Breaking Bad “To’hajiilee” Review: Master chess players

 Walt stares out the window on Breaking Bad

Photo Credit: AMC TV

A Review of tonight’s Breaking Bad as soon as I set my ringtone to “She Blinded Me With Science”…

“It’s over!”
-Hank

I’m still shaking and the episode has been done for a while.

“To’hajiilee” was an hour in which I had to consistently remind myself to breath and afterwards I had to remind myself that, yes an hour of my life had just passed. “To’hajiilee” was an hour of television so tense and engaging that a bomb could have gone off or I could have been given a million dollars and I wouldn’t have noticed. The whole episode felt like it took only an instant yet it felt like an eternity (thank you extreme tension). This is television at its most powerful, tense, and epic and it’s an honor to be along for the ride.

If only Hank capturing Walt could have been the end of this series. It’s the ending to the show that most would have envisioned as being a near perfect one as well. Sure it isn’t a happy end for anyone (Walt’s life is basically over, the family is ruined, Hank’s career is done etc.) but it feels like the ending that most viewers envisioned for the show and actually wanted the show to take. It also seems like one of those endings that Vince Gilligan had envisioned himself when they were in the writing room.

It’s never that simple though, not on Breaking Bad that is. Last week Jessie stated that everything about Walt always ends up going the opposite way that you think it’s going and ultimately that seems to be the case for the show too this week. Hank has to take the time to call Marie and brag about getting Walt and Uncle Jack had to (probably rightly so) still come despite Walt (sketchily) telling him not to and it all has to go to hell. Nothing on Breaking Bad is ever as simple as Hank getting Walt, as Jessie getting to see the moment in piece, and Walt getting locked up right before he dies. Nope, like the train heist from the first half of the season on a much larger scale, something always has to reset the table, bring us back to the drawing board, and make us wonder collectively what is going to happen next?

Boy what a way to do that as well. The shootout between Hank, Gomez, and the seemingly endless amount of Neo Nazis was as thrilling and stunning as a television action sequence/cliff hanger can get in every way. If I didn’t breathe earlier in the episode then reminding myself to breathe at those moments proved nearly useless (nearly since I am alive now). I mean the sequence topped what could have potentially been the climax of the entire series for goodness sakes. The series could have been satisfactorily over after Hank arrested Walt (okay maybe there needed to be one more denouement episode afterwards) and that sequence was so perfect that it was much better. It was a brilliant reminder that we’ve still got three more hours of this show left to go and that it’s not going to be as simple as we initially thought it was going to be.

As for the rest of the episode, boy are Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul ever fantastic actors. That sequence where Walt is driving to the site of the money while having to listen to Jessie go on on the phone is as fantastic as Cranston has been all season. The mix of panic, sadness, confusion, and utter rage present on Cranston’s face is sheer brilliance in utterly every way. Walt, as we’ve learned this season can be one of the best liars ever if he’s got a clear script to follow, but when he’s under pressure he’s an utter mess. It never occurs to him that this is a trap in any way or that he shouldn’t fall right into it. Then there is Paul who is just as fantastic if not more so in the sequence where he, with very little to say, gets to put on an equally fantastic mix of emotions when Walt finally gets put into the van with his hands firmly behind his back. These are long sequences but because of all that is going on, and how fantastic these actors really are, they go by so very fast.

Also Michelle MacLaren is the best television director working currently period. Someone needs to let this amazing talent loose on a feature film right away (yes the Alan Taylor treatment). This episode, especially that final shootout, looks so fantastic, as is the standard with MacLaren. Every frame just oozes with tension and every moment is made even more fantastic through the power of her direction (not taking anything away from the script which is equally as fantastic). Every shot has such detail, the amazing coverage when Walt is speeding towards Jessie, the angles of the shootout, and the open yet completely claustrophobic version of the desert which Walt and Jessie have been to so many times in the past.

Breaking Bad is on an unforgettable role at the moment and this episode was the best of the bunch. “To’hajiilee” was full of series highs and the final moments of the episode were unforgettable in every way. Heck if the show had of ended two minutes before this episode it would have been a very satisfying series finale and what followed was even better. Every moment was unforgettable and breathlessly perfect, tensions were higher than ever, and this show tops every great moment with one that’s even greater. I can’t wait for the most likely crazy and awe inspiring ending that I’m assuming that Gilligan has in store for the audience.

Only three episodes left…

Some other Musing:

• That opening sequence (which after that ending almost seems utterly forgotten) was fantastically creepy as well. Todd is as creepy as it gets in that interaction with Lydia. I mean first off the whole trying to get overly close to Lydia in general is very creepy. Then on top of that he drinks out of the cup that she has lipstick (which I’m assuming is as close to kissing her as he’s ever going to get). On the one hand he has decent intentions but he’s Todd so everything that he does has a creepy undertone to it.

• Speaking of Todd I laughed out loud when it was revealed that his ringtone was “She Blinded Me With Science”. Seems like a thing for post Walter White Todd would have as a ringtone.

• Hank was a brilliant chess player with poor Huell this week. Oh and if Hank and Gomez don’t survive who is going to come back for him.

• Even if you don’t like spoilers (which there isn’t in this one) the next time on Breaking Bad segment is absolutely brilliant. It’s a monologue delivered by Skyler cut over top of the final scenes of this episode makes the cliffhanger even more unbearable and perfect.

Now excuse me while I try to stop shaking like a mad man. You can find me in the fetal position until next week roles around...

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