Breaking Bad: "Ozymandias"

*OBVIOUSLY THIS POST IS FILLED WITH SPOILERS AND WHILE I HAVEN'T HAD A WARNING BEFORE THIS, THIS EPISODE NEEDS A SPOILER WARNING.

Well, a lot of stuff just happened that I don't think I've actually processed yet.  I spent the last hour not thinking about Breaking Bad and calming down.  How did I do that?  Well I did laundry, washed dishes, picked up my car from my sister - constantly doing stuff.  Now I've had time to process what just happened, I can make a calm, measured analysis on Breaking Bad.

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HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!

Sorry, that was necessary.  I mean I was thinking that in my head - and sometimes saying it aloud to myself - during almost the entire episode.  BAM - BAM - BAM.  Something shocking happened every other minute it seemed.  We - the audience - didn't get a chance to catch our breath for the whole hour.  I'm almost grateful I saw this with commercials or I may just be in an ambulance right now suffering from shock.

Well, the start of the episode was predictably not the shoot-out.  Breaking Bad has a tendency to do that.  As Aaron Paul said on twitter, they showed the first scene with the lie that started it all.  It began Walter's slowly declining relationship with his family culminating in a later scene tonight.

The scene did two further things besides provide the audience with a bit of humor seeing how far they've come: it strangely emphasized that they were going to name the baby "Holly" which I found weird until he stole Holly from Skyler.  I guess that was sort of a foreshadowing.  Also, the scene focused on the phone by the knife set, which juxtaposed nicely with a later scene when Skyler took a fucking knife and stabbed Walt with it.  Sorry, back to the episode.

Rian Johnson did a phenomenal job directing this episode.  You had the call between Walt and Skyler by the knife which was a good choice (and also foreshadowing).  Then the cool scene where we transition from old Walt to present day.  It was a bit different in that you see Walt disappear, then Jesse, and then the RV.  Then the pre-credits roll and we see the cars aligned for the shoot-out.

Instead of continuing the gunfight, this episode just had the guns stop and then silence as the audience is on the edge of their seat wanting to know what happened.  Then we see Steven Gomez is dead.  That was a given.  We see Hank bleeding getting a decent shot to his leg.  Then he crawls to the rifle and it becomes apparent that Hank has no shot of living.  (I also liked the shot when Hank is crawling and you see the Nazis walk towards Hank)

Walt really gives it his all trying to save Hank's life.  Unfortunately, it was obvious that they were going to have to kill Hank.  Walt is an idiot and gives away that he has $80 million dollars buried in the ground.  As Hank says, "You're the smartest man I know and you're too stupid to realize that he made up his mind 10 minutes ago."

Remember when Walt said that he was doing this for his family?  Well he lost his family the moment Hank was killed.  I think Walt knew that.  Then he lost his money - or most of it - when he tried to save Hank.  I'm fairly certain he used a large majority of his barrel of money to get out of town so now he seems to literally have nothing.  No family, and the money is basically useless when its only used to hide yourself.

Marie goes straight from Hank's call to Skyler trying to make things right with her now that Walt has been caught.  That scene was painful to watch even if you hate Marie because the audience knows Hank is dead and yet she seems to bring Hank up every second possible reminding the audience Hank is dead.

I'd say Hank's death was appropriately badass.  I think he would have been done via machine gun in real life, but I'm happy to suspend disbelief so we he can have a death befitting his character.  He goes out like he's been all series.  Refusing to bend his morals and not begging for his life.  Sorry, but I respect Hank way more than Walt.

Then for about five minutes, I thought they were going to kill Jesse - which is actually kind of amazing because I assumed that he would live for sure until at least the final episode.  But no, Vince Gilligan decided to say "Fuck you, Jesse fans" and made a scenario that was somehow ten times worse than him dying.

Jesse finds out that Walt killed Jane, that Walt will get away, he gets tortured, he's held captive, and he's forced to keep cooking meth because they are threatening him with Andrea and Brock.  And this happens moments after he's convinced Walt will finally pay for his deeds.  Cruel. What the hell, Vince?  This makes me convinced that they will have Jesse come out on top by the way, because really are they going to leave his story on such a down note?

Oh yeah, and Walt Jr. found out about Walt.  That disappointed me because I have been asking for that for forever and they needed to kind of rush through that.  Still, it worked fine and honestly, what I was wanting probably would have exceeded the acting abilities of RJ Mitte.  He did fine here.  Also, I laughed out loud when Skyler told him to put on his seatbelt and he responded with "Are you shitting me?"

Hank and Gomie die, Jesse's held captive, Walt's separated from his family with a new identity, and millions of people around the world are collectively recovering from that onslaught of an episode.  Not sure they can top this episode.

Ok so it's pretty clear that they are going to skip a bunch of time next episode and if it were my bet, we finally reach the point where Walt is buying a massive gun at Denny's.  I can't believe we have to wait a week for that.  Two episodes left of what is looking like the best series ever.*

*Besides The Wire.  This is coming really close to that though and could surpass it.