Breaking Backtime Season 1: Pillow Talk

It's the summer television hiatus. The Americans, Game Of Thrones, and Mad Men are done for the season. There is nothing to watch now except for the often frustrating New York Yankees. But there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Breaking Bad returns in 37 days and AMC is re-running every episode in order.

So it gives die-hard viewers a chance to re-live the situation from the beginning, and watch in amazement as the story and characters develop so drastically.

In the show's fifth-ever episode "Gray Matter," we realize why we love the show so much - it's the writing. There is a scene that is dramatic as (almost) any in the series, where an intervention is staged with five people in the White family living room.

There's no meth, no death, and the roles of Saul, Mike, and Gus haven't been introduced. It's one episode before Tuco and the unveiling of "Heisenberg." Walt even has hair. The scene is 11 minutes of talk only, and it starts with Skyler White clenching "the talking pillow."

The intervention is for Walt to undergo a debilitating and expensive chemotherapy treatment for his terminal lung cancer, which he is trying desperately to evade. Everyone takes their turn with the pillow and the words are raw and real. Skyler is indignant that Walt fight for his life for the sake of his family, and she gets into a shouting match with her sister, who insists that Walter has the right to make his own choice.

Walt sits quietly while those around him bicker, which is a metaphor for the whole process. Until he is forced to seize the pillow and speak for himself.

"These doctors, taking about surviving - one year, two years - like it's the only thing that matters. Well what good is it to just survive if I am too sick to work? To enjoy a meal? To make love? For what time I have left I want to live in my own house. I want to sleep in my own bed. I'm not going to choke down 30, 40 pills and lose my hair and lie around too tired to get up, so nauseated I can't even move my head..."

Walt made his stand and made his choice. I choose not to do it. At this point in Walt's mind he had left the meth business behind, having just pocketed a mere few thousand bucks with only a couple of bodies in his wake.

But the next morning he wakes up, hugs his wife and reconsiders. And if you know anything about Walt's character, even just 5 episodes in, he isn't going to take any handouts. He is going to make sure that he is responsible for his treatment and that his family is taken care of.

In the closing scene he appears back in Jesse Pinkman's driveway, "Wanna cook?" That's the moment that Walter White really breaks bad...for good.

"Gray Matter" originally aired February 24, 2008.

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...

Broken Man

We know why the show is called Breaking Bad. It goes back to the very first episode when cancer-afflicted, unfulfilled middle-aged high school science teacher Walter White decides to get into the meth business.

His former student, Jesse Pinkman, becomes a partner in the scheme but fails to understand, "Some straight guy like you, giant stick up his ass, age what - 60? He's just gonna break bad?"

Walt first retorts that he's only 50. He then says, "I am awake."

So we don't know the old Walt (except for a handful of flashbacks), but the current Walt is not only beyond repair, he is beyond belief.

Is it that the character is broken, or have the show's creators made him that way? It's an important distinction. If Walt's behavior is unbelievable to the show's fanatic audience, then maybe the show has jumped the shark.

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In Season 5 Episode 6, "Buyout," it all comes the closest to full circle that the show has ever been. It's done through talk - which I don't like, but it's done with Jesse in Walt's living room of all places where his wife could walk in at any moment - which she eventually does.

The scene where Walt pulls a James Bond/MacGyver to escape handcuffed detainment is more believable than the scene where he reaches into his darkened soul to tell Jesse his reasoning behind the refusal of a $5 Million buyout.

It doesn't explain why Walt has decided to live at home while Skyler won't allow the kids to live in the same house, rather than living in the place he had originally moved out to and already owns. Except that we are expected to believe that he is stubbornly going to turn her.

And the same logic applies to Walt's dogged determination to press Jesse and Mike to continue their operation, rather than simply sell out for millions each.

As much as we love the series, we are begging Walt to be sensible. But he's just as obstinate with us.

Jesse references their conversation from the Season 2 premiere "Seven Thirty Seven," when Walt had figured out the math that $737K was all the money he needed, before the cancer killed him, to set up his family.

Jesse asks Walt if they're in the meth business or the money business. Walt seethes that he's in the "empire business." Jesse asks if that's really something to be proud of.

Walt rants about the one time he sold out in his past, trading in his stake in "Gray Matter" for a few months rent, while his partners Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz built a multi-billion dollar business.

So in just a year's time (theoretically), Walt's motivation changed from his family's security to being king. It's an unrealistic transformation. Unless Walt had already broken bad, and the misery inside him was just looking for an excuse to express itself.

That's if the writers can make us believe that the sympathetic anti-hero we've been rooting for is actually, truly evil.

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.

The Gold Medal for Confrontational Dialogue

There are some very good conceptual shows out there that really make you think, but the character dialogue is so stilted that you can almost see Joe Writer in front of a typewriter with a lightbulb over his head.

Then there are the gold standards, where the dialogue is so real you are drawn in to the show and forget that anyone ever put words down on paper in the first place. I think of The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Justified. And it isn't too much of a coincidence that they all deal in great detail with the criminal's point of view.

So I present Exhibit A: Breaking Bad, Season 5 Episode 4 "Fifty-One." Conceived by Vince Gilligan and written by Sam Catlin. The scene involves only Bryan Cranston (Walter White) and Anna Gunn (Skyler White).

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Skyler's very real state of constant fear had just manifested itself in a transparent cry for help, a faked suicide attempt in the Whites' own swimming pool at a dinner party for Walt's 51st birthday. She knows what she now wants: the kids out of this combustible environment. But she doesn't know how to get there, and she finally ditches the passive aggression and strips it down for Walt.

SKY: I'm in it now. I'm compromised, but I will not have my children living in a house where dealing drugs, where hurting people, and killing people is shrugged off as shit happens! We're back at it, fine. The kids stay away and that's that.

WALT: That's that? That's what?

SKY: I got them out of this house.

WALT: To a sleepover at their aunt and uncle's. They spend a day or two, Junior stays up late watching movies, and then what happens?

SKY: We'll see...

WALT: No I'll tell you what happens. They come home to this house to their parents who love them.

SKY: No. I will not let our business endanger them.

WALT: How many times do I have to say they are not in --

SKY: I said No. I swear to god I won't have them back here.

WALT: What are you going to do to stop it?

SKY: Whatever it takes. Everything in my power.

WALT: Like what...I mean specifically? What is your next move?

SKY: My next move is maybe I hurt myself. Make it clear we need more time. Let Hank and Marie see we're still struggling.

WALT: No, more like you're still struggling. So maybe next time I have you committed. Put you in some in-patient facility while I take care of the kids myself. Is that what you want?

SKY: So then maybe I show up with bruises on my neck, give myself a black eye. Say that you beat me when you found out about my lover.

WALT: I see. So you want to involve Ted? Now that would be fun, bringing the police up to speed on all of that. But not as much fun as telling your 16-year old son his father is a wife-beater...Also not a very good plan, what else you got?

SKY: I could send Junior away to school.

WALT: Oh. Here's the conversation: "So Honey I know you've only got one year left in high school, but I would love it so much if you would drop everything, leave all your friends behind and go to boarding school in Arizona." You have any other ideas? Because I am not hearing a solution to your problem...How are you going to save our kids from this terrible environment? What are you gonna do, what're you gonna run off to France? What're you gonna close the curtains, change the locks? This is a joke, come on Skyler. You wanna take me on? You wanna take away my children? What's the plan!

SKY: I don't know! This is the best I could come up with! Okay? I will count every minute that the kids are away from here, away from you, as a victory. But you're right. It's a bad plan. I don't have any of your magic Walt, I don't know what to do, I'm a coward. I can't go to the police, I can't stop laundering your money, I can't keep you out of this house, I can't even keep you out of my bed...All I can do is wait, that's it, that's the only good option. Hold on, bide my time, and wait.

WALT: Wait for what? What are you waiting for?

SKY: ...For the cancer to come back.

Cut to Walt. Scene. Go to commercial. Perfect. And it was all talk.

But the body language made it too. Walt was stalking, menacing, and had all the answers. Skyler was retreating, even to the point of pulling her robe tightly over her chest. She was losing to the superior mind throughout, but hit him with the last word with more force than any weapon. But she's no saint here. Notice how she said "our business" but "your money?"

In the episode's final scene, Walt tries to convince Skyler that she'll come around. Because Jesse had just recently had a gun at his head and was now buying him an expensive watch. She'll come around too. Oh that'll do the trick. Keep reminding her of the constant danger he's in.

It's only the 4th episode of the season and show arcs are a lot like scene arcs, so it's not inconceivable that Walt is right - that Skyler will defy all logic and change her tune. It would be the human thing to do. And that's what separates the truly great shows from just great concepts.

Breaking Bad Returns: Magnets Have Two Sides

After a exhaustive and thorough post-mortem on The Freeh Report, it's time to return to my favorite criminal activities, fictional ones. Breaking Bad is back and like a huge magnet, it draws the polar opposites back together.

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As a season opener generally does, it sets up more story than it provides. This contrasts with last season's premiere which featured a memorable scene involving the now deceased Gustavo Fring, a box-cutter, and an associate's throat.

The opening scene jumps about a year ahead. Walt's got a new name, New Hampshire plates, and a high-powered assault weapon. The title of the episode "Live Free Or Die" (the New Hampshire state motto) would be cute and apropos, except it was already used in The Sopranos when Vito Spatafore was outed at a gay club and broke north, ultimately hooking up with a New Hampshire firefighter.

The episode itself shifts back to the aftermath of Gus' demise. Walt has sold Jesse and somehow convinced Mike on the clean-up, a high-risk, low-probability use of a super magnet to infiltrate a guarded Albuquerque Police Department evidence room.

One of the trademarks of Breaking Bad, what separates this show from other one-hour dramas, is that the great acting isn't cluttered with a bunch of monologues by the main characters. Facial expressions do the exposition work of a good two pages of clever back-and-forth banter.

Mike is the exception. His old Irish curmudgeonly ways fit well. And he gets a pass from his exceptional breakout as Frank McPike in Wiseguy, the first great Mob series. His exchanges with Walt are real and anecdotal (remember Half-Measures?) and illuminating, even though they're a little long.

Meanwhile, Skyler White has very much established herself as a co-kingpin. With (somewhat) more humanity that Walt, she is the one moving the pieces on the chessboard while Walt has become the bull in the china shop, relying on pure intimidation.

Skyler has become the one that Saul Goodman turns to when even a shady lawyer finds himself in an ethical quandary. And she's the one who makes sure that Ted Beneke doesn't talk.

We were sure that Ted was dead, right? Turns out he's just badly injured, and just another good-looking bald man in Season 5.

As Skyler and Walt now have similar levels of accountability in the scheme, expect that they will repel each other as similar ends of a magnet would.

As season 5 continues on, I expect this will eventually all lead to the foreshadowed war. But I think it will be Walt vs Jesse, who was way too even keeled right out of the box.

And there's the business of business. Walt and Jesse need a new lab and a new distributor.

I was happy to see that AMC wasn't one of the channels on the DirecTV chopping block. The relief will be short-lived if the Viacom deal isn't worked out by the time the Colbert Report returns tonight.

Breaking Bread: A Recipe for the Cook

Gus Frings, the Mexican chicken magnate and the southwest's top crystal meth kingpin just invited his most valuable employee, Walter White, over to the house for dinner. But as always, Walt knew the subtext and tried to blind him with science.

Gus:

"It always amazes me the way the senses work in connection to my brain...Taken separately, these ingredients alone don't remind me of anything...But in this precise combination, the smell of this meal instantly brings me back to my childhood. How is that possible?"

Walt:

"Basically it all takes place in the hippocampus. Neural connections are formed. The senses make the neurons express signals that go right back to the same part of the brain as before...Where memory is stored. It's something called relational memory."

But what Gus really smells is a rat, not in the mafioso sense, just one who is nibbling from his cheese. Simply put, Jesse Pinkman, Walt's resourceful but foolish partner may have just become an endangered species.

While that one scene dictates exactly where Breaking Bad is headed next, two amazing sub-plots have emerged that nobody ever could have seen coming:

When Skyler Met Saul

Saul Goodman:

"Clearly Walt's taste in women is the same as his taste in lawyers. Only the very best, with just the right amount of dirty."

Since Walt's extensive bankroll is going to fund the recovery of their brother-in-law (enforcement), Skyler needs to know that the laundered money is "unimpeachable."

As events unfold, Skyler injects herself as a point person in the process. Oh, and by the way we're not divorced after all - so we can't be compelled to testify against each other.

Avenging Combo

Jesse has always come across as a wannabe gangster. Yes, he's the self-admitted "bad guy," but he's clearly loyal and has a good heart when it comes to things, and people, that matter.

But through a random turn of events, another door has opened to his painful past. Jesse has tracked down the pre-teen gunman, and the soulless crew responsible for the assassination of his best friend.

Now Jesse's yin and yang are in unison. In one look you know he wants to wipe out Combo's killers, the ones who would use a 10-year old boy to sling and slay. And he can do it with a clear conscience in the name of righteousness.