Episode Title: “Ozymandias“
Writer: Moira Walley-Beckett
Director: Rian Johnson
Previously on “Breaking Bad”:
There’s been a sense of inevitability in the last few episodes of “Breaking Bad.” It’s been a remarkably entertaining string of episodes, but events are playing out as we always knew they would.
After five seasons, we know these characters well. So of course Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) was going to turn on Walter White (Bryan Cranston) once he learned that Walt poisoned Brock. Of course Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) was going to come after Walt rather than turn a blind eye to his brother-in-law’s crimes.
And of course the White family would disintegrate once the truth came out in the open. There’s no other way that could have gone. Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) is not his father’s son. He’s a good kid who was suitably horrified by what Walt has done. Whereas Walt Jr. was impressed when he thought that his dad was a master gambler, he’s terrified of the man he thought that he knew. When Skyler (Anna Gunn) and Marie (Betsy Brandt) break the news to Walt Jr., the pain and anger on his face is unmistakable.
Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) is nowhere to be found in this episode, which only made the darkness more uncomfortable to watch. We can normally count on Saul to give us some comic relief, but I think his absence was by design. The only real laugh in this episode comes when Walt rolls his last barrel through the desert in the scorching heat. The rest of the episode is best watched with a stiff drink.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Ozymandias,” so you should skip this review if you missed last night’s episode or else you’ll realize that Uncle Jack made up his mind ten minutes ago.
It would have taken something really contrived to get Hank and Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) out of that gun battle alive. Thankfully, “Breaking Bad” isn’t the type of show that holds back, but it’s still a huge gut punch to see Hank executed in the desert. Gomez doesn’t even get a death scene. He’s already dead by the time that the action returns to the present.
Starting off with a flashback to Walt and Jesse’s first cook in the RV was a masterstroke because it kept the audience in suspense about last week’s cliffhanger for just a few minutes longer while offering us one last glimpse of the way that Walt and Jesse were before they were in too deep. Back then, Walt and Jesse weren’t close enough to kill or die for each other. But that Walt wouldn’t have let Jesse be dragged off to his death or worse by a pack of Neo-Nazi killers.
The last gasp of Walt’s humanity comes when he offers to give Uncle Jack (Michael Bowen) and the rest of the Neo-Nazis his entire $80 million dollar fortune if he’ll spare Hank’s life. And everyone but Walt can see that Jack is simply going to take the money and kill Hank anyway. If Hank is moved by Walt’s gesture, he doesn’t show it. It didn’t matter at that point. Hank knew he was dead and he died bravely.
It’s a waking nightmare for Walt, who can only collapse in despair as Jack’s men rob him blind after murdering Hank. Jack feels magnanimous enough to let Walt keep one of his barrels full of cash, but only if he’ll shake his hand and agree that they’re alright with each other. There’s no subtlety there. Walt would have been killed if he rejected Jack’s hand.
If you’re feeling sorry for Walt, don’t. Walt transfers his anger and blame onto Jesse. What else could Walt do? The only alternative for Walt would have been to blame himself and accept his personal responsibility for what happened to Hank. But when has Walter White ever accepted culpability for his crimes? Even as the Neo-Nazi’s are leading Jesse away, Walt makes sure to stop them just so he can tell Jesse that he watched Jane die as a final “F*** you” to his former partner. I honestly thought that would never come up again, so that was a nice surprise.
Aside from Hank and Gomez, Jesse gets the worst of the fallout. First he’s brutally tortured by Todd (Jesse Plemons) aka Ricky Hitler and then Jesse finds himself back in a meth lab and forced to cook while literally in chains. At least Gus offered his employees the illusion of freedom before they crossed him. Jesse doesn’t even get that. The photo of Andrea and Brock in the lab is an unmistakable message for Jesse. “Cook or they die.”
Back in Albuquerque, Marie is practically doing a victory lap as she browbeats Skyler into coming clean with Walt Jr. because she’s expecting Hank to haul Walt in and celebrate his victory. RJ Mitte finally gets something to chew on other than breakfast and he makes the most of it. Walt Jr.’s reaction to the truth was everything that the audience could have wanted. The subsequent meltdown of the White family was brutal to watch, but Walt Jr. had to turn on his dad. That moment had finally been earned. And now Walt’s family is lost to him.
Walt being Walt, this doesn’t immediately dawn on him. Walt seems to think that the fact that they’re together and they still have $11 million dollars will be enough to smooth over what he’s done even if Hank is dead. Walt’s underestimated how much Skyler and Walt Jr. loved Hank and Walt’s characteristic evasiveness about Hank’s fate only leads them to believe that he killed Hank himself.
Skyler pulling a knife on Walt and cutting him may have been a bit over-the-top, but he created that fear in her years ago. Mr. “I am the one who knocks” had to make sure that Skyler saw him as “the danger” even when he was hanging by a thread while under Gus Fring’s thumb. Because the great Walter White could never let his family perceive him as weak or desperate. At the end, Walt takes his daughter, Holly on the run with him because she’s the only one in the family that he can still control. But all Holly wants is her mother. Even Walt can’t change that.
I initially thought that Walt’s hubris was showing again as he called Skyler and berated her while reciting his crimes for the policemen in the house with her. But the tears in his eyes demonstrated that Walt was doing one last thing for his family: taking the fall for everything, including Hank’s murder. It may be an attempt to spare Skyler from jail, but it also means that he’ll likely never see them again. Walt even leaves Holly behind, giving up his chance to start over with his remaining child. That was understandable. If Walt has only months to live, then there’s really no point in taking Holly away from her mother.
You may have noticed that we never see the face of Saul’s fake ID guy as he picks up Walt and his cash barrel at the side of the road. If the series had come to a close on that shot of Walt’s shell-shocked face reflected in the rear-view mirror as they drove away then I would have been more than satisfied with this ending. Walt always told anyone who would listen that his crimes were done entirely for his family. If they didn’t get the money then it was all for nothing. Now Walt’s lost most of his money and he doesn’t even have his family.
There are two episodes left and Walt may find a way to fall even further. I’m relieved that the more predictable aspects of the ending are out of the way so that “Breaking Bad” can head into uncharted territory for the final two installments. With Hank gone, anyone but Walt can be killed off at anytime. The safety is off.
Although if I had to guess, I’d say that Walt and Jesse are far from through with each other. The most popular theory about the end of the series is that Walt’s going to use that machine gun from the flash forward sequences to rescue Jesse from the Neo-Nazis before committing suicide with the ricin.
But doesn’t that sound too heroic for Walter White? His crimes are too numerous to be wiped away by one final act of compassion. Walt created this situation with his greed, his desperation and his ego. Walt may feel that he’s paying for his mistakes now, but I suspect that the bill is only beginning to come due. And there’s still plenty of pain left to be had.
