Re: The Official Breaking Bad Thread (Spoiler Alert)
Best episode of the season to date and one of the best in the show's run. So many themes and potential messages foreshadowing events later in the season, and specifically the mid season finale. Have to think at this particular moment something major will occur involving either Walt Jr, Skylar or Lydia. Great thing is there are so many ways this could go in the next few episodes, year long wait is going to be an absolute BITCH however if the show keeps this quality going into the next 4 episodes.
Walt and Skylar scenes were the highlight of the episode, as pointed out by someone else above I loved the fake sincerity Walt displayed whilst recounting the chemo and Skylar just looking disgusted and guilt-ridden, everything about the pool scene was just shot tremendously well and the follow up exchange in the bedroom was chilling. Walt just has this unsavoury way of being a piece of shit even though you don't for a second think he'll physically harm Skylar, just the lack of emotion and manipulation of her seems worse and more damaging mentally than other shows where men have beaten women and still not come off as bad as Walt does. Skylar's line about wishing the cancer to come back was a shocking moment, but Walt's message at the end about Jesse coming around to him and eventually her doing the same was incredibly symbolic, was just delivered with enough menace and in a chilling tone where it came across as 'YOU WILL COME AROUND', and taking away any choice she has. Seeing him basically bully her and taunt her emotionally was such a hard scene to watch, and it really helped exentuate her gradual mental decline as has been foreshadowed all season long.
Loved Jesse again providing the sense of morality, but again its a nice hint that his inability to have more blood on his hands, coupled with Walt's obsession with power may spell disaster sooner rather than later. There's so many intangibles they cannot control and Jesse in particular really could become a liability depending on how Walt's character goes from here on out, Lydia is definitely going to play a big part in the rest of the show and I love this little cat and mouse game Mike seems to be playing with her.
As for the whole lack of support for Skylar. Factually I do feel for her as she's obviously concerned about her children's welfare in all of this, and the fact her husband has become virtually a new man must be haunting her. But as others have said, she never really reacted the way she should have when finding out about why Walt got into the meth business, I'm not saying all the lies and deception should have been brushed aside, but Walt's story centred on a good man being driven by necessity into a world he wasn't comfortable with, and really her attitude as someone else said has basically been to support him when it suits her and then take this 'moral stance' when she suddenly feels its gone too far. Walt has definitely become a new man and his lack of emotion in all the deception and death that has surrounded him is especially chilling (almost like his 'shit happens' philosophy has completely erased any empathy in his body), but Skylar has essentially been a woman who's wanted her cake and eaten it: had she protested throughout maybe more would support her but essentially she's put up this front as the clean and moral opposite of Walt, when in fact she's just as corrupt as others on the show and Jesse in particular is a far better character worthy of being called 'the morality of the show'.
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The Official Breaking Bad Thread (Spoiler Alert)
this episode.
