Breaking Bad Review: “Granite State”
I chose to focus on Dexter first this week as it was the (horrible) season finale, but now it’s time to look at the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad before that show’s conclusion next week.
Unlike Dexter, Breaking Bad has done everything right this season, culminating in perhaps the most powerful episode of the series so far in last week’s Ozymandias. Here, we have to deal with the aftermath of everything that went down, and somehow transition into the future flash-forwards we’ve been treated to in the series so far that show a hairy Walt out for blood.
Walt has already been abandoned by his family when we see him this episode in Robert Forster’s secret vacuum shop hideaway. Then, he’s also abandoned by Saul, who finally has had enough of Walt’s scheming and wants to get as far away from him as a he possibly can. “No, I won’t hire you any hitmen Walt, it’s over, get away from me.” Walt’s subsequent threat interrupted by a hacking cough shows just how much power the once terrifying meth kingpin has lost.
Meanwhile, Jesse is in an even worse spot than Walt, being held prisoner by the neo-Nazis in a dungeon where he can only emerge to make blue meth. Todd answered the question I had last week about why the Nazis would even bother to make more meth when they had that much stolen money on their hands. “Even if you have millions, how can you say no to more?” he says, but his Nazi brethren see through this and understand that he just wants to bone Lydia. Still, it seems a little weird that the Nazis would sit on this much cash and allow it to potentially be seized by staying in the meth game because what, Todd has a crush? They’re not brilliant, but they should be smarter than that.
Walt is transported up to snowy New Hampshire where he’s put in a cabin and told to stay there for months until Robert Forster comes back. The most crushing scene of the evening is one where Walt has to offer Forster $10,000 just to stay and interact with him for another hour after his bootleg chemo treatment. It shows how truly alone Walt is, and how much he’s lost.
Back in New Mexico, Jesse engineers an escape that’s 50% clever in terms of how he gets out of his underground cage, but only halfway thought through as there’s no way out of the Nazi’s secure compound. His punishment? He’s forced to watch as Andrea takes a silenced pistol shot to the head courtesy of Todd, who awkwardly reminds her that it’s “not personal” right before he does it. Oh Todd, you always know what to say.
I’ve never liked Andrea as a character. The actress just seemed to be on a level far below everyone else on the show, and she always felt like an odd piece whenever she appeared. That said, seeing Jesse’s reaction to her brutal death was one of the most soul-crushing moments of the show. Just when you think he can’t get shit on anymore, this happens. Literally the only thing he has left is that fact that Brock is still alive, albeit now without a mother. I’m really wondering what role he’s going to have in the finale, and if Walt will keep him as an enemy or try to bring him back into the fold. I’m really hoping for the latter.
The episode ends with a fantastic montage of the Breaking Bad intro theme being powerfully built up during the above scene and one where Walt is furious after a TV interview with the co-founders of Grey Matter. He first calls the cops to turn himself in, but disappears before they get there, and we’re now approaching the flash-forward scenes where he’s grizzled, has new glasses and is about to exact some vengeance.
I have to assume the machine gun is for the Nazis, but the Ricin? I’m guessing it’s for either the Schwartzs or himself. It would seem a bit extreme to kill the Schwartzs just for trying to distance themselves from him on TV. I mean, can you blame them given the circumstances? That’s why I have to believe the Ricin is probably for him after this is all over. Which really, seems like the most fitting end for the show.
What do you think will happen in the finale?
I’ve had a feeling the ricin was for him for a while now, mostly because it’d be a good twist. I imagine he’ll take it before getting arrested and then die in custody, maybe after arranging his confession and surrender in exchange for his family’s immunity and freedom.
Also, I think the Grey Matter interview was only there to get his attention and it was the knowledge that the blue meth was still in production, and being seen in Europe, that triggered the regression to Heisenberg.
There are few scenes in shows that haunt me for years. In 24 when Jack had to shoot his superior in the head because the terrorist wanted him too is an example of a scene that stuck with me. The scene where that cold, dead eyed bastard shoots andrea in the back of the head will stay with me for a while. I didn’t even need to see Jesse’s reaction to feel the soul crushing weight of the scene. Bobby Cannavale was tour de force on Boardwalk Empire and deserved the best supporting actor in a drama emmy but Aaron Paul deserved it just as much. I’m really going to miss this show, especially after the writers of Dexter this season made it seem like they were just two monkeys with sharpies taped to their dicks fucking a whiteboard and that’s how the script was pounded out.
I think the ricin is for Lydia. I believe that something has happened to Skyler (evidenced by Walt putting the bacon 52 on his breakfast plate – which ties into the “Walt takes on the characteristics of those who have died as a result of his actions” theory), and that Lydia is responsible for it. He was already going to poison her with it before she brought up the overseas deal, and I think that may have been foreshadowing.
I think that Jesse is going to kill Todd, and will have the opportunity to kill Walt, but will turn it down. Not 100% sure what is going to happen for Walt. I think if he was going to kill himself, he wouldn’t use the ricin, considering it is supposed to be a slow agonizing death (unless maybe he feels like he deserves it at that point).
I think Emanon has it right, and Lydia is getting the ricin. In an indirect way, she is responsible for how things have played out with the Nazis, and Walt is still pissed about Hank’s death.
Completely agree with everyone about Jesse and how completely jacked up his situation is, but I do have to say watching Flynn tell his Dad “Why don’t you just die!!” over the phone, was truly the blow that crushed Walt, and brought home how horrible this has all been. Walt Jr. and Holly and their legacy/inheritance were the primary motivations of Walt’s questionable actions to begin with. He wanted to somehow leave this earth as a hero that managed to establish their successful lives, and instead burned his own effigy. Hearing Flynn wish him dead was literally a fate worse than death.
I have no idea how they are going to wrap this thing up, but if the last two episodes are any indication, it’s pretty much gonna be a crappy situation for everybody involved.
Im guessing that Walt fakes his death and escapes to a logging community where he spends his last days as a lumberjack. I mean how awesome would that be right? lol
Honestly, im done guessing with this show. It just keeps surprising me, going in directions that I never expected but still totally making sense. Cant wait to see how it all ends.
I see all the “the ricin is for Walt” theories and I can’t disagree more. Ricin poisoning is a slow and agonizing way to die. Death can take 3-5 days with some pretty awful symptoms including organ failure. I mean…it’s not something you just drop dead from. So, Walt’s not going to snort it or ingest it as a way to go out on his own terms unless he just wants to decay slowly and painfully over the course of a few days.
The ricin is for Lydia. They have made too many references to her using stevia in her chamomile tea.
I think what triggered the Heisenberg transition is not the information about the blue meth, but the denial of him being involved in the founding of Grey Matter. That’S what started all this. That’s what was always on his mind, why he wanted more and more and more power and money: He wasted his potential – the potential of a genius, which he is absolutely sure he is -and he’s not gonna do that again.
Being reminded of that, they also say Walter White is long gone and the only one that’s left is Heisenberg. Now there’s two ways this might go:
He’s thinking it’s true and goes full Heisenberg mode or
He wants to prove them wrong. Do one last good deed before he goes out. Show the world he’s very well Walter White, the family man, and not Heisenberg.
Both would be fine with me. I’m pumped for next week
When the extended cut of the Breaking Bad theme subtly kicked in in the final scene I got chills.
the ricin is for lydia, notice how she’s always putting stuff in her drinks
That Hisenburg, he’s a dead man. He just doesn’t know it yet…
Walt has always hated/resented Swartz and whats-her-name. “Grey Matter” showed how Walt wasn’t always this good person with bad luck who then became power crazed because he turned out to be a meth making god. He’s always been an angry person who felt the world owed him and that he deserved to appreciated for his genius. Making meth was just the trigger to get him a wave of praise he’s always felt entitled too. He may think he’s doing all this for his family, but, he’s like god from the Old Testament -expecting unquestionable loyalty and worship or else there’s going to be brutal retribution. Jesse is like Job, god takes away everything to prove Job loves him
I think the poison is for Lydia. Lydia is going to have Skyler killed and Walter will poison in her retribution.
In addition to Walt arranging his bacon the way Skyler did (as someone said he takes on traits of people he’s killed/died because of him) he’s always wearing a jacket very similar to one Jesse use to wear.