Over the course of the next eight weeks, upstart’s resident would-be meth cooks will be casting an eye over the final episodes of Breaking Bad. Rather than just cooking up another straightforward recap, they’ll give a blow-by-blow account of events while watching each 45-minute block – while trying to stay calm.
It goes without saying, but…SPOILER ALERT!
https://twitter.com/aaronpaul_8/status/371790853838082048
Liam Quinn: Paddy, we’re back again. Let me start off calmly by asking, IS JESSE GOING TO CONFESS?!
Paddy Naughtin: I’ve given up guessing what will happen in this show. Only time will tell I guess. Lets do this.
LQ: Todd. Formerly seemingly awkward, shy, child-killer Todd. Currently neo-nazi powerplaying Todd. What a transformation.
PN: With a brand new lab all to himself, Todd’s one of the big boys now. I have a feeling this wont be the last we see of our meth cooking friend.
LQ: Is he wiping the waitresses blood of his shoe? Did he kill her? Man I am on edge. You go, Paddy.
PN: Confession time. Hank enters the holding cell where Jesse is, and immediately tells him he knows that Walt is Heisenberg. Hank is not messing around here. He’s straight to the point. However Jesse sticks by his former partner and refuses to cooperate with Hank.
LQ: Jesse is all the way off the reservation; he could do anything from this point and it wouldn’t surprise me.
Better call Saul.
PN: Walt senses that Marie is trying to lure his son away from him. Instead of outright stopping Walt Jr from leaving, Walt reveals that his cancer is back. Walt knows that he can guilt his son into staying. Walt has become scarily good at playing people to his advantage.
LQ: Marie is crazy. She’s working herself into a “Belize-able” position. Also, she completely does not understand the position Hank is in with the DEA.
AWKWARD WAITER ALERT!
Hank is so singularly focused on Walt; dangerously so. He is wide open to being manipulated by Heisenberg.
PN: Aww man, poor Trey. Somehow I don’t think he’ll be getting a tip.
Marie drops a bombshell, telling Walt to kill himself. That way everyone’s lives will be easier. It’s clear that she no longer feels anything for him.
LQ: This confession is absolute genius, the perfect blend of true and fiction. The look on Hank’s face as the realisation Walt – the brother in-law he used to jokingly mock and de-masculinise – has him entirely beaten. Dead to rights. Paddy, I touched on this last week, but Walter White is dead; long live Heisenberg.
PN: I don’t know about you Liam, but I’m having the exact same expression to Walt’s “confession” that Marie and Hank have on their faces.
LQ: He even forced Marie into revealing her lie about the funding for treatment. I would applaud this if it weren’t pure evil.
PN: Aww, here we go. Another desert scene. Something big always happens in a desert scene.
LQ: I feel so intensely sorry Jesse. Here, stood in the desert, he isn’t looking for advice from Walt; he’s looking for the defacto father his chemistry teacher became. Walt is pretending to give him that with his speech, but that isn’t what’s required.
For all of Walt’s brilliance, Jesse is still a blind spot for him.
PN: You know what I think the saddest thing in this scene is? That hug.
Walt doesn’t deny that he would kill Jesse if he doesn’t move away. Jesse breaks down in the hug because he realises this.
LQ: Agree, Paddy. I think we see at this stage the reversal in relationship. Walt used to care for Jesse more (when Jesse easily wasted his money at the strip club), where now Jesse cares for Walt more.
If care is the right word…
PN: Back in the car wash, there is another seamless transition from Walt to Heisenberg. Walt steps into the darkness and calmly tells Skyler “we’re fine”.
Scary stuff.
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LQ: Surely Jesse doesn’t take the disappearing trip. He’s too integral to wipe off the board at this point?
But, regardless, the emotion conveyed by Aaron Paul in that scene was sensational; the look in his eyes when mentioning Alaska. Brilliant.
PN: Alaska. That’s a hell of a long way from Albuquerque. Swapping the red dirt, for the white snow.
LQ: Wow. Just wow. That scene in the office. You could see him piecing it all together, Jesse is borderline animalistic at this point.
PN: Yeah, Jesse is suddenly realising just how much Walt has manipulated him over the years. This does not bode well for Mr White.
LQ: Is it just me, or has Walt given up on putting effort into lying to Skyler? He just stumbles through a few lines now – he used to really convince her.
PN: Walt is acting like this is the end-game. He knows that Jesse is coming for him, and he needs to be the one who comes out on top.
LQ: Paddy. I can’t handle this. So many questions. Mainly, IS JUNIOR IN THE HOUSE?!?
Vince Gilligan you beautiful bastard.
Computers, bitch! Check out #BreakingBad Story Sync during this Sunday’s premiere at 9|8c. http://t.co/gKzDgG7SM5 pic.twitter.com/xSGe0AG8ED
— Breaking Bad (@BreakingBad_AMC) August 9, 2013
PN: … I’m in shock. This is big. Why did it have to end there?
LQ: Four cliffhangers in a row. Gilligan is trying to kill us all.
PN: I don’t think I can handle much more stress.
LQ: I fully expect to cry next week.
On that note, until then Paddy.
PN: I’ll have the tissues ready.
Liam Quinn is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and the politics editor of upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @Quinn_LP
Paddy Naughtin is a third-year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University, and the sports editor of upstart. You can follow him on Twitter: @PaddyNaughtin
Photo: Twitter – AMC Breaking Bad
