In lieu of Breaking Bad's final season, I am watching and talking about each season until August 11. I am preparing both myself and anybody else who is interested in this show a sort of refresher and a tool to be absolutely ready. Breaking Bad is a show that would not hesitate to use a plot line from a few seasons back. I want to be completely ready by the time the show airs.
To end the first season, Walter White and Jesse Pinkman witness the brutal murder of nameless drug dealer by the hands of Tuco. This makes them come to the realization that they need to find another way to sell their meth.
This season marks the progression of the decay of the White marriage. If the first season began the slow decline of this marriage, well this season just put it all on the table. To end the season, Skylar leaves Walter because of all of his lies. (And when she shoots down all of his previous excuses, it's kind of painful). As long as Walter is lying to Skylar, this marriage will not work.
Walter has a second cell phone which is revealed when he is kidnapped and goes missing. Walter is none too smart about trying to handle the situation. I'm no expert liar, but you should probably own up when you've been caught. And really there was a simple explanation that would have defused the situation in no time. Simply say that it was for buying your weed. Boom. Maybe you'd get in trouble in the short term but it's way better than the alternative options and it would make sense since she already thinks you smoke.
Anyway, Walt comes dangerously close to getting caught and devises a plan where he goes into a "fugue" state. Everybody buys it except Skylar. Anyway, it gets to the point where Skylar is putting herself in a position to have an affair with Ted. Between pushing her pens and pencils to get his attention, singing "Happy Birthday" in an inappropriate way, and going back to him after she found out he'd been making money illegally, there was plenty of foreshadowing to their future affair.
(I think at this point it was common knowledge that Skylar was pretty disliked so I guess bold strategy for making an unlikable character and then having her actively try to cheat on her husband. Not saying her actions weren't reasonable just interesting. Anyway, I read an interesting theory why she's so disliked despite pretty reasonable reactions and actions. She's extremely passive aggressive and self-righteous (the worst combination - his words) and early scenes indicate she married Walt because she could "control him." Not saying it's right or wrong, it just is the best reasoning I've come across yet.)
During this season, we also get a taste of how a major meth operation starts. With Tuco gone, theoretically, the "turf" is now open for a new distributor. All potential and likely problems happen due to this: Skinny Pete gets robbed, Badger gets arrested, and after expanding their turf, Combo gets killed. After some confusion on if Jesse smashed a user's head with an ATM machine, they now had zero respectability as a viable enforcer.
But first, we get the first taste of Saul Goodman, the potential spinoff character of this show. (I'm skeptical on the quality, but I'll probably watch at least the first season). He's got one-liners and in the first episode he's in, he destroys Hank in his response to Hank's usual insulting quip. So right away we know this character is going to be fun.
Speaking of Hank, he begins to become one of the more essential characters on this show. First he kills Tuco in a shootout, brags about it, but secretly it haunts him. He is great at putting up a facade of being alright. That kill earns him a promotion to El Paso, a group of DEA agents who are assholes. Anyway, long story short, he narrowly avoids death and probably helps preserve the leg of a fellow agent when a human head on a tortoise (Danny Trejo!!) explodes.
Walter Jr. gets underutilized, but he does get to make a donation web site to help raise money for Walter. Every time the ding goes off on the computer, I bet Walter is dying a little more inside. Honestly, I'd be kind of pissed if I walked into my house and a TV crew was airing a story about giving charity to me. I'm certainly no person who won't accept charity (not that I've ever had a situation where I could), but holy cow that would destroy my dignity. Marie has a fight with Skylar resolved but that's literally all she does - not that I mind as her character is probably the weakest of the series.
And this season also marks the first appearance of Gus Fring - way earlier than I remember. (And also the first appearance of Victor... oh poor Victor) Watching Gus Fring on re-watch brings a certain amount of hilarity knowing what will come. I can't really imagine him being super helpful and useful fast food owner who's almost obnoxiously polite. Also, Mike's first appearance is in this season!
Anyway, there are four flash-forwards in this season leading to the airplane explosion. That was such a Breaking Bad thing to do to have the audience think that something will happen to the Whites only for it to be that Walter inadvertently killed hundreds of people. (Season 5 Spoiler: Kind of like how the cliffhanger was that Hank found out Walt was Heisenberg. No huge bang, but extremely earned moment.)
Looking back, I think the moment when Walter lets Jane die should have been the moment when the audience stopped rooting for him. This was the point of no return in my opinion. He killed a mostly innocent person for personal gain and nothing more. All of his kills have been self-defense and also drug dealers. Now, shows like this bring in worse guys than the "protagonist" so it's easy to root for him. This show didn't let him get away with it easy either - destroying Jesse and two planes crashing together as a result of her death.
Walter White Kill Count: 2+ 1 (Jane - He just let her die. He would have known how to save her)
Walter White Death Count: 170 (Tuco, Spooge, Combo, 167 people on two planes - In some way responsible for the death if he didn't outright kill them )
Walter White Badass Count: 4+ 3 (Walt telling Tuco they tried to poison him; Walter saying "Fuck you" to Gretchen, "Stay out of my territory)
Audience View of Walter White: In reality, I think audience was still rooting for him kind of; In theory, he just committed an unforgivable sin to where we should root for his demise.
Playlist (Best of Season 2 songs)
1. "It's such a Pretty World Today" - Nancy Sinatra
2. "Negro y Azul" - Los Cuates de Sinaloa
3. "The Peanut Vendor" - Alvin Red Taylor
4. "One by One" - Black Seeds
5. "Good Morning Freedom" - Blue Mink
6. "DLZ" - TV on the Radio
7. "Enchanted" - The Platters
8. "Life" - Chocolate Genius
No comments:
Post a Comment