Do not get me wrong. I love Breaking Bad. Every frame is filled with stunning imagery and symbolism. Every word of dialogue bears weight. The day after watching this latest episode, though, I had a little buyer’s remorse. I know coincidence plays a big part in this show. Think of everything that took place for those planes to crash right over Walt’s house in the season 2 finale. This week we had a perfect storm of suspense when Walt was nearly on the business end of the shiniest ax I have ever seen.
He had broken into his old home to take a shower exactly when one goon is planting some surveillance equipment. At the exact same time our two Mexican hit men show up to make “Heisenberg” bloody kindling. Goon #1 stays around long enough to see the killing cousins enter the house. He calls the Chicken King who just so happens to have enough juice to call off the hit. I just don’t buy it.
I know circumstances can come together in mind-blowing ways in reality. Part of what I love about this show, however, is how unsparingly it depicts the gritty reality of the destruction of a life by drug addiction or the painful dissolution of a marriage. I will admit, I was on the edge of my seat as I watched the Latin lumberjacks sit on the edge of Skyler’s bed. When I woke up the next morning, however, I started all the second guessing.
I know drama hinges on conflict and without some fictional construct we might as well just watch Jerry Springer. From the previews, it looks like another great coincidence is going to come to a head in the next episode. The drug dealer’s (excuse me, “manufacturer’s”) brother-in-law is DEA. I am anxious to see how this irony plays out. I just do not want my verisimilitude stretched out and left to dry like a pizza on a roof.
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