Summary: The final batch of Breaking Bad continues by throwing out big revelations in the least intense ways possible, but works by making the aftermath all the more interesting.
If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, tread lightly.
Review
For five seasons, we’ve been patiently waiting for the shoe to drop. What intense, creative, and dramatic way will Walt’s secrets be revealed to his family and the world at large? Skyler steadily uncovered the truth fairly early in the show, but how the revelation would bestow itself on Hank, Marie and Walter Jr. has been dangling there since day one.
It’s quite brilliant that Breaking Bad has thus far managed to overcome the high expectations by utterly undercutting the tension. Hank found out while sitting on the toilet. Marie found out this week completely offscreen, technically. There might not have ever been a way to fully live up to five years of speculation and expectation, so the show leaps over it all as much as possible to skip to the aftermath. And it’s that aftermath that propels “Buried.”
Betsy Brandt as Marie has been a character that’s meant to embody obnoxious neurosis, often as comic relief, so it’s refreshing to finally get to see her entwined in the action. We saw shades of her pathos when dealing with Hank’s invalidity seasons prior, but the pieces have now shifted substantially. What began as a schism between family is now two distinct factions: Walt and Skyler vs. Hank and Marie. We had to know it would lead to a variation of this eventually, but that the show placed so much emphasis on the sister vs. sister concept is a welcome surprise. It’s especially entertaining considering how Marie has always been a seemingly disposable character, but with the truth exposed now, her place on the show might turn out to be invaluable in the long run.
The scene between Marie and Skyler, in particular, is the standout this week. That Skyler never says a single word is what makes it work, and Betsy Brant manages to carry the scene with finesse. Marie was able to figure it all by simply connecting the dots on the entire show’s worth of lies, topping it off by deducing that Skyler knew the truth in the days before Hank being shot and crippled. She never mentioned anything specifically about Hank’s injuries, but she didn’t need to–that arc has become the defining moment for the couple, and it’s paying off here.
This episode might be a defining moment for Skyler, too. The “Am I under arrest” bit certainly didn’t do the character any favors, and fans who lean toward supreme hatred of Skyler were probably in for a treat, as she was, admittedly, very unlikeable. The uncertainty in her decisions is what makes it still fit in well, though. The question is whether Skyler’s decisions are coming from an underlying love for Walt, the desire to keep the money, or the love for her family. And at this point, it isn’t clear; there’s certainly been love lost for Walt over the course for the show, but they were married for years before the show started and Walt went on his downward slide. Last week, she was extremely defensive of her new life; it wouldn’t be out of the question to assume that means she’s happy to have her old Walt back. But then again, she has power now, too, and is in substantially more control of the money than ever before. The show is having fun with bouncing the ideas around now, calling back to Skyler’s declaration that she was waiting for the cancer to kill Walt. She doesn’t say whether or not she still wants that, but her rebuttal that she can’t remember the last time she was happy indicates that the depths to which she’s sunk are irreparable.
Dean Norris sure is looking old these days, isn’t he? No disrespect meant, though; in fact, his physicality these past two weeks have been mesmerizing. Norris has been good at the contemplative stares and comic relief stuff since day one, but he’s brought it to a whole new level post-revelation. The very idea of Walt being Heisenberg has visibly drained him and broken his confidence, and you can see it in his eyes and face. It takes a lot for an actor to exude a certain state of mind even when he’s not doing or saying anything. Norris also had Hank be much softer and slightly broken during his scene in the restaurant with Skyler, which highlighted Skyler’s harsh resistance even more clearly.
Everyone seemed to be playing things a bit differently this week, actually. It wasn’t in such a way that the actors or characters seemed off, but rather these situations have changed them remarkably in a short amount of time. Walt has softened up substantially since his retirement last year, and suddenly he’s playing more like his season 1-2 self when talking with Saul about murder. It’s hard to watch, actually; the man who has done such horrific things in the past couple of seasons is back to playing up innocence and even ignorance, simply because he isn’t being horrible anymore. It’s the lack of repentance that strikes the biggest chord; he’s just gone on with his life, hoping Skyler will pity him for his cancer and taking offense to Saul giving advice Heisenberg would have suggested not long ago. Having to bury the very money he worked so hard for might have been some kind of penance, as is the cancer–but does he really feel that way? That Shakespearean flaw that’s already destroyed his life, pride, is still keeping him from doing the right thing–whatever that may be at this point–and that’s likely what will lead him to the 52nd birthday we’ve seen in flashforwards. What’s going to happen until we get there is up in the air, but one thing is certain: the war has begun. For real this time.
Odds & Ends
- The Walt/Skyler/Hank/Marie dynamic is so strong that it overshines the other things that happen in this episode, but aren’t terribly engaging. Todd’s back, and does the “seemingly nice sociopath” schtick, Lydia is entertainingly neurotic but has a heart of stone, and the dudes from “Say My Name” die because they aren’t as good as Heisenberg. It’ll surely lead to something, but it’s not much yet.
- The cliffhanger, with Hank going in to interrogate Jesse, was definitely one of the better quiet ones. The lack of Aaron Paul was a smart way to divert attention from him being a possible trump card. This is the most forward momentum we’ve had right at the top of the season since probably season 2.
- Other parallels: Skyler barely talking when both Hank and Marie plead to her, and Walt barely talking as Skyler pleads to him. There might be a whole thing in this show where people don’t communicate very well.
- The “Am I under arrest?!” bit was definitely memorable, but I still don’t get why Skyler couldn’t make a case to Hank that she was afraid of being taken in as an accomplice without a lawyer. He might have complied if she explained it a bit better, even if they were all still lies.
- Another undercut revelation is Skyler finding out the cancer is back. She’d been presumably waiting for quite a while to hear this news, only for it to come at the worst possible moment.
- Saul’s goons lying on the bed of money? Priceless. We’d all do it.
- Baby Holly’s screaming was awful, horrifying, scary, and perfect for such a tense scene.
- Marie’s response to going to work after finding out her brother-in-law is a murdering drug overlord and her sister kept the secrets that got her husband crippled: “You’re kidding, right?”
- “You have to get him.” Marie gets the best, yet most simple and understated, lines this week.
- Not to be that guy, but…where was Walter Jr. throughout all of this?
