Granite State: Walt Goes Off to Die, Then Goes Off to Kill People

Granite State was Breaking Bad's line-up behind the eight ball.  Walter White is now on his way back to New Mexico for his final showdown with Jack and Todd, and the lives of Brock, Jesse, and the rest of the White family hang in the balance.

Last night's episode was by far the bleakest and slowest paced of any of the new season.  Walt's cancer appears to be back with a vengeance, and as he wastes away on a cot in a cabin in New Hampshire, he realizes that unless he can get his money to his family, all of his crimes have been for nothing.  But his family wants nothing to do with him, and, for a minute, Walt gives up, calling the police to give away his position.

But everything that appears in Breaking Bad is guaranteed to reappear, even if it takes whole seasons for that to happen (see: ricin, the bear with the missing eye, Ted Benecke, etc), and, true to form, Gretchen and Elliot made a final appearance in tonight's show.  Elliot's underestimation of Walt was the inciting action for the entire story, and, though we haven't seen the Schwartz family for four seasons, was partially the fuel for Walt's hubris and need to prove himself by cooking blue sky meth.  To see Elliot once again dismiss him on television was the motivation Walt needed to return to New Mexico; Walt has always been underestimated, always suspected of being incapable of properly caring for his family, and his pride requires him to upend these assumptions in the final days of his life.

So what is the unfinished business Walt still has in ABQ?  Since Saul has disappeared into hiding for good, Walt's left with no hit men, and will have to take on Jack and Todd himself.  We know from the flash-forwards at the beginning and midpoint of season 5 that Walt goes back to Albuquerque with a gun, a car, and some ricin.  We assume the gun is to kill Jack and Todd, and hopefully to free Jesse.  Brock, now an orphan, deserves some restoration at the hands of the man who nearly killed him.  We'll hope that one of Walt's final acts will be to reunite Brock and Jesse for good.  And of course, Walt has to get his money back and return it to his family, or find some other way of providing for them.  Then, seeing as Walt has no one left to surreptitiously kill, perhaps the vial of ricin is for his own suicide.

Walter, after all, owes his family a complete and final exit from their lives.  Before he does, though, he-- and the audience-- need some assurance that they will get the money Walt has called "their birthright," even if Walt Jr. and Holly have both rejected him as their father.  Gustavo Fring's monologue at the beginning of season three, that a man should provide for his family, regardless of whether he is respected or loved by them, seems apt in the final moments of the show.  This is the driving ethic behind all of Walt's actions thus far, and will be the morality at play in next weeks' season finale.

Well, Now We Know What Walt's Giant Gun Is For

Killing Nazis and saving Jesse, amiright?

What else are guns good for?

Seriously, though -- we know that Walt is going to end up in New Jersey, and he's not coming back until he comes to get his ricin cigarette and his machine gun. What happens to Skyler, Holly, Marie, and Walt Jr. is anyone's guess. Frankly, I wouldn't put it past Marie to use that mysterious untraceable poison against Skyler in revenge for Hank, but maybe I'm being melodramatic. And after such an unrelentingly grim episode (probably the darkest in the whole series). it's pretty clear that the Breaking Bad team is actually going to let Mr. White try to redeem himself.

Walt tried very, very hard to save the day in "Ozymandias" on a few occasions - And it was awful watching a monster like Walt realize that he just had enough human left in him to get his heart broken. He tried, and failed, to save Hank from execution and he tried, and succeeded, to free Skyler from the police by pretending to be even more of a manipulative monster than he really is. After sacrificing himself for his wife and son, and leaving Holly Jr. in the fire engine, it looks like Walt's finally learned how to be a real man from his brother-in-law. Too bad it's too late to save himself and his family.

It looks, then, that in these last two shows, Walt is going to return to ABQ once more to save Jesse from Todd. He'll be taking his ricin with him, too, so I'll  bet he takes Marie's advice and kills himself after the mission. What will happen to Skyler and Marie? I can't say for sure, but I worry that Marie is just enough of a loose cannon to take some serious revenge against her sister. She loves the kids too much to hurt them, but I worry that the blood isn't done flowing after Hank.

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Louise is just not that stressed out over last night's Breaking Bad

This is my face during the last three minutes of last night's Breaking Bad episode:

And this is me about five minutes later:

Yup.  As soon as the Breaking Bad shootout-a-thon faded to black, the yellow lab and I were able sleep comfortably, with no nightmares about Jesse or Hank getting killed by a bunch of white supremacists.  Why?  Because this is Breaking Bad we're talking about, and this show is too well-written for my two favorite characters to die this anticlimactically.

Allow me to explain.  In the final moments of last night's episode, Walt gives Uncle Jack and Todd the coordinates for his hidden money, all in an attempt to kill Jesse, but calls the hit off at the last minute when Jesse has arrived with the DEA. Jack and his trusty gang of white supremacists all show up anyway, because no one tells the white supremacists what to do, I guess, and a massive shootout between them, Hank, and Gomez ensues.

Sure, Hank and Gomez are outnumbered.  But a showdown between Hank and Walt has been foreshadowed since Breaking Bad's pilot episode, and Uncle Jack has only been a character for a handful of episodes.  Likewise, Jesse's power over Walt has been steadily increasing for five seasons; even last night, it was Jesse, not the DEA, who brilliantly engineered the sting that forced Walt to give his position away.  With the possible exception of Skyler, Hank and Jesse are more ruined by Walt's duplicity than any other characters in the show, and they will deserve a final confrontation with him, not just the goons he's hired.  Both of them will survive this firefight, perhaps saved by the tribal police, as was teased in this episode, and Jesse will hang on to the final episode of the series.

For me, the biggest takeaway from the firefight is that Jesse is ready to die.  As soon as the shootout begins, Jesse considers giving himself up, because he knows Jack and Todd have come for him.  Some have speculated the season finale is named Felina for the Marty Robbins's song "El Paso," in which a man who has murdered dies for a woman he loves named Felina.  Call me conspiratorial, but with Brock and Andrea returning in this episode, I strongly suspect Jesse will make it to the season finale to protect and die for them.

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It's All Fun and Games Until Redneck Skinheads Start Firing Semiautomatic Handguns

Well, it looks like we got our answer to the question about whether or not Walt actually cares about Jesse -- "yes, but not as much as he loves himself."

Last night was mostly a slow burner with the notable exception of the last psychotic thirty seconds, but among the many standout scenes was Walt wrestling with himself as he finally orders the hit on Jesse. He's at pains to make sure that Jesse's death will be quick and easy - but of course, he's not at pains enough to call the whole thing off, even as Todd and co. demand their price. Heisenberg will cook again - maybe. Everything's up for grabs after the end, including who will be joining us for the next episode.

Maybe we'll also have fewer long shots of bald men glowering at each other in the desert.

Jesse and Hank, meanwhile, was Heisenberging for the force of good last night all over the place. True to Saul's warnings, Jesse's pretty bright when you put him in a bind, and with the help of Hank he's able to a) dodge Todd's first attempted hit and b) actually get Walt to give away the money and get himself arrested in the desert. I had mixed feelings, actually, watching Walt get handcuffed in the desert. On one hand it was satisfying to watch Hank finally beat Walt and read him his Miranda rights, but on the other hand, it would have been profoundly disappointing to watch Walt spend his life in prison. I want him to burn out a bit more spectacularly than that.

Also, there's no way you can fire that many bullets and have everyone walk away. Who's it gonna be who dies first? Hank? Gomez? Todd? Todd's Nazi uncle? Even Jesse?

I'm going to be out of town next weekend so if anyone ruins the ending of Ozymandias, I will murder you in your beds. Sleep tight.

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The Breaking Bad Murder Chart

Help for the perplexed: who wants who dead in Breaking Bad and why errbody's gonna die.

Wild cards include Lydia, who just wants money, apparently, plus potential civilian casualties like Walt Jr. and Holly. Also, Hank is excluded from wanting people dead because he seems to be more interested in wanting people in prison.

Everyone is Going to Get Murdered

Oh boy. Ohhhhhh boy. We are fixin' to have us a murder party here on Breaking Bad. 

Pictured: A Breaking Bad murder party

Everyone, and I mean everyone, on Breaking Bad is now ready to shed blood. And that means blood is going to be shed, in gallons. The questions is just who, by whom, and when. We've always known that Walt was willing to kill, but for the first time he's now ready to do in his own partner, Jesse. Skyler is fine with killing Jesse and doesn't even think it's the worse thing they've done. Hank was happy to let Walt murder Jesse for the videocamera, and, most disconcerting of all, Marie is thinking of doing in Walt herself.

With all these characters suddenly getting pushed to their limits, it's safe to say that with four episodes down and four to go, the trigger has been pulled, the die is in the air, and we're ready for a serious Shakespeare-esque denouement. Marie's scenes in particular seem to be setting us up for a major disaster. She's thinking of using an untraceable poison to off Walt, and since Hank now knows about the ricin cigarette, it's only a matter of time until Marie discovers ricin herself. Maybe we'll get a Hamlet scene where Marie tries to poison Walt, only to accidentally poison Skyler, Walt Jr., or even Holly?

Either way, someone's gonna get Ricined. 

Furthermore, Jesse's announced plans to get Walt "where he really lives." Where is that? Walt's family? It seems a little cold for Jesse to target Walt's wife and kids, especially since he was so horrified that Walt would harm an innocent kid himself. What's more, if Jesse is going to work with Hank (which he doesn't seem particularly keen on, but he may have a lot of options), Hank isn't going to let Jesse set fires, kill women, or steal money. Not yet, at any rate. We'll see what happens to Marie.

The reemergence of loose cannon Todd is also disconcerting. Walt's bringing him on to finish off Jesse, but we already know Todd is pretty casual about collateral damage. The deaths are going to start soon -- probably not next week, but maybe the week after -- and I'm ready to bet that once the heads start rolling, they'll be heard to stop.

For more Beth and Louise, follow us on Twitter at @BandLHateMovies or subscribe to the podcast. Give us a rating and leave a comment on iTunes!

Walt's Got 99 Problems and a Meth Cook Seeking Redemption Is Definitely One

Walt, you manipulative sonofabitch, I hope Jesse burns your house straight to the ground. Except I know he doesn't, because the Whites' house is still there in the flash-forwards on Walt's birthday.

The thing about Walt is he can always get worse, and last night he was pretty awful. He was at the top of his manipulative faux-paternal game last night with Walt Jr. and Jesse -- playing Walt Jr. with his returning cancer to keep Jr. away from Marie, then twisting Jesse into leaving town so Walt, apparently, won't have to kill him. And of course, there was the jaw-dropping scene when Walt reveals what his "confession" really is -- a story that fits the evidence remarkably well and pins the lion's share of the blame for Walt's crimes on Hank himself.

Obviously, after an hour or so of Walt behaving badly I was ready for someone to give Walt his due, and it looks like Jesse is more than up for the task. Armed with a gun, a gallon of gasoline, and the truth about what Walt did to Brock, he set off to go set Walt's house on fire (where is Holly while her parents are at work, guys?) and lay down some sweet Jesse-style revenge.

After two episodes where Jesse was nearly catatonic with guilt and misery, it's great to see this sucker punch of a character springing back into action. More than anyone else in this episode, Jesse was ready to call Walt out for his crimes. He sees Walt's proposal of a fresh start for Jesse for what it really is (namely, Walt's first choice before plan B, shooting Jesse in the head). Furthermore, while Hank is apparently neutered by the discovery that he took nearly two-hundred thousand in drug money, Jesse takes Walt head-on and bringing the fight to Walt's house.

Jesse is not the one who knocks. He is the one who kicks down doors.

By the way -- I'm sure we haven't seen the last of Hank but I was pretty disappointed by his lukewarm reaction to the tape. Hank has not come this close to bringing down Heisenberg himself to be foiled by this little trick. Maybe he needs another week to get his nerve up, but the Hank I know would be willing to sacrifice even his reputation at the D.E.A. to bring Walt to justice. I think this video complicates things (he will need some hard evidence against Walt), but Walt hasn't stopped his brother-in-law as much as he's slowed him down.

Great cinematography in this episode -- I particularly liked the shot of Jesse on the side of the road with what looked like gravestones behind him when he learned the truth about Brock. Also, I'm throwing this questions to the readers: do you think Walt cares about Jesse? I'll be the first to say that Walt cares about Walt more (he's headed for Jesse with a gun in hand, after all) but I was actually touched by that awkward hug in the desert. Does Walt feel a bit of fatherly affection for his troubled partner, or was that all part of the act? Tell me what you think.

For more Beth and Louise, follow us on Twitter at @BandLHateMovies or subscribe to the podcast. Give us a rating and leave a comment on iTunes!

Skyler's No Hero: Dissing the Women of Breaking Bad

There's been a lot of buzz in the Breaking Bad world today about Skyler as a strong female character and her refusal to get pushed around in last night's episode. She held her own against Hank, who came riding up on his white horse in the diner, talking about how he was going to protect the long-victimized Skyler from her husband's machinations. Color Skyler unimpressed; she hustled out of that diner and called a lawyer straightaway to avoid testifying against Walt's (and her own) operation. Next it was toe-to-toe with Marie, who tried to spirit Holly away from her crazy parents only to have Mama Bear Skyler standing and screaming in her way. If the Schraeders thought they were going to find an ally in Skyler for taking down Walt, Skyler's made it pretty clear that she's not interested in being the D.E.A.'s mole. She's in it for herself, and she's going to protect herself and her family just as she's always done.

Is Skyler the strong woman heroine that TV drama's been looking for? Sorry. I'm not buying it.

The fact that Skyler is strong does not make Skyler good. Skyler has held her own against the other players in the complicated world of Breaking Bad, but only to keep her life together while Walt works chaos around them. She's has kept her head down while her husband has wantonly slaughtered anyone who gets in the way of Blue Sky's production. She's kept Walt's secrets, and Walt's money, while the White family's dabbling in the meth business endangered the lives of their own family members -- Schraeders and Whites alike. Sure, she didn't let Hank talk her into testifying against Walt in the diner. But now Hank is on the hunt for definitive proof of Walt's guilt, and who knows how many people will be, um, "sent to Belize" while he tries?

I'm as unimpressed by Skyler's supposed strength as I am by Lydia's. The two seem to be uncomfortable doubles, really. Lydia, like Skyler, is exacting, driven, self-preserving, and goal-oriented. While Skyler squared off against the Schraeders to keep her family intact, Lydia sent her team of sociopathic skinheads to wipe out the subpar meth-producers and set up their own shop. But like Skyler, Lydia is only as tough as her own ignorance allows her to be. Skyler doesn't know the half of what Walt's done, and she took off from the diner before Hank had a chance to tell her. Lydia, likewise, cowered in a bunker with her hands over her ears during last night's gunfight, and closed her eyes while walking past the hits she personally ordered.

There's a difference between being strong and being a hero, and Skyler is certainly not the latter. I don't know what honorable choices Skyler still can make at this point (anything that might not ruin the lives of her children, maybe, but it's probably too late for that) but I know she hasn't made them yet. Anna Gunn nailed her performance last night, and I hope she gets nominated for an Emmy this season, but I'm not ready to praise Skyler as a character or person yet. If Skyler's going to redeem herself this season, she's going to have to make some tough choices. And she'll probably have to choose against Walt, who doesn't seem interested in redemption anymore.

For more Beth and Louise, follow us on Twitter at @BandLHateMovies or subscribe to the podcast. Give us a rating and leave a comment on iTunes!

Whites vs Schraeders: Breaking Bad Shows No Signs of Letting Up in "Buried"

It's refreshing to watch a show as relentlessly paced as these final eight episodes of Breaking Bad. While last night's episode was not the shocking, teeth-clenching panic attack that last week's premier was (and they can't all be -- there's eight episodes in all, for heaven's sake), once again Gilligan and company has shown that the good people who keep us glued to our seats every Sunday know exactly what they're doing. Walt and his cohorts are headed for justice, or at the very least for catastrophe, and the results should be satisfying.

The noose keeps tightening for Walt as his secrets leak out. Suffice to say the battle lines between the Whites and the Schraeders have been definitively drawn, and no one is getting away easily now. Marie first learns the truth about Walt's from Hank, which pits her against her brother-in-law. But even more alarmingly, Marie begins to uncover Skyler's secrets from Skyler herself. This is bad news for Hank, who in the diner sequence seemed to think that Skyler was only a victim of Walt's criminal behavior and not something of a victimizer herself. At any rate, when Skyler takes Holly back from Marie it's clear that the gulf between the two families is officially unbridgeable. From the beginning of this episode, it became clear that the writers are setting us up for a seven-episode showdown between Walt and Hank (check out that shot-reverse shot of them on both sides of the garage door... chills). And as Skyler and Marie made clear in their scene together, both wives are squarely on the sides of their husbands, sisterhood be damned.

And speaking of those sisters, Anna Gunn was the champion of this episode. That long, slightly-out-of-focus shot of Skyler's face as Marie figures out the depth of Skyler's deception was remarkable. Equal parts coldly composed while emotionally broken, Gunn knocked that scene out of the park. Here's to more moments like that this season.

My only problem with this episode, really, was Skyler's assertion that Walt could not give himself up without giving up the money. Why on earth not? It's pretty well hidden, considering that Walt's got it buried at a secret location in the desert that only he knows. Why couldn't Walt confess, run out the cancer clock and, since the police have very little to threaten him with at this point, die with the secret of where the money was hidden? Or is Skyler concerned that Hank and Marie know too much about the meth to let Skyler get away with that when Walt is gone?

Who says crime doesn't pay?

Perhaps all will become clear later. But for now, I'm happy to say that we are two episodes deep in teh final stretch of Breaking Bad  and I'm still impressed. I'm really enjoying this pattern of putting almost no gap time between one episode and the next. Last week we saw Hank right straight out of that bathroom after learning the truth about Heisenberg, and now we got to watch Hank put that garage door right back up and Walt walk away from the confrontation. If the pattern continues, we'll get to start next week in the interrogation room with Hank and Jesse -- a scene I think we've all been looking forward to for awhile, and if the teasers for next week are any indication, should be a high point of the season.

For more Beth and Louise, follow us on Twitter at @BandLHateMovies or subscribe to the podcast. Give us a rating and leave a comment on iTunes!

We Really Don't Do Anything but Talk About "Breaking Bad" Anymore

And we've got more evidence that Louise is right. Jesse is doomed, and Walter will kill him.

You heard it here first. Jesse's a dead man.

Wearing your dead partner's jacket... that's cold, Heisenberg. 

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Bryan Cranston as a Bald Evil Corporate Executive*, Cont'd

Well, this is a surefire way to send us racing of to the theaters to see Superman vs. Batman.

We're begging you, Mr. Snyder, Mr. Cranston, Warner Brothers, and whoever else out there we have to plead with to make this happen. Please. Please please please. Can we pay you? We'll pay you.

How can you say "no" to this face?

*For the purposes of this comparison, we're referring to "undisputed meth champions of the American Southwest" and "successful car wash owners" as "corporate executives."

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A Reply to Matthew Yglesias's Review of Breaking Bad: Why I Love Hank Even More after "Breaking Bad: Blood Money"

"Why on earth did Hank confront Walt?" -- Matthew Yglesias on Slate 

"Because Hank is a better man than Walt." -- Us

Full disclosure: I love Hank. He has no serious rivals as my favorite character on Breaking Bad (except maybe Jesse). Throughout five seasons of Breaking Bad, in a world full of twisted, immoral, dissembling, and dishonest characters, Hank has been the moral bedrock in a way that no one else has been. While Walt can lie to himself and others, and spin his increasingly monstrous actions in a way that makes them seem more palatable to himself and others, Hank is honest in a way that no one else on the show can be. When he sees the signature in Walt's poetry book, he doesn't try to talk himself out of believing its obvious implications. When Walt tries to gaslight Hank and convince him he's crazy, Hank doesn't back down. And when Walt shows Hank the tracker and asks, with frighteningly good manners, where it came from, Hank doesn't try to buy himself time and avoid a confrontation. He closes that garage door and gets down to brass tacks, his own safety and secrecy be damned.

He does, in other words, what Walt can never bring himself to do. He puts the truth first.

And that's why Hank is the best character on the show.

In Yglesias' review of 5.2's season premier, "Blood Money," Yglesias quite accurately points out that Hank's choice to confront Walt is strategic suicide. Hank knows Walt is a killer. He knows he's alone in a garage full of sharp pointy tools (I was wondering if a screwdriver was going to end up in someone's chest, personally) with a man who is physically stronger than him while he, Hank, is still suffering from  the aftermath of a panic attack and car crash. Was Hank's choice foolish, as far as potential consequences are concerned? Sure. But it was also the only honest choice Hank had when Walt pulled out that tracker.

Hank could have made up some story to forestall a confrontation with Walt, but it wouldn't have been true to Hank's character. Walt is the show's strategist, not Hank. While Walt keeps on lying even when it's obvious Hank is on to him, Hank doesn't back down. He won't listen to Walt's insistence that he's "a dying man who owns a car wash" and tells Walt to his face exactly what he's done. It's not the safe thing to do, but Hank's not a safe guy. Walt uses lies and tricks to protect himself and get out of trouble, but Hank never does. He is honest and straightforward to a fault, even when it means he runs afoul of Heisenberg himself.

What was Hank thinking when he confronted Walt? He was thinking how to confront evil like a honest man, no matter what harm he brought on himself. And that's what separates him from Walt.

In comments, let us know: should Hank have confronted Walt in last night's premier?  And if you like what you've read, follow us on twitter and tweet at us.  We promise to tweet back.

Louise Can't Hate Breaking Bad, Not Even a Little Bit, Not Even At All

Each season of Breaking Bad has ended with a showdown between Walt and one of his various male rivals, all promising the most inevitable and gut-wrenching showdown of them all: Walt versus Hank, his D.E.A. agent brother-in-law.  Tonight, Breaking Bad made good on that promise.

A buyout from the meth business has not made Walt a more honest man.  He’s up to his old tricks, lying about his cancer and about Mike’s murder at the conclusion of season five.  But while Walt has descended further into a life corrupted by his own hubris and endless capacity for dissembling, Hank has remained the moral center of their story. For all his dishonesty, Walt cannot lie to Hank, and Hank cannot stop himself from throwing the truth back into Walt’s face.  In the conclusion of Blood Money, Hank lays bare the full list of Walt’s crimes, none of which Walt is able to dispute. Stripped bare of the lies, Walt pivots between his two remaining defenses: portraying himself as a doomed, helpless cancer patient, or as the powerful and unpredictable criminal we know him to be.  To no one’s surprise, he settles on the latter, setting into motion the showdown we’ve been waiting for five seasons.

Breaking Bad, for all its badassery, is not an action-packed thriller, at least not most of the time.  Usually, its installments are character-driven slow-burns, where, between sequences of action, we sit with the characters and ruminate on the moral depravity of their universe along with them.  Blood Money didn’t stray far from this pattern.  This was the Breaking Bad we’ve been waiting for, as moody, dark, and well-paced as any episode before it, and I’m absolutely up for seven more episodes just like it.

Oh, and as a postscript, Walt’s going to use the ricin to poison Jesse in an act of revenge.  You heard it here first, folks.

In the comments below, tell us what you thought of tonight’s episode, who you think is going to get ricin-ed (we swear that’s a word) and be sure to follow us on twitter at @bandlhatemovies.

For more Beth and Louise, follow us on Twitter at @BandLHateMovies or subscribe to the podcast. Give us a rating and leave a comment on iTunes!