Ananas238 Reviews

Breaking Bad: Dead Freight (2012) Season 5, Episode 5

The Train Episode

[10/10 · 14 August 2012]

Some people will remember the kid with the motorbike riding around in the desert looking for spiders to catch in his glass jar - but EVERYONE will remember this as "the train episode".

**MILD Spoilers BELOW! If you didn't understand something - read and learn!**

We begin with Walt playing a sleight of hand trick with Hank at his DEA office. Walt is able to force Hank out of the room, and Walt plants a bug in the picture frame of the photo that Hank keeps on his office desk. Walt also puts an in-line device on Hank's Ethernet port, on the rear of his office computer.

Next, we have a small chess match with Mike, Jesse, Walt, and Lydia in Houston near the Madrigal plant. In some hidden, run-down building, the crew interrogates Lydia while she is cuffed to a table. I say chess because we begin with Lydia at a near check-mate, but by the end she forces a stale-mate.

Previously, I had mentioned the director made no evident clue to whether Lydia had planted the tracking device on the barrel of methylamine or not - and now we find out why. I sided with Mike when he suspected that Lydia planted the device herself. We were wrong.

Walt's bug in the DEA office proves to be priceless, as we learn that the local ding-bat police in Houston put that tracking device on the barrel - not Lydia. In furthering Lydia's defense, Jesse reminds Mike and Walt that if Lydia hadn't noticed that device, everyone would be busted. Lydia just saved the whole crew. It is important also right here to remember that Walt quickly err'd toward murdering Lydia before realizing she was telling the truth. This leaves Jesse as the only one left with compassion - or maybe it's not compassion, but a keen sense of the truth beyond the senses of Mike and Walt? Jesse's strength there against their weaknesses would define them more as a crew. This concept is furthered when Mike and Jesse leave the room to let Walt alone with Lydia - allowing him to perform his special skills.

Lydia doesn't deny logically planning to kill Mike. Lydia does, however, know how to get infinite methylamine without involving the now- compromised warehouse at Madrigal. Enter now the freight train bearing the precious methylamine reagent.

I mentioned before that I hoped Lydia would join the show more closely because I liked her character. Turns out she is part of the crew now, after having been threatened by murder twice by the crew that accepts her. I laughed when she said we can talk percentages later because she feels she should be paid for the information she is providing. She isn't wrong, actually, but it's funny that just a minute before contemplating her salary for illegal work - she was nearly murdered by her employers. The crew is stronger now with her.

There's plenty we don't know about her, and plenty I want to know. Where is her husband or widow? Was she married to the cook that was Gus' best friend long ago - that got murdered in the pool? Why is she working at Madrigal? HOW DID SHE GET INVOLVED WITH GUS IN THE FIRST PLACE? These answers will hopefully be told, and weaved into the later plots.

In order to steal the methylamine without the vendors knowing, they must put water into the tanker to match the weight of the missing chemical. I like how Slovis goes through the encyclopedia of camera shots taking advantage of the setting. We get a small clip of the camera pushed along the train tracks following the crew, and we get some wide shots similar to PTA's There Will Be Blood.

This next part is extremely important. TODD, the worker that is in the Vamanos Pest crew, is employed for this mission to help jack the chemical. WALT AND JESSE tell TODD that NO ONE must know about the heist - except of course for the crew involved. When TODD looks at Walt for reassurance, Walt makes sure that Todd understands this means under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can anyone but them ever find out. Todd agrees. Now, remember previously, Mike told the Vamanos Pest crew that if Walt or Jesse say jump - you don't ask, you just jump.

So, they pull off the heist. It's perfect. They do everything they set out to do, and no one finds out about the heist - except one person. The little 12 year old boy from the beginning of the episode collecting spiders on his motorbike had evidently been watching them steal the chemical off the train. As Walt, Jesse, and Todd stand together staring at the boy, seemingly not knowing what to do, the boy just stares back. Silence. We as the audience are calculating the same thing the crew is calculating. Do we need to kill this boy? We know that Jesse and Walt are SPECIFICALLY against killing children - right? And without further hesitation, Todd pulls out an automatic pistol - and shoots the boy dead in the chest from about 40 yards - exploding his heart and killing him instantly. The boy falls off his motorbike, the motorbike engine stops running, and the glass jar with the spider he caught is the last camera shot we see. Amazing.

So of course you know what I'm going to say. WALT and JESSE killed the 12 year old boy - NOT Todd. Remember when Walt and Jesse judged Gus Fring for "using" or murdering a boy from a previous episode? Now Walt and Jesse have been upgraded to the status of Gus Fring, if you want to call it that. They've reached that level of responsibility that involves unconditional murder. If Walt and Jesse truly wanted that boy to live, they wouldn't have told Todd to jump.

Breaking Bad: Fifty-One (2012) Season 5, Episode 4

Momentum picks up

[10/10 · 8 August 2012]

After being mostly catatonic the first 3 episodes, Skyler softly suggests sending Walt JR to a boarding school in Arizona. Walt's reaction is just like ours - WTF? She says "a new environment might be good for them". And, now we see where this is going... but she doesn't really push the issue and Walt figures she'll sleep-off the idea.

We know what's-her-face the sister in law can't keep a secret for more than 15 minutes, and of course she tells Hank that Skyler was having an affair recently with Ted. This might actually go to help the Whites' cause, given the infidelity situation justifies Skyler's odd behavior.

We don't get to see a meth cook this episode, although it does go down. Upon wrapping up the supplies at a colorfully-tented, soon-to-be insecticide-bombed house, Walt asks Jesse to finish the bitch-work so he can head home early for his birthday party. The party is lackluster, and full of tension. Walt JR takes off, leaving the adults alone. Skyler finally makes her move, and acts out strangely - setting off events she had evidently planned. She gets Hank and what's-her-face to take the kids overnight, or maybe a few days.

With the kids gone, Skyler finally speaks. She admits that she wants the children out of the house permanently, which she claims is a poor atmosphere for them, and unsafe. She admits she can't get away from Walt and feels trapped, blah blah. It's actually the first fight she's had with Walt that seemed real, well acted, and was pretty emotional to even watch. As I said before, Skyler is a contender now, and we see that as she faces off against Walt. I think it's clear now that Walt's ultimate nemesis is Skyler - even if it's seasons away before they kill each other.

Walt and Skyler's battle in this episode is the climax. As much as we want to root for Walt, Skyler's argument is valid. Walt is only safe until he isn't safe again. One excellent point Skyler made in the argument is she's just 'normal'. Or as she puts it "a coward". In comparison to Walt who seems magical and fearless to cooking meth and murdering people, she's relegated to being a coward for taking a 'normal' person's perspective. She can't help but be rattled - not totally for Walt's evils - but also for the fact that she's caused pain to a paralyzed Ted.

Well, in earlier episodes it seemed Skyler was transforming into the accomplice-wife. But, now we find out that she can't take it. She's barely gotten her hands dirty and she's losing her mind over it. She's a pussy-ass weakling, WEAK LINK. But, as much as I want to tell her to suck it up, be a man - in as many words as Walt tried to say - she has a right to be upset about these things going on. We want to believe that Walt is desensitized to plotting evil, cooking drugs, and committing murder - especially now that he's done it a few times - but the reality of the case might be that Walt is actually a criminal, and always was a criminal, but never realized his niche until now. Obviously the producers are trying to show us something there - that Skyler may represent normal people being subjected to harsh things and her reactions are such and suitable... and then there's Walt and Hank that almost live for that action. This isn't to say that women are typically the weaklings that take the cowardly stance. I'm sure there are plenty men that wouldn't be okay committing the same crimes that Walt does.

Lydia is interviewed by the DEA, and for some reason or another, she rats out the warehouse guy that's been helping her steal methylamine. I guess he's set for hazard pay if he does jail time. This leaves Lydia shorthanded, and in a hilarious scene, she has to learn the way the warehouse works. Jesse flies 900 miles out to Madrigal to meet Lydia and cart off a barrel by van. I would have advised against this, as a van with out-of-state plates is a target for highway patrols - and if Jesse got pulled over with a barrel of stolen methylmine he would be stuck in prison for a while.

Luckily, Jesse can't take the barrel for good reason. He flies back home to report to Mike that the Madrigal methylmine supply may be compromised. Mike and Jesse deliver the best scene in the show as they discuss what happened at the warehouse at Madrigal. I have to admit, I did not realize what Mike realized right away - and I should have. Upon further review, the director purposely made no clues toward what actually happened, making it realistically difficult, so we get the perspective that Mike, Jesse, and Walt have. I laughed uncontrollably as Mike figured out the problem and summed up the situation. Good writing always makes me laugh. He admits Lydia is difficult to deal with, to say the least. I have to admit - she's pretty slick, and she's pretty gutsy, but she also is serially amateur at crime. I'd like to see her stay around a while, but she's so goofy... who knows.

There are scenes in this episode which are just simple quiet dialogue, but it's so quiet you can hear the clock ticking. Ominously, the clocks are ticking now, also Jesse gets Walt a new wristwatch as a gift for his birthday. Earlier, Mike mentioned that Walt is a ticking bomb. The walls are closing in, as usual.

Breaking Bad: Bug (2011) Season 4, Episode 9

Somehow this show continues to put out winners

[10/10 · 11 September 2011]

This latest episode of Breaking Bad somehow took a little bit of every good element in the show and capitalized on it unmercifully.

Hank continues his eavesdropping and 'extralegal' activities with his wheel-man Walt. It's somewhat comical. He thinks Gus is so clean that he must be dirty.

Hank is off the scent for a minute, until he Google Maps a satellite image of a certain distribution center for Pollos Hermanos and its partner restaurants. We recognize this distribution center as a staging ground for countless important scenes in the past. After this, the Hank aspect is to be continued for this episode.

Walt is in a sort of floating mood we haven't usually seen him in. He shares a cigarette with Jesse outside work and has an important, but subtle discussion. I love Walt's line as he walks off, he says "Doesn't matter, we're both dead men anyway." Not only in reference to their special circumstance, but seemingly in reference to man and existence in general.

Next, we see some new scenes of inside the warehouse where some packaging and other initial stages of the meth moving assembly line happen. I applaud Slovis as usual for including some of the clutter and machinery in the warehouse as valid set background.

A midst the otherwise random odd-jobs Mike and Jesse have been up to lately, Jesse begins justifying with Mike to not harm Hank, if in fact that is Mike's intention. Hank beat Jesse into a pulp not very long ago, and now Jesse has not only forgiven Hank, but is speaking partially in his defense. There's more tied into it, and it's complicated as Jesse points out, but I don't want to give away much. In the end of the monologue, though, Jesse says, "Who cares what I think anyway." Another bit of giving the finger to existence, in my opinion, like Walt's ambiguous line earlier.

Out of the blue, the cartel makes a bold gesture. Bold like I haven't seen since the grittier parts of good 'Wire' episodes. Bold that makes you stare in that awkward position in your seat.

After this conflict Gus decides to finally give in to the cartel, and calls them up. He tells them in Spanish that his answer is now "Yes" to the previous question they asked him, which we the audience do not know.

Jesse has arranged to speak with Gus at Gus' home. This scene was terrific. We don't see very much of Gus speaking with Jesse. At the end of their conversation, we learn there may be a new job for Jesse. One that maybe he isn't ready for.

Skyler is claiming to be almost turning a profit at the car wash, though she is sort of fibbing. Cut to her old boss Beneke, whom I have been waiting to re-enter the plot. My theory was that Skyler would somehow employ Beneke and his 'cooked books' to clean some of Walt's cash. Ted comes to the car wash bearing bad news, and says the IRS could soon be sniffing around him and possibly her. I don't think the IRS has anything on Walt or Skyler in terms of busting them with drug money, but the IRS does represent a black cloud that really no one wants over their heads, especially the White family. Skyler has a temporary solution.

After taking simple lessons from Hank's 'extralegalities', Walt decides to do some eavesdropping of his own, on Jesse. In what seems to be a too coincidental moment, Jesse calls Walt somewhat out of character and asks that Walt drop what he's doing and come over.

The episode ends with a scene of biblical proportions at Jesse's house. This was such a great scene I stood up the whole time I watched it. Again, McDonough and Slovis make a masterful decision on how to capture this scene. First, the camera stays at a master shot with Jesse in one corner of the ring, and Walt in the other. The shot never changes. It seems to go on forever. Walt is sitting on the couch staring at the coffee table like a statue. Jesse is pacing, projecting, and gyrating around just spitting out dialog that is equally stunning to the audience as it is to Walt. For a minute, we are Walt. We feel what he is feeling. They don't cut to a long-lens close-up shot, though, to try and drive the effect home. They let us, the intelligent audience, choose what and who to look at. Scorsese is a fan of shots like this, claiming the audience gets to be the editor for a minute. It reminded me more than anything of watching a play. During a play you don't get more than one camera shot. A scene THIS important, depicting a show-down with the best actors in the show really requires no magic from the camera, only that it be turned on.

The lighting in Jesse's house was almost all studio lighting. They obviously chose the camera position, plus the studio lighting to give this scene the effect of a mythical performance. The exchange between Walt and Jesse at that moment reminded me of some of their earlier escapades where they got themselves into heaps of trouble and would bark at one another, both not knowing exactly what to do. After a long spat of tension building dialog, the rubber band pops with the magnitude of something from a Tarantino film. If you miss this episode, you're missing the show.

Breaking Bad: Hermanos (2011) Season 4, Episode 8

Best episode of the season, perhaps of the entire series.

[10/10 · 6 September 2011]

Johan Renck really hit it off with Slovis, the DP, it seems on this episode. There are so many beautiful shots of mannerisms in the hands and face. The lighting in each scene was well thought of before-hand. We got to see great follow shots with a shoulder or steadicam that made the scenes very realistic, plus some security cam shots that worked well. Also, the writing is first class as usual for the series.

There's a tremendous amount of work that went into this episode. Beyond the lights and camera work, the rehearsing of movements and mannerisms for all the characters was worth the extra effort.

The episode starts with a pseudo-flashback, opening a door to a tangent of the plot-line which was previously left unanswered. I realized quickly where they were taking us with this episode.

The meat of the episode is an interrogation of epic proportions. In reality I think he would have brought a lawyer with him, but they seemed to sacrifice intelligence of security for making him look more innocent and humbled.

We end with a full flashback, either filmed or edited to reduce the brightness tremendously so as to stare directly at the sun and it doesn't hurt. That was obviously a very bright and sunny day, but not for Gus. The change in light exposure gave us a full sense of flashback, while working very well with the motive of the scene.

Excellent episode. I would easily pick this in my top 5 of all Breaking Bad episodes, and the best of this season so far. Renck should direct a bit more. Such an intricate filming of the series. I loved the hand on knee closeups, the pulsing hand after interrogation, on and on the episode is stuffed with intricacies that are well thought of in a very detailed and consciously executed episode.