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Breaking Bad: No Mas

Walt: "I am not a criminal. No offense to any people who are."

What do you do when you have inadvertently caused the deaths of 167 people? Well, 168, if you count Jane, which I do. I'm sure Donald Margolis's life as he knew it is over, too.

It's interesting that mature, responsible, practical Walt ran away from taking responsibility for what he'd done, while young, impractical, irresponsible Jesse faced facts and accepted it. Jesse embraced the concept of self-acceptance as given to him by the group therapist, yet another man who had lost his daughter (Jere Burns in an exceptional performance).

Walt, on the other hand, told Gus (who really couldn't have cared less), "I am not a criminal." Momentarily overcome with remorse, Walt nearly burned the money (and in the process, recreated the mess from the crash in his pool), but stopped himself in time. Walt told Jesse, maybe there was a fault with the aircraft, we don't know. Walt told the students, hey, it was just the fiftieth worst air disaster, there could have been hundreds more dead, it could have been Tenerife. So he made his perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cut off the crusts and cleaned out the pool and hid the glass eyeball he found in the drain, and everything will be fine. Except that it won't.

I'm certain Walt won't be able to resist three million bucks. He'll make some sort of excuse to do it. That is, if those two very scary killers don't get him first.

The opener was exceptionally weird, and I'm talking about Breaking Bad, a show that specializes in weird. It started out looking like an old western, and then there were people crawling on the ground under a yellow sky to a shrine that had skulls, candles, and a drawing of Heisenberg. The two men who are apparently questing for Heisenberg looked almost identical, with bald heads, goatees, sunglasses and similar suits. They were unstoppable, and never spoke.

All this made them appear so inhuman, so unnatural. They killed that entire truck full of people just because a boy who was boasting about a job in a body shop saw the skull on the boot and guessed that they were cartel. And yet, they gave that family a new car in return for some raggedy clothing. Is it that they don't kill unless they think they have to?

Finally, Walt came clean with Skyler about the meth, but only because she was so smart that she figured it out herself and confronted him with it. And Skyler has realized that divorce is going to be more complicated than she had anticipated, because if she speaks truthfully about why she wants a divorce or what Walt's financial situation is, there could be serious problems, like jail. Flynn is blaming Skyler for the split and of course, Skyler can't tell him the truth. All of this is hard on Skyler, who has a newborn as well. Life is so not fair.

Bits:

-- The candles on the shrine were all red. One of the killer twins lit a black candle.

-- Walt was flipping burnt matches into the pool before he made a complete mess trying to burn the money. More dirty water imagery. And they were even "Better Call Saul" matches. It was rather funny that Walt set himself on fire in the process.

-- Broken glass is another bit of imagery they use a lot. The windshield of Walt's car was broken because of the plane crash debris.

-- Everyone was wearing blue ribbons for the plane crash victims. Blue, of course, for blue meth.

-- The coyote who was shot while trying to get away from the killer twins was crawling like the people in the opener.

-- The two guys left the keys for the car on a goat's horn. I'm sure that means something, but I'm not quite sure what.

And pieces:

-- Walter and Jesse became homeless simultaneously, and now they're bunking together.

-- A student in the auditorium scene talked about getting an automatic A if your roommate kills himself. I'm pretty sure it was the same student who was trying to unsuccessfully talk Walt into a passing grade in "Negro y Azul."

-- Walt and Skyler have been married for sixteen years, so they had Junior pretty early. One child at the beginning of their marriage, and one at the end.

-- Jesse said he was done using. Let's hope so.

-- This episode was directed by Bryan Cranston. He did an outstanding job.

Quotes:

Lawyer: "You'd be amazed what I've seen partners hide from one another."

Jesse: "I accept who I am."
Walt: "And who are you?"
Jesse: "I'm the bad guy."
You know why this is so upsetting? Because he believed it.

Hank: "What you got in here, cinder blocks?"
Walt: "Half a million in cash."
Hank: "That's the spirit!"
Walt is getting better at the subtleties of lying. To himself as well as everyone else.

Four out of four burned matches,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

3 comments:

  1. Great review, Billie. It reminded me just how exceptional Season 3 is and made me want to rewatch the episode. Even if just for that Jere Burns scene at the rehab. So exceptional. Maybe I'll find time to squeeze it in. And maybe the rest of the season. :)

    I couldn't agree more with you on why "I'm the bad guy" was so upsetting. My heart breaks for Jesse and my hatred for Walt grows steadily. I remember being utterly horrified by his outburst at the school. He is most definitely getting better at lying to himself and everyone else. But especially himself.

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  2. My heart broke, too, when Jesse said "I am the bad guy." I so don't want that to be true. Great review, Billie. I liked this season so well that I sped up while watching it and binges on episode after episode. When I finished, I sadly realized I would have to wait for Season 4 to come out on DVD. I hoping that will happen this summer so I can watch it time to watch the following season in real time.

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  3. Billie wondered why the twins left their Mercedes Benz car key on the goat's horn. I think the twins were making the point that they have a Benz and these poor folks have only a goat.

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