Breaking Bad 5.01
Jul. 16th, 2012 09:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakShow! Watching you in real time now without having the next episode to go to on the dvd is weird. That was a hell of a season premiere. Also, clearly Jesse must have watched Veronica Mars. I approve.
First of all: the overall tone is a marked contrast to the s4 premiere, which was very dark, violent (Gus cutting his henchman's throat), and agonizingly slow (I don't mean that in a critical fashion to where the characters were at that point). Here, we're in for a fast paced caper story - on one level, and no physical violence happens at all. But on another, emotionally, ohhhhh. I mean, of course, Skyler and Walt.
Breaking Bad has always been great with the dark humor that still never makes the enormity of what happens unreal. So here we have Walt feeling triumphant at having at last outwitted defeated the boss of bosses, only to find that he managed to make Uncle Hank look even cooler in his son's eyes (his face when Junior rambles on about how much "even more a hero" Hank is for having figured out Gus was a crime lord!), and it's hilarious; off he goes to his wife who as opposed to Junior knows Walt is responsible for blowing Gus up in the expectation of being seen as a family saving hero, and gets the silent treatment instead of the "honey, you're awesome" treatment, and it's still funny, but it's also chilling, because it makes it clear that Skyler means what she says when she at last talks to him - that she's afraid of him now. If she had any ideas left about Walt as a trapped by circumstances victim, she does not anymore. And she sees the other side of the coin - that Ted (of course he survives; the Teds of this world always do) is afraid of her now, and again, it's funny, and it's chilling at the same time, and Skyler understands what that makes her as well as what it makes Walt. (Anna Gum is terrific througout the episode.) And there is no way out of it, at all; she missed that when she didn't leave last season. So that in the very last scene, when Walt does nothing outwardly bad at all (if you look at what's physically going, it's the embodiment of a harmonious family scene - father watches his wife care for their baby, steps into room, hugs wife, whispers tender words into her ear), the emotional horror is at maximum. Just look at her face when he says "I forgive you". It says to much - that Walt thinks he's the one who needs to do the forgiving, that he has the power to forgive, or not, that Skyler who emotionally almost always had the upper hand in their marriage and always was the alpha in the family (which is why Walt competing with Hank for the position was so ridiculous) just stands there, frozen, neither returning nor rejecting the embrace and lets it happen. And her face. Oh, her face.
(Cinematic footnote: I'm reminded of the final scene in The Godfather, when Kay, after having been assured by Michael that no, he didn't kill his brother-in-law and that all the danger is over, watches Michael receive homage as the Don by various sidekicks and the full realisation sets in - yes, he did order every single murder, and this is who he is - while the door closes in her face.)
Meanwhile, Walt realising the implication of Gus' year long surveillance of the lab now that the police is sorting through his remains leads to above mentioned fast paced caper story, with Mike being railroaded into being the third party by virtue of also having been immortalized on camera by Gus. The three way interplay between Walt, Jesse and Mike was priceless, and it was a neat touch that it's Jesse, who evidently has watched the same Veronica Mars episodes I did, who has the idea with the magnet while Mike and Walt are busy squaring off and posturing. But as amusing as it was, it also evidently foreshadows the season and makes you wonder. Last season already did the "Jesse won over by Mike (and Gus)" plotline, and the show doesn't repeat itself, but what is Mike's role going to be, and how will the show justify keeping him around (which I assume they will, having gone to the trouble of not killing him off in the s4 finale) beyond this point? Also, the revelation that it was Saul who stole the cigarette from Jesse for Walt (so that Jesse would assume it was Gus) is another set up of a ticking time bomb, because if you were Walt, would you trust Saul to keep that information from Jesse forever?
Lastly: we're back to the s1 and s2 device of starting the season with a scene from far later in the storyline, the full implication of which we won't understand until the story has caught up with this point, setting up a mystery. Seeing Walt with hair on his head again (and even more of a beard) was distinctly odd. The Greek letter he formed his food into was supposed to be an Omega, right? Not being a chemist, my immediate Omega association is: the last letter of the Greek alphabet, the end of things. Given this is the last season, go figure. Also, Walt is alone, with a false ID, tattered clothes, and purchasing major amunition: on the run? From the law or his associates, and if so, will said associates include Jesse? Given that Walt shaving his hair off (as part of the chemo therapy,yes, but keeping it shaved was a choice) was in late s1 the start of his outward creation and adaption of the Heisenberg persona, the need to play cool, ruthless druglord which of course became reality, does regrowing hair mean a belated attempt to shed what has long since stopped being a mask? The ammunition purchase argues against it, and of course teaser scene Walt isn't Walt from the pilot redux (the beard is still there, for starters). But you know, Omega. To quote Mary Stuart's motto "in my ending is my beginning", and the show started with a chase scene, so I wouldn't be surprised if it anded with just that.
First of all: the overall tone is a marked contrast to the s4 premiere, which was very dark, violent (Gus cutting his henchman's throat), and agonizingly slow (I don't mean that in a critical fashion to where the characters were at that point). Here, we're in for a fast paced caper story - on one level, and no physical violence happens at all. But on another, emotionally, ohhhhh. I mean, of course, Skyler and Walt.
Breaking Bad has always been great with the dark humor that still never makes the enormity of what happens unreal. So here we have Walt feeling triumphant at having at last outwitted defeated the boss of bosses, only to find that he managed to make Uncle Hank look even cooler in his son's eyes (his face when Junior rambles on about how much "even more a hero" Hank is for having figured out Gus was a crime lord!), and it's hilarious; off he goes to his wife who as opposed to Junior knows Walt is responsible for blowing Gus up in the expectation of being seen as a family saving hero, and gets the silent treatment instead of the "honey, you're awesome" treatment, and it's still funny, but it's also chilling, because it makes it clear that Skyler means what she says when she at last talks to him - that she's afraid of him now. If she had any ideas left about Walt as a trapped by circumstances victim, she does not anymore. And she sees the other side of the coin - that Ted (of course he survives; the Teds of this world always do) is afraid of her now, and again, it's funny, and it's chilling at the same time, and Skyler understands what that makes her as well as what it makes Walt. (Anna Gum is terrific througout the episode.) And there is no way out of it, at all; she missed that when she didn't leave last season. So that in the very last scene, when Walt does nothing outwardly bad at all (if you look at what's physically going, it's the embodiment of a harmonious family scene - father watches his wife care for their baby, steps into room, hugs wife, whispers tender words into her ear), the emotional horror is at maximum. Just look at her face when he says "I forgive you". It says to much - that Walt thinks he's the one who needs to do the forgiving, that he has the power to forgive, or not, that Skyler who emotionally almost always had the upper hand in their marriage and always was the alpha in the family (which is why Walt competing with Hank for the position was so ridiculous) just stands there, frozen, neither returning nor rejecting the embrace and lets it happen. And her face. Oh, her face.
(Cinematic footnote: I'm reminded of the final scene in The Godfather, when Kay, after having been assured by Michael that no, he didn't kill his brother-in-law and that all the danger is over, watches Michael receive homage as the Don by various sidekicks and the full realisation sets in - yes, he did order every single murder, and this is who he is - while the door closes in her face.)
Meanwhile, Walt realising the implication of Gus' year long surveillance of the lab now that the police is sorting through his remains leads to above mentioned fast paced caper story, with Mike being railroaded into being the third party by virtue of also having been immortalized on camera by Gus. The three way interplay between Walt, Jesse and Mike was priceless, and it was a neat touch that it's Jesse, who evidently has watched the same Veronica Mars episodes I did, who has the idea with the magnet while Mike and Walt are busy squaring off and posturing. But as amusing as it was, it also evidently foreshadows the season and makes you wonder. Last season already did the "Jesse won over by Mike (and Gus)" plotline, and the show doesn't repeat itself, but what is Mike's role going to be, and how will the show justify keeping him around (which I assume they will, having gone to the trouble of not killing him off in the s4 finale) beyond this point? Also, the revelation that it was Saul who stole the cigarette from Jesse for Walt (so that Jesse would assume it was Gus) is another set up of a ticking time bomb, because if you were Walt, would you trust Saul to keep that information from Jesse forever?
Lastly: we're back to the s1 and s2 device of starting the season with a scene from far later in the storyline, the full implication of which we won't understand until the story has caught up with this point, setting up a mystery. Seeing Walt with hair on his head again (and even more of a beard) was distinctly odd. The Greek letter he formed his food into was supposed to be an Omega, right? Not being a chemist, my immediate Omega association is: the last letter of the Greek alphabet, the end of things. Given this is the last season, go figure. Also, Walt is alone, with a false ID, tattered clothes, and purchasing major amunition: on the run? From the law or his associates, and if so, will said associates include Jesse? Given that Walt shaving his hair off (as part of the chemo therapy,yes, but keeping it shaved was a choice) was in late s1 the start of his outward creation and adaption of the Heisenberg persona, the need to play cool, ruthless druglord which of course became reality, does regrowing hair mean a belated attempt to shed what has long since stopped being a mask? The ammunition purchase argues against it, and of course teaser scene Walt isn't Walt from the pilot redux (the beard is still there, for starters). But you know, Omega. To quote Mary Stuart's motto "in my ending is my beginning", and the show started with a chase scene, so I wouldn't be surprised if it anded with just that.
