Breaking Bad “Gliding Over All” Review

 

Wait you said this was how much money?

Full spoilers below!!

Well that was amazing.

“Gliding Over All” was a great ending to the sometimes uneven eight episode arc of television’s best current show; it proved to be not only a fantastic ending to this summer’s set of episodes, but as well managed to be the perfect bridge to the final eight episodes. We have spent the entirety of the first half of this season watching Walt build up the empire he has wanted since the first episode of the show and with this episode we take the first large step to it all come crashing down upon him.

Let’s start with the ending of this one and gradually move backwards. Since the beginning of the show viewers of Breaking Bad have always wondered when and how Walt’s DEA brother in law Hank was going to find out that Walt has been the meth lord that he has been hunting all this time. Well that was all broken open this week as Hank looked through Walt’s Walter Whitman poetry book while on the toilet only to find a note from Gale Beneke that said how much he loved working with Walt. Cue Flashback to the awkward “you got me” joke from last season and all of a sudden Walt’s empire he has built and then safely gotten out of (more on that in a sec) is about to get him in the worst possible way. Great scene that was a fantastic cliff hanger to keep fans on their toes.

This scene comes after a fantastic episode that, if it weren’t for that final scene, could have almost been a series finale. Walt has rid of Mike and is now in control of his own destiny, that means it’s empire building time. We begin the episode with clean up time; first we get Walt getting the names of Mike’s men from Lidia (who for the first time this season seems to hold her own) who also manages to give Walt contacts in the Check Republic to sell his meth too. Empire building folks! Cue an amazing Godfather esque montage of Walt’s shady prison guys shanking (with lots and lots of stabs) all of the prior contacts to the music of Nat King Cole (“Pick Yourself Up” was the song) and Walt’s pretty much in the clear. Then finally we get the three months worth of meth making montage (which by the way is the single greatest montage the show has ever done by far. Oh and the song was “Crystal Blue Persuasion”) featuring things actually going right for Walt and Todd. Big piles of money are amassed and Walt’s finally able to say “I’m out”.

The other reason it felt so much like a series finale is because it had so many great call backs to the series past. The fly distracting Walt early on in the episode reminiscent of the entire bottle episode of season three “Fly”, Lidia saying that “We’re going to make a lot of money together” almost in the way Tuco said at the end of season one, the painting in the motel that was identical to the one Walt saw in the hospital, and the infamous paper towel dispenser that Walt punched the crap out of near the end of season two (which after all this time they still haven’t fixed).  It even brought back the great pool conversations of old between Walt, Skyler, Hank, Marie, and the kids that could have been an ironic series ender if the show would let Walt have his way.

Then Hank had to go to the bathroom and ruin everything.

Some extended other thoughts:

• This episode saw the return of director Michelle Maclaren who directed, up until this episode, the most strikingly beautiful episode of the show ever “4 Days Out”. She also directed the greatest single episode of the show ever season three’s “One Minute” which had the amazingly shot final “Hank vs the Cousins” scene. Visually “Gliding Over All” has both of them topped as this episode was an absolute stunner; from the pool shot at the end to the montages (more on those in a second) this episode was an absolute joy to look at from beginning to finish.

• Aaron Paul hasn’t had much to do throughout the last eight episodes, but what he had here was fantastic. The great opening when he feals betrayed and lost when Walt tells him he has no say in the business anymore to the great scene near the end when he thinks Walt’s there to kill him when he’s really there to pay him off.

• My goodness the montages! I was ready to triumphantly declare the brutal “Pick Yourself Up” montage the greatest the show has ever done (can’t go wrong with brutal violence to a happy song) but then there was the absolute triumph that was the “Crystal Blue Persuasion” montage. Shots bleeding into each other, great wide shots, bright wide open vibe, and the final shot of the different houses covered and used for meth making was fantastic.

• That last scene at the pool was so tense. Too much happy to be Breaking Bad that’s for sure! I think everyone watching the show knew something was going to go horribly wrong. Although it would have been funny had Gilligan had paid homage to the Sopranos by just fading to black at the end.

• Dean Norris and Brian Cranston shared that amazing scene mid episode in which Hank reminisces of simpler days. It’s always tense to watch two characters who both somewhere in the back of their heads know who they’re dealing with just talk about each other.

• Why hasn’t AMC had a guess the money in the storage department contest yet? Seriously people would be all over that! Also that would be a great auction item….

Some extra thoughts on the eight episodes as a whole:

• Let’s start at the first episode’s opening scene; I didn’t really comment on the scene in my review of the first episode because I wanted to save it until the end of this season. We still have a long way to go time wise (even with the three month jump) until Walt will have a fake ID and a machine gun and the big question for me is where does Vince Gilligan and the writing staff going to start the second half. Save for the montage at the end of the midseason finale we never get anywhere quickly time wise on this show so it shall be interesting to see how the jump is made.

• Speaking of the opening scene, people have complained that the scene gave way too much away way too early. We all know that scene is almost guaranteed to not be what we think it is right?

• I love this show and still think it’s the best show currently on television (but only a scratch ahead of Mad Men) but I do have some minor quibbles with this eight episode arc. At times (most notably the jumpy Buyout) the show seemed like it needed some more time to develop the arcs across more time/episodes. Also there were some plot logic issues here and there but overall as an eight episode arc of my favorite current show it worked really well.

• The season also managed to have some brilliant episodes as usual including this episode, “Dead Freight”, and “Fifty one” which were three of my favorite episodes of the series all for many different reasons.

Time to ask the biggest question of all: WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT??!!!

Well we have one more year to debate before the final eight

 Can Vince Gilligan and staff stick the landing?

That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?