Okay, so technically it’s not Breaking Bad’s season finale, and it’ll continue this season with eight final episodes, but that’s all the way until next year. For now, let’s get into it…
Breaking Bad…It’s no secret I consider this the best show currently on television, and this season has been no exception. It may not have scaled the heights of the previous season, yet, but it’s not over with either. And I’d much rather watch those eight episodes than anything else AMC (or any other network) is up to. [Spoilers for this episode below]…
This episode wasn’t the finest of the season (I would probably go with “Dead Freight” or last week’s “Say My Name”) but it was a strong one. It started off with Walter fully incorporating the possibly-unstable Todd into his operation, first asking him to help clean up the mess of killing Mike in last week’s episode (ditching the car and body in their preferred way), and then really relying on Todd to help clean up Mike’s mess: the ten guys he showed mistaken loyalty to. The second Todd mentioned his uncle was some big shot in an Aryan prison gang, I knew this would be Walter’s method of getting rid of these ten guys, and I also knew that he would get the names from Lydia…an associate he seems to appreciate in a possibly more than professional way.
So Walter’s plan was brutal, ruthless, and——and Breaking Bad’s strong suit is getting you to admire twisted genius—–a brilliantly necessary, having all of his “loose ends” wiped out in a three minute time span in the various prisons, like clockwork. Then he continued his operation without Jesse, as he, Todd, and Lydia distributed their product from the Southwest to the Czech Republic (that makes sense if you watch the episode), as Skylar puts increased pressure on him to drop out of the business, taking him to a storage locker packed with money, and asking “How much is enough Walt?”
He then pays Jesse his money in a telling scene where Jesse is actually armed while meeting his former mentor, apparently scared to death of him. And tells Skylar that “he’s out,” but, just like Mike and Jesse weren’t quite “out” in the previous episode, Walter doesn’t get away clean either. While Hank is using the bathroom, he picks up a book that Gale gave Walter in season 3, noticing the inscription on the opening page…finally revealing that Walter is connected to the meth business. Cue cliff-hanger…
A solid, finely crafted episode that almost saw Walter get away clean. But, in Breaking Bad, nobody gets away clean. Grade for the Episode: A-…Grade for the Season: A
Small Town Security…I may have been a bit hasty in giving this show a “B+” after its first couple episodes. Every week has gotten a little bit worse as it’s clear that these characters may not be as deep as we first thought. I’m not sure where the show would go if there was a second season, and I suspect we’d just be seeing the same gags repeated over and over. Grade for the Season: C+…Grade for the Season Finale: C