Season 5 Episode 14
By Alex Newcomer
With
only two episodes left, most shows would save fireworks for the grand finale,
but if we have learned anything from this strange journey, @BreakingBad is not just another show. It is the
show. Bad continues to shatter the archetypes of what television shows
have been and are largely expected to be.
The title of this show, Ozymandias,
is the title of a poem written in the early nineteenth century by Percy Shelley
that was inspired by a statue of Ramses and basically spoke to the inevitable
decline of all leaders and empires, no matter how mighty they were. A very fitting title for this installment as
Walt is beginning to see the hinges come off of his recent plans (or lack
thereof). The episode starts with a flashback to when Walt and Jesse cooked
their first batch of meth in the desert.
Walt takes a break to call Skyler, and it is a really nice conversation,
and serves to remind the audience of the normal loving relationship they used
to have. Flash forward to the desert with
the shootout in progress and all sense of normalcy is lost.
The
gunfire ceases stop and when the dust settles Hank has been shot in the leg,
but is still alive and out of ammo. Hank
surveys the situation and sees his Gomez dead, and crawls over to try and get
his shotgun. Jack beats him to it and
steps on the gun, preventing Hank from picking it up and points his gun at Hank’s
head. Walt, still handcuffed in the SUV,
starts yelling at Jack to not kill Hank.
When Walt gets out of the car and sees Jack has a gun pointed at Hank’s
head, Walt is transformed back into himself before the cancer, a nerdy high
school chemistry teacher who is in way over his head. Walt tries to no avail to bargain for Hank’s
life, even offering the $80 million he tells Jack he has buried. Hank goes out with a very noble death,
telling Walt he is not going to beg for his life, and that Jack had already
made up his mind to kill him ten minutes ago.
The timing on this was crazy, I always expected at least one scene in
the show where Walt would really break down in front of Hank and repent to him,
but that moment was lost, and Walt came crumbling down to the ground after Hank
is shot in the head, reality finally sinking in for him. Lost in the shuffle of this scene is the
death of Gomez, who in any other episode would have stolen the show, but he was
an afterthought in this one, and I hope the show honors Gomez but showing his
wife or family in grieving in one of the final two episodes.
With
Walt collapsed in mourning on the ground, at some point he must have seen Jesse
hiding under his car. In the meantime,
Jack has a theory about the coordinates and his crew digs at the precise GPS
location Walt provided, and they quickly find all of the barrels full of money
Walt had painstakingly hidden. At the
behest of Todd, Jack leaves Walt one of the seven barrels (approx $11 million) and
goes to shake hands to make things right, and then Walt tells him that they
still owe him Pinkman. At this point Walt
reveals Jesse’s position and gives the head nod to have him shot. At the last second Todd says he wants to take
Jesse back to interrogate him to see what he has told the Feds, and as Jesse is
being taken away Walt tells him that he was there when Jane died and could have
saved her, but did not. In another shrewd
move by Todd, he saves Pinkman to learn what the DEA knows, and he is also able
to motivate Jesse to cook meth with him by hanging a picture of Andrea and
Brock in plain sight.
Todd is using Jesse’s knowledge to cook
a pure batch of meth to perhaps please Lydia, who has been consistently concerned
about the purity (and trademark blue color) of Todd’s previous attempts. With his uncle fresh off pulling in a cool
$70 million from Walt, it is clear money is not Todd’s primary concern (refusing
money from Walt after a botched batch); it’s got to be the promise of power or
approval from Lydia. A romance with
Lydia clearly preoccupied his mind during their last meeting, but there’s not
enough episodes left for a courtship so something else must be at play
here. Lydia seems to sense the control
she exerts over Todd, so she might use her sway to force him into doing her
bidding, however sinister it turns over to be.
Todd is a dangerous character, has no qualms about killing as he did to
the kid on the dirt bike. Yet even with all of the bad deeds he has done
and the company he keeps, he still has a heart and seems to be a people pleaser
even though he is cunning, young, and has the muscle and money to back him
up. Todd learned tremendously from his
time with Walt and he seems to try to emulate Walt, which may have him getting
into the meth game to allow for a break with his uncle and go into business for
himself and have everyone else play by his rules.
After
Skyler is confronted by Marie at the carwash, she has visibly changed, she is
no longer just going to be the accomplice in this, and after telling Walt Jr. what
has happened and facing some harsh words from him, she knows the time to change
is now. It comes to a head when Walt
comes home and will not tell he what happened to Hank. Skyler, eyes on fire holds Walt at knifepoint
demanding that he leaves the house. At
that moment, it becomes crystal clear that Skyler finally sees Walt for the
demon he has become and tries to exorcise him from the house. Walt, blinded by his ego, still thinks that
this is his family, advances toward
Skyler and she slashes him with a knife, cutting open his hand. Walt wrestles Skyler to the ground, gains
control of the knife and is on top of her when Walt Jr. jumps on top and tears
him off. Walt, still somehow baffled by
all this stares at Walt Jr. as he calls the police to tell that what Walt has
done. Walt, enraged by this perceived treachery,
takes Holly and leaves the house. Walt
calls Skyler from the road, telling her that she has crossed him and he will
not stand for it and had to teach her a lesson, confirming Hank is dead to the
police at the house as well. Walt then leaves
Holly at the fire station where she will be found and tells Skyler that he
cannot come home as he has more work to do.
Walt is seen waiting at the spot
for Saul’s man who makes people disappear with his luggage and lone remaining barrel. The red minivan stops, and Walt loads his
stuff in and the car takes off. During
the flashback at the beginning of the season, Walt is shown with a full head of
hair going back into his old house to get the ricin poison he hid in a light
socket. So presumably, after a year away
he comes back and wants to poison someone, but who gets it? One vial of ricin does not seem to be close
to enough to get rid of the Aryan brotherhood, but maybe the dose is for Todd
or Lydia. Those are both likely choices,
but my best bet for the ricin is Skyler.
She knows enough of his inner dealings to try and take him down, and
after their final confrontation, and with the knowledge that he was involved in
Hank’s death she seems poised for vengeance, tired of being passive and knows
that action has to be taken to protect that family from both Walt and Walt’s
vast slew of enemies. To get a
conviction, Skyler most likely would need to help of a corroborator, which
could only be Saul or Jesse, with the latter being more likely as Saul has
innumerable misdealing’s with the law and would be less likely to cooperate.
