Jessie in need of escape on Breaking Bad
A review of the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad right
after I watch Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium…
“Why are you still alive?!”
-Walter Jr.
Gretchen and Elliot, that’s why.
It’s always Gretchen and Elliot isn’t it? One of the main catalysts
early one in this series (and a representation of Walt’s past failures) was
Gretchen and Elliot’s ever growing richness due to Grey Matter the business that
Walt helped create and then sold his shares before it got big. It’s also what’s
going to propel Walt into grabbing that machine gun and the ricin that he’s
going to use to gain some sort of revenge. After what’s looking to be the
climax of the series happening last week “Granite State” begins the long denouement
Breaking Bad, and what an explosive denouement that this is going to be.
Most of “Granite State” has Walt looking like a week, sad,
and hopeless old man. From the very beginning of this episode where Walt try’s
and massively fails to intimidate Saul to come with him on his runaway trip we
see that Heisenberg has become a shadow of his former self. So he ends up alone
in the snowy woods of New Hampshire, essentially waiting to die. He tries to
escape the first day he’s in his snowy fort, he even sports the Heisenberg hat
(and gets the awesome Heisenberg music) but he can’t do it and he tells himself
that he’ll do it tomorrow.
Well it turns out that that doesn’t happen either as the
show flashes forward (as I was predicting this week that there had to be a
flash forward of some sort) to Walt being even more old and sad. Walt’s on
death’s door and he’s lonely and sad. He has to pay Mr. Fixup man (who we get
to see for the first time) to stay with him after he gets kimo delivered to
him. Walt can’t stand living like this and after a fit fearing the worst he
packs up a bunch of his money and leaves the reservation, in all his oldness
and sadness.
Turns out Walt wants to give some of the money back to the
family, but his son will have none of it. In a spectacular turn from RJ Mitte Flinn
tells his father that he should just die and that he won’t take his money
because of all that Walt has done. It seems to be the final straw for Walt who
at that moment finally seems ready to die. So he calls the cops and essentially
dares them to come and find him (well in a sad close to death Walter White way)
it seems that Walt is finally defeated, done for as he just sits there with a
drink waiting for the cops to come. Then Gretchen and Elliot have to come onto
the television, and Walt finds that final energy to try and go for revenge.
The whole Walt arc is the slowest the show has been in a
long time, yet it’s so marvelous watching Walt fall that it doesn’t really matter;
watching Cranston act as Walt in his state of near death is a treat. The beauty
of the show also is that it spends time on the fall of Walter as this isn’t a
story of the triumphs of Walt doing awful things it’s about his ultimate fall.
Walt was never the genius or criminal mastermind he claimed to be, he was
ultimately just built up ego inside a dying man’s body. Strip away the pride,
and the ego and all you have is an empty shell of a dying old man who really
has nothing left. Isn’t the glorious end that Heisenberg was talking to Saul
about at the beginning of the episode. It’s sad but ultimately seeing Walt this
low is a brilliant part of the series, that it never protects its characters
nor does it glorify them. Walt is a sad dying man and that’s exactly how Vince
Gilligan and company portray him.
On the other side of “Granite State” we have poor Jessie who
is off cooking in Hell. Todd and the gang have trapped him and are now laughing
at his confession video (calling the emotionally devastated Jessie a crying
pussy). Hey at least he gets ice cream for his 93% purity efforts. Jessie tries
to make a dramatic escape only to be trapped again by Todd and Jack. Instead of
being killed though Jessie gets a fate much worse, as Andrea is killed right in
front of him. It’s a truly devastating moment that makes Jessie closer to Walt,
an empty shell of a man who is forced to live in captivity. Unlike Walt it’s
not of his own choosing though it’s that of his captors.
Ultimately put side by side Walt and Jessie’s arcs in “Granite
State” are all about how neither man can escape their situation. Walt is
trapped in the body of a dying old man, one who still can’t let go of the dream
of the empire. Jessie is trapped inside hell on earth, as he’s forced to cook for
men who have neither morals nor a happy end in mind for him. It’s cold, hard
reality that these characters as well as us the audience have to face. These
characters have in many ways made their own beds and that as the end reaches
near it’s going to be harder and harder for these characters to escape it.
There is hope for revenge though in the form of Gretchen and
Elliot’s idiotic business speech. Walt hasn’t been one to let people denounce
his work before and he won’t allow it again it seems. It’s the final little bit
of energy that should propel Walt to the tragic ending that Gilligan has in
store for us. “Granite State” itself was much more than just an episode to propel
us to the finale though, it was one about hopelessness in all its forms and how
Walt and the rest of these characters can’t quite get out of it.
Or at least not cleanly… There’s still a machine gun and
ricin that have to come into play
Only one final episode left of this amazing show. It’s a
week from being over.
Can you believe it?
Some other musings:
- Todd gets to be creepy and quite ruthless in the same hour. His work with making Skyler not talk and killing Andrea in front of Jessie was pure ruthlessness and insanity at its finest. Then there was the scene with Lydia where he’s picking the hair off of her jacket, and in general being super creepy. As we near towards the finale next week it’s clear that no matter how awful Walt is, that we can’t let Todd survive the end of this series. That would be overly gut wrenching.
- Poor Skyler getting abandoned by Walt and will now have to face the noise of all of his actions.
- Speaking of Skyler congratulations to Anna Gunn for winning best supporting actor in a drama at the Emmys tonight! Oh and the series won best drama! Good night for the show indeed!
- Goodbye Saul it’s been a pleasure!
Next week it’s probably going to take me all night to write
a review because of the fact that I have one of the series that I’ve been
following for a long time coming to an end. I may split the finale review and a
series reflection over two days so that I can get sleep but either way it’s
most likely going to be a long review next week. Can’t wait.
This is going to be the longest week ever…
That’s just me though. What did everyone else think?
We haven't seen the end of Gray Matter by a long shot.
ReplyDeleteThe reasons we learnt (many seasons ago) as to why he left GM dont make sense to me. There is a LOT to this. Some people focus on pride but its more tangible.
It wound't surprise if Elliot was engaging in illegal activities in expanding GM, and Walt left for ethical reasons. Its the ultimate insult, and motivation to get him to expose them after they were on tv giving (dirty) money to charity and denigrating Walt at the same time.
That's just a theory .. but I'm eagerly awaiting to see if Gray Matter matters more in the final episode!