Jessie Plotting the great train robbery in Breaking Bad
What
a fun episode of Breaking Bad! It was an amazing train robbery episode that had
its feet directly in Spaghetti Western waters. Beautifully shot with lots of
tension and dramatic greatness. A fun victory at the end as a great way to end
a greatly entertaining episode…
….then
an innocent kid gets shot and killed.
In
one of the single most jarring and frightening moments in Breaking Bad history
henchman Todd, after being told to not allow for any witnesses during the great
methylamine train robbery, shoots a kid who saw the end of it. Good god that
punch to the gut still hurts. After about 47 minutes of the greatest Breaking
Bad caper ever told we get a rude awakening that we are now in season 5 and
this isn’t about fun anymore, the end is near and things will go down. So the
innocent spider hunting kid from the pre credits sequence gets shot and killed
all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My goodness…
The
episode starts with our business partners, Walt, Jessie, and Mike, trapping
Lydia in a dark underground place to discover why she put the tracers on the
methylamine. Turns out that she didn’t and that the DEA of another state
clumsily put it on in an attempt to do a quick job to try and catch I don’t
know somebody (which Walt finds out by playing Hank more on that in a second).
Lydia then pleas again for her life by claiming that they can rob a train in a
dead zone and end up with as much methylamine as their heart’s desire. So
begins the caper of how to find a way of robbing the train without being seen
(Ps another great plan by Jessie in this episode).
In
between all of this is the fantastic scene in which Walt fake breaks down to
Hank about how his wife doesn’t love him anymore so he can plant a
microphone/taker into Hank’s computer while Hank get’s him Coffee. Also Walt
and Skyler continue to banter about their future as Walt Jr. (or Flynn as he is
now called again after several seasons) get’s sulky and angry about his
parent’s behavior. This all was a great stuff that helped again raise the
stakes higher for Walter as time slowly yet surely ticks down.
Then
back to the great train robbery. Walt, Jessie, Mike, and Todd all get together
(along with one of Saul’s ever trusty members of the “A-team”) to perform one
of the greatest heists in television history. A truck will stop the train and
then Walt Jessie and Todd will pump methylamine out of the train into a giant
tank and then they will pump water into the train so the weight of the train
remains the same. The whole sequence is fantastic and is the most beautiful
Breaking Bad has ever looked. The whole train sequence was stunning from
beginning to finish providing some of the best direction ever for the show. Not
only that but the sequence was so much fun as Walt seemed was shot as if he
were an old fashion Western villain. Also the sequence was very intense
providing moments of great doubt in their plan (i.e. a guy who had a pickup
truck managing to get the truck off the tracks a little too early). It all seemed like an amazing feat of victory
for Walt and company…
…
Then Todd shoots and kills the innocent spider kid and we are back to square
one all over again.
What
an amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing episode. One of the single best in series
history.
Some
other thoughts:
- Not to go back to that final scene again but man Breaking Bad has managed, despite somewhat of a high body count, has managed to make every last kill impactful and jarring. That final scene brought me back to the big ending to “Half Measures” in season three. Congratulations to Breaking Bad for keeping it this way as this is a sign of true maturity on a television show.
- Poor Walt Jr. getting his bacon taken away last week and now his parents are neglecting him. When is the guy ever going to get a break.
- The murder of the kid probably means Jessie will have a more prominent role in the final parts of the first half season. Any use of Aaron Paul is great on this show and it will be nice to hopefully see him back in a more prominent role.
Ok
time to go recover from that punch to the gut. My goodness…
So
that’s my opinion… What did everyone else think?
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