Man, Interrupted

Hold on a minute here, Chip.  I can’t believe you’ve put me in the position of defending the manhood of, as you called him recently, a “major puss” like Ted Beneke. And I find it even more unbelievable that I’m about to do it.  I’ll get to Ted, but first I want to talk about your boy Walt.

As you pointed out, Walt was at first a mild-mannered family man who ended up cooking meth to take care of the family he loved.  Stricken with what he, and we, thought was a death sentence, he gave up precious hours and days with his wife and son to make money to keep them afloat after he was gone.  He initially planned to forego cancer treatment because he didn’t want to deplete the few assets the family had.  However, as his mode of looking after his family switched from being a dutiful and present husband and father to a moneymaker with a secret life, Walt began losing his capacity to connect with the family whose welfare he was ostensibly protecting by going into the drug business.  Now that Walt’s death isn’t imminent, thanks to the cancer treatment he paid for with his ill-gotten gains, he’s realized just how much this money-making venture has cost him and longs to be part of the family that Skyler’s doing her best to keep him out of.

What does this have to do with a major puss like Ted Beneke?  Ted and Walt have more in common than both being notches in Skyler’s bedpost.  Ted is Walt’s end.  Ted has everything, even a heated floor, yet he has nothing because he’s a loser in love.  Divorced Ted has twins, although we never see him with them, just pictures of them in his office and home.  When Skyler asked him what he would say if his children found out he was a white collar criminal, he said something along the lines of he was just trying to stay afloat.  (There’s that damn eyeball again.)  Ted seems to want more than a regular booty call from Skyler, yet at the same time he seems emotionally vapid.  He seems to want the connection, but is he still capable of making it?  Like Ted, how will Walt love when he's no longer capable of feeling?

And a totally unrelated thought I must toss out to see if you’ll bite......  A couple of weeks ago an astute observer of the show mentioned to me his theory that Elliott might be the puppet master who’s pulling Gus’s strings.  That one hadn’t occurred to me before his suggestion.  This theory might be gaining some traction after last Sunday's episode when Walt asked Gus how he knew how to pimp the meth superlab – Gus said he had some outside help.  Interesting.

Peace, Holly

WHAT DO MEN DO?

Since the season premiere, Walt has suffered one emasculating humiliation after another. He was pepper-sprayed by a highway patrolman, kicked out of his house by his wife and suspended from his job. His awkward romantic advances to his supervisor were rejected. That little whipper-snapper Jesse whipped up a mess of meth using his chemical recipe. The icing on the cake was learning Skyler was now bumping uglies with Ted.

Up to this point, Walt’s response to most of this has been further humiliation. A mousy apology to the policeman. Sneaking back into the house. Quietly eating supper prepared by a wife fresh off her latest afternoon delight.

Thanks to Gus, Walt now officially has his mojo back. Despite trying to lure Walt in with cash and a flashy new lab, it was a simple statement that finally hooked him again. What does a man do? According to Gus, a man provides for his family. He does it when he is not appreciated, respected or even loved. With a few simple words, Gus has taken Walt back to the reason he broke bad in the first place. While I like Jesse, it was a hoot watching Walt dress him down with manly authority in Saul’s office. Jesse calling Walt “bitch” seemed downright effete in comparison. Perhaps he should blow some more of that cash at the titty bar to feel better.

Then we have the seething pot of rage and testosterone known as Hank. He has not been the same since El Paso. He is too much of a man to seek help for his panic attacks or even share with his wife. Like a petulant grade school bully, he tries to make himself feel better by attacking others physically (bar room brawl) or verbally (commenting that his partner’s balls are in his wife’s purse).

What Walt recognizes and Hank does not, is that the strength of a man is sometimes measured by his ability to be gentle. Hank could have some of the pressure removed from his shoulders if he simply told Marie what he was going through. Walt on the other hand is on the verge of cracking Skyler’s armor by virtue of his genuine love for his family. His anguished longing to pick up his baby as she cried slowly transformed into a moment of paternal joy as Skyler let him do just that. That is what men do.

Holly, I have a question though. Do real men have heated bathroom floors?

P.S. On the flip side of the gender coin, I am ecstatic to report that Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks has officially dislodged Megan Fox as the Sexiest Woman Alive according to Esquire Magazine. Amen and Hallelujah. A real woman with curves.

NOTHING BUT BLUE SKY

I agree Holly that this episode seemed to be a bridge to further developments. You cannot have an IFT moment every week. Jesse continued to embrace his “bad guy” role and take it even further. I felt sorry for the poor gas station attendant while simultaneously pulling for Jesse to get away with his bold play. He is showing some cahones that he has not before. He may not be the brightest beaker in the lab, but he has the makings of a real player when he grows up.

I also think it is very fishy that Hank is being called back to El Paso now. It smells like a one-way ticket to Tuna Town. For one thing, his last trip there was a disaster on every level. His co-workers did not embrace him. In fact, he was mocked for not even knowing Spanish. Then there was the turtle incident. I would think any surviving DEA agents from that event might even associate Hank with the tragedy. I think there is more than a mole in the office. I will come right out and say I suspect the sheriff is at least complicit in something going on there. As for your theory about the cousins luring Walt to their territory, I don’t think they give a turtle’s shell about where anything happens.

Yes, it is a given that Walt will go back to cooking. Gus has played him well, but it is also Walt’s pride that is going to suck him back in. He is not going to let that little whipper-snapper Jesse soil the reputation of Heisenberg. He was clearly unsettled that Jesse was able to do as well as he did without his leadership.

Fear is not going to be a motivator for Walt now anyway. He sees himself as a man with nothing left to lose. At this rate, he may continue to unravel to the point that Walt will cease to exist and all that is left is Heisenberg. The scene where he tries to “talk” to Ted is a hoot on one level and uncomfortably real on another. His ill-advised attempt at revenge sex is also squirm-worthy.

Skyler may have been outed as the office slut, but that does not appear to faze her. She has always been the accountant non grata around there anyway. She still got her cowgirl on even after Walt’s scene at the office. It would be interesting to see her breaking bad to the point of being on level moral ground with Walt. Ted is definitely enough of a weasel to leave Skyler twisting in the wind if someone audits the books. Anyone that would let a man come into his business and make him look like such a major puss like that must be a major puss. If she does get caught, she might want to call Saul.

Just Because You're Paranoid Doesn't Mean They Aren't Out to Get You

Last Sunday's Breaking Bad lacked the tension of the previous week’s “I.F.T.” and the shock value of the beginning of Season 3. This week's episode, “Green Light,” might have been called "Crystal Ball" for all the (apparent) foreshadowing it set up for the rest of the season.  Chip, you know from our Mad Men discussions that I'm a conspiracy theorist extraordinaire with a recessive Chicken Little trait.  Here are a few of my thoughts on where the Breaking Bad train, er, make that Winnebago, is headed:

Chip, you and I had a brief non-blogosphere discussion about my Conspiracy Theory #1, that someone in the DEA is dirty.  I am suspicious about the reason and/or motivation behind Hank's being recalled to El Paso.  The timing seems fishy.  I see a few possibilities here.  One is that Gus has a mole with Albuquerque law enforcement who knows that Hank's hot on Heisenberg's trail and wants to get Hank out of town before Walt/Heisenberg starts cooking Blue Sky again.  Another possibility is that Tuco's cousins realize they're going to get more than they bargained for if they kill Walt on Gus's turf (and time).  However, all bets are off if they could lure Walt to their territory.  Hank may be a pawn in that game.  A third possibility involves the cousins exacting revenge on Hank (who was the one who actually fired the fatal shot at Tuco) with a turtle, a bomb, and, oh never mind.  I don't see AMC allowing a retread of that old trick.  Let's not forget, AMC brought us not only death by turtle and decapitation by ATM, but also amputation by lawnmower.  They aren't going to rest on their laurels now.....  Chip, you were astute enough to remember that the sheriff was being cagey about Hank not going to El Paso, which you noted was odd given that Hank was the local go-to guy for all things Heisenberg. Good eye, my friend.

The title of this episode, "Green Light," brings me to theory #2.  It's obvious Walt's about to get back in the drug manufacturing biz.  Gus's unsolicited delivery to Walt of half the drug money for Jesse's cook was some serious head-gamesmanship. The traffic light cash toss-in was a nice touch.  The title of this week's episode, coupled with the title of next week's "Mas," and considered with the red light/not cooking meth, green light/cooking metaphor makes Walt's reentry in the game all but a foregone conclusion.

Which brings me to plot musing #3. I thought it was interesting that Gus told Mike he doesn't find fear to be an effective motivator.  That one had me scratching my head a bit, but when it became apparent that Gus was a grand master of mental chess, I had to marvel at the sociopath inside this seemingly mild druglord.  Walt has done pretty well against thugs like Crazy 8 and Tuco.  He's even holding his own against the cousins on a mission, albeit by the intervention of Gus, Saul, and Mike, of which he’s blissfully oblivious.  But how will Walt fare against the worthy mental opponent he's facing in Gus?

Theory #4, a/k/a the out of left field theory with no basis in this week's episode....how long till Walt Jr. decides to smoke his problems away?  The Whites aren't exactly putting the fun in dysfunctional lately.  Poor kid.

Theory #5 - It was obvious from the chilly breakroom reception Skyler got from one of her Beneke coworkers that the office knows Ted's been cooking more than the books.  And Skyler is clearly an outcast from the cool kids at the watercooler. Wouldn't it be interesting if one of the office mean girls decides to do some whistleblowing? Especially if it led to Skyler being charged criminally for the numbers game Ted is running. She'd hardly be able to claim the moral high ground with Walt (or Marie) if she was just another criminal.

Have any theories of your own, Chip?  Or just want to take shots at mine?

Peace, Holly

Skyler - Beggar or Chooser?

Hmmmm.....Chip, I hadn't thought about Skyler's choice of Ted as being anything more than the best option available to her, without regard to his full head of hair. (Hair is such a rare sight on Breaking Bad that I have a hard time keeping all these shaved heads straight.) I mean, c'mon, who does she know who doesn't make you go "ewwww"?

Now that you mention it, though, isn't it particularly fitting that Skyler got her I.F.T. on with someone who's cooking the books? Walt made such a big deal out of having earned, not stolen, the bag of Benjamins he gave her before she left for work that morning. Skyler promptly left the house and initiated a sexual encounter with a thief (and a cook of a different sort). 


Perhaps only Elliott, who "stole" Walt's chemical brilliance (and its ensuing fortune) and took Gretchen, the real love of Walt's life, would have been a more fitting choice. But hey, the season's still young. It could happen yet. A girl can dream....


I forgot to mention it in my earlier post, but where was Baby Holly during the I.F.T. extravaganza? Doesn't Skyler take the baby to work with her? That little Holly may have been present for her mom's revenge effing is the only thing I find particularly questionable about Skyler's judgment. Okay, that and the bad drive-time music with which she's torturing the poor child.

Peace, Holly

TOO MANY COOKS

Hey Holly, it certainly was a tense episode. Did you notice there were no explosions or gunshots? The only fire I noticed was the lighting of a cigar. Aside from the beheading back-story, there was not any actual “action” to be had in this episode. Well, unless you count Hank smacking a couple of biker-types around. Yet, I found myself once again completely engrossed. Not white-knuckled, edge of my seat engrossed, but I could not fast-forward through the commercials quick enough.

This was Skyler’s episode. First of all, Anna Gunn put on an Emmy-worthy display of subtle acting. The extended scene from finding Walt at her home to her nearly spilling the beans to the cops was superb. Yes Holly, I believe it was her eyes that seemed to carry their own dialogue. Contrary to my comments from last week, the power of this scene is how grounded it is in reality. At times, it was almost too painfully real to life.

As far as Skyler the character goes, I did not blame her for wanting to take some measure of control of her situation while trying to inflict some of her pain back on Walt. I admire her protective instinct of Walt, Jr. as well. I look forward to more intense drama when that young man finds out his hero is a criminal. On the other hand, I have to question Skyler’s choice in men. Following Walt’s honest and heart felt plea for her to take the money he had “earned,” why would she then hook up with a man who is also a criminal? He does not cook Meth, but he cooks the books. He even used an almost verbatim justification for his actions in the previous episode. Is it just because he has more hair?

Speaking of achingly real, Jesse’s repeated dialing of Jane’s voicemail just to hear her voice resonates with anyone who has experienced such a devastating loss of a loved one. Talk about a simmering pot of grief and rage. Can you imagine how this will boil over when Jesse somehow finds out that Walt had a literal hand in Jane’s death? You can almost picture a season finale where Walt is chased down the street by a mob comprised of just about everyone in his life. Bringing up the rear will be the killing cousins brandishing some form of shiny utensils. They are just not like the rest of us. I am also curious to see if Jesse is able to cook as well as Walt after merely being his Igor for so long.

Another member of that mob would certainly be DEA agent/brother-in-law Hank. I have a different take on what he was up to in the seedy bar, Holly. If this were PTSD related, I do not think he would have as much control over his actions. On the contrary, I think he knew exactly what he wanted to accomplish. He is trying to sabotage his own promotion through his questionable actions. He does not want to turn El Paso down or let anyone know how much his last stint there screwed with his head. So here is the macho way to perhaps keep from being sent back to that hellhole. He relishes his role as big fish in little pond too much to go back.

The Chicken King is one cool customer, but his arrogance might just get him an unwanted visit from the cousins if he is not careful. Then his goose is cooked.

Dead Man Walking

Wow, another tense episode of Breaking Bad last night.  The list of people with a stake in Walter’s demise lengthens.  We knew going into this episode that Don Salamanca/Tio and Tuco’s cousins were after Walt.  Now we learn that Skyler is biding time, just waiting for lung cancer to get Walt so Walt Jr. won’t find out his dad was in the drug biz.

But enough about Walt, let’s talk about Skyler.  Unable to get Walt out of the house after his “break-in,” she calls the cops.  They want to work with her, as does her lawyer, and she has the goods on Walt that would seal the deal, but in the end she can’t pull the trigger because of what it would do to Walt Jr.  Not the type, however, to sit around idly with an unwelcome houseguest, she reveals what “I.F.T.” (the episode title) stands for and deals Walt a devastating (fatal?) blow in his bid to be the family man again.  In Skyler’s world, revenge is obviously a dish best served cold.

Chip, did you notice we didn’t see the eyeball this week?  Its absence, and the many real eyeballs in devastating moments, was prominent to me.  I especially loved Walt’s frozen stare when Skyler dropped the bomb, then went to serve salad to Walt Jr. and his friend, as well as Tortuga’s look of sheer terror when he realized he was about to meet his maker.  And Jesse and Hank seemed to have their wide-eyed moments, as well.

Chip, after your notice of the shine on last week's ax intended for Walt, I noticed that the glare off that machete the cousins used on Tortuga was almost as bright.  And the blood spatter on the otherwise impeccable suit of one of the cousins was some great, albeit gruesome imagery.  BTW, have you noticed the cousins are men of few words?

What’s going on with our DEA man Hank?  Was that barroom bust-up a manifestation of PTSD after the recent gory incidents in El Paso and Tio’s lair, or is he about to break bad himself?  Now THAT would be a story arc!

I can barely bring myself to mention Jesse. His house, like the boy himself, is empty inside.  He’s so lost without Jane that he calls her voice mail incessantly just to hear her voice, until her phone is disconnected and she’s really, finally gone.  After being pestered by Saul to get “the maestro” cooking again, and enduring a few of Saul’s barbs nominalizing Jesse’s role in his former partnership with Walt, he takes the RV out to the desert and begins a cook by himself, looking bewildered over the process.  Was that foreshadowing in Walt's wearing rubber gloves to remove the pizza from the roof and apron when whipping up a pot roast?  He looked more like a meth cook than a family man to me.

Mike the Cleaner has an interesting life.  Last week he was visiting a little girl on the playground, then went to plant bugs at Walt’s house and somehow dispatched the badass cousins just in time to save Walt’s neck, literally.  This week we found out that Mr. Clean, who seems to be on the payroll of both Saul and Guy, has a higher loyalty to Guy because he agrees to keep Saul out of the loop on the near-miss goings-down at Chez White.  Is Saul just a dope in this operation?  Or has he somehow stepped out of line, like Walt, and is now unknowingly biding time till his usefulness to Guy is over?

How soon till the drug war starts?  That meeting at the chicken plant was just seething with barely contained hostility between the two cartel factions.  Interesting that the guy who lured Tortuga into the back of the bar (and his demise) was the same person meeting with Guy about the Walt Problem. I don’t believe for a minute this guy can’t control the evil twins. I loved the brief scene of the hundreds of chickens, pecking away till their deaths, all for the benefit of Guy.  You know how they slaughter chickens, don’t you, Chip?

Peace, Holly

Losing My Religion

I think I had more faith in Walt’s meltdown than you, Chip.  In the last few episodes, we’ve seen Walt under tremendous pressure.  Despite his financial success, he’s lost everything else he holds dear.  His life is out of control – whether he has everything, or nothing, is up to someone else.  Skyler, “Flynn,” Hank, Gus, Tuco’s pissed off cousins – they hold his future in their hands. Even the eyeball is serving up its indictment of him.

Driving alone out in the desert, alone at last and enjoying a song from what had to have been a simpler time in his life, Walt encounters the very symbol of authority, a uniformed officer who pulls him over for his cracked windshield.  He tells the officer, none too gracefully, that the windshield was broken when hellfire rained down on his house from the midair collision and he hasn’t had a chance to have it repaired yet.  There were body parts in his yard, for the love of all that’s holy!  Surely he doesn’t deserve a ticket for this! 

Walt’s meltdown was the perfect embodiment of his frustration with his life.  Unlike what we saw in the season premiere, I didn’t see an ounce of guilt in this scene. Just as Walt finds himself lately in every other situation, the officer has total authority over him.  Walt’s losing his religion!  He’s not liking the fact that karma is treating him as Walter White when he’s clearly served notice to the world that he will henceforth be known, and treated, as Heisenberg. The man is a major “drug manufacturer,” with a thriving hobby as a mass murderer. Does he deserve no respect at all? Is he a horse with no name? Ah, but our man in uniform gives Walt a good roughing up as he loads him into the car, just to drive the point home that whoever he really is, Walt’s not in control right now. 

And that is why I loved Walt’s meltdown.

Peace, Holly