Thoughts on Breaking Bad 'Gliding Over All' Episode
I've just finished watching this episode, and my thoughts (below the cut) follow:
Talk about your wham episodes!
When I was watching it last night, I kept waiting for a ball to drop. I knew the prison guys would get killed (this was hinted heavily in the trailer, as well as Walt demanding the nine names off Lydia), but I was totally expecting someone else to die - Skyler, Hank, maybe even Jesse.
But anyway, before I get to that, I wanna review some stuff I noticed or really liked.
There's Todd calling out "Mr. White" again. The writers must have deliberately used this, to show Todd trying to ingratiate himself, replace Jesse in Walt's eyes in every way. Slash writers, fire up your engines. :P
The writers call back to previous eps, having Walt tell Todd to refer to an "RV job". Walt's developed himself quite the little criminal network, hasn't he? In a fic I wrote I talked of a "new empire" rising on the ruins of Gus's, and it's definitely true. Walt is cutting himself loose of all his old ties, and in doing so clearing the path to the riches he deems as his by right.
Todd seems to be fascinated by death and destruction, since he expresses fascination with "turning a car into a cube".
R.I.P. Mike Ehrmantraut, you ornery old bastard.
Man can't even get a proper funeral. Jane at least got one. :(
There is no more "we", Jesse. :( Mr. White has cut you loose.
Oh, sure. Close the door on him. Dickbag.
The way Walt closes the garage door with that air of finality really kind of "seals the deal", I think, for Jesse. He's realizing that Mr. White doesn't care about him anymore. And just as fic writers have picked at and prodded over, we'll see that Jesse doesn't lash out; he retreats inward and probably wonders what he could have done differently, maybe even blaming himself.
Meanwhile, the "nine" are falling all over themselves to 'fess up now that the DEA's grabbed the money (again) and this time there's no Mike Ehrmantraut to bail them out. Hank's in charge, and he knows it.
Fussy Lydia! But she seems more confident this time as she talks to Walter. NGL, she's kinda hot. :P
(Aside: Here's Walter in full Heisenberg mode.
Incidentally, as far as I know, he has never told her his name, and she hasn't gone to the trouble of finding out.)
Also, cynical Lydia is cynical. She points out she could just be another "loose end" for Walter, but manages to turn it around so she becomes an asset! Talk about one smart, brazen lady. Mercenary as all hell, too. Poor Jesse in my little headcanon doesn't stand a chance against her. :P
She's also pretty damn sharp. She catches on to the undercurrents and suspects maybe Mike hasn't just disappeared - that maybe he's dead. Also, she refers to Gus Fring, and it's clear she suspects she's in front of the man's killer. Given that, her strategy has to be to maximize her value, rather than make a quiet exit for the shadows.
BAM! Czech Republic sales market! Wheeeew.
And she reveals a little more about Gus Fring's empire, and how part of it was based on using Madrigal's shipment network, not just the Pollos Hermanos trucks, to ship to destinations outside the Pollos Hermanos region of the American Southwest. The strange thing is, Mike never knew about that part. This makes me wonder now if Gus practiced a better form of compartmentalization than Walt is engaging in, since Lydia knows who Jesse is, if not Todd, while Declan also knows about Jesse (and more importantly, that he can cook just as well as Walter).
This also raises the tantalizing question of whether Madrigal is increasingly becoming a front for a drug empire, akin to how the car wash has become Walt's front for laundering money. This would explain Schuler and Fring; perhaps the aspiring young chicken restaurant owner was approached by Madrigal originally for an infusion of funds to expand into a rapidly growing American market, and Fring saw the possibilities and carefully sounded out Schuler to conduct a kind of 'reverse expansion', growing his meth market internationally.
Fascinating stuff. Just fascinating. The possibilities abound!
Also, oddly, Walter hasn't shown much of an interest in women besides Skyler, but in this episode I could swear he was checking her out, especially when she leans over so you can see down her shirt a bit. An affair between Walter and Lydia would only be a huge disaster, I think!
The way they shake hands is a little unusual, but I suspect it may be due to Lydia's exposure to European customs (She's finicky enough to want some kind of weird tea when she first meets Mike, for example - so I assume she's used to eating and drinking in Europe as well as in the USA).
"We're gonna make a lot of money together." - Tuco Salamanca (Season 1) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Season 5)
At least Lydia isn't an ax crazy person who beats their underlings to death at the slightest provocation, I'll say that for her. Incidentally, it's interesting how Lydia gets more excited over the way she routes and plans than upset over contract killings that will likely take place.
HOLY CRAP HE HAD THE RICIN WITH HIM! There's been considerable debate about whether he tried poisoning Lydia, but given that the vial still seems quite full, he didn't go ahead with it. But I highly suspect that Walter is counting the days until he has no use for Lydia, and then bammo, she's gone.
Someone on Reddit once made a joke and called Todd "Ricky Hitler". I even sarcastically used it to refer to Todd when I first saw him in this episode, but little did I know how true that was! Todd's uncle is buddies with a couple of hard-core Nazis, apparently.
Anyway, they plan the executions, and it's montage time, showing how, as Walter times them with his watch, they all get done within a couple of minutes in a rather macabrely beautiful song and dance.
The other thing is that Hank is now stalemated, if not checkmated, and the toll it takes on him is clear as he exhaustedly comes home, pours out some drinks for him and Walt, and reminisces.
"Tagging trees is a lot better than chasing monsters." - Hank Schrader
You have no idea, Hank. No. Idea.
It's kind of glossed over, I think, but Walter White is now a mass murderer, even if he didn't do the acts himself. By law, however, he originated, counselled, and paid for these killings. That makes him just as guilty, and if we hadn't already been rocked by the way Walt got enraged and killed Mike in a fit of anger, or the way Walt so callously tried to cajole and manipulate Jesse, I think this would really qualify as an "unforgivable" act - the 'prophylactic measure' Mike counselled Lydia against.
The second extended montage sequence is a masterpiece of intercuts between scenes. Starting with Walter's smash cut into his yellow suit, followed by scene after scene of him and Todd making meth and stacking oodles of money, we also get some interesting homages along the way.
Remind anybody of the Pollos Hermanos montages, where the meth was placed in those specially marked buckets?
Then Marie points out, three months later, that maybe it's time to really put the family back together. Skyler goes out to the pool, I admit I thought Skyler was going to for sure kill herself this time. Until I saw Walt was already there.
My first reaction to this?
DAMN.
This is the ultimate goal. If anything, this proves that all Walt's labors have finally come to fruition. He's really "won", if one can call a battle in his own mind a win. Skyler can't even launder this much money. She's stopped counting!
I've seen people try to estimate that much money. If your average stack of fifties is like, half an inch high, and the pile comes up to Walt's thighs, then that's maybe a three-foot high stack by say five feet by five feet. A real rough ballpark estimate is that Walt's racked up a hundred million dollars.
All she wants is her family back: "How big does this pile have to be?"
Another homage is to the pilot, when we see Walter under the MRI again. Only this time, the camera revolves around from him being "upside down" to "right side up". I've seen it suggested that in a sense, Walt has done, or will do, a "one-eighty", a total turnaround.
That's true. He went from Walter White to Heisenberg, turning from a basically decent man to a callous monster. But even underneath the desensitization, the "shit happens", there's still something of Walter White left behind. His spasm of regret at killing Mike, his holding back of the ricin when meeting Lydia - just maybe there's a chance left yet. Maybe Scarface hasn't totally replaced Mr. Chips.
And in a shocking turn of events, he finally does right by Jesse! He gives his one-time partner the $5 million. What's interesting is how rattled Jesse is by Walt's presence, and given the phrase "I am the one who knocks", as well as the heavy knocking, Jesse's not totally wrong to be worried.
Interestingly enough, Jesse has basically retreated into himself, into his turtle-shell, as it were. He's thrown out his cell phones, disconnected his land-line. He's just marking time, existing from day to day. It's as I mentioned above: Jesse doesn't lash out. He just doesn't seem to want to do that, at least not to Mr. White. Anyone else, though? Gladly. He bashes Todd one in the face, he even shoots Gale on Walt's orders. But attack Mr. White?
No, he won't.
Oh, god, this scene. The first time, I seriously thought that was a body bag Jesse was going to open up.
And the penultimate scene: "I'm out."
If the season ended right now, right here, it'd feel like a bit of a cheat. Where's the Scarface? The man who has gone past the point of no return? The man who's so totally alienated everyone he's got no choice but to go out guns blazing?
Indeed, this scene seems positively idyllic, doesn't it?
Yet, when I watched this, I was so nervous. Was the ball finally gonna drop? Was there going to be a horrible accident, which Walt aids and abets somehow, just like with Jane Margolis? Was he going to take an active part, like with killing Mike?
Nope.
There's the truly final scene. It starts out so simply: Hank needs to use the bathroom. Like many people, he likes to read while he's in there. Only Walter White did something really stupid. Remember this book?
Guess where it is after Hank grabs the magazines:
By now the ohshitohshitOHSHIT is practically humming all over the world as everybody wonders if Hank will get curious...
BUSTED!
Cue Hank's flashback to his joking banter with Walter White about Gale Boetticher, and the final, penultimate wham moment of the series to date!
Walter White is Heisenberg!
This series. Damn! Tight tight tight, I tell ya. And now we've gotta wait a year for the final eight episodes! Just dayum. *shakes head*
The fanficcers are gonna go wild over this for sure, and I plan to join in my small way. :) See y'all around!
Talk about your wham episodes!
When I was watching it last night, I kept waiting for a ball to drop. I knew the prison guys would get killed (this was hinted heavily in the trailer, as well as Walt demanding the nine names off Lydia), but I was totally expecting someone else to die - Skyler, Hank, maybe even Jesse.
But anyway, before I get to that, I wanna review some stuff I noticed or really liked.
There's Todd calling out "Mr. White" again. The writers must have deliberately used this, to show Todd trying to ingratiate himself, replace Jesse in Walt's eyes in every way. Slash writers, fire up your engines. :P
The writers call back to previous eps, having Walt tell Todd to refer to an "RV job". Walt's developed himself quite the little criminal network, hasn't he? In a fic I wrote I talked of a "new empire" rising on the ruins of Gus's, and it's definitely true. Walt is cutting himself loose of all his old ties, and in doing so clearing the path to the riches he deems as his by right.
Todd seems to be fascinated by death and destruction, since he expresses fascination with "turning a car into a cube".
R.I.P. Mike Ehrmantraut, you ornery old bastard.
Man can't even get a proper funeral. Jane at least got one. :(
There is no more "we", Jesse. :( Mr. White has cut you loose.
Oh, sure. Close the door on him. Dickbag.
The way Walt closes the garage door with that air of finality really kind of "seals the deal", I think, for Jesse. He's realizing that Mr. White doesn't care about him anymore. And just as fic writers have picked at and prodded over, we'll see that Jesse doesn't lash out; he retreats inward and probably wonders what he could have done differently, maybe even blaming himself.
Meanwhile, the "nine" are falling all over themselves to 'fess up now that the DEA's grabbed the money (again) and this time there's no Mike Ehrmantraut to bail them out. Hank's in charge, and he knows it.
Fussy Lydia! But she seems more confident this time as she talks to Walter. NGL, she's kinda hot. :P
(Aside: Here's Walter in full Heisenberg mode.
Incidentally, as far as I know, he has never told her his name, and she hasn't gone to the trouble of finding out.)
Also, cynical Lydia is cynical. She points out she could just be another "loose end" for Walter, but manages to turn it around so she becomes an asset! Talk about one smart, brazen lady. Mercenary as all hell, too. Poor Jesse in my little headcanon doesn't stand a chance against her. :P
She's also pretty damn sharp. She catches on to the undercurrents and suspects maybe Mike hasn't just disappeared - that maybe he's dead. Also, she refers to Gus Fring, and it's clear she suspects she's in front of the man's killer. Given that, her strategy has to be to maximize her value, rather than make a quiet exit for the shadows.
BAM! Czech Republic sales market! Wheeeew.
And she reveals a little more about Gus Fring's empire, and how part of it was based on using Madrigal's shipment network, not just the Pollos Hermanos trucks, to ship to destinations outside the Pollos Hermanos region of the American Southwest. The strange thing is, Mike never knew about that part. This makes me wonder now if Gus practiced a better form of compartmentalization than Walt is engaging in, since Lydia knows who Jesse is, if not Todd, while Declan also knows about Jesse (and more importantly, that he can cook just as well as Walter).
This also raises the tantalizing question of whether Madrigal is increasingly becoming a front for a drug empire, akin to how the car wash has become Walt's front for laundering money. This would explain Schuler and Fring; perhaps the aspiring young chicken restaurant owner was approached by Madrigal originally for an infusion of funds to expand into a rapidly growing American market, and Fring saw the possibilities and carefully sounded out Schuler to conduct a kind of 'reverse expansion', growing his meth market internationally.
Fascinating stuff. Just fascinating. The possibilities abound!
Also, oddly, Walter hasn't shown much of an interest in women besides Skyler, but in this episode I could swear he was checking her out, especially when she leans over so you can see down her shirt a bit. An affair between Walter and Lydia would only be a huge disaster, I think!
The way they shake hands is a little unusual, but I suspect it may be due to Lydia's exposure to European customs (She's finicky enough to want some kind of weird tea when she first meets Mike, for example - so I assume she's used to eating and drinking in Europe as well as in the USA).
"We're gonna make a lot of money together." - Tuco Salamanca (Season 1) and Lydia Rodarte-Quayle (Season 5)
At least Lydia isn't an ax crazy person who beats their underlings to death at the slightest provocation, I'll say that for her. Incidentally, it's interesting how Lydia gets more excited over the way she routes and plans than upset over contract killings that will likely take place.
HOLY CRAP HE HAD THE RICIN WITH HIM! There's been considerable debate about whether he tried poisoning Lydia, but given that the vial still seems quite full, he didn't go ahead with it. But I highly suspect that Walter is counting the days until he has no use for Lydia, and then bammo, she's gone.
Someone on Reddit once made a joke and called Todd "Ricky Hitler". I even sarcastically used it to refer to Todd when I first saw him in this episode, but little did I know how true that was! Todd's uncle is buddies with a couple of hard-core Nazis, apparently.
Anyway, they plan the executions, and it's montage time, showing how, as Walter times them with his watch, they all get done within a couple of minutes in a rather macabrely beautiful song and dance.
The other thing is that Hank is now stalemated, if not checkmated, and the toll it takes on him is clear as he exhaustedly comes home, pours out some drinks for him and Walt, and reminisces.
"Tagging trees is a lot better than chasing monsters." - Hank Schrader
You have no idea, Hank. No. Idea.
It's kind of glossed over, I think, but Walter White is now a mass murderer, even if he didn't do the acts himself. By law, however, he originated, counselled, and paid for these killings. That makes him just as guilty, and if we hadn't already been rocked by the way Walt got enraged and killed Mike in a fit of anger, or the way Walt so callously tried to cajole and manipulate Jesse, I think this would really qualify as an "unforgivable" act - the 'prophylactic measure' Mike counselled Lydia against.
The second extended montage sequence is a masterpiece of intercuts between scenes. Starting with Walter's smash cut into his yellow suit, followed by scene after scene of him and Todd making meth and stacking oodles of money, we also get some interesting homages along the way.
Remind anybody of the Pollos Hermanos montages, where the meth was placed in those specially marked buckets?
Then Marie points out, three months later, that maybe it's time to really put the family back together. Skyler goes out to the pool, I admit I thought Skyler was going to for sure kill herself this time. Until I saw Walt was already there.
My first reaction to this?
DAMN.
This is the ultimate goal. If anything, this proves that all Walt's labors have finally come to fruition. He's really "won", if one can call a battle in his own mind a win. Skyler can't even launder this much money. She's stopped counting!
I've seen people try to estimate that much money. If your average stack of fifties is like, half an inch high, and the pile comes up to Walt's thighs, then that's maybe a three-foot high stack by say five feet by five feet. A real rough ballpark estimate is that Walt's racked up a hundred million dollars.
All she wants is her family back: "How big does this pile have to be?"
Another homage is to the pilot, when we see Walter under the MRI again. Only this time, the camera revolves around from him being "upside down" to "right side up". I've seen it suggested that in a sense, Walt has done, or will do, a "one-eighty", a total turnaround.
That's true. He went from Walter White to Heisenberg, turning from a basically decent man to a callous monster. But even underneath the desensitization, the "shit happens", there's still something of Walter White left behind. His spasm of regret at killing Mike, his holding back of the ricin when meeting Lydia - just maybe there's a chance left yet. Maybe Scarface hasn't totally replaced Mr. Chips.
And in a shocking turn of events, he finally does right by Jesse! He gives his one-time partner the $5 million. What's interesting is how rattled Jesse is by Walt's presence, and given the phrase "I am the one who knocks", as well as the heavy knocking, Jesse's not totally wrong to be worried.
Interestingly enough, Jesse has basically retreated into himself, into his turtle-shell, as it were. He's thrown out his cell phones, disconnected his land-line. He's just marking time, existing from day to day. It's as I mentioned above: Jesse doesn't lash out. He just doesn't seem to want to do that, at least not to Mr. White. Anyone else, though? Gladly. He bashes Todd one in the face, he even shoots Gale on Walt's orders. But attack Mr. White?
No, he won't.
Oh, god, this scene. The first time, I seriously thought that was a body bag Jesse was going to open up.
And the penultimate scene: "I'm out."
If the season ended right now, right here, it'd feel like a bit of a cheat. Where's the Scarface? The man who has gone past the point of no return? The man who's so totally alienated everyone he's got no choice but to go out guns blazing?
Indeed, this scene seems positively idyllic, doesn't it?
Yet, when I watched this, I was so nervous. Was the ball finally gonna drop? Was there going to be a horrible accident, which Walt aids and abets somehow, just like with Jane Margolis? Was he going to take an active part, like with killing Mike?
Nope.
There's the truly final scene. It starts out so simply: Hank needs to use the bathroom. Like many people, he likes to read while he's in there. Only Walter White did something really stupid. Remember this book?
Guess where it is after Hank grabs the magazines:
By now the ohshitohshitOHSHIT is practically humming all over the world as everybody wonders if Hank will get curious...
BUSTED!
Cue Hank's flashback to his joking banter with Walter White about Gale Boetticher, and the final, penultimate wham moment of the series to date!
Walter White is Heisenberg!
This series. Damn! Tight tight tight, I tell ya. And now we've gotta wait a year for the final eight episodes! Just dayum. *shakes head*
The fanficcers are gonna go wild over this for sure, and I plan to join in my small way. :) See y'all around!