Breaking It Down

Most of this post is also over at Pop Culture Nerd.

“You either run from things, or you face them,” Jesse tells Walt in the Season 3 premiere of Breaking Bad, unwittingly nailing Walt’s current shortcoming. While, at least for today, Walt may be ready to choose family over meth dealing, he’s far from ready to face anything or anyone. Despite the glimpses of his solitary self-loathing, Walt never makes any sort of acknowledgement of his wrongs. He thinks that getting out of the meth game should fix everything, but in this episode he learns (even if he refuses to accept it) how far from the truth that notion is.

In the premiere, Walt has entered even more severe stages of justification and denial, as though his meth obsession has led to him likely losing his family, he’s still not quite capable of really leveling with Skylar. He admits that he has manufactured drugs, but he doesn’t get near an apology and is indignant when Skylar hands him the divorce papers. Walt has hidden the truth from Skylar for so long that he thinks revealing the basics to her should be enough to make her forgive him, but he can’t even understand that their problems run much deeper than the logistics of what Walt’s been up to. And, on top of that, when Skylar first accuses him of being a drug dealer he briefly denies it, even though he probably had no other story to explain anything, because lying to her has become so ingrained in him.

In addition, Walt also now has to find a way to ignore the guilt of more blood on his hands than ever before. Even if the crash was due to Butterfly Effect type circumstances, Walt can piece together, just as Jesse does, that whoever’s fault Jane’s death was (undeniably Walt’s, though Jesse has no idea) is ultimately responsible. But Walt is running away from this tragedy just as quickly, whether it’s by making painful assembly speeches about moving on (though the logic seemed a bit strained that Walt would be asked to say something, even if the payoff worked well) or by trying to convince Jesse that the crash was due to a mechanical problem and lack of government oversight. Walt knows that he’s done wrong, but he wants so desperately to believe otherwise that he’ll try and sell his fantasy to anyone who will listen. And so, we wonder, if these catastrophic circumstances can’t snap Walt into reality, then what can?

Well, perhaps unfortunately, probably more gangsters. Now, over the fantastic final episodes of Season 2, Vince Gilligan and Co. earned my trust, deftly intersecting their various story lines into a gripping, crazy, and even poetic finale. But, that being said, the rise in the quality in Breaking Bad also coincided with the extinction of over-the-top, cartoonish drug dealers (Tuco being the worst offender). Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by The Wire, but all the supposed “thugs” in Breaking Bad didn’t convince me as serious villains. I’m holding out hope that these silent brothers (though they may not be brothers, I’m just assuming) match the realism of the rest of the current state of the show, but if their shooting rampage and Nick Cage movie style walkaway from the exploding truck are any indication, perhaps I should prepare myself for more cringe-inducing bad guys.

Though, initially, I sort of felt the same hesitation for Jesse, who has turned into the best non-Walt element of the show. While Jesse didn’t dominate the screen today (not that I expected him to) we did get some excellent scenes with him, as well as some solid, seemingly permanent character development. The campfire scene in particular really resonated, when the audience was as blindsided as Jesse to find that this seemingly by-the-book square running the discussion had actually done something as unforgivable as anyone there, we could believe that such a revelation might be a wake up call for Jesse. Unfortunately, in classic, tragic Breaking Bad fashion, Jesse doesn’t come to the conclusion he probably should have, instead accepting and embracing his criminal persona. Even if he’ll theoretically refrain from using drugs himself, it was sad because once again we find Jesse, who is at heart more moral than Walt, falling victim to circumstance and taking the easy way out.

Which leads us to both of our main characters getting about halfway to where they need to be, then abandoning the course. Walt agrees to some facts, but he’s not getting at the truth, certainly not about himself. And while Jesse more or less makes peace with what happened, it’s only because he seems ready to carry the blame of Jane’s death with him indefinitely. With the pair now at least temporarily living together, it’s probably only a matter of time before their self-hatred boils over into more bad decisions.

Some other (exclusive) observations…

- I wonder if Walt remembers meeting Jane’s dad in the bar.

- We’ve seen Walt light matches and watch them go out. When he was tossing them into the pool I wonder if he was thinking of them as tiny planes crashing.

- I was glad to see Walt change his mind once he started burning all that money. I think that would’ve made the previous season feel less important if he’d just let it burn. Plus we got to him fish it all out.

- I liked seeing Hank misinterpret Walt’s honesty as a joke. This isn’t the first time this has happened. What will Hank’s reaction be when he inevitably finds out what Walt’s been up to?

- I’ve sort of been back and forth on Walter Jr.’s mental handicap thing, but in this episode I really liked the way it enables his character to ask the obvious, blunt questions. Such as, what the hell is going on? Why are my parents separated?

- The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was a great example to show how difficult it will be for Walt to live alone…though I do love a good PB&J myself.

- I mentioned this earlier, briefly, but what was the deal with that assembly? Do only like eight teachers work at this massive school? Why would that principal ask Walt, a teacher who has been away for so long and, from what she knows and we’ve seen, has been going through a lot, is not great with people, and hasn’t prepared anything, to say something to the whole school? It didn’t make any sense, though aside from the logic of it, it was a good scene.

- I wonder if Walt’s refusal of the $3 million job is a safe one. I assume that Chickenman has set things up so that nothing could ever be traced back to him, but for someone so careful and professional I wonder if he’s at all afraid of Walt ratting him out.

- Along those lines, Walt is definitely taking that job soon. He’s not out of the game for long, especially with what Jesse’s said about being the bad guy.

That's all for now.