Then, the episode ended, and I'm left with a year to wait.
Walt (Cranston) just looks confused when things are going well.There was one thing this week's episode of Breaking Bad, the last before a year-long break, had to do. It had to give us something to want to return in a year. Now, the quality of the show is enough for this alone, but in terms of the storyline, something huge needed to happen. As this episode moved along, and it dragged at times, I was getting more and more worried that we were going to be left with a whimper. Fortunately, this decent episode was saved by a huge reveal at the end. Let's jump right in.
The first half of the episode was pretty busy. We watched as Walt (Bryan Cranston) working with Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Lydia (Laura Fraser) to clean up the loose ends that Mike (Jonathan Banks) didn't want to eliminate. At the same time, Walt and Lyda expanded the meth business to the international market, causing a massive influx of cash for all parties involved. It was an entertaining sequence to watch, and it moved the story into new territory. Where would the characters go once everything smoothed over? For a good chunk of this episode, it seemed like they weren't going to go anywhere fast.
We went from a charming musical montage of prison shanking to watching all of the key characters have individual conversations with each other, which was a great way to stop the momentum cold. We learned that Skyler (Anna Gunn) was finally starting to feel a little more alive, and Marie (Betsy Brandt) proposed that she take back the children. To do this, Skylar had to drag Walt to a storage container to show him all the money they've made. Money that, despite the bands around them, Skyler couldn't count. I get the dramatic statement that they have more money than she could even count, but seriously? Do we need another reason to dislike this character?
From there, we watched Walt and Jesse (Aaron Paul) meet up again. The scene in and of itself was good, with the two reminiscing about the old days, but it went on far too long. I liked the reveal that Jesse was armed the whole time, as it showed that this is a relationship that will never be rebuilt, but I couldn't help but think time was being wasted as we neared the end of the episode.
So, Walt's cooking was written off conveniently by a rapid expansion of business that gave him more money than stupid Skyler could count. He paid off his debt to Jesse, and arranged for all of the loose ends in prison to be killed off before they could talk. We got yet another scene where Hank (Dean Norris) talked about Walt right in front of Walt without him actually realizing he was talking about Walt which, let's be honest, is unnecessary at this point because we get it. This is where we stood for the last scene of the year. Things were tied up in a nice, neat bow. It all felt very unlike Breaking Bad.
Then, Hank reads the Walt Whitman book sitting in Walt's bathroom. Good ol' Gale turned out to be much more than a laughable diversion, as his note to Walter trigger's a memory in Hank. And just like that, he knows he has been hunting Walt the whole time. I got chills thinking about the possibilities this revelation has for the final eight episodes of the series, and all I wanted was to keep going. Then, the episode ended, and I'm left with a year to wait.
Which leads to a bigger issue. All of the faults I found in this episode - the pointless scenes and painfully slow pace - wouldn't have been issues in a mid-season episode. However, AMC decided to turn this into a two-part season, with far too much time in between. Of course, Breaking Bad will have a great ending, but that's what these eight episodes have been building up to: an ending that we have to wait a year to see. This puts a lot of pressure on the show once it returns, much like what I wrote about with The Walking Dead earlier in the year. Couple this with the fact that AMC is advertising competitors' shows on their own network, and with shows like the abysmal Small Town Security taking up a chunk of their ad space and I'm seeing a network that unabashedly cares more about making money than it does in making and supporting outstanding, creative shows. I fear for the network once their current lineup of shows ends, which almost makes me happy that we get more Breaking Bad next year. Almost.
At any rate, we are left with a decent episode of Breaking Bad that wouldn't have stuck in anyone's head had it not been for the last ten seconds. We've got a strong foundation on which the final eight episodes can be build upon, and with the quality of the team working on the show we've pretty much got a guarantee that next year will be a blast. I guess we'll just have to wait to be sure, though, won't we?
As always, thanks for reading. Keep an eye out for my Sons of Anarchy reviews to return when the shows starts up on the thirteenth, and for The Walking Dead to return at the tail end of October. Hope to see you all there!