brutal hour(the most brutal hour). The results of Walt's life as Vince Gilligan's little science experiment? Well, I'll let Percy Shelley tell you:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
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