Breaking Bad 2.05 - Breakage

Pre-credits sequence: Here we get the introduction to the plot the whole episode is going to revolve around - how did Tuco's grills get into the nearby swamp? I know you are all on the edge of your seat.

Review: That may have been a little bit sarcastic, because Hank throwing his grills away because of PTSD over the shooting of Tuco is one of the least interesting and forgettable episode dominating plot points Breaking Bad ever did. There's really no depth to the story. Hank has a bit of a panic attack in the elevator, he breaks a bottle of Schraederbrau, and he throws Tuco's grills into the river. This is revealing to us that he hasn't gotten over the implications of the attack. And while it's nice that the show is willing to not back down from the consequences of the events that happen in it, and while this is the first episode that gives us a hint that "consequences" are going to be the main theme of this season, Hank's troubles just aren't very interesting. There's a nice scene with Walt Jr at the barbecue where Hank tries to answer the questions about the shooting while still trying to shut down the conversation. It's a nice bit of subtlety from Hank, who normally doesn't have much of a subtle side to him. Still, this isn't enough of a story to build the backbone of an episode around.

So, I'm going to go pretty much completely off script for this review, and not really talk about this episode at all. I'll cover a few things in the "other notes" section, but in reality there's not that much to this episode that we don't see in other places, and done better.

Instead I want to talk about the entire structure of Breaking Bad, and how Season 2 ties into the overall story it is telling. Hopefully that sounds way more interesting than a review of one of the most pointless episodes in the entire show.

Breaking Bad is ultimately a morality tale. In its simplest and most base essence, it is telling you the story of how someone can go bad, and then have to pay the consequences for it. And every character kind of fits into a neatly defined role in the story. Walt is our hero, our Macbeth, the man who gets corrupted and then has to pay the ultimate price for it. Skylar is the wife, and she exists to show how one man's corruption can forcibly drag the upright into the muck with them. This is kind of the reason that the writers don't know what to do with Skylar the first two seasons, because until she finds out what Walt is about she can't fulfill that role, and is kind of floating in space. Jesse is the one who had a chance to be on the path to good but is instead corrupted and used for the betterment of our hero's ego. Hank is the primary antagonist of the story, but also needs to function as the heart of the story and the ultimate consequence for our hero's decisions as we move towards the end game. Marie is mostly there so we have a reason to mourn that ultimate consequence at the end, which is why she seems so superfluous to the story until somewhere in the back half of Season 5. Walter Jr. and Holly are the excuses, the reason our hero gives himself to reach into such morally dark depths. And fittingly, Walter Jr ends up rejecting Walt at the end of "Granite State" (5.15). There's a lot of other characters introduced along the way, but they mostly serve as obstacles that force our hero to go darker and darker to escape his situation. Gus and Mike mostly serve this role.

The reason I'm bringing this up this episode is we have our introduction to Jane, who has possibly one of the most thankless roles in the entire series. Jane's role is "collateral damage." And not even the ultimate collateral damage, that would be Hank. No, Jane is just the appetizer collateral damage, the collateral damage used to ultimately show us what type of TV show this is. Because the purpose of Season 2 is to introduce to us the idea that this is going to be a morality tale. As soon as we see Season 2, we have a good idea of where the show is going to end up. Walt is going to get his comeuppance. Season 2 is the miniature version of the show as a whole. Walt does bad things and gets punished. Season 2 is ultimately about consequences, and the first 4 episodes of Season 3 are how Walt doesn't heed the warning of those consequences.

But we'll talk more about that during "ABQ" and the beginning of Season 3. I want to get back to the characters, and how a show with a pretty simplistic concept was able to introduce itself into the discussion of the best shows of all time.

The reason the show succeeds despite having a fairly shallow overall arc is the amount of humanity that is put into each and every character (though well executed tension certainly doesn't hurt it). Bryan Cranston absolutely deserves every piece of credit he gets for the acting job he does in the series. He is possibly the main reason for the success it has had. Walt could have easily been this unrelatable and unrecognizable monster, but he never becomes that. Walt is always a real person, he always keeps those empathetic characteristics that continue to distract viewers from the person he really is. He gives these (ultimately delusional) speeches about the importance of what he is doing and how everything he's doing he's doing for his family. And that underlying sense of sadness underneath him never goes away. Either there's the sense of despair because he's dying from cancer, or there's the sense of despair about the type of person he's made himself into. We'll get to "Fly" eventually, but the real reason that episode works so well is how regretful Walt is about everything, how much he's hurt by the things he's done. He almost never lets that regret or hurtfulness dissuade him from being a monster, but the fact that it exists makes him a real and relatable person, far more than he should be.

You can say this sort of thing for every character on the show. They have a strictly defined role in the tale, but inside that role they are so much more. Skylar doesn't just do immoral things because of the hole Walt puts her in, she also gets to be deeply bitter towards him about it. Jesse doesn't just dive head first into the swamp of evil, we get to see where he could have succeeded and how much he does not have the emotional ruthlessness to serve the role Walt is making him play. The simplest stories can have real impact if it involves real people.

I want to get back to Jane, just so I can have some excuse for writing this particular review in this particular episode. I think Krysten Ritter does an amazing job with Jane. Basically, Jane becomes Jesse's girlfriend who uses him as an excuse to relapse and ultimately dies because of it, with some help from our hero. But never once did I see Jane as anything but a real human being. Her exchanges with Jesse have real chemistry. In this very episode she has some real personality and smarts as she realizes exactly what Jesse is, but can't ultimately fight her attraction to him, as much as she puts on a face otherwise. There's depths to this performance, that ultimately don't need to be there. Jane exists to die and to further the plot of the real characters in the story. But there's such care taking in her character and her performance that she feels such a part of the world, and like a real human being. That, in a nutshell, is how Breaking Bad succeeds. "Breakage" is not a good episode, but the introduction of Jane and the way she plays her scene is a glimpse into the reason that Breaking Bad is the show it is.

Other Notes:
- I really like the camera work for Walt's chemotherapy session. Seeing the tube fill up with blood is foreshadowing how the blood is going to start to flow from the direct and indirect victims of Walt's actions

- Skylar is pulling off some excellent silent treatment this episode. There's some more nice foreshadowing where Skylar is doing some family money balancing rather being at Walt's doctor appointment for support

- So Jesse goes back to the guy who he just drove the RV away from, breaking his fence, to try to cut a deal? And the guy agrees? How?

- The best parts of this episode are setups for "Peekaboo." Such as the discussion between Walt and Jesse about "acceptable loss" vs. "unsustainable business mode." More evidence Jesse's not cut out for this business

- Evidence Jesse is already smitten with Jane? Uses her "DBAA" term first chance he gets

Breaking Bad 2.04 - Down

Pre-credits: This is where the season starts to get ominous. We already suspected the burnt teddy bear indicated something bad was going to happen. Now we have evidence being collected for a major police investigation. Nothing good ever brings about a massive police investigation. The foreboding nature of the pre-credits leads nicely into what is a miserable episode for all characters involved.

Review: Somewhere around Seasons 3  and 4 of Breaking Bad, the story becomes less Walt's story and more about Jesse. There's a bit of a necessity to this, because as Walt starts to lose those qualities of empathy and basic human decency, the sympathies of the audience are redirected to his unfortunate partner. Walt threw everything he had away on his own, through his pride and jealousy. Jesse had everything thrown away for him by parents who just weren't prepared to deal with him, simply because he could not grow up fast enough for them. The true tragedy of Breaking Bad is that with a proper replacement parental figure, Jesse could have been led back on the right track and into a respectable life. Walt is not that proper replacement parental figure.

We saw a little bit into the relationship between Jesse and his parents in "Cancer Man." They practically had given up on him at that point. They were no longer willing to work with him, to listen to his efforts to get his life straight. They claimed they had been burned too many times and were done. That there is some Grade F parenting. Because as old as Jesse may have been at the time, he clearly hadn't matured yet and still needed some adult guidance to get him back on track. And the incident in the first few episodes where Krazy 8 and co. nearly murdered him was enough to wake him up, and suddenly, his parents aren't going to be there to help him.

And this episode, they are there to take the rug out from under him because he's been inconveniencing them. I'm not usually one to stand up on my pulpit and start lecturing the characters, but everything about this scene where they call the lawyer in to take the house from Jesse is despicable. The parents pretend this is about Jesse, and about trying to get him to get his life back together. It's not about the fact he's lowering the value of his aunt's house with his cooking and taking money away from them at all, in their mind. Nope, the best way to get Jesse's life back together is to leave him with nowhere to live, no money, no stuff to sell to give him some time to get his feet under him. They basically try to relegate him to being a homeless person. That's not tough love. That's not caring anymore and giving up on your child. Giving up on him because he didn't grow up and mature fast enough and they could not deal with him. This is the root of all Jesse's problems. The problem isn't Jesse connecting with adults, either. He connected with his Aunt Ginny, who decided that he should have the house, and he connects to some extent with Walt, even though Walt is an awful person. The blame fully lies with Jesse's parents in being unable to put in the effort to understand their son, and give him the support he needs.

So the parents leave Jesse with an awful episode for him. This episode kind of suffers from not having a lot of lead up or carry through from the events of it. In terms of the overall second season arc, this episode doesn't really contribute anything, other than Jesse to get him out of his aunt's house so he could move in beside Jane. If you told me that the writers just came up with the plot just to justify using the title "Down" for the title endgame, I wouldn't be shocked. But there's a lot of Walt and Jesse depth for this episode with a special parenting theme throughout.

This episode is all about "explaining" Walt and Jesse. Why do they continue in a relationship that is so toxic? Why doesn't Jesse go back to trying to start a career and get back on a legitimate path? Why doesn't Walt find a partner who is less incompetent? The answer is because they need each other, because they act as replacements for things they are losing or lost. Jesse has matured, mostly as forced by the near death experience he had in the first few episodes of the series, and wants to get a real life started and he needs guidance for how to do that. Typically, that role falls to the parents, to impart their life experience and be there when the young person has questions or feels a little lost. Jesse's parents have completely burned that bridge with him, so it's not going to be them. So it falls on Walt, who acts as a father figure. He provides guidance, he's willing to get in Jesse's face and let him know when he's acting like an idiot. There are times when Jesse needs help and Walt is sitting there willing to give it to him.

But there's times where Walt is not there, and that is what makes the relationship so toxic. Because Walt is not a good father either. Walt doesn't have the patience, or the ability to forgive when Jesse screws up. He instead beats down on Jesse for mistakes when Jesse is already beating on himself. And then, at the times when Jesse needs him the most, Walt can shut Jesse straight down. There's a scene in this episode where Jesse drives to Walt's house in the RV because he has nowhere else to go, and Walt starts berating him for his stupidity until Jesse starts a physical altercation. This is not the person Jesse needs in his transition to adulthood and responsibility. Unfortunately, it's the person he's stuck with.

The one thing Walt has on Jesse's parents is that he never fully gives up on Jesse. He never fully ostracizes him and just stops caring about them. However, this is not because Walt is a better parent or a better person, but because Jesse fills some need Walt has. Walt has a strong need to be in control, he needs to be the one calling the shots and making the decisions. He needs people around him that make him feel smart, that will listen when he bosses them around. Jesse makes Walt feel superior, like Walt is a mastermind with pawns to order around.

Note that the Walt/Jesse relationship takes off right as Walter Jr. stops taking crap from his dad. He picks a new name, so that he no longer has to be solely identified as being the Walt's son. While Walt is trying to teach him driving, Walter Jr. comes back with retorts that indicates that he knows better than his father. Walt can't be in control with his son any more, as his son doesn't see him as the genius he needs to be seen as. His son makes him feel out of touch and powerless.

His wife doesn't improve matters for him either. This is an excellent episode for Skylar and Anna Gunn, who gets to be the sympathetic one for once. She knows Walt is lying to her about the second cellphone. The audience knows Walt is lying to her about the second cellphone. But instead of further alienating herself and being a screaming, annoying harpy, she takes a step back and instead completely distances herself. It's such a cool reaction (in more ways than one), because she forces Walt to come to her. And when he does try to come to her, but continues his really poor lying skills, she is perfectly able to put him in his place and make him seem every inch of the pathetic, desperate man he is. It's exactly what we needed to see from Skylar at this point. It calls to mind the episode "Fifty-One," the best Skylar episodes and one of the best episodes of the series full stop, where Skylar cooly checks herself out of Walt's life and focuses solely on her children, the people who really matter. If Skylar stops caring about Walt, if she stops reacting to him, then nothing he can do or say can hurt her.

The plotting and thematic connecting in this episode is wonderful. The way that Walt gets humiliated by Skylar and then turns around to his pet dog Jesse and trying to humiliate him to prove his masculinity so perfectly dovetails everyone's story together. We see Walt's need for control; we see Jesse going to the one person who he thinks cares about him and is willing to be his father figure. And we see how imperfect a father figure he really is. The aforementioned Walt-Jesse fight scene is great, it oozes with both the chemistry between the two actors and the way it addresses all the issues between them that had been building to that point.

"Down" is an over-the-top episode. Too much bad stuff happens to Jesse and his no-good-very-bad-day doesn't end up having any lasting relevance to the story being told. But the way the episode subtly lays the entire foundation of the series in front of us makes it one of the more important offerings in the season nonetheless. Everything you need to know about Walt and Jesse is in this episode: Jesse's lack of true authority figures, Walt's need to be in control and be recognized as the man, and his hatred for any form of humiliation. This is what the Walt-Jesse relationship is built on, and that foundation is not strong enough to withstand the storms ahead.

Other Notes:

·         Hank and Marie take the episode off. It works, because it is hard to see how they would be able to fit into this episode thematically

·         The Walt-Jesse convenience store scene leaves so many questions: Why do they think moving down aisles at the same time looks inconspicuous? Why does it matter which one of them leaves first, as long as they don't leave at the same time? Why was the policeman necessary in this scene, he serves no purpose except to add a contrivance?

·         Walter Jr breakfast update: He'll have some grapefruit juice. It's good for you.

·         "That was before my housing situation went entirely testicular on me!"

·         If Jesse smells so bad, why does Badger's friend want him to drive away upwind?

·         Whoa! The Aztec crashes! That never is going to happen ever again.

·         Walt asking Jesse whether he wants some breakfast is the absolute perfect capper for this episode. The best ending of an episode to this point by far.

Breaking Bad 2.03 - Bit By a Dead Bee

Pre-Credit Sequence: This is the first time where a pre-credits scene basically just kicks off the episode, and doesn't do anything special such as the constant in media res of season 1, or show some spectacular scene. That said, the pre-credits is achieving something; it's showing the origin of the plan that would dominate the episode. Jesse and Walt are still in a pickle, as they have to explain their absence as well as the fact Jesse's car is at the crime scene. They had a lot of time to make this plan, and for one of the few times in the series, it works almost without a hitch. I'd also like to note that the opening camera angle, showing the camera being in the hole uncovered by the dirt that Walt and Jesse are digging, is nonsensical and I don't like it.

Review: We are getting into a stretch of episodes I generally consider to be the worst of the show. We are done laying the foundation for Walt, we know what makes him tick and the writers have put us fully on his side. We have finished dealing with his first threat in Tuco, his life is not in immediate danger, and while there's some minor danger about him being found out, we don't really have any reason to believe that is going to happen. We haven't entered the part of the show where Jesse and Walt have really kicked off dealing meth on their own, and don't really enter the issues that come with that until "Peekaboo." And even when the good part of Season 2 kicks off, that's really not driven so much by overarching plot as much as making each episode deal with something special and interesting. There is an overall theme to Season 2, and I'll get to that in one of these next two reviews, (because I'm not sure how much else I'll have to talk about), but it's much more of a conclusion driven theme and not a theme you can clearly see as the season is going on.

This episode for instance, from a plot perspective, is basically only about Jesse and Walt explaining what happened to them while being kidnapped by Tuco. Walt showing up naked in the supermarket is such a memorable image, that I remembered this episode as much better than it actually is. It has its moments from both Walt and Jesse, and we'll get to those shortly, but overall there's not as much of either depth or tension that Breaking Bad has at its best, and the show needs one or the other to be successful.

All that said, there are two fantastic scenes in this episode that is Breaking Bad  in top form. The first one is the kickoff to Jesse's section of the plan, where he's waiting in Wendy's motel room. The way the scene is staged makes it look like Jesse is on some sort of drug. The camera focuses on the sun through the blinds and is alternating between focused and unfocused. This continues until the police team breaks into the motel room and starts yelling and taken Jesse in. It becomes pretty clear afterwards that the fading camera was not a symptom of Jesse on drugs, but more displaying the tension Jesse felt because he knew what was about to happen. It's a great piece of camera work, a great piece of misdirection, and it still manages to put the viewers in Jesse's mindset. He's going to get hassled, it's not going to be easy, and he'd rather not do it, but he has no choice in the matter and his freedom depends on how he acts.

The other scene is Walt talking to the psychiatrist. The type of scene where someone lies by revealing a lot of the truth isn't unique to Breaking Bad by any means, but almost any time a show is clever enough to use this technique it works. Here it works particularly well, as this discussion with the psychiatrist also informs Walt's decision in the rest of the episode. The reasons that Walt gives for running away for a couple days are pretty much the exact reason he starts cooking meth in the first place. It's so cathartic to hear him finally give his real reasons for doing the things he is doing, even if it's just as part of another lie he's telling.

At the end of the episode, Jesse believes that this is the end of the road and that their cooking adventure is over. It's a reasonable thing to assume, given that they nearly were sent to Mexico and/or killed by a crazed lunatic. But Walt's reasons for cooking, the same reasons he gave to the psychiatrist, are as strong as they've ever been. As much as he repeats the 737,000 dollar number to himself, the real reason is that for the first time, he feels powerful. He feel like he's in control. He feels like his chemistry expertise is finally not being wasted teaching high school students. And he's still got that addiction to danger that drove so much of his actions in "A No Rough Stuff Type Deal." At the moment, Walt is in this for the long haul. Is there something that will change his mind, at least for a while? Absolutely, but it's not the threat of death from Tuco. It's actually a pink teddy bear.

Also driving Walt to continue in spite of the danger? That view of just his wife and son, on their own, while he thinks he's in hospital. It allows him to keep up his lie that all he is doing is for them, and to keep them well enough off without him there. The interesting thing about this scene is that there isn't actually anything special about how Skylar and Walter Jr. were interacting when he saw them. There's nothing he sees here that would be different than what he knew, or would have seen before to change his perspective on things. I really believe Walt is looking for excuses to continue, and a glimpse of his family that shouldn't be meaningful, he elevates it to very meaningful levels in his mind.

One thing that's surprised me writing these reviews is how prominent Hank has been this early in the season. He gets two episodes focussed on him later in the season in "Breakage" and "Negro Y Azul", and in the episodes leading up to that, he's definitely been the third most important character on the show. It is sort of impressive that the show commits this much this early to developing someone they had originally outlined as a joke caricature. In this episode, we really start to see the fringes of how the Tuco shootout affected Hank. It's pretty easy to tell in hindsight that he's really not comfortable with what went down. He is initially taken aback by Junior asking him about the shootout, though just for a moment before he recovers. This same sort of hesitation happens when he gets awarded Tuco's grills, though once again he recovers quickly and acts as he thinks would be appropriate for someone who should be proud of his "catch." It's subtle writing, and only really can be seen after watching "Breakage" and knowing the truth about Hank's  PTSD.

The other small sign of the effect of the Tuco shootout on Hank is how ineffective he is in his interrogations. Jesse was clearly not comfortable, but he's unable to really push the issue with him. He has Wendy where he wants her, and then blows in on his cheap "Windy" joke that he had previously used when seeing Wendy with Walter Jr. in "...And the Bag's in the River." He's been shown to be a pretty good cop, both before and after this point, and is really not good at all in this episode.

This episode is about 25% really good deep stuff and about 75% fluff. That's not a good ratio for Breaking Bad and a sign that the show really isn't quite ready to take the next step it wants to take. This season was built backwards, where they knew the ending and had to build to it, so it is possible that they didn't have enough story to fill the 13 episodes they were given. The show really shouldn't be spending a whole episode on the execution of a rather straight forward plan by Jesse and Walter. The show still has its flashes of brilliance, and the execution is still at a really high level, but for a show that needs the plot engine to be churning to be successful, "Bit By a Dead Bee" is not the episode the show needed to follow up its Tuco arc.

Other Points
- The writers still aren't being very careful with Skylar. In this episode, she's made to look dumb by supporting Walt's lie by complaining about cancer drug side effects, like this is something new to a doctor

-  Badger is on a roll this episode, especially clearing out the basement. "You are Willy Wonka and I have the golden ticket!"

- Speaking of Badger, if Badger was vouching for someone to you, does that really impact anything at all? I'd be less likely to trust that person.

-My favourite part of Walt's naked gag with Skylar is that he wears the porkpie hat

- And we have the continuation of the all time great second cellphone storyline! I really thought I liked Season 2 better than this going in to these reviews

Breaking Bad 2.02 - Grilled

Pre-Credits Sequence

Chaos. That's what Walt brings to the table throughout the series. When it comes down to it, Walt's position as an agent of chaos is probably his most surprising trait given what we know about him early on in the series. He seems to be the type who prefers things neat and orderly, yet he's constantly the one throwing things into complete disarray.

Now, most of the disarray in the pre-credit sequence isn't caused by Walt. Apparently Tuco is a hoarder of some really weird stuff. But there's the bouncing car with the bullet holes, and that's the true symbol of what happened here. Interestingly, even though we don't see any people in this scene, Hank, Walt, Jesse and dead Tuco are still around, as the end of the episode shows the car stops bouncing before anyone leaves.

Review

Breaking Bad is the best show I have ever seen at creating tension, and making that tension stick. A lot of the time, shows can have very tense moments while you are watching, but afterwards, when the more rational part of your brain kicks in and the more emotional part of your brain kicks out, the tension you felt fades away. "Grilled" shows the template Breaking Bad uses throughout the series to create that tension. They use memorable images and sounds, so you always have that reminder of the tension you felt. But most importantly, Breaking Bad understands that tension comes from unpredictability.

Most shows simply don't give themselves much room for possible resolutions to the conflicts created. The stakes are often life or death for the main characters, and since the show has to continue, there's no doubt which way things are going to go. The brilliant thing about this episode is that there is a possibility of a third option, an option which would allow the show to keep its actors employed, but is still enough of a deterrent to the characters that the viewers don't want to see it happen. The threat from Tuco is not to kill Walt and Jesse, or at least that's not the direct threat, the threat is to ship them off to Mexico so they can cook in a lab they have built there. What makes it terrifying for the viewer is that there is no reason that the show can't go there, as it is always a possibility that the show can do two or three episodes with Walt and Jesse kidnapped, working for a mad man who could kill them at any time, and looking for a way to escape. The threat is real, which is more than can be said for what passes as tension on most TV shows these days.

Further, the show has gotten to the point where it can endanger some of its cast members. It's become well known now that if the writer's strike that shortened season 1 did not occur, Vince Gilligan and company had planned to kill off Jesse. The viewer may not have known it at the time, but the threat to Jesse's life in this episode was real, and it was always a potential scenario for the show. There's another instance where Tuco is going through Walt's wallet and pulls out a picture of his family. No real threat is made, but the tone of Tuco's voice and the menace he has makes it clear that Walt's family is not safe either. These are real potential results, and though the show doesn't follow through with any of them here, it will eventually make it clear that it's not fooling around, no one is safe. And establishing that in the back half of season 5 is what makes the home stretch of the show so fascinating.

The scene that makes this episode in particular, though, is Uncle Tio's bell. It seems like it's something played as a joke first. Tuco has his decrepit uncle hanging out at his hideout who communicates with a bell. But does the show ever use that. It soon becomes clear that Tio has more control of his faculties than previously realized, and the only thing that stands between Walt and Jesse and a swift death is Tuco's ability to translate the ding of the bell. The most terrifying scene in the episode is right when the viewer realizes that Tuco and Tio have a system for communicating, and the effort to slip Tuco the ricin cannot stay a secret for long. Further, you don't only have the bell, you have Tio's face. I could really mention almost every actor who plays a minor character in this series, but holy crap does Mark Margolis ever make a meal out of a role with strict limitations. He has no way of speaking, he only has a narrow range of expressions he can use due to Tio's inability to really move his face, but he makes the most out of those expressions. His death stare to Walt and Jesse here is something to behold. It conveys pure hatred, yet he still leaves something in reserve to top that expression when Gus declares that he has killed his last remaining male heir in "Crawl Space." It's masterful work from one of the most memorable characters in the series.

As far as convoluted Walt and Jesse escapes go, this is one of the more straight forward ones in the series. Like always, they manage to dig their own hole by screwing up royally. Jesse can be such an idiot at times, and this episode he may be at his most idiotic. He tries way too hard to get Tuco to try the poisoned meth, mentioning chili powder as a secret ingredient. The whole reason Tuco liked their meth in the first place was the purity of the high, did he really think putting chili powder in it would make him more likely to try it right there? It put Walt and Jesse into scramble mode immediately. Poisoning the burrito was a good plan, but of course Tio was there to screw that up. After all that it is kind of amazing that they were eventually able to scramble their way into getting the upper hand, mostly through the pure craziness of just trying to attack him.

But in getting that upper hand, Walt and Jesse show us something else, something that shows it's still early days in the series for Walt, but establishes a continuing pattern for Jesse. They have Tuco writhing on the ground, bleeding out, and neither of them is able to shoot him. Walt has killed previously, but it's clear that this isn't something that comes easy to him. However, forcing himself to watch Jane die in "Phoenix" and killing Gus's henchmen in "Half Measures" shows that circumstances can force him to get over that bridge. And while he very seldom pulls the trigger himself, Walt  has no qualms about someone dying if they need to die. Jesse has those qualms. He can't shoot Tuco either, and when he does have to finally shoot Gale in "Full Measures" it sends him into a complete tailspin. Jesse is just not the person who is cut out for the stuff that being in business with Walt forces him to do.

The structure of this episode is something to behold. After the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode, where Jesse and Walt are kidnapped by Tuco, we don't see either of them for 10 minutes. We spend the early portion of the episode with Skylar and her attempts to find Walt. Then, we finally see Tuco, but he's by himself. He's smoking a cigarette and overlooking the scenery. Then finally, he moves over to the trunk, opens it, and we finally see Walt and Jesse shoved in there before cutting to a commercial break. From that point on, the only time we spend away from the action at Tuco's hangout is to lead us to the finale, all the other scenes are about how Hank comes to find Jesse's car and end up in the shootout with Tuco.

There's something to be said for an episode that's perfectly structured but doesn't call attention to itself. There's nothing special or extraordinary about the structure of this episode; this isn't a very special episode of Breaking Bad. Instead it just does a fair job of building tension, starting the episode off with Skylar's search, a place with no danger or real stakes, and slowly building towards the confrontation at the end.

Skylar herself has possibly her best episode of the series to this point. We desperately needed to see Skylar competent at something, to give her character more depth than being the nagging wife who tries to override her husband's wishes. And this episode gives us that. Skylar does a really good job searching for Walt. She checks the credit cards, she gets the posters ready. She covers pretty much all the bases, and throughout it all she's able to maintain a calm demeanor and keep her mind on the task at hand. Skylar is a competent person, and her business acumen and attention to detail makes her valuable to Walt's organization throughout seasons 3 through 5.  It would have been nice if we could have seen this side of her sooner, but better late than never.

Hank and Marie keep trending in the same direction they were previous to this episode. Hank gets to be non-confrontational again, trying to ease Skylar into the idea of the Walt's second cellphone in a way that won't make Skylar blow up in his face. But for all his bluster, he actually proves to be good at his job, tracking down Jesse's car, and then not being too surprised to stumble onto Tuco to compromise his ability to deal with him. Marie is obnoxious this episode, just blurting out the grenade about the second cellphone, and using "at least Walt hasn't turned up dead" as her form of consolation to Skylar. Marie has a long way to go in the series, and she takes her time getting there. It basically takes Hank's injury in season 3 to put Marie in a sympathetic enough role that the viewer can finally start to tolerate her. Fortunately, she grows as a character from that point forward.

"Grilled" shows Breaking Bad to be a masterclass at tension. It has real stakes and unpredictability, and it creates images to make the tension stick. It is structured perfectly to build the tension over the episode, but it doesn't skimp on giving any of the characters development, whether it be Jesse, Walt or Skylar. This episode is really the start of Breaking Bad as we know it, and all the foundations of greatness are clearly visible.

Other Notes:

-Tuco's reference to the Mexican cartel and specifically "his cousins" is a nice setup for the start of Season 3
- I'm not a big fan of Walt having to lay out to Jesse exactly why they are in trouble if Tuco finds out that Gonzo is dead. The viewers are smart enough to figure that out on their own.
- The music over the closing credits is fantastic. You have a Mexican style version of the Breaking Bad theme, with Tio's bell intermixing in. It leaves the viewer with that sense of terror that Tio's bell had begun to conjure up by the end of the episode.

Breaking Bad 2.01 - Seven Thirty-Seven

Pre-Credit Sequence

Breaking Bad decides to give us an eyeball floating in a pool to open the season. In hindsight, we can tell the eyeball stands in judgment of Walt for his actions. It's not a coincidence that the plane crash in "ABQ" is caused as a direct consequence of Walt's worst moment in the season, and for quite a while his worst moment in the series. If Season 1 was all about Walt's decision, then Season 2 is all about Walt facing the consequences caused by that decision. I'm not just talking about the plane crash at the end of the season, though that is what forces Walt to momentarily quit in "No Mas", but consequences are strewn throughout the season. The teddy bear introduces that theme by showing the final result.

Review

The first episode of Season 2 presents us with a curious conundrum: How do you start up a new season without having really finished the last one? While I argued in my review of "A No Rough Stuff Type Deal" that Season 1 works as a particular character arc for Walt, from a plot perspective it left us completely hanging.  So, how do you form an arc for a season when you are forced to open mid-thought?

"Seven Thirty-Seven" bypasses the idea of forming an arc for the season in this episode. Instead, it focuses on forming the main underlying arc for the rest of the series: the DEA's hunt for Heisenberg.  Hank's dramatically ironic search for his own brother-in-law forms the backbone of the entire series. Even though the final showdown and payoff doesn't actually happen until the last half of the final season, even though there is always much more pressing matters for Walt to deal with, Hank looking for Walt dwells in the background of the series like that pit dwelling in your stomach. And even though there is no doubt from the onset that this plotline is of utmost importance to the series as a whole, it is introduced in a completely unassuming way, played more for humour than anything else.

This is only fitting, because a humorous side point was how Hank himself was introduced to us, and it is only in this episode we begin to get a real grasp of who he is. For me, the most notable scene in this episode is the scene where he's talking to Skylar about Marie's problems. For Skylar, it is another negative scene piled up on top of all the others she has received to this point. It is hard for the viewers to sympathize with Skylar's issue, when Walt is dealing with a life threatening mad man at the same time. It is hard for the viewer to accept Skylar's complaints about Marie's kleptomania when Hank is taking it all in stride. On the other hand, the writers do a very good job with Hank in this scene. He clearly is the type of guy who has trouble just going out and stating something confrontational, and instead relies on crude jokes and metaphors to get his point across. We saw that in that terrible plotline in "And the Bag's In the River", where instead of just confronting Walt Jr. about the weed he and Marie thought Jr. was smoking, instead went on a roundabout mission to show him the dangers of drugs. We saw it again in "Grey Matter", where in the intervention for Walt he framed his whole argument in a baseball metaphor. In this scene, he starts talking in roundabout, crude language until eventually we see him snap out of that and start being very straight with Skylar.

This is how things work for people who like to avoid confrontational conversations. It's not that they never say anything of importance, it's that they need to get to the point where they're comfortable saying what's on their mind. That is exactly what happens with Hank in this scene and what we will see from him in the rest of the series.

Turning to humour is clearly how he deals with his job, as well. The scene at the scrap yard is grisly, as there are two dead bodies: one has been mangled by Tuco, and the other done in by a scrap pile moving at the wrong time. Yet instead of cringing, Hank finds reason to laugh at it. Hank's dark sense of humour permeates through the entire episode. There's a playfulness at work in the irony at the end of the episode, when Jesse and Walt are put in fear of their lives by a complete coincidence. The show finds a sort of a sadistic streak when it has Walt too busy fearing for his life to take a phone call from Hank; a phone call that would assuage his worries considerably. The episode is laughing at the horror occurring, just as Hank laughs at the bumbling criminals who are going to introduce literal tons of meth into the community and as he laughs at the misfortune of Tuco's dead lackeys.

The main story has less of note to discuss, as this episode basically acts as a middle episode in a three part story. We had the build-up in "A No Rough Stuff Type Deal," where Walt's addictive tendencies put him and Jesse in a precarious position with a madman boss, and next week we have the conclusion in "Grilled", where they finally deal with said boss. This episode acts as the moving pieces episode, where we have to take Walt and Jesse from the point where they realize the danger to the point where they deal with the danger. As such, it's a little bit of a lighter episode in terms of material for our protagonists.

There are still a few interesting scenes to explore, though. The first is Walt's near rape of Skylar. This is taking his newfound knowledge that he can break any boundaries he desires to its tipping point. Walt had become addicted to danger, yes, but more than that he became addicted to doing those things he previously believed he couldn't. Once he came to the realization that there was nothing preventing him from cooking meth, he realized there was nothing preventing him from breaking into a chemical facility, he realized there was nothing preventing him from having sex with his wife in the back of her car, and eventually he realized there was nothing preventing him from having sex with her wherever and whenever he wanted. This moment acts as kind of the peak of that attitude, and works as kind of slap in the face to Walt to show him that there are still boundaries. Those boundaries are just wider than he previously thought. After this, he becomes less impulsive and more calculated in the risks he takes for the most part, though this caution does continue to have a tendency to break down under great stress, such as when he goes after Gus with a gun in "Thirty-Eight Snub."

Meanwhile, we see our most clear picture that Jesse is not cut out for the criminal lifestyle. When trying to indicate how to take out Tuco, he shows that he isn't able to fully visualize killing a person. His plan is brought forward in broad strokes, taken more from someone who has watched movies than someone who can immerse himself fully in the mind of a murderer. His inability to operate the gun only adds the naivety he shows. He understands on a rational level that Tuco needs to be killed, but the thought of actually killing him repulses him enough that he's not willing to put the required thought into it.

"Seven Thirty-Seven" doesn't stand on its own as an episode nearly as well as the great episodes of Breaking Bad, but serves two important functions. It starts the DEA arc of the show, and properly balances the tone of the humour centred Hank with the terror that is occurring in the other sections of the show. It also reinforces some deep seated character traits that are beginning to become manifest: Hank using metaphor and humour to cover up a desire to avoid darker conversations, Walt reaching a breaking point with his addiction to rule breaking, and the innocence and emotion of Jesse contrasted with the ruthlessness he requires in his situation.

Other Thoughts

- It is an interesting decision to begin this episode before the last one ended, and repeat that final scene. It must have been really tough on the director to get the lighting for this scene the same as it had been at the end of the last season

- Speaking of the director, it's the first episode directed by Bryan Cranston himself, which probably explains why the episode is a little lighter on Walt

-A lot of those weird camera angles are used in the initial scene after the beat down of Tuco's lackey, looking at both Tuco and Heisenberg from the perspective of the ground. In this case, I found those angles distracting

-The kid with the remote control car Marie drives over has a little bit of a Drew Sharp feel to him, no?

-First mention of the ricin, which though is only ever used once, and in a slightly anticlimatic fashion, becomes important multiple times

- Foreshadowing for the plotline where Skylar finds out about Walt's second cellphone, as we're given clear indication that Walt has two of them when he tries to figure out which one to answer when called by Hank

- This episode has (arguably) our first major cliffhanger of the series. It will not be the last.

Breaking Bad 1.01 - Pilot

First impressions are so important. This applies to life, but  I think it applies even more so to our relationships with literary characters. A big goal of literature is to get us to form emotional bonds with the people contained inside, and needs to get that bond formed immediately or risk losing the consumer's interest. Breaking Bad needs you to be sympathetic to Walter White. It needs you to feel that for this pilot to work, and it needs you to feel that for the show to work as a whole. Because once the show gets that sympathy built up, it then conducts an experiment with the viewer. It does whatever it can to try to tear that sympathy down.

We'll monitor closely Walt's behaviour and the intended reactions of the viewer over the course of the season, or entire show if we get there, but in the pilot we are concerned with one thing: how well does it create that sympathy for Walt?

A possible complaint one can have with the set-up of the show is that it is too manipulative. It is not subtle in the slightest to try to portray Walt as a beaten down figure. The benefit of doing this review retrospectively is that I can see how important it is to get this relationship between Walt and the audience formed. The very first we see of him he's pleading with his family as he believes he has seen them for the last time. He's shown as pathetic, possibly in debt, without good health insurance, a pushover. Jesse guesses Walt's age as 10 years older than he actually is, and with that awful caterpillar mustache he looks it. And then comes the kicker. Walt has inoperable lung cancer. That fact forms an instant connection that takes a lot to be broken. When we are introduced to anyone as having cancer, I'm willing to bet we barely ever stop to consider what kind of person they are. They are dying, and that's all there is to it. That person garner's immeasurable sympathy from everyone, no matter what. And it makes it so easy to forgive Walt for his terrible decision to join Jesse and start cooking meth.

That ability to forgive Walt for his original decision is of ultimate importance, here, and the show excels in getting us to do it. We need to have an emotional inlet to this show. If we ditch Walt, if we stop feeling bad for him as he starts to cook, the show is going to fall flat. An external emotionless approach to this show is a much inferior way to watch it. For me, it hooked me like a charm. The show did such a good job making me feel for Walt that even after all he's done I still wanted him to "win" in "Felina <5x16>." I still wanted to him to get the money to his family. I still wanted him to reconcile with Skyler. This all stems from the bond formed in this episode.

The singular focus of this episode works incredibly well for the show as a series, but it also prevents the pilot from being a great episode. The secondary characters are brutally pigeonholed into caricatures. Skyler is the nagging wife, Jesse is the dumb sidekick, Hank is the buffoon brother-in-law, Marie is the awful and blunt sister-in-law. I think there's a bit of intentionality to this, as the show needs to elevate Walt, and an effective way to do that is to deflate everyone around him, but it does make parts of this episode tough. It also hurts any interactions Walt has. The show is great when he's by himself, or even when he's with Jesse, but as soon as Hank or Skyler get prominently involved, it's hard not to cringe. This will get more than rectified over time, but it's a tough bit of characterization to swallow here.

The speech Walt gives about chemistry, and how it's the study of change and transformation is an obvious, but good kickoff to the story Breaking Bad is trying to tell. There's a clever bit of misdirection here that becomes apparent in retrospect though. The change Walt is talking about is not a change within himself, which seems like the obvious foreshadowing, but rather the external changes around him. I firmly believe Walt is the same person when the show begins as when the show ends. But the circumstances he's in, and the people around him, and his external actions as a result of that changes rapidly through the course of the show.

There may not be a better example of that than the scene in the clothing store with Walt Jr. This is such a good scene, as it shows exactly the kind of bravery and even to some degree, ruthlessness Walt is capable of, but keeps him firmly in a sympathetic light. These attempts to run over and demean those he perceives as disempowering him is not a trait that ever goes away. It just rears its head it much uglier forms over the course of the series, such as his disgusting treatment of Gretchen as early as "Peekaboo."

There's other examples of Walt's insecurity, and his spitefulness towards all things that portray him as weak. He rips the Handicap Parking sign off his car mirror because he doesn't want to be seen as handicapped. He downplays his coughing as much as possible, and tries everything he can to prevent himself from going to the hospital. He doesn't tell his family he has terminal lung cancer, just so he doesn't garner that sympathy. Walt wants to be admired, and though he doesn't know it yet, he wants to be feared. This is an interesting contrast to the way the show portrays him and the way it wants viewers to see him. Walt would hate the "Awww...isn't that pathetic middle age man cute?" reaction that he inspires. This aspect of him, the blinding pride he suffers from, is there from the very first episode. It becomes abundantly more clear in "Gray Matter" He is that same man throughout the show. It's his circumstances and relationships that change.

There are two relationships that change significantly over the course of the show, and in both cases, the change is for the worse. The starting point for the relationships is seen in this episode, as well as foreshadowing for how they are going to change. First, there's the obnoxious kid who Walt calls out in the classroom. This boy is supposed to be a proxy for Jesse, and Walt's reaction to him is a mix of superiority and disdain. This is how Walt feels about Jesse throughout the series. There's some foreshadowing in this episode about how the relationship switches, though. Later, when that same kid sees him at the car wash, Walt's the one who is on the ground. This is a preview of the relationship Walt and Jesse have near the end of season 4, when Jesse becomes an essential part of the Fring organization and Walt is on the outs, showing that in all ways that mattered, the student surpassed the master.

The other relationship that changes throughout the series is the relationship between Walt and Skylar. We see that Walt's decision first helps their marriage, a preview that Walt's life of crime is going to introduce more passion into his marriage, as shown by the comparison of the passionate sex scene at the end of the episode compared to the lame birthday handjob scene earlier on. But ultimately, Walt's decision to cook meth will destroy the family. The marriage of Walt and Skylar isn't passionate and isn't inspiring at this stage, but it does appear to be stable and functioning. It's a good environment for their kids to grow up. This quickly switches to passionate and instable very early on, which is not a good tradeoff with kids involved. This will lead to the "divorce" in Season 3, and though Walt moves back in after that, the relationship never recovers.

There are constant directing tricks used to emphasize what the show is trying to do. Breaking Bad routinely has some of the most creative camera angles used in TV. This episode, for instance, has a camera inside a washing machine as Walt tries to dry out money. It has a camera inside and MRI machine looking down at Walt directly followed by a camera looking at the reflection of Walt in a desk. Later in the series, we get a camera imitating the viewpoint of a shovel in one scene, and a Roomba in another. And more subtly, there are constant camera angles looking at Walt (and other characters) from slightly above, or slightly below. The message is clear: we're going to examine Walt from every angle in this series. We're going to look at him as the family man with cancer, as well as the criminal meth cook.

The show also takes pains to be one of the most beautiful shows on TV. The cinematography of the scenery is almost second to none. The show's first scenes are looking at aspects of that quiet and peaceful scenery before we see the RV tearing through. Once again it's Walt that brings the disturbance.

As that disturbance occurs, the lighting and the scenery reflect that. Breaking Bad Season 1 looks nothing like Breaking Bad season 5. The surface lightness of the first two seasons contrast the heaviness of the final season. In terms of aesthetic, I prefer the early seasons. My long-lasting image of Breaking Bad is seeing that RV in the New Mexican desert. But the darkness the direction, lighting and acting switch to completely matches the change in story being told. The externals around Walt do a complete 180, but inside he is exactly the same.

The show presents Walt in the most positive way possible, then asks the viewer to come to terms with who he really is. It is a show of changes, and takes one man and puts him in a sympathetic light, than completely changes his circumstances so the light shining on him becomes unsympathetic. Breaking Bad wants to know how long and how many horrible things it takes to lose sympathy for someone you once had a close connection with. For me, it was a long, long time.

Notes

• Didn't get to talk much about Jesse in the main review, but he has some funny scenes. My favourite: Coming into Crazy8's house wearing the same colours as the dummy the dog is chewing up.
• Walter Jr. is introduced to the show by sitting down for breakfast. There may be a theme establishing.
• Bogdan. Just all things Bogdan.
• Walt's reaction both at the hospital and at the car wash feel like how someone really would react to being diagnosed with cancer
• The Hank/Gomez bet that Gomez actually won, unbeknownst to the two of them
• Walt literally laundering money
• What part of the school year are we in? On the board, there's atomic orbitals (pretty advanced stuff), the speech he gives to the class is like their first day of chemistry, and then Walt gets them to turn to chapter 6 of the textbook.
• Walt's attempted suicide. It didn't really add anything substantial to Walt's character, and it was super contrived that the bullet jammed.

Breaking Bad 1.02 - The Cat's In the Bag

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Breaking Bad 1.03 - ...And the Bag's In the River

This is an episode where taking a retrospective look at the series really comes in handy. We now know with certainty that the murder of Krazy 8 is now the crossing of a moral event horizon for Walt. Before this, Walt is very much restricted by the ideas of right and wrong he had grown up with in his more sheltered lifestyle, but after this he becomes much more pragmatic about his actions. Instead of valuing all human life as equal, he values only the life of the humans he cares about; those within his sphere of influence. That really only includes his extended familly and Jesse. Outside of those people, human life means nothing.

How does a switch like that flip so quickly? Is this common to all humans, that once they break a certain barrier human life no longer has the same meaning to them? Breaking Bad itself says no. Jesse goes into a downward spiral because of the death of strangers twice. Once, when he had to murder Gale, and once after Todd murders Drew Sharp by following the instructions of Walt and Jesse. There's something special about Walt, something that allows him to take that sociopathic attitude required to be the monster he becomes.

The conversations between Walt and Krazy 8 offer some of the best dialogue Breaking Bad has to offer. The acting is top notch, and it makes me sad we don't get to see more of Krazy 8 after this, as the way Max  Arceniega was able to sell the story of him working in his Dad's shop is extremely compelling stuff. That scene doesn't work unless the audience is being sucked into the story as Walt is, and it adds so much more power to the scene where Walt has to kill Krazy 8.

It is tempting to take that conversation, and the desperation of Walt to trust Krazy 8, as evidence that it was circumstance that drove Walt into the man he became. I don't believe that is the  case, because I believe the reaction after the event is more important than the hesistance to perform. I think many of us would have made the same decision Walt did here. I don't think many of us are capable of what Walt does over the next couple of seasons. Walt wrote on his pros/cons list that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he killed Krazy 8, but that was a lie he told himself. Walt has no trouble living with himself after this event. Normal people would struggle greatly with killing a man after the fact, breaking hard and fast rules they live their life by. Walt barely struggles at all.

It comes down to this: Walt is a great rationalizer. That's all it takes. It seems crazy that you can be driven from fairly decent family man to mass murderer simply by being able to rationalize, but that is completely true in this case. Walt goes up to reflect on his action, and ultimately decides that mankind is made up of nothing more than matter. He decides there's no intrinsic value to human life, it's just another lifeform on the planet. As he states to Gretchen in the flashback, "There's just chemistry here." Walt is not able to accept that he has done something awful, he is not able to accept anything other than the absolute highest opinion of himself. This is his ultimate downfall in every way. He simply refuses to accept that it was his decision to cook crystal meth that got two men killed, he instead resorts to the nihilistic view of  life and death being meaningless.

And so, a monster is born. Or rather, a monster is revealed. As I've said before, the traits that made Walt into Heisenberg always existed within him, the series simply reveals them in an ugly way. Over-rationalization can be a terrible thing, arrogance can be a terrible thing, and stubbornness can be a terrible thing if they are given the proper channels to reveal themselves. Krazy 8 says twice that his line of work does not suit Walt. He has no idea how wrong about that he is.

From the perspective of the viewer, we are still given every reason to be on Walt's side. The show has done a bit of a clever job to this point glossing over what a terrible decision it is to cook meth as a solution for dealing with your own mortality. From our perspective, Walt has had very few choices to this point. He had to kill Krazy 8 because Krazy 8 was ready to attack him with the plate shard. He's had to lie to Skylar because Skylar just wouldn't understand the burden he is putting on the family with his cancer and he needs to take advantage of his considerable chemistry skills to offset that. He needs to yell at Jesse and demean him because Jesse is a drug addict and an idiot who tells a murderous drug dealer both Walt's name and details about his life.

Related to this, if there's one part of the show I'm not on board with, it's the sabotaging of its secondary characters to make Walt look good. The B-plot in this episode, the misinterpretation of the Schraeder family that Walter Jr. is smoking pot is cringeworthy on quite a few levels. First of all, from a personal standpoint I can't stand to watch plotlines like this. To me scenes like the one in the seedy motel parking lot where Hank is trying to curb Walter Jr. off weed is unbearable. The only way that scene works if it is funny. Maybe my sense of humour is a little out of calibration, but that just wasn't funny. Secondly, this plotline makes both Marie and Skylar look terrible. Marie is nosy, loudmouthed, and a kleptomaniac, where Skylar is controlling. Skylar doesn't even let Walter Jr say "Yo!" Maybe it's trying to connect to Skylar's disdain for  Jesse Pinkman types, but come on! Further, Skylar is easily perceived by the viewer as inconsiderate to Walt. At this point, very early in its run, the show is purposely tearing down it's support characters in the eyes of the viewer to build Walt up. It needs the viewer to stay sympathetic to Walt's plight as long as possible or it loses the viewer's interest. I understand this, I just wish it could have done so in a way that doesn't cause us to dislike all its support characters in the early going.

In my mind, if a show is to be a success it needs solid male and female characters. At this point of the show, it seems incapable of making a good female character. Fortunately, the show goes on to prove that it's problematic treatment of its females was mostly a mirage, and Skylar and Marie get to become way more sympathetic by the end.

This episode presents both the best and worst of season 1. The scenes between Walt and Krazy 8 as well as its aftermath shows some of the best stuff Breaking Bad has to offer. The B plot with Skylar and Marie shows that Breaking Bad still has some distance to go before it can really break barriers and be one of the best shows to ever air on television.

Notes

• Camera work in the opening scene where Walt and Jesse are cleaning the remains of the dissolved body is really cool
• Walt handing the second beer to Krazy 8 rather than rolling it to him is a nice indication that Walt is intentionally deluding himself
• The plate puzzle with the missing piece is one of Breaking Bad's most memorable images
• Why does Krazy 8 reach for his plate shard before he's untied? If you want to make Walt suspicious, that seems like an excellent way to do it.
• No Walt Jr. eating breakfast this time. What a disappointment

Breaking Bad 1.04 - Cancer Man

One of the remarkable things about Breaking Bad is its consistency. "Cancer Man" is probably one of the worst five episodes in the show's run. A lot of the relationships just aren't calibrated quite right yet, and the episode doesn't have enough compelling stuff to really make up for it in the same way that "..And the Bag's In the River" did, or the amount of Walt and Jesse humour that was in "Cat's In the Bag." Yet it isn't remotely a terrible episode of television. There's a lot of things here that lay groundwork for what makes these characters who they are, and some individualized stories that are both tragic and yet fitting at the same time, which echoes throughout the series. "Cancer Man" doesn't rise above its inconsistencies in the way most of the Season 1 episodes do, but it doesn't completely get derailed by them either.

The main thrust for the episode is Walt telling the rest of his extended family that he has cancer. It was an episode that had to happen, and the reactions we got were sort of stock TV character reactions, because the supporting characters haven't really rose above stock TV characters at this point. But the fascinating thing about the episode is not Skylar's or Walter Jr's reaction to the cancer, it is the way Walt treats them given those reactions.

Skylar is made to be quite unappealing to audiences at this point. Her emotion and desperation to try to get Walt the absolute best treatment runs counter to the cold, calculating acceptance that audiences have adjusted to with Walt. And I think that contrast wears on the audience, like hot water shattering cold glass. Walt is clearly annoyed at Skylar's enthusiasm for finding the solution, which makes the audience slightly annoyed. Even I, who you could probably tell at this point has no love for Walt as a person,  was feeling a little put off. Anna Gunn's performance seems like it is on a different show from the performance Walt is giving at this point, and the easily readable and sometimes wearing emotions Skylar carries are just too much of a contrast and too opposed to the character that we are beginning to fall in love with. It's a hurdle the show just never clears with some people when they switch poles and make Skylar the sympathetic one, because too much damage was done to her character in the early going. It's interestesting watching this unfold, but I think that Gilligan and company probably wish they had treated Skylar more delicately in the early going to have the viewer more ready to accept the long game with her character.

The show has sucked the viewer into Walt's stratosphere so much by this point that they can't help but feel what Walt feels about the situation. That's kind of amazing considering the man made a conscious decision to become a criminal just because he was diagnosed with cancer. Ultimately, the show coerces the viewer to take the insane side of the argument and get peeved off by the rational side. Part of this may have been cheating a bit, because Skylar did say some pretty awful things in the last couple of episodes to turn the viewers against her. But still, look at the Skylar-Walt exchange I've put down in the quotes section. In what universe is Walt in the right there? He is willing to basically give up and abandon his family because he doesn't want to be seen as the husband who left his family in debt. Why? Because Walt considers leaving his family in debt as a failure, and if there's one thing that Walt can't abide, it's being a failure.

The pride of Walt is strewn throughout this episode. Walt shows such contempt for getting the best help for his problems. He shows such contempt for Skylar and Marie trying to find the solution that has the best shot at keeping him alive. He doesn't want to only be alive because Marie found him a physician, then he's accepted help from Marie he can never repay. He doesn't want to be fawned over and shown sympathy because that implies his cancer makes him weak in some way. He doesn't want help because that means he has to accept help. It's all so ludicrously macho from such a pathetic man that I'm certain if it wasn't so well hidden in subtext at this point viewers would be fleeing from Walt in droves.

That's one of the brilliant things about Breaking Bad here. All of Walt's considerable faults are in the subtext, not to hide what the show is doing from the viewer, but to disconnect the faults from the viewers emotions. You have to think rationally about Walt to see what a screwed up person he is at this point, and as soon as you  do that, you've disconnected yourself emotionally from things. This weakens a little bit in the next episode, [1x05], where Walt's decision not to accept the money from Grey Matter is much more in your face, but there's enough sympathy garnered for Walt by this point that it's simply a blip on the radar. Breaking Bad entwines you so much with its main character it takes a pry bar to pull you away. They will bring out that pry bar eventually, but it amazes me how much evidence that Walt is a monster has to accumulate before viewers turn against him.

The show could have gone a different way with this and made Walt a much more outright villain from the start, just by putting him in less favourable situations. If we had seen Walt surrounded by drug users in the early going when he was making that decision to cook meth, it would have repulsed viewers on a visual and therefore, emotional level, which is something Breaking Bad wouldn't have been able to get away with. The decision to make Walt sympathetic for as long as possible leads to the show being forced to tread lightly around the inner workings of drug culture. When they do feel they have to touch base with the idea, it leads to something half-hearted like what we got with the B-story of this episode.

Jesse's story in this episode is less well done than Walt's, and contains most of the problems that force this episode down near the bottom in the show's history. It's sort of odd that this show really has nothing to say about drug use and addiction. The episode pays lip service to the idea that drugs can screw you up, but doesn't add anything beyond the basics. We see issues with addiction on a surface level where Jesse suddenly becomes very paranoid as a side effect of his crystal meth use. In retrospect, I'm a actually a little disappointed with the camera work on this scene. For a show that gets so creative later on with camera angles and looking at things from all angles, the Jesse drug use scene is pretty standard fare. This becomes more obvious when compared to the camera work in "Phoenix" when Jesse first tries heroin.

We also see issues with addiction on a deeper level where Jesse has lost all trust of his parents because of the times he's failed them before. To be honest, the story doesn't really accomplish much other than cast Jesse's parents in a bad light, which is either not the intention or not a meaningful development. I suppose an argument could be made that Jesse became the way he became because of his parents suffocating influence, but there's just not enough evidence for it.

The other thing the show tried to do to portray drug culture in this episode was the early scene with Jesse, Krazy 8 and Combo, but the dialogue was off enough that the exchange came off as more hokey than it should have. If a show about drug use can't even sound sincere in its dialogue between drug users, than it's got problems. It's probably to Breaking Bad's credit that it realized what it was good at and what it was poor at, ditched the "drugs are bad" angle and focussed on the moral deterioration angle instead. Other than the divisive episode "Peekaboo," the show pretty well stayed away from showing much of Walt's worse off customers, even once it was no longer a goal to keep Walt's sympathy with the viewer.

I still sort of liked the Jesse story as kind of a tragic standalone arc. It does hurt that he has no more chances left, his family is so convinced that he's a failure they simply don't believe in his efforts to make things right again. This also does connect a bit to the overall arc of the show, as that Jesse becomes desperate for Walt's approval to replace the approval he never got from his parents. I'm not 100% sure I buy the development with the joint, as judging by the actor Ben Petrie's age the kid at this point is 12. I know there are kids who smoke pot when they're 12, I'm just not sure they are running in circles anywhere close to the circles Jake Pinkman would be running in. Even if you give the show the benefit of the doubt and say there's some older brother envy going on there, it's awfully coincidental the joint is found in the day or so after Jesse moves back in.

I'm contractually obligated to mention the Bluetooth guy. It's certainly a memorable scene when Walt blows his car up, but I don't have much to say about it. We all know how much Walt likes to feel powerful, and this episode really makes him feel impotent for large stretches of it. The explosion also puts the viewer even more on Walt's side because of how much of a jerk that guy is, so that's a bonus.

This isn't a great episode of Breaking Bad, but as you can see by the fact this is my longest review so far, there's still a lot going on here. It is the rare show that still reveals so much about its characters even at its low points, and Breaking Bad is particularly special in this regard.

Notes

·         Operation Icebreaker for a crystal meth operation. Clever, in an obvious way.

·         Walt and Skylar's story of how they met is so good. It also fits particularly well with Walt's general passive aggressiveness.

·         I really hope that picture in Jesse's room was a young Aaron Paul and not a lookalike.

·         "I believe things have a way of working out in the end." Oh, Walt, you're such a liar. I can't think of anyone who lies to their son as much as Walt does over the course of this series in such awful ways.

·         Krazy 8 revealed to be a mole. Got to think that if Walt lets him go, Krazy 8 turns him over and this series goes into brother-in-law vs. brother-in-law hyperdrive quickly.

·         Walt has a living mother? I think it's a major missed opportunity that we never got to see her.

·         The initial scene with the Pinkman family is a wee bit overcooked. Jake's not allowed to play both the piccolo and the oboe? He's wearing an awesomely preppy sweater vest that is only possibly a school uniform?

• Walt: I just think we need to discuss it a little further, that's all.
  Skylar: What is there to discuss? You're going to get the best treatment, and he's the best.
  Walt: Well, there's the money discussion, I think. No, $90,000 out of pocket. Maybe more.
  Skylar: There's a way, Walt. There's financing, there's installment plans. I could always go back to work. Walt, there's always a way.
  Walt: All right, Skylar, say, there is a way. And we spend that money and... Am I supposed to leave you with all that debt? No. Honey...I just don't want emotions ruling us. Maybe treatment isn't the way to go.

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.