Breaking Bad Review: “Blood Money”
Alright, due to the whole “just got married” thing, my reviews are a bit late this week, so I apologize in advance. I’m going to kick things off with the (half) season premiere of Breaking Bad, and I’ll get to Dexter maybe tomorrow.
I was skeptical about the decision to cut the season in half, but I think by doing so, we’re about to witness the most tense eight episode stretch of television in the history of the medium, especially if last night’s episode was any indicator.
We’re about to see the downfall of the protagonist of the series, Walter White, who has slowly evolved into the principle antagonist over time. His lust for power has killed nearly everyone who has ever stood in his way, and now if more people are going to die on the show, we’re only really down to friends and family.
And they will die. But who?
Well, no one after this first episode at least. I got extremely worried for a second when Hank had an apparent heart attack on the way back from the BBQ at WW’s, but I should have known Breaking Bad wouldn’t pull a trick that dirty. It would have been a terrible twist to have Hank learn his secret then immediately croak.
Many wondered what form these last few episodes would take. Would Hank keep his knowledge a secret? Would Walter suspect that he was on to him? Both questions were suprisingly answered by the end of the night. Walt discovered Hank’s tracker on his car and confronted him about it, and Hank lost it and punched Walt in the face, which was probably the most gratifying face-punch in TV history. Now they know that both of them know, and the question becomes, what happens now?
Walt tries to logic it out with Hank. His cancer is back, and these accusations would destroy both of their families. What’s the point? Hank, meanwhile, has been trying to catch Heisenberg for years, and even if Walt is dying, he’s still an immediate threat to him and Marie and Skyler and the kids. Walt ends the talk with a thinly veiled threat, and Hank has to wonder what the man in front of him is truly capable of.
I’m glad they moved things along this quickly, as unlike Dexter, this last stretch of episodes seems to actually know it’s the final season of a show. I think it was a bit of a stretch for Walt to realize Leaves of Grass was gone, then immediately connect that to Hank and find the tracker, but oh well, I suppose it needed to happen.
Walt’s problems aren’t just with Hank, however. As mentioned before, his cancer is back, something he’s keeping secret from his family, though I’m not sure how long he can keep that up. He’s never been about physical intimidation, but having cancer will throw anyone off their game, even if their weapon of choice is their mind.
Then there’s Lydia, who is none too happy with the way the international meth business is being run now that Walt has retired. Quality has taken a huge nosedive, and she implies that very important people are not pleased with that fact. No amount of hard stares from Skyler is going to fix this problem or make her go away for good.
Then there’s Jesse, who is now so constantly baked out of his mind I almost thought he started up with heroin again. He has the $5M Walt owed him, but wants to give it away to the family of the kid Todd killed, and to Mike’s granddaughter, as he believes Mike is dead. Walt stops by and tries to convince him otherwise, but saying “I need you to believe this” over and over is hardly the best sales technique. Jesse knows Mike is dead, and that Walt killed him and should be feared. After realizing the impossibility of giving the money to those two parties, he resorts to literally flinging it out his car windows in a bad neighborhood. I wonder if the police will show up and take prints off the money bundles?
While last season was Skyler vs. Walt, I think these last few episodes will have Jesse wake up from his coma and turn against Walt once and for all. I think this could mean he ends up teaming with a guy he’s long sparred with, Hank, and the two of them could work to bring down Walt together.
Finally, in conclusion, we should talk about the beginning of the episode, which is really the end, the ghost of things to come. I thought it was weird that after seeing a hairy Walt at a diner at the beginning of last season, we never went to that timeline again, but we’re back and we’ve learned a lot more.
As Walt visits his abandoned house, it becomes clear that the game is up. Heisenberg is scrawled on the walls and his neighbor almost dies of fright when she sees him. In the future, maybe six months to a year later, Walt has indeed been discovered by the general public, not just Hank, and is on the run. Now the question remains as to what exactly he has planned with that military grade machine gun and the ever-present vial of ricin. Who is even still alive at this point? We have seven more episodes to figure all this out.
Good job here with the review. Totally agree with the differences BB and Dexter are taking with their last episodes. Still watching both though.
This was an AMAZING episode, but Paul, let me be the first to warn you…this episode of “Dexter” will LITERALLY make you yell at the screen…I could barely finish it…it’s THAT bad…trust me.
The stark contrast between “Dexter” and “Breaking Bad” is the freakin’ Grand Canyon when dealing with law enforcing characters finding out a family member is the biggest law breaker ever. “Dexter”, the show, is suffering from an intense case of NOT KNOWING WHAT THE HELL TO DO THIS SEASON! But I digress.
I feel bad for Hank, notice, Hank and Walt have a MAJOR contrast, whenever Hank has taken a life or witnessed death, Hank has always suffered a slight panic attack. Walter has seen more death and caused more death than anyone else in the series and at the end of the episode, Hank is finally realizing just how terrible Walter is…INTENSE!
Hank hasn’t been after Heisenberg for years at this point. The series takes place in a little over 2 years. At the point of Hank finding out, Walt had probably only been Heisenberg for a little over a year.
Just a quick note. If I have been following the show correctly, Hank hasn’t been trying to track Walt for years, but only about a year. The events of this show have all taken place in the span of a year (maybe a year and a half) so far. If you put the story into that perspective, Hank has had a really bad year. And it has all been because of Walt.
I gave up on Dexter last season, the show turned to shiiii….
Breaking Bad, on the other hand, is effing awesome and the finale will definitely be one of the best in TV history.
But…
I have this feeling that it ends with Walter’s death. There is (for me) no way he gets to live. The cancer is back and I think that pill is for him – he’s not gonna wait and go through the pain, he’s gonna make it short. The badass machine gun is for a final confrontation with someone, I guess, and after that, the pill. Hank “wins”, Skylar and Jr. are left without the money and they move away.
That’s just my 2 cents (I believe that’s the way to use that phrase?)
High greetings from sLOVEnia!
P.S.: Congrats on you marriage, hope it works out.
“I wonder if the police will show up and take prints off the money bundles?”
Haha, what? Do you think the first thing the poor people will do when they find a bunch of money is call the cops and hand it over?
@zach and @ryan
That’s a good point. It feels like years because that’s how we have watched it. But its been a much shorter amount of time for these characters. At first, I kind of wondered why Hank got upset to the point of a panic attack over the book. But you’re both right. It’s been a short amount of time and he has indeed had a VERY BAD year. These emotions are still fresh. He is still fuming over that false phone call about Marie in the hospital.
Side note: I wondered why Walt would confront Hank so directly over the tracker. In that situation, I would have played the innocent, let him track me to innocent places. Be super helpful and supportive. Maybe come up with a cover story for the book. But, maybe the Ozymandias trailer says it all. Walt’s pride is pathological.
Anyone remember when Hank placed that tracker? I don’t remember that happening.
@Postal
Walt also knew that the tracker would have Jesse’s house as a location on it. So he couldn’t just go to innocent places, having already been somewhere that would be an immediate red flag to Hank. It is really strange to think that the entire span of the show thus far has been a year and a half. We started on Walt’s 50th Birthday and everything between from Seasons 1-4 was one year, as Season 5 more covered his 51st Birthday. Can’t imagine where this will go from here…
Just got married? Congratulations are in order!
Whatever happens is gonna happen fast cause the way the house looked it appeared to be empty for a long time. Since we know that its a year after roughly i would say the next series of events happen quick. I love how shocked Hank was when saw Heisenberg come out of Walt there. Walt is dead all that is left is Heisenberg, and he will destroy anyone or anything that stands in his way. The one thing that is stuck in my head is that Vince told Cranston that Walt’s reason for coming back was to protect someone. My guess is that Walt uses that guy to disappear himself before Hank can catch him legally ( what evidence aside from the book does Hank have to prove that he is actually Heisenberg?) Walt looses everything. Lydia finds Jesse and forces him to cook for her , Walt comes back to take out Lydia and Tod’s gang.
Hank is screwed. He can’t turn Walt in, because Walt will turn around and tell everyone that Hank was on the take the whole time, and he’ll use the fact that he paid his medical bills as the proof the DEA will look at if he tries it. That’s one of the reasons Hank is working out of his garage. He knows that if anyone else in the department finds out that he’s been pointing the finger at Gus all this time, it will look like he was diverting attention from someone in his own family. That’s part of the reason Hank is so pissed.
We also know that Walt is not in jail via the flash forward, so I’m betting he had to leave town out of fear for his life from criminal interests as opposed to the law, even if the law may now know who he really is. I doubt Walt would take an M60 to a showdown with police, no matter how pathological he’s become, it would just be easier to run and hide than risk the involvement of that many police in a gun battle.
Either way, I say forget doing Dexter reviews at this point. I doubt anyone reading your stuff will really care now that Breaking Bad is back. We can all DVR it and bitch about how crappy the last season of Dexter was after Breaking Bad is finished. I know it’s not a priority for me to watch it right now and we’re gonna need something to talk about when BB is over.