Breaking Bad

[Totenkindly]

Finished Breaking Bad again today. I am still amazed at how well they threaded the needle. Like, you need to have your audience maintain empathy with Walt, yet also acknowledge all the wrong that he did, and feel like everyone got what they deserved. And pretty much that is what happens, although some people (like Walt's family) end up worse than how they started the series... but that was the fallout from what Walt did, and you know at least there will be the trust coming for Flynn and thus for the others.

There's the really great moment in E15 where Ed goes to leave and Walt sounds so vulnerable and lost, and... begs him just to stay another hour. At that point, you know he has finally been broken by everything he has lost and is finally "listening" and thinking about his life. The old Walt would never beg. This Walt just feels completely alone and lost and like he has nothing. (And in fact he has nothing, aside from the money that he sold his entire life for and now can't even use.)

It's kinda funny that after his conversation with Flynn, he's about ready to end it all -- and then he hears the Schwartzes impugning him on national television and it immediately stokes his fire. If they hadn't done that, would Walt have just given up? But here you are kind of rooting that Walt will find a little bit of that piss and vinegar that drove him for so long, for one final blaze of glory.

In the finale, the come-uppance seems to be handled tonally so perfectly for each supporting character.

This episode is so sad because it's mainly Walt "saying goodbye" and/or closing the curtain on various relationships of his past, and accepting that for some, a long parting glance is all he's going to get.

The whole scene with the Schwartzes is played so well and almost tongue in cheek. Walt brilliantly is using the very twisted image they had of him, playing into it, to perfectly get from them what he wants -- and the joke is that he's not totally the monster they are imagining (this sheltered/binary approach to people is actually one of their failings, although they are very admirable in other ways), but it will be enough to keep them in line because it's not worth the risk to test what Walt has told them. Bringing in Badger and Skinny Pete enable the moment to feel amusing and even light-hearted, because you know Gretchen and Elliot aren't in any real danger but they are so oblivious and caught up with appearances that they will never veer from the path. Their own flaws have locked them in, just like Walt's have and just like Hank's did.

The whole scene with Skyler is beautifully paced and able to breathe, that opening reveal of Walt in the room is one of the best I've seen in a show. It can be hard because on one hand, Walt deserves everything he has wrought and the ashes that are left, but at the same time there's something fulfilling to see about a man who is finally being honest about himself for the first time ever and taking ownership of his sins. Despite Walt's darkness, we know how much he loved Holly -- he gave her back because he realized she would be better off with Skyler -- and all he can do is silently watch Flynn for a last time as he comes home from school. (Which is sad too -- Flynn typically was always driven to school or had his own car, now he's stuck on the bus.)

And then even the ending, with Lydia and Todd and Jack's gang, pretty much everyone gets what they deserve. Walt has enough of his old gumption to manipulate a rapidly devolving situation into exactly what he needs on the fly. Such a great spin on how things played out between Hank and Jack, now between Jack and Walt. The resolution with Jesse and Walt puts closure on their own relational dynamics. The whole bit with Lydia -- it's almost eerie and haunting when Todd's cell phone goes off. Lydia essentially dies because of her OWN irrelevant obsessions, and she is as deserving as anyone else since she contributed to at least 20 deaths in the show herself.

The final shots are just a guy accepting the truth about himself and that he has ended up exactly where he was going the entire time, no pretense left, and he's okay with that. It just is what it is. You're left feeling satisfied while still grieving over everything that went down. Walt sold his entire life to feel alive, and he got what he paid for; it's just sad others had to pay that price, and he is also left having to accept the results of his own actions, caveat emptor.

Pretty much the entire BB universe has been brilliant. I still feel like BB walked so that BCS could run -- I think BCS had the harder lift and could not resort to such extremes for its drama, it had to make even more mundane plots be entirely fascinating, and more nuance about characters living in a gray area -- but all of it fits together so nicely.

I have to say I laugh every time I see Francesca, as here we just see her at the tail end -- bitter and nasty and caustic -- compared to how BCS reveals she used to be, which was very sweet and kind and positive, until Jimmy ran her into the ground. Walt doesn't even faze her out when he threatens her, and she takes him down a peg.

The main people that get worse than they deserve are mostly the kids (Holly, Flynn, Caeley Ehrmentraut, Andrew, Brock) and maybe you can make a case that Skyler and Marie and Jesse are punished more than warranted despite those three having done some shady or bad things. (Marie is the most innocent, but she's just opinionated and annoying sometimes.) I think the deal with Jesse is that he always wanted to be better and you could see that in moments where the grime was removed, like in the Peekabo episode, or how hard dealing with Gale hit him, how much he loved Jane and Brock and Andrea, and that he was constantly abused and treated badly by everyone in the show including his parents. But when someone treated him with respect, even Mike and Gus, he would bear up and shine. He's the only one who really seemed to be tormented by his guilt and didn't embrace depravity, which I think is why he ended up where he did and it feels like a happy ending as resolved in El Camino.

 

[Totenkindly]