Hard To Break The Habit

While Breaking Bad, Season 5 hit some snags off it's usual 99% purity - mostly related to Walter White's character and some uncharacteristic over-dialogue, things all fell into place for the mid-season finale. And as we reach crescendo, there are no scenes for next week. All addicts eventually go into withdrawal.

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The consolidation of events set to music is a common movie & TV trick to avoid characters bantering to catch us up on current events. 

The use of Tommy James & The Shondells' "Crystal Blue Persuasion" as the backdrop for the manufacturing, distribution, payoffs, and money laundering of Walter White's product might have been the best lyrical montage ever edited. 

And the use of Fred & Ginger's "Pick Yourself Up" as the soundtrack for the 10 simultaneous prison murders might be second. Just like that, the possibility of anyone from the previous regime who could talk was done in the start and stop of Walt's watch.

The cold and calculated cutthroat methods that Walt employed to achieve his goal do in fact fit his character. Gus, Mike, and countless others were just standing in the way of his utopian empire, one without drama, hassle or subjugation. He wasn't just the chemist, he was born to be the kingpin. And the end result was greater than his wildest dreams. 

Even Skyler - whose job was to track the money - admits she has "no earthly idea" how much it is. She asks Walt if it's everything he's worked for, and how much is enough?

After making peace with the oncologist's office paper towel dispenser Walt bashed in several seasons prior when he realized what risk he had engaged in when his cancer was in fact in remission, he made amends with Jesse.

After reminiscing about their early RV cooking days, Walt dropped the presumably $5 Million due to Jesse. Expecting the worst (with good reason) Jesse melts to the floor when realizing the situation wasn't life-or-death, and releases the safety from the handgun that he had at the ready.

Walt confesses to Skyler that he's "out," and the family seems to be repaired with his goal achieved. But we all knew it couldn't be - there are 8 episodes left. So Hank the supersleuth stumbles on the smoking gun while on Walt's shitter. 

Do you think the writers left Walt Whitman's "Leaves in the Grass" around as a prop for no reason? Walt had been tempting fate with Hank on many occasions. This is where the character arc now fits so well. Walt can only hide in plain sight for so long, he has to exert his intellectual superiority. It's a classic criminal downfall. Why do you think The Joker left clues for Batman, or Moriarty was compelled to toy with Holmes?

Now it's Hank's move. Can he take down his own family? And even more than that, can he swallow his own pride with his DEA buddies, that someone so close masterminded such an enormous criminal enterprise under his nose? 

Stay tuned...no...wait...

Breaking Bad Going On...Hiatus

Tonight's episode will be Episode 8 of Season 5. The final 8 episodes will run early in 2013. This "split season" set up seems relatively new in the TV world. But it does give a chance for a dramatic plot point for us to stew on for the next several months. As if the relentless drama to this point hasn't been enough.

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First Walt cut Jesse out of a deal that would've allowed him to get $5 Million and get out. Then Walt shamed him with his past drug use and love of mindless video games and go-karts to try to make their business the meaningful thing in Jesse's life and pull him back in. Jesse did the right thing and walked.

Walt's character has been headed down this path for some time. He's gone rogue on his partners, and just killed another one. It wasn't to save his own skin, or to take out a rival. It was because Mike told Walt the truth - that his ego caused the whole mess - that he didn't know his place.

Devoted fans of the show have seen Walt extricate himself out of one situation after another throughout the history of the show, and have probably pulled for him. But there is no redeeming quality to his personality, only his mastermind instincts. We all know he's going down - it's just a matter of how and when, and most importantly - who. 

Besides the body count, the "legacy costs" are gone with Mike's stash of cash. The remaining members of Fring's crew in jail are going to start talking about the operation, and Walt and Jesse. A happy crew is a quiet crew. 

And there's nobody left for Walt to turn to - except maybe Todd (whom Jesse calls "Ricky Hitler") and his uncle's prison connections. Walt's alienated his wife and eliminated his partners. It's just Walt and the flash forward of an assault weapon purchase. So there are certain to be fireworks of some sort for the mid-season finale.

Breaking Bad and The Business They've Chosen

"This is the business we've chosen" 

In The Godfather: Part II, Hyman Roth didn't ask Michael Corleone who gave the order to kill his friend Moe Greene. It had nothing to do with business.

In Breaking Bad, despite Walt and Jesse's best intentions to run a multi-million dollar illegal meth operation without bloodshed, extortion, and drama, there's nothing that changes the business they've chosen. There will always be innocent blood on their hands.

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"Give me a break, you we're gonna murder me. I thought you were professionals." 

Lydia Rodarte-Quayle is quickly establishing herself as a major player in Season 5, as Madrigal's last "man" standing in the U.S. operation. She is frenzied but savvy, and she saved her own life a couple of times already.

She hatches the scheme to rob the train transporting methylamine, but can't understand what the reservations are about killing the train's crew.

"Boosting methylamine from a train is like a major rap. The point is, nobody, other than us, can ever know this robbery ever went down."

Jesse said it, and Walt seconded for their new henchman, Todd from the pest control operation, so they were perfectly clear. Too clear obviously.

Jesse has been the criminal with the heart from the beginning. While Walt and Mike argue incessantly about how much human damage needs to be done, Jesse now stays out and thinks. He came up with the "magnet" plan, and had the insight to turn the train heist from "armed robbery" to just "robbery."

Oh by the way, Skyler noticed the soot on Walt's pants after the dry run and sarcastically asked if he was out burying bodies. Walt said pridefully that in fact he was robbing a train. Don't think that won't come back. There isn't a throwaway scene or line or cutaway in this series.

So the pulsating train heist goes down with some speed bumps along the way. The track interruption ruse gets foiled prematurely and Jesse almost gets flattened when the train gets moving again, but they pulled it off and got all their meth.

Except the poor kid riding his bike in the desert collecting tarantulas, who happened upon the heist celebration. Todd isn't in the operation's inner circle and didn't know the lengths they went to avoid a body count. He figured he was working for "professional" gangsters and promptly shoots and kills the kid, as he thought he was ordered.

So now Walt and Jesse are caught in their own vicious circle. They went against Gus Fring and started a war because of his willingness to make a child (riding a bike no less) expendable, as the cost of doing business.

Now it's their business, and they gave the order. Whether they chose to or not.

Breaking Bad: Back To Business?

The new season's second episode still was dealing with the clean up of last season's loose ends. Now it seems everyone is in a position to look forward.

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The fallout of multinational "concern" Madrigal's financing of Gus Fring's Los Pollos Hermanos franchise reached the top as the company's CEO offed himself in the opening scene.

When Madrigal brass came to Albuquerque to meet DEA, they promised transparency in the investigation. Though we are introduced to a Brooks Brothers lawyer, Lydia (as opposed to Bus Stop lawyer Saul Goodman) who is more determined to eliminate loose ends.

Meanwhile Walt continues his ruse with Jessie that the poison-laced cigarette is still out there. And as always brilliantly handled by the show's producers, it isn't done in live back-and-forth conversation. Their talk is played as voice-over as Walt prepares a fake and hides the real one. And they aggressively tear up Jesse's house with Walt pretending to discover it, all to the driving music of "Stay On The Outside" by Whitey. 

When they decide that they need to resume cooking (Walt needs to - he's at a net loss after Skylar bailed out Beneke for the IRS), they try to entice Mike to be an equal partner, since they need him for logistics, distribution, and a "steady supply of precursor." Precursor represents the materials and chemicals needed to synthesize crystal meth.  

Mike says thanks but no thanks. As he rightly points out, Walt is a time bomb. 

Except that the scientific stunt that erased Gus' laptop in evidence control in Episode 1 also broke a photograph that revealed Gus' off-shore bank codes which the DEA has now promised to seize. That eliminates the financial safety net for Mike (set aside for his granddaughter) and "his guys." Which means they may talk, which means Lydia will try to have them killed. But she didn't finish off Mike, and he tortures himself about whether or not to murder her and orphan her daughter. 

So Mike trades her life back for "precursor" since he's going to need money too.   

ASAC Merkert shakes his head to Hank that he couldn't believe Gus was under his nose the whole time and didn't see it. Did it make Hank think of Walt?

Skylar is terrified of the man Walt has become too, realizing the scope and reach of what he's capable of, and what he's made her do. 

Season 5 is heading towards Murder On The Orient Express, where everyone has a motive. Mike sees Walt as too much trouble. Hank doesn't have his finger on Walt, but may be ready to confront him. Walt's wife can't breathe around him.

But I still think the show's creators haven't underplayed this by accident. It's going to be Walt vs Jesse to finish off this "split" final season in 2013.