I still have a copy of this review saved as a Word document, so I'll just paste it here. The formatting will probably be screwed up a little bit, but I did the best I could. Admins, don't worry about recovering this thread.
If you've watched "Ozymandias" by this point, you'll probably understand why I'm kicking myself for declaring last week's "To'hajiilee" the best episode of the series to date. I still stand by what I said at the time, but it possibly reduces the impact of me declaring that "Ozymandias" is better, by far, than any other episode of the series. I don't just mean the huge, huge tentpole moments that have been years in the making, of which there were several in last night's episode. I'm thinking about the way this season has been more tightly plotted and thematically coherent than any other in the show's run, and the way the plot development in this episode arcs beautifully into the two flashforwards we were presented with earlier. This series has been sucker-punching its audience for six weeks in a row now, and damned if we aren't begging for more in between gasping breaths.
Picking up right where we left off, the episode's first scene lasts for about 15 minutes. In those minutes alone, the writers kiss off two key characters that have been around since the pilot, they deliver a series of bombshells related to the two central characters, and then they strip our "hero" (yeah, right) of almost everything he's been striving toward for six seasons. Gomez, ever the trusty DEA sidekick, doesn't even get his own death scene; we fade in on Hank clutching a bullet-ridden leg and staring at his best friend's body. I guess this wasn't too surprising. (I'll try to get through this review without using the word "inevitable," but that'll be tough considering the events that continue to happen outside of the characters' control. Plus, "To'hajiilee" and "Ozymandias" seem to work well as a brutal two-parter, so the recurring theme of inevitability--dammit!--is hard to ignore.)
At least Hank gets an appropriately badass, dignifying sendoff. I mean, sure, the psychopathic Nazis shoot him down in the dirt like an animal. But Hank's always been a man obsessed with principles and accepting the consequences, so giving him the opportunity to tell Jack to fuck himself was a pretty satisfying way to end Hank's story. A few seconds after the echo of Jack's pistol fades away, the grief-stricken Walt suffers another blow as his money is immediately found and appropriated by the Nazis. But hey, at least they left one of the seven cash-filled barrels for Walt to use. So in the end, there's just Walt and a barrel out in the desert; a darkly fitting twist on a prediction Mike once made about Walter's final fate, I believe.
I didn't mention Jesse yet, but to be honest, while Hank was looking down the barrel of Jack's gun I had totally forgotten about Pinkman. Walt sees Jesse hiding under his car and spitefully points him out to the Nazis, which is a terrible thing to do, but makes sense given Walt's discovery of Jesse turning rat last episode. Jesse's life is saved only by Todd, who seems to recognize, even though Walt himself does not, that having him lose two people he considers "family" in the space of two minutes will only rub salt in an already raw and gaping wound. So Jesse gets driven away to become the Nazi's new meth cook, in a lab where pictures of his girlfriend and her kid are displayed as an implicit reminder of the Nazi's total power over him.
While Walt's out rolling barrels Donkey Kong-style in the hot To'hajiilee sun, the newly widowed (though unknown to her) Marie drives up to the car wash to tell Skyler about Walt's arrest. The conversation between these two sisters featured a bit of (ironic) gloating from Marie, mixed with some legit empathy and willingness to help Skyler avoid the impending legal shitstorm. Finally, Marie forces Skyler to bring Flynn away from cash register duty to come clean about his dad's illegal activities. Flynn, for his part, reacts with an appropriate mix of bewilderment and shocked anger at his mom for keeping him in the dark for so long.
Speaking of dark, did you notice Marie's all-black wardrobe? The writers are really laying on the death imagery thick, even when Marie is still unaware of everything that happened after her husband arrested Heisenberg. Skyler, draped in the white/blue combo she's been rocking all season, has adopted the color scheme of her husband, with his blue shirt and white jacket turned brown by the dirt of the desert and the moral corruption and all that highbrow shit. Ooh, and Holly's wearing pink. Because she's a baby. A girl baby. Man, I'm really good at this.
But enough color symbolism. We find out that Jesse tells the Nazi Posse about the confession video he taped at Hank's house, which is where the video remains. The implication there is that the Nazis will ride up to the Schrader home to retrieve the tape, and they will likely run into not only Marie, but Skyler and the kids as well. Maybe the results of that meeting will turn out to be Walter's reason for coming back to the ABQ with an M60 and a capsule of poison. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
After Walt gets home with his barrel and a new ride, Skyler and Flynn find him covered in dust and shoving suitcases into his truck. Since they had thought he was arrested, it takes them a little time to piece together the fact that Hank's arrest might not have panned out so smoothly as Marie made it sound. After vainly trying to drag his family off with him, Walt is finally compelled to admit that Hank is dead and that he has to go on the run.
In a brilliant turn, Skyler grabs a kitchen knife and tells him to fuck off, which Walt only does after nearly killing her in a fight over a knife before being thrown off her by his son. Flynn calls the cops, and Walt realizes he has lost as much family here at home as he did when he was out in the desert. Desperately afraid of running off alone, he snatches up Holly and takes her with him, fleeing his shattered family once and for all (we assume). But at a restaurant bathroom, when Holly's first word turns out to be "mama," Walt realizes the insanity of his deranged plan, and plots to leave Holly for Skyler to find.
In what is probably the single hardest scene of the series to watch, Walt calls his estranged wife, who allows the police to listen in on the call, and just rips into her in the most despicable, Heisenbergian way possible. Calling her a "stupid bitch," telling her that she never listened to him and that he was going to find her and do the same to her that he did to Hank, etc. It takes Skyler, and us, a minute to realize that Walt's saying all these terrible things for the benefit of the police eavesdroppers; he's driving home the point that his wife and children have been little more than the unwitting hostages of a violent, misogynistic psychopath. Before Walt disappears from their lives, he at least has the decency to protect them from prosecution, a far cry from the pre-credits sequence in which Walt calls Skyler after his first RV cook ever with Jesse and feeds a stream of lies into the phone solely to protect himself. What goes around...
And so Walter White leaves Albuquerque in shame and regret, under the care of Saul's disappearing guy who Jesse stood up a couple episodes earlier. From the flashforwards, we know he'll be back with a vengeance soon enough. This was the darkest episode Breaking Bad's ever done, but we know that, given the contents of Walter's trunk in those flashforwards, more blood is on the horizon. This show's not through with us yet.
Breaking Bad S06E06 Review: "Ozymandias"
"Sorry, man. There's just no scenario where this guy lives." --Uncle Jack
If you've watched "Ozymandias" by this point, you'll probably understand why I'm kicking myself for declaring last week's "To'hajiilee" the best episode of the series to date. I still stand by what I said at the time, but it possibly reduces the impact of me declaring that "Ozymandias" is better, by far, than any other episode of the series. I don't just mean the huge, huge tentpole moments that have been years in the making, of which there were several in last night's episode. I'm thinking about the way this season has been more tightly plotted and thematically coherent than any other in the show's run, and the way the plot development in this episode arcs beautifully into the two flashforwards we were presented with earlier. This series has been sucker-punching its audience for six weeks in a row now, and damned if we aren't begging for more in between gasping breaths.
Picking up right where we left off, the episode's first scene lasts for about 15 minutes. In those minutes alone, the writers kiss off two key characters that have been around since the pilot, they deliver a series of bombshells related to the two central characters, and then they strip our "hero" (yeah, right) of almost everything he's been striving toward for six seasons. Gomez, ever the trusty DEA sidekick, doesn't even get his own death scene; we fade in on Hank clutching a bullet-ridden leg and staring at his best friend's body. I guess this wasn't too surprising. (I'll try to get through this review without using the word "inevitable," but that'll be tough considering the events that continue to happen outside of the characters' control. Plus, "To'hajiilee" and "Ozymandias" seem to work well as a brutal two-parter, so the recurring theme of inevitability--dammit!--is hard to ignore.)
At least Hank gets an appropriately badass, dignifying sendoff. I mean, sure, the psychopathic Nazis shoot him down in the dirt like an animal. But Hank's always been a man obsessed with principles and accepting the consequences, so giving him the opportunity to tell Jack to fuck himself was a pretty satisfying way to end Hank's story. A few seconds after the echo of Jack's pistol fades away, the grief-stricken Walt suffers another blow as his money is immediately found and appropriated by the Nazis. But hey, at least they left one of the seven cash-filled barrels for Walt to use. So in the end, there's just Walt and a barrel out in the desert; a darkly fitting twist on a prediction Mike once made about Walter's final fate, I believe.
I didn't mention Jesse yet, but to be honest, while Hank was looking down the barrel of Jack's gun I had totally forgotten about Pinkman. Walt sees Jesse hiding under his car and spitefully points him out to the Nazis, which is a terrible thing to do, but makes sense given Walt's discovery of Jesse turning rat last episode. Jesse's life is saved only by Todd, who seems to recognize, even though Walt himself does not, that having him lose two people he considers "family" in the space of two minutes will only rub salt in an already raw and gaping wound. So Jesse gets driven away to become the Nazi's new meth cook, in a lab where pictures of his girlfriend and her kid are displayed as an implicit reminder of the Nazi's total power over him.
"Everything changes now, and you have got to prepare yourself." --Marie Schrader
While Walt's out rolling barrels Donkey Kong-style in the hot To'hajiilee sun, the newly widowed (though unknown to her) Marie drives up to the car wash to tell Skyler about Walt's arrest. The conversation between these two sisters featured a bit of (ironic) gloating from Marie, mixed with some legit empathy and willingness to help Skyler avoid the impending legal shitstorm. Finally, Marie forces Skyler to bring Flynn away from cash register duty to come clean about his dad's illegal activities. Flynn, for his part, reacts with an appropriate mix of bewilderment and shocked anger at his mom for keeping him in the dark for so long.
Speaking of dark, did you notice Marie's all-black wardrobe? The writers are really laying on the death imagery thick, even when Marie is still unaware of everything that happened after her husband arrested Heisenberg. Skyler, draped in the white/blue combo she's been rocking all season, has adopted the color scheme of her husband, with his blue shirt and white jacket turned brown by the dirt of the desert and the moral corruption and all that highbrow shit. Ooh, and Holly's wearing pink. Because she's a baby. A girl baby. Man, I'm really good at this.
But enough color symbolism. We find out that Jesse tells the Nazi Posse about the confession video he taped at Hank's house, which is where the video remains. The implication there is that the Nazis will ride up to the Schrader home to retrieve the tape, and they will likely run into not only Marie, but Skyler and the kids as well. Maybe the results of that meeting will turn out to be Walter's reason for coming back to the ABQ with an M60 and a capsule of poison. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
"I've still got things left to do." --Walter White
After Walt gets home with his barrel and a new ride, Skyler and Flynn find him covered in dust and shoving suitcases into his truck. Since they had thought he was arrested, it takes them a little time to piece together the fact that Hank's arrest might not have panned out so smoothly as Marie made it sound. After vainly trying to drag his family off with him, Walt is finally compelled to admit that Hank is dead and that he has to go on the run.
In a brilliant turn, Skyler grabs a kitchen knife and tells him to fuck off, which Walt only does after nearly killing her in a fight over a knife before being thrown off her by his son. Flynn calls the cops, and Walt realizes he has lost as much family here at home as he did when he was out in the desert. Desperately afraid of running off alone, he snatches up Holly and takes her with him, fleeing his shattered family once and for all (we assume). But at a restaurant bathroom, when Holly's first word turns out to be "mama," Walt realizes the insanity of his deranged plan, and plots to leave Holly for Skyler to find.
In what is probably the single hardest scene of the series to watch, Walt calls his estranged wife, who allows the police to listen in on the call, and just rips into her in the most despicable, Heisenbergian way possible. Calling her a "stupid bitch," telling her that she never listened to him and that he was going to find her and do the same to her that he did to Hank, etc. It takes Skyler, and us, a minute to realize that Walt's saying all these terrible things for the benefit of the police eavesdroppers; he's driving home the point that his wife and children have been little more than the unwitting hostages of a violent, misogynistic psychopath. Before Walt disappears from their lives, he at least has the decency to protect them from prosecution, a far cry from the pre-credits sequence in which Walt calls Skyler after his first RV cook ever with Jesse and feeds a stream of lies into the phone solely to protect himself. What goes around...
And so Walter White leaves Albuquerque in shame and regret, under the care of Saul's disappearing guy who Jesse stood up a couple episodes earlier. From the flashforwards, we know he'll be back with a vengeance soon enough. This was the darkest episode Breaking Bad's ever done, but we know that, given the contents of Walter's trunk in those flashforwards, more blood is on the horizon. This show's not through with us yet.