“We’re A Family”
Don’t know where to begin with my thoughts and recap of “Ozymandias”, truly one of the finest hours of Breaking Bad; which is saying something. So much emotion and intensity was seen throughout the episode. There is no going back, the shit has truly hit the fan. Let’s dive in, shall we?
Interestingly the episode doesn’t begin with the aftermath of last week episodes, “To’hajiilee.” Rather, we are taken back to Walt/Jesse’s very first cook, and we see Walt tell his very first lie to Skylar. Their life and relationship seemed so pure and simple back then, but this was the very first step towards breaking bad and corruption, and there was no turning back. This is where it all began for Walt & Jesse, and it’s literally the exact same spot that the epic showdown between Hank/Gomie and Jack/Todd’s Neo-Nazi gang.
There is no bullshitting, Gomie is dead. Hank is wounded. Uncle Jack goes to finish off Hank, but Walt intervenes, desperately begging and pleading for Hank’s life. He even spills out that he has $80 million (!) in the ground in order to try and spare Hank’s life. But it is fruitless, once Kenny finds the DEA badge on Gomie, there was never going to be any other way that it played out for Hank. In a truly heartbreaking scene Hank ignores Walt’s pleads knowing its useless. Hank stays true to his beliefs, telling Jack to go fuck himself. He then turns and tells Walt: “You’re the smartest guy I ever met and your too stupid to see he made up his mind 10 minutes ago.” Bam. Goodbye, Hank.
We see Walt crumble to the ground as this episode’s director, Rian Johnson (he directed prior episodes “The Fly” and “Fifty-One“, as well as last year’s Looper) uses a wonderful shot of fallen rocks in the landscape, representing Hank’s death as the mark of Walt’s world finally crumbling all around him (in a similar fashion as Gus). Hank and Gomie, two good men, are dead because of Walt. All his hard earned cash, save for $11 million, is taken away from him. Walt is upset at himself, but equally upset that Jesse was working as a rat with Hank, ultimately bringing Hank here which lead to his death. Walt ironically rats on Jesse, figuring out that he’s hiding under his car. He coldly offers him up to Jack, ordering them to finish the job. Only Todd has other plans in mind for Jesse for now. He sees an opportunity to improve the meth, which will do well for business, but will ultimately impress Lydia, who Todd is clearly crushing pretty hard on. Todd saves Jesse for now, but Jesse may have been better off dead, as we later see.
Jesse gets tolled away by Jack’s gang, but Walt gets one last word in. That one last missing piece on the show, finally comes out. He tells Jesse that he watched Jane choke on her vomit, and did nothing to save her. Ice cold. Jesse is truly heartbroken, and Walt finally gets it off his chest, clearly not really caring much about his relationship with Jesse at the moment. As a car takes Jesse and Todd away, Jesse turns back and stares down Walt. Absolutely brutal to watch.
Walt’s car loses all its gas during the gun battle, forcing him to take his barrel of money and roll it to the nearest house he can find (does he roll past his old pants from the pilot episode in the process? looks like it!) so he can purchase a dingy old truck and race back home.
Only Marie is way ahead of him. She corners Skylar and tells her that Hank has arrested Walt (or so she thought) and in order to earn their forgiveness, Skylar would need to work with them by destroying the tape they made, and to spill the dirty truth about his father to Walt Jr. Skyler begs for another way, but it’s the only option. We see Flynn heartbroken and confused, in a brutally sad scene well played by RJ Mitte. They go home to find Walt already there, frantically packing and urging them to do the same. Only the truth is out, and they have too many questions for Walt, and he can’t handle it.
Skylar is too smart not to realize what Walt’s escape says about Hank’s fate, and this is truly the tipping point. The White family boat has finally been fully submerged beneath the deep blue. We see a scary scene where Skylar chooses violence over the police (the shot of the phone vs. knifes) and literally fights with Walt on the floor for the knife. They struggle until Flynn pulls Walt off his dad, defending his mom and calling the cops on his dad. It’s a heartbreaking realization for Walt as he sees the two people he did all this for, turn against him. “We’re a family” Walt pleads, but it seems like he’s the only one who believes this anymore. Poor Flynn, he didn’t get to find out the truth easy. Talk about a bad day.
He escapes, but not without taking the one person that is still pure to his ways: Holly.
We see a brutally beaten and battered Jesse, resorted to being tied up like a slave in Todd’s lab. He is tied up like a dog on a leash, with no where to go but up and down the work station, in a truly sinister set up by the ever so creepy Todd. They motive Jesse by wisely placing a photo of Andrea & Brock, the ultimate threat that will keep Jesse working. “Let’s cook” Todd says. It doesn’t look good for poor Jesse.
While changing Holly’s diaper, Walt tries to connect with Holly, but she cries and pleads for her mom. It’s there and then that Walt realizes that she isn’t better off with him, and this is when he realizes his next move. Now in the heat of the moment while watching, I thought Walt’s call was a fit of range and anger, even if he was aware that the cops were there. But after reading this it made me realize he did all this in order to separate Skylar’s name from all of this, putting the sole blame on himself. While it doesn’t fully redeem him for all that he’s done, it’s a start, and it’s something Skylar realizes and understands. For the first time in a long time, Walter White does something for his family as he always planned to. Bryan Cranston can just prepare his Emmy acceptance speech after this one. He absolutely nailed it.
Walt drops off Holly to a nearby fire station, with the White residence taped to her. We then see Walt waiting in the same area Jesse waited for Saul’s guy, only it’s him that will be starting a new life. We do know that he eventually does return home, but now we see what happens in between. It’s been a grime past few episodes, but we’re seeing Breaking Bad start to gear up for the end, and although it may not be pretty, it’s been a thrilling and emotional rollercoaster that we will be talking about non-stop until next Sunday.
I can’t wait.
Notes:
- When Uncle Jack calls Hank a fed, Walt defends him by telling him his name is Hank. It was a minor but touching thing for Walt to do, trying to connect that Hank is a human, a regular guy, but it’s obviously lost on a neo-nazi.
- Jack to Todd: “Being greedy is unattractive.” Doubt any recent multi-millionare has said that before.
- Flyn to Sklar: “If all this is true and you knew about it, then you’re as bad as him.” – The truth hurts.
- What is Lydia going to think of Todd’s use of slave labor on Jesse?
- Where will Saul play into all this?
- Predictions for next week?
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