In a rare guest post in this blog, you are all in for another huge treat this week. With the success of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” (Sundays at 10PM EST), every major–and minor–media outlet seems to be running a recap of each episode. Well, 12631 member @a_bh_a has generously offered his thorough and highly entertaining thoughts on last evening’s second episode of season five.
Enjoy the top shelf recap and analysis, and be sure to follow @a_bh_a on Twitter.
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Just want to get it out of the way. Breaking Bad needs to cut that Dubstep garbage music out. Worse than Skylar.
Going to try a different style this week and just talk about the episode we just saw. Aptly titled “Fifty one” the episode centers on Walter White’s 51st birthday and marks a year to the date that the saga began (Remember in the Breaking Bad Universe only 1 year has passed).
We begin with the reemergence of one of perhaps the greatest character on the show aside from Walter White, the Heisenberg hat. With Walt in Heisenberg mode he goes ahead and buys himself and Walt Jr., two pretty radical cars which I assume are Chryslers as Breaking Bad has been big on product placement this season.
In the B plot, Hank is still struggling to find out who is keeping the Gus Fring crew from spilling the beans & Lydia and her corporate office was raided by the DEA with the warehouse foreman taking the fall for the betterment of the crew. She tries to trick Mike through Jesse by placing a very poorly placed tracking device. As always, Mike figures it out in two seconds and decides that Lydia has had enough chances. Jesse being the most fantastically genuine human being on the planet tries to talk Mike out of it, but the outcome of the group vote was left up in the air.
Hank is offered a promotion, although he isn’t thrilled at the prospect of giving up this case prior to catching the ever elusive Heisenberg. Marie spills the beans on Skylar & Walt’s issues and Hank seems to be intrigued by Walt’s new sports cars, though he isn’t being too forthcoming in what exactly he is thinking. On another note, Walt finally gives up the most durable car known to man; the Pontiac Aztec for a measly $50 bucks. The last tangible good of Walter “Mr. Chips” White is now removed.
Lots of foreshadowing going on in this episode, with Skylar cutting off circulation in her finger while flossing, Walter’s bleeding head while shaving & Walt Jr protesting over his lost piece of bacon (okay maybe not the last one). My theory is that Skylar hangs herself either through her own doing or by Walt’s hand making it look like a suicide. We’ll find out soon enough.
I want to focus on the stalemate that Walt & Skylar find themselves in. Walt has no intention of quitting what he is doing & Skylar is breaking under the pressure of her own guilt and/or remorse. Neither will back down, though Skylar appears to be in the less favorable position. It’s amazing to think that within a year, Skylar has gone from the loving, caring & sympathetic wife to one who is waiting for her husband’s cancer to return so she can be rid of him. Dark stuff!
It’s also important to note, that Walt does not care at all about Skylar’s feelings and basically calls her out on her “master plan”. When she admits she has known, he walks away the victor again and pretends like nothing happened. Of particular note, is Skylar constantly smoking in the house and blowing smoke towards Walt to try to speed up the cancer within his body.
I want to draw your attention to the women of the show, who all seem to be succumbing to the pressure of the meth business. We have Lydia, trying to worm her way out of the deal she made with Mike who spared her life. We have Skylar who has finally been backed into a corner and has no choice, other than to wait for nature to take its course with Walt and his health, and we have Marie who seems to be stuck in the middle of Walt and her sister Skylar.
One thing we do know, Walt does make it to his 52nd birthday as referenced in the flash forward of the season opener. Why he needed that machine gun is not clear yet, but I’m sure Skylar had a role in getting him to that point.
“Oh, hey….oh, pool party!” –Hank Shrader
Best line of the night…
“You’re a time bomb, tick, tick, ticking. And I have no intention of being around for the boom.” – Mike Ehrmantraut to Walter White earlier in the season.
Think about that while you wait for next week’s episode.
Chess:
I haven’t hardly even heard of this show….but since you are so fired up over it, I figure it must be good.
gotta see it
show got so dark. cool to watch the character development like you point out but its a completely different show now
indeed
Bryan Cranston is definitely not the Malcolm In The Middle Dad … or, the wacky next door neighbor in a few of the King Of Queens episodes … in this role !
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