Breaking Bad 1.05 - Gray Matter

These middle episodes of season 1, "Gray Matter" and "Cancer Man" feel a bit like they are in a different show than what the rest of Breaking Bad would become. One of the main properties of Breaking Bad as a series, and the main reason I believe most people have it in the discussion of best shows of all time, is its propulsive momentum. There is constantly a sense that something is about to happen, and that can create enormous tension all the time. At its best, Breaking Bad can leave people slack jawed and unable to breathe for minutes at a time, if not for an entire hour.

"Gray Matter" doesn't have that sense of tension. There's no noose hanging over Walt and Jesse's neck like there will be for the rest of the series. As it turns out, that's for the best. This episode turns out to be possibly the most important episode of this season, if not one of the most important in the whole series. Walt turning down the money from Gretchen and Elliot directly leads to him entering back into the meth cooking trade, which will hold its grasp on him for the rest of the series, even when he thinks he's finished with it in Season 3. The episode leaves us with a question that is essential to our knowledge of Walt as a character. Why does Walt do this? Is it because it would make him a charity case? Is it because he is still bitter than Elliot "stole" Gretchen from him? Is it some combination of the two?

My honest opinion is I think that the idea that "Walt doesn't want to accept the money because it would be a charity" is a smokescreen for the real problem. I think Walt would be able to convince himself he has a right to that money based on what he did for that company. One of Walt's defining traits is that he feels entitled. That's why he gets involved with Tuco in the first place in the next episode, he feels like he should be adequately compensated for the amount of brilliance he's putting into the street, and selling through Jesse is not sufficient. That's why he has the guts to raise the price in the explosive scene next episode. Walt almost certainly feels he deserves that money Elliot's offering.

The Gretchen factor is just too much. What the writers are doing a clever job of hiding here is the levels of bitterness that Walt carries. They need to hide it because it's still too early for the sympathizing audience to see too much of Walt's unseemly qualities. He cannot accept help from Elliot and Gretchen because it would require an implicit apology from Walt's part. Accepting Elliot's charity would mean that Walt acknowledges he is still their friend, and offering money is something friends do for one another. Walt cannot bear to forgive them. That's what it comes down to. This is confirmed in "Peekaboo," where Walt once again addresses with Gretchen all the wrongs that he believes she and Elliot had done to him.

This is the man we're dealing with. It takes a while to accept it, but Walt is a sad, bitter, stubborn and proud man who is willing to do anything to get properly recompensed for his talents. If we were introduced to him in any other circumstance we would be repulsed by him. Instead, we are taken in by him and ready to follow him through the mire that he soon gets himself into. In some ways, Walt is a salesman who's trying to sell you his view of the world by obscuring the ugly things about it. And we buy it, until that ugliness is revealed.

A perfect example is his speech in the intervention scene. The intervention scene is the best scene the show has done to this point, partly because it finally makes all the supporting characters likable and agreeable, and partly because of Walt's speech. According to Walt, he doesn't want his last few months to be being a shell of himself because of the cancer treatments, he wants to be able to actually live them, and savour the time he gets with his family. It's a wonderful speech that is hard to argue with while you are listening. He's selling his opinion of things to Skylar and to the viewers, and even after seeing more of who Walt truly is, it is tempting to make the purchase. Sadly though, given the evidence of what we know about Walt, it is just as likely an excuse to not have his life put into the hands of others; it's a way he can have some measure of control over a life he's let get so far away from him.

Jesse finally wants to take some measure of control over his life as well. I was hard on the storyline with Jesse and his parents in the previous episode, but it is important for the change in enacts in Jesse. He doesn't want to let his life go to waste, he wants to be more like the son his parents want him to be. That leads to him seeking a job; trying to get himself cleaned up and make a career for himself. Sadly, he gives up all too easily. If Jesse could persevere and really try to make a legitimate life for himself there would be a chance of success, and certainly he would end up better in the long run than the path he takes. Unfortunately, Badger shows up at exactly the wrong time praising his meth cooking acumen, and it's too easy for Jesse to get trapped into thinking that's all he's good for.

It's all very tragic, because the Jesse we see in this episode is no doubt different from the Jesse we started with. He's driven, he is concerned with demonstrating the same quality in his cooking that Walt had. These traits that he starts to demonstrate are exactly what Walt is able to manipulate. He becomes Walt's dog throughout the series, constantly seeking approval and almost never getting it. The same traits that would help him in a legitimate business environment crush him in this partnership.

"Gray Matter" seems like an episode out of a different show, but it is nonetheless a great episode, establishing the direction the series is going to go from this point forward. It establishes Jesse's new direction as the driven partner trying to be good at something and trying to succeed in life, and it presents Walt as what he is more clearly that any episode to this point: bitter, regretful and domineering. It finally establishes the supporting characters as likable people rather than simply Walt's obstacles. If an episode can do all that as well as "Gray Matter" does, tension is not required.

Notes

·        The look on Skylar's face when she first sees Gretchen tells us all we need to know about her feelings of Walt and Gretchen's relationship

·        The helicopter move Badger uses while advertising comes back when he's fighting Jesse in a hilarious manner

·        Badger also fires his crossbow at Jesse's departing RV, which works about as well as you would expect it to

·        The talking pillow

·        Hank's constant sport metaphors in trying to relay his feelings to Walt. I actually think the baseball metaphor is really an accurate analysis of the situation.

·       You'd think Skylar would have a better idea after all their years of marriage the kind of techniques that will work with Walt and the kind that won't. Setting up interventions and trying to get help from others are two things guaranteed to get Walt's hackles rising.