Breaking Bad: Discussion Thread

Does anyone here watch Breaking Bad. I'm still literally aquiver from last night's stunning ending.

Here's TVGuideMagazine.com's Matt Roush's spoiler-filled review...which I think is "spot on"

Finale Watch: Breaking Bad By Matt Roush June 01, 2009 09:02 AM EST

The sky is falling, quite literally, as Breaking Bad ended its second season Sunday night with devastating twists in which Walt White’s sins finally come home to roost. The climax is less a wake-up slap to the face than a punch to the gut as we realize just where Walt’s misdeeds have led: to a fireball in the sky that drops a child’s disfigured toy into the White family pool. (Images of this mangled plush toy, an eyeball sucked into the pool’s drainage system, have teased us all season, along with the still unanswered question of who’s in the body bags being loaded into the van. Which belongs, we now learn, to NTSB, not CSI Albuquerque.)

Last week’s penultimate episode ended on such a bleak note you knew nothing good could come from it, as Walt looks on while Jesse’s greedy druggie girlfriend Jane chokes fatally on her own vomit in a heroin slumber. Murder most passive, and most disturbing. Walt sees this act as Jesse’s salvation, but it’s another stop toward his soul’s cold, chilling corruption.

It haunts the entire season finale as we watch the two men in Jane’s life react in degrees of horror to her death. Aaron Paul has been astonishing all season as Walt’s dopey and distressed partner-in-crime Jesse, and this episode is no exception. We open with sounds of a bed creaking: not to the sounds of lovemaking this time, but of Jesse frantically trying to revive his lover. He’s desperate, destroyed, and it’s up to the “cleaner” sent by better-call-Saul Goodman to smack some sense into Jesse and to give him the official-line mantra: “I woke up. I found her. That’s all I know.” Jesse retreats to a crack den, where Walt rescues him in a reunion of such wrenching power it’s hard not to cry along with wretched Jesse as he sobs in Walt’s arms, “I killed her.”

Walt acts here like a conflicted parent, in vivid contrast to Jane’s own dad (the terrific John de Lancie). We’ve met this man, Donald Margolis, before, a recovering addict/alcoholic himself. Discovering he was ultimately unable to save his lost daughter, Donald watches in numb grief as the EMT carts her away. (And we flash back to the scene the previous week in which he crossed paths with Walt at a bar, never dreaming how this seemingly mild-mannered guy is about to impact his life.) In one of the darkest twists this series has yet presented, we then learn what Donald does for a living: air traffic control. And as the action jumps forward several weeks, he returns to work, still numb and still distracted, to the point where he inadvertently orchestrates a midair collision that occurs within falling distance of Walt’s suburban home.

Backing up: While Jesse dries out at a rehab spa named Serenity, Walt’s life is anything but. He is mortified by his son Walt Jr.’s (call him "Flynn") campaign to raise funds online for his dad’s surgery. "Save Walter White" indeed, like that’s even possible. As his son (RJ Mitte, never better) proudly watches the ka-ching growing online (unaware that much of this lucre is being funneled into his dad’s coffers by better-call-Saul’s laundering of the drug loot), and then goes on local TV news to extol his dad’s virtues (“He’s just decent. He always does the right thing.”), the bitter irony is just too much for a shamed Walt. Silently cringing, he is dying inside, and we see it all happening on Bryan Cranston’s face. What a performance. His first Emmy a year ago was a big surprise. This year, he has to be taken seriously again as a contender.

Walt’s cancerous tumor may be in remission, but the cancer in his soul is thriving just fine. Matters get worse as Walt goes in for surgery, and tweaks wife Skyler’s suspicions one last time too many as he makes a drugged reference to his cell phone: “Which one?” As the episode ends nearly two months later, Skyler takes no joy in Walt’s recovery. She orders him to pack his bags and leave as she takes little baby Holly with her. She calls Walt a liar and says she has no interest in the truth. “Whatever it is, I’m afraid to know.” Smart lady, played smartly as always by Anna Gunn. (There really isn’t a weak link in this cast.)

After she drives off, leaving Walt bereft, the sky goes boom. It’s as if the world has come to an end: Walt’s world, Jesse’s world, Donald’s world, and by extension, that of all those innocent victims in the sky, unwilling collateral damage to Walt’s misadventures in crime, a moral abyss that was only intended to fend for his now-fractured family. I can’t remember the last emotional cliffhanger that left me this shaken.

A week from now, I’ll be writing about the return of Showtime’s Weeds, and it can’t help but pale in comparison to this modern masterpiece of twisted redemption and corruption. I’m haunted by questions about what will happen to Walt and everyone else. Thankfully, this is cable, and regardless of what a tough sell Breaking Bad is for many, we’ll get more of this story next year. I’m almost afraid to watch, and that’s a good thing.

I do. I love it. Do you think the Walt let Jane die to save Jessie or to save himself from blackmail? I felt it was to save Jessie.

So, when done right, I enjoy the "capers". If they're funny... I'd like them more if they led to more serious consequences down the road. My favorite primetime show right now, Breaking Bad, could be claimed to have started with a little caper. ("Let's cook some crystal meth to make some extra cash"). But the show now shows how lives have just utterly spiraled out of control from that caper and its explosions.

I'm not sure about this. I expected the show to be written as a caper, but almost from the start the show showed how ugly the drug trade can be. Wasn't it an early episode that we went into Jeffery Duhmer style acid territory? I mean, Walt and Jessie didn't eat their victim, but still!! I also think it's interesting that Walt wants to be a drug dealer at this point. I don't think he has any intention of stopping, even though he's rich as Croesus at this point.

I do. I love it. Do you think the Walt let Jane die to save Jessie or to save himself from blackmail? I felt it was to save Jessie.

I'm not sure about this. I expected the show to be written as a caper, but almost from the start the show showed how ugly the drug trade can be. Wasn't it an early episode that we went into Jeffery Duhmer style acid territory? I mean, Walt and Jessie didn't eat their victim, but still!! I also think it's interesting that Walt wants to be a drug dealer at this point. I don't think he has any intention of stopping, even though he's rich as Croesus at this point.

The whole point of the show, now, is that Walt is responsible for HUNDREDS of deaths. Jane (and I think it was a combination of the reasons you gave...but mostly so he -- Walt -- wouldn't lose Jesse) is just one. There was Tuco (sp?) and his relatives/colleagues. There's all the secondary victims in the drug trade (like the street dealer who got shot on the corner, the crack addict whose head got squished by an ATM, and the oodles we haven't seen). And now, of course, there are two PLANELOADS of passengers.

So, to save ONE LIFE (Walter's), thousands will die. Yet Walter can't stop.

The irony is that he's very hateful and dark at the core. He resents his rich friend. He's filled with anger and entitlement, and it's really to say a big "F-you" to the world that he is doing all this.

I think Skylar has to die, and soon...or she's going to to tell her her brother-in-law...and he's going to put some pieces together.

Also, now that the manage of El Pollo Loco knows Walt's identity, I think Walt is endangered...more death.

You're right...this isn't a great example of "caper". (Weeds is a much better example of a caper-like light touch on the same topic area). But my point was just that what starts as small, victimless crimes (whether played for laughs or not) can mushroom into the living hell we're watching now. And I love it . (I was accused last night, after LOVING Breaking Bad, of having a "very dark soul". But I just love that show).

I guess I have a dark soul because I love it as well. Walt is a hard character to understand. When he allowed Walt Jr. to drink to the point of illness, I didn't know what to make of that. Is Walt so angry and bitter because he had repressed himself for so long? I'm not sure i get some of his motivations. But I did understand when he let Jane die. I think he was right that she would have taken Jessie down with her in no time flat. Her poor father though. When he was picking out her funeral dress.

I guess I have a dark soul because I love it as well. Walt is a hard character to understand. When he allowed Walt Jr. to drink to the point of illness, I didn't know what to make of that. Is Walt so angry and bitter because he had repressed himself for so long? I'm not sure i get some of his motivations. But I did understand when he let Jane die. I think he was right that she would have taken Jessie down with her in no time flat. Her poor father though. When he was picking out her funeral dress.

Good one. WHY did Walt let Walter Jr. (now Flynn????) drink to the point of vomit?? He was ADAMANT that his son drink. I think, for a moment, because he himself was drunk, Walter was showing how much he resented his family...he feels they are part of the trap that took him away from fame and fortune in industry with his chemistry.

My favorite bit of the season was actually light, though. When Tuco's stroke-addled grandfather started ringing the bell! Amazing sh!t

I think Skylar has to die, and soon...or she's going to to tell her her brother-in-law...and he's going to put some pieces together.

I wonder how long the producers see this show going? I'd like to keep Skye around one more season at least. I think she brings such a good contrast to the situation. She's such a good solid person. The scene last night where she was going "come on $2,800!" when Flynn's website kept dinging, there was something so innocent about their joy. Meanwhile Walt has a million dollars in drug money stashed away. I wonder if those contributions were real or was the lawyer laundering the drug money? That wasn't clear to me.

Some of my favorite parts of the show is when the teacher in Walt comes out. He really is like every science teacher I've ever known in that aspect. He's so happy when he's explaining things and he thinks Jessie is going to get the science behind it. Then when he doesn't Walt gets pissed. Like the scenes where they were stuck in the desert and Jessie is going on about making robots and go carts.

Their current distributor freaks me out. He is obviously much more dangerous than Tuco ever dreamed of being. Now he knows Walt's BIL works for the DEA. That does not bode well.

Edited June 1, 200916 yr by Juliajms

If daytime soaps could take one look at the primetime soaps like this and Nip/Tuck and just give us half as good as characters that these shows have - daytime soaps could still be saved.

Daytime soaps just don't try anymore at all.

Daytime used to be the ones that like to take risks but all they do is now play it safe, and just like MAB (who I still love) it just seems they go around reading the message boards and write the stories that it seems the fans want to see. Everything MAB has done seems like doing a 1,2,3 list of undoing the problems that the fans on message boards have a problem with.

IN the meantime I would much rather them work on the characters and repairing the damage done to them - not just Y&R but all soaps.

One thing that sets Breaking Bad apart for me is the characters - the acting too - but I love all the characters. They are all so well defined. And the show is not afraid to take risks with the things they allow the characters to do - like Walt with the drinking for his son. Strange that even after that I didn't really hate Walt. Not sure why because it was a bad thing, but even with all the bad stuff he does there always seems to be some motivation. So I just sit back and wait for it.

One thing that sets Breaking Bad apart for me is the characters - the acting too - but I love all the characters. They are all so well defined. And the show is not afraid to take risks with the things they allow the characters to do - like Walt with the drinking for his son. Strange that even after that I didn't really hate Walt. Not sure why because it was a bad thing, but even with all the bad stuff he does there always seems to be some motivation. So I just sit back and wait for it.

I didn't either. Watching Walt change into this new person is fascinating. Partially because his motivations aren't always cut and dried. For example, why was he so angry when he found out his tumor had shrunk? Some of what he is doing seems about control. Maybe he felt like for most of his life he's been a bitch to circumstances and now he wants to have the power. Some of the sex scenes with his wife suggest that. Also that seems to be part of why he keeps Jessie around "He does what I say".

I think he wants control but in nothing he has it. He can't even control his feelings about his tumor.

I can relate to that in a certain way with my health problems. You reach a point even when things don't look good and you are dealing with something bad, even a change to the good disrupts it. You through months and months trying to come to terms with it and relate to it, and then bam it all changes again - even if it is for the better - you still get mad.

So yes I agree about the power part. He wants the power but Walt really never has it. So with sex or whatever he latches on to any bit of power he can get over things - because basically he doesn't have any at all.

Great insight Steve. I had never thought of it from that direction. I was thinking of it more from the prespective that his illness gave him a certain freedom from an ordinary life he seems to hate. He thought he was going to die, so he doesn't have to play by the rules anymore. Somehow it didn't occur to me that the illness contributes to the lack of control he has over things.

Great insight Steve. I had never thought of it from that direction. I was thinking of it more from the prespective that his illness gave him a certain freedom from an ordinary life he seems to hate. He thought he was going to die, so he doesn't have to play by the rules anymore. Somehow it didn't occur to me that the illness contributes to the lack of control he has over things.

Absolutely.

A big part of this story is existentialism. "I'm going to die...I obviously don't believe in an immortal soul...so I want to set up things for my family...and I don't really have any ethical compunction about how I achieve it."

At some level, this logic works. He's dying, and he's trying to do good for his survivors. ("Does the end justify the means??").

Now, though, he is faced with a real prospect of long-term survival. All the treatment studies say that if you can get a doctor to do a lung resection (which they will only do when they think there is a decent chance for salvageable lung at the end of it), that is your best prospect for survival. In real life, I think he'd continue to have chemo post-op as well.

So, while it is still unlikely that he will make it to old age, it is more likely that he might live longer than 6 months. Now, he might have to face consequences.

For me, the BEST ending for this show would be that Walter is "cured"...he is expected to live till old age. And he is then sentenced to either the death penalty or life in prison. Either of those ironic endings would be beautiful.

So, to save ONE LIFE (Walter's), thousands will die. Yet Walter can't stop.

I was thinking about this last night and really none of what Walt is doing is necessary to save him. He could have just taken the money from Gretchen and Elliott, but his ego got in the way. He's even balking at taking charity raised from Flynn's website because of his ego. Notice how pissed he was getting at each additional "ding". Wouldn't it be something if the website gets enough legit donations to save the day.

I was thinking about this last night and really none of what Walt is doing is necessary to save him. He could have just taken the money from Gretchen and Elliott, but his ego got in the way. He's even balking at taking charity raised from Flynn's website because of his ego. Notice how pissed he was getting at each additional "ding". Wouldn't it be something if the website gets enough legit donations to save the day.

Bam!

And it seems that Walter's separation from Gretchen and Elliott, all those years ago, was even then based on pride and jealousy.

Walt's a HUGE loser. It is really quite a thing to base a show around a guy like this...

Does anyone here watch Breaking Bad. I'm still literally aquiver from last night's stunning ending.

I just finished watching it! At first I was like, "Okay, two planes crashing into each other is big....but it didn't mean anything." But then of course, like you guys, I thought, "Walt's resonsible for that," because of Jane's death - which I was also stunned with. I couldn't believe Walt just let her die. It was such a riveting scene.

What a performance. His first Emmy a year ago was a big surprise. This year, he has to be taken seriously again as a contender.

I loved BC on Malcolm In The Middle and thought he should've won an Emmy there, so I was definitely happy when he won one last year, but I didn't know why/how he won it since I wasn't watching the show. But now I see why. BC is so incredible. I hope he wins in again this year. I can't of anyone who could beat him.

I hope Aaron Paul gets a Supporting nod because he's really good too.

I love Walt's relationship with Jessie and how it's grown to this father-son type relationship. Awesome development throughout seasons 1 and 2.

One thing that sets Breaking Bad apart for me is the characters - the acting too - but I love all the characters. They are all so well defined. And the show is not afraid to take risks with the things they allow the characters to do - like Walt with the drinking for his son. Strange that even after that I didn't really hate Walt. Not sure why because it was a bad thing, but even with all the bad stuff he does there always seems to be some motivation. So I just sit back and wait for it.

I agree. I love most of the characters, especially Walt, Jesse and Hank.

Like the scenes where they were stuck in the desert and Jessie is going on about making robots and go carts

That's what I love about this show too - its humour.

Walt: I'm going to make the thing you just said.

Jesse: You're going to make a robot?

My favorite bit of the season was actually light, though. When Tuco's stroke-addled grandfather started ringing the bell! Amazing sh!t

Those scenes were so good because it was funny and intense at the same time.

The writing and acting on this show is so superb. I'm so glad I started watching.