Tuesday, June 1, 2010

With Friends Like These.....

Chip, I just finished watching the latest installment of Breaking Bad, titled "Abiquiu." I love this title.  Not only is it the name of Georgia O'Keefe's town, it's a nice play on the title of the episode of a few weeks ago, "I See You."

But, I think the title of this episode could easily have been "Second Chances." We begin the hour with a flashback of Jesse and Jane at the Georgia O'Keefe museum, a visit for which Jesse had at least a chance or two before actually making it.  (In Season 2, Jesse's methlord life kept interrupting his opportunity to go to Abiquiu to see O'Keefe's work with Jane.)  Jane patiently (somewhat) explains O'Keefe's paintings to Jesse, who doesn't understand why O'Keefe kept painting the same thing over and over.  We then progress through Walt's second chance as a family man when Skyler allows him to come over for dinner, Jesse's second chance at love with Andrea, Badger and Skinny Pete's second chance by attending AA to sell Blue Sky to the addicts but ending up buying into the twelve-step routine, Hank's aspiration to the normal life he once knew after having cheated death, and Walt and Skyler's second chance at marriage after Skyler reveals she "never got around to" filing the divorce papers.  Oh yeah, and there's that cryptic admonition from Gus that Walt shouldn't make the same mistake twice.

Okay, so let's round up the usual suspects, starting with that little strumpet Skyler.  She's turned into quite an operator, hasn't she?  After channelling Robin Hood by harnessing Walt's ill-gotten gains for good vis-a-vis paying for Hank's medical treatment, she had a celebrity death match with Saul over who knows best about money laundering.  Remember how we used to feel bad for poor, pregnant, clueless Skyler?  Now, not so much.  Chip, do you think there's any chance Skyler isn't really showing us her dark side and is in cahoots with Hank to expose Walt's illicit activity and vindicate Hank's reputation with the DEA?  Or is this the real Skyler we're just now meeting?  Or, perhaps now that she's bitten the apple that is the good life via Walt's initial earnings and that heated floor over at Chez Beneke, she's not willing to play meek and mousy any more?  I can't help but recall how badly she wanted to fit in at Elliott's party and how heartbreakingly aware she was that she didn't. But Sky, honey, is buying a carwash really the ticket to the good life?

Back to Saul for a moment.  I was cheering for the slimy ambulance chaser in his "$300 suit" when he turned into a hardass with Skyler.  Who knew?  And despite his smarminess, I was actually impressed with Saul when he revealed the flaw in the carwash plan -- there wasn't a Danny.  An a-ha moment for his previous advice to Jesse to buy the nail salon.

Okay, so Jesse's new situation with Andrea is a hot mess.  Does he want her, or does he want her to smoke blue sky?  What's his thing with kids?  One look at Brock and he turns into prospective stepfather of the year.  I remember him going soft on that poor kid whose parents were the meth heads in the ATM episode last season.  Interestingly, however, he seemed to despise Andrea's little brother Tomas, the underage bike-riding gangbanger.  I guess that whole shooting Jesse's friend Combo for selling on the wrong corner thing clouded Jesse's judgment about Tomas.  And on that subject, what, oh what, is Jesse going to do now?  Kill the rival drug dealers and/or Tomas?  Get Andrea hooked on their product? Or his?

And what about Hank? Could there be a more fragile male ego more achingly emasculated?  Stripped of his gun, his badge, and his physical well-being, he has his underachiever brother-in-law paying his medical bills now.  Mere weeks ago Hank was busting heads, just for the fun of it, in honky tonks. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Enough of that, though, let's talk about Walt and Gus. Los Hermanos -- the new brothers of the drug world?  That gourmet dinner a deux was beyond bizarre.  Gus mentioned his children, but where were they?  Gus talks about the life they (he and Walt) have chosen.  Has Walt truly chosen this life, or has he ended up where he is through a series of unfortunate circumstances and bad decisions?  Was Gus's path similar to Walt's, or did he choose and calculate his ascent to the top of the southwest drug food chain?  Recall that Gus knows, thanks to Mike's snooping in Walt's medical records, that even with his unexpected medical improvement, Walt only has a few more years to live.  What's he up to here?  More specifically, where's he trying to lure Walt into going now?  If I've learned one thing about Gus, it's that he always has a plan.  As an aside, I thought it was interesting that we saw yet another shiny instrument of death when Walt stared into the shiny blade of a kitchen knife as Gus stood with his back turned.

Chip, I was expecting more from this episode, although from the looks of the previews, we have that coming in spades next week.  And, unlike like last week's installment, at least this one didn't require a Kardashians marathon to salvage my evening.

Peace, Holly

No comments:

Post a Comment