Summary: In the penultimate episode, Walt faces the consequences of his actions in excruciatingly slow, quiet and lonely detail. Don’t worry, he’s pulled back from the brink just in time for the finale. Where exactly he’s been pulled back to is still up in the air.
If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, tread lightly.
Review
What could follow up on “Ozymandias”? That episode thrived on its utter relentlessness, and considering this still isn’t the series finale, there would be no way to up the intensity without seeming disingenuous. So things slow down, but not enough to truly kill the momentum and certainly not enough to feel like a breather. What we get, ultimately, is the tried-and-true “set-up” episode, where lots of pieces move into place and will look better in retrospect by its nature. The back half of this season has managed to avoid whole set-up episodes in favor of a fairly breakneck pace, but it was needed in this case considering where last week left us.
Set-up episodes face an uphill battle, often either having to forgo having much of a plot so the meat can be saved for the finale, or alternatively, packing in too much plot to move things where they need to be. “Granite State” treads closely to being a little too slow, but it manages to still pull off a solid hour by throwing in a handful of great–and devastating–moments. And more importantly, it accomplished a lot without feeling overstuffed.
Jesse arguably has it the worst this week, and it doesn’t improve. The events of “Ozymandias” might have made some numb to more horror, but forcing Jesse to watch the death of Andrea is still as devastating as anything that happened last week. Aaron Paul played the frazzled, tired and broken Jesse with an equally raspy, beaten voice, and was stellar in his grueling last scene, watching Andrea die. Of course, as usual, Jesse gets very close to escaping in a fairly ingenious way, only for his own impulsiveness and lack of foresight to bring him down.
Todd still remains an enigma to the show, but we’re getting more clarification on his motivations, sort of. His creepy touching of Lydia’s lipstick a couple of weeks back makes more sense considering his infatuation with her, and that in turn fuels his dedication to the meth business. The only thing troubling about all this it might be too much too late. Minimal screentime is given to the supporting characters, which wouldn’t be big deal, but it’s hard to not yearn seeing more of the old characters in favor of the recent addition. In spite of that, though, Jesse Plemons pulled off a captivating performance that kept his scenes interesting, and it’s clear now what Todd’s relevance to the plot is.
RJ Mitte and Anna Gunn didn’t get as much to do this week, but we got some pivotal scenes for them in the little they had. Walt’s ingenious way of exonerating Skyler in his vicious final phone call–something many, including myself, had initially misunderstood–has proven to be shockingly futile. Exactly what was foretold earlier in the show has come true: exposing Walt’s secret has been traumatizing to his children, and has essentially ruined his wife’s life and reputation. Skyler is now in a worse position than she was when her husband was dying of cancer the first time around, before the meth. It’s sad to see the events unfold like this, where the catharsis of Skyler finally standing up to Walt last week has proven to be just as harmful as if she didn’t. There’s a silver lining that maybe, eventually, she could put all this behind her. But it’s a long road through a torturous trial process until then, unless getting Walt turned in could somehow give her a way to bargain herself out of a sentence. Walter Jr., on the other hand, did get to pull off a wonderfully cathartic monologue that RJ Mitte delivered with finesse. The White son has been the major voice of reason in these past two weeks, and as heartbreaking as Cranston made Walt’s side, it felt good to see Walter Jr. get to release what was clearly pent-up anger.
Walt is squarely in the center of all this, though, and becomes something of a character study for those who go into hiding. The idea of witness protection or secret relocation is not unheard of in the TV realm especially, but this episode really builds the utter isolation someone would feel in that situation, even when they asked for it. This was truly the only way Walt could be alive and left to his own devices, but he’s so detached from the world and his family that he might as well not have his freedom at all. He becomes pathetic by episode’s end, desperate for companionship and afraid of venturing down the road. His weakness shows both emotionally and physically by way of his frail, disheveled appearance, frighteningly displayed when his wedding ring slips off of his skinny finger. He has chemo self-administered to treat his cancer (whoa!), but for what? The isolation has worn down his motivations, scraped off his aspirations until all that’s left is the core desire to help his family, and that’s the one thing he can’t do. And when he takes a leap of faith by calling his son, and it blows up in his face.
And then the episode’s revelation–one which we should have already known, but probably forgot about–is that the desire to help his family was not actually at the core of all this. It may have been his prime motivation at the beginning, before he went on his downward spiral, sure. But the most primal urge that drew him to make a meth empire still oozes from the wound in his pride when Gray Matter took off without him. And with the re-opening of that wound, which had been mostly cauterized by the show’s events, he’s back to where he was. He’s again driven by the need to not be the “nice, sweet guy,” and to be a man who takes charge. Everyone remembers his name, but not in the way he wants them to. While this isn’t much of a twist since the show has addressed it before, this season pulled a nice bait and switch by making his primary arc seem like he was trying to regain his humanity by way of reverting to his familial intentions, only to let his main flaw potentially destroy him once more.
While it’d surely be a crazy development if Walt decided to, say, waltz into Gray Matter and gun down Gretchen and Elliott, it’s more likely that their “insults” have instilled him with the courage to get his revenge on Jack, get his money back, and probably force it on his family. But if there’s anything Breaking Bad can do, it’s defy expectations, so this and the flashforwards could all be a mislead–maybe he’s out to prove just how darn sweet and kind he is, after all. All we know is that he has an assault rifle, some ricin, and a lot of enemies, and that could lead to a great myriad of things.
But luckily, Granite State manages to leave off with a feeling of both excitement and dread; enough has been wrapped up that the final story doesn’t have to be overstuffed, but there’s so much bad stuff that can come of this. Will “Felina” be Walt’s final move towards redemption, or his definitive moment of breaking bad? Will this be a linear ending that simply ends the story, or are we going to see something more artful, confusing and/or open-ended? We’re about to open that last door at the end, and ultimate question is: will the one knocking be Heisenberg, or Walter White?
Odds & Ends
- To be honest, this episode has convinced me that the flashforwards may not have been the best idea. The moment Walt whispers “Tomorrow” is absolutely predictable, and the reveal of the time skip, while well-handled, is undermined by how much we already know we’re about to see. Imagine if the moment he took off his hat and saw the hair was the first time we’d realize months would be going by?
- I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes the show’s “brilliance” is often simply “symbolism that’s really, really on the nose.” But there’s a certain poetry to how much foresight–or at least, genuine cleverness–it took to get Walter in New Hampshire, which features “Live Free or Die” on its license plates. It’s also known as the Granite State, if you hadn’t caught that.
- Are we going to see Bob Odenkirk in the finale? Shipping Saul off to start a new life in hiding seems like a fairly definitive way to write him off, and it’s not like we’ll have a lack of Saul in the future. That said, this being his final appearance in the parent should would be a tad disappointing…so surely they’ll find a way to let him make one last appearance.
- Does anyone else get as annoyed as I do with how Todd always uses “good” instead of “well”?
- Walt putting on the Heisenberg hat, which originally was a cool cowboy moment displaying his badassery, now leaves a shudder down our spines. Very representative of how this show unfolded.
- I like how lightly the show plays up Walt’s notoriety. We see some newspaper clippings and the brief interview with Gretchen and Elliott, but we don’t see any direct news stories plastered over the TV or reaction shots of supporting players watching the broadcast. It makes it a little more believable, really, because a real-life story of a chemistry teacher becoming a drug lord would either take social media by storm, or it would fade quickly into the ether, just depending on how the media happens to play it up. By not really addressing it, and simply alluding to Walt being “famous” and “most wanted” (which are all relative) it works, while also not distracting from the character story.
- The importance of names is relevant here, as Skyler goes by her maiden name and Walter Jr. seems to be going by Flynn full-time.
- Considering how lonely Walt becomes, you’d think he’d see about getting a dog or something.
- Honestly, I’m on the fence about whether or not I like the show’s theme playing in the final moments. The tune itself doesn’t seem to fit in with the show’s usual score and feels a little overindulgent, but at the same time, it’s hard to not just…have feelings when hearing it.
- “I wanted a couple of Youtube videos.” That’s as good as an Oncology degree, I guess.
