Breaking Bad: Granite State (5x15)

Last time, I was worried that nothing would be able to top the majesty that was the last episode. In some ways, I was right to be worried, because this episode was not as good as the last one. But it wasn't bad. It was fantastic. While last week was a heart-stopping climax of sorts, this episode dealt superbly well with the fallout, and still had a few tricks up its sleeves. So, no, this episode doesn't get a perfect score like the last one did, but it still gets high marks in my book. Let's take a closer look:

Saul has decided to start a new life. His contact puts him in a room with Walt while he tries to figure out where they're both going to start over. Walt, it seems, is not ready to give up. He demands Saul's help in finding hit men to take out Jack and his crew. Saul refuses, and tells Walt that if he doesn't go back and face the music, the DEA is going to be merciless in going after Skyler. Walt tries to maintain his bad ass image in front of Saul, but a coughing fit stops him short. Saul tells Walt that it's over. It was a powerful moment from his character. I've always found Saul to be more complex than it might first appear - he's a comic relief sort of guy, but he's also the worst kind of coward, the kind who condones murder as long as it's not his own. I'm fairly certain we've now seen the last of him, and I think this quiet yet tense confrontation with Walt was the right way for him to bow out.

Walt gets brought by Ed (the extractor) to New Hampshire, to a cabin in the middle of the woods, totally secluded. He is cut off entirely from the world except for the moments when Ed comes to bring him supplies. He is slowly dying, while all the while his big barrel of money just sits there, totally useless. Despite all the evil Walt has done, it was hard to watch him suffer like this. He became so totally lonely that he was willing to pay Ed thousands of dollars just to stay with him a bit longer.

Meanwhile, Jack's gang ransacks Hank and Marie's house to recover Jesse's confession tape. After that, Todd and some of the other guys from Jack's gang go to Skyler's house and threaten her. They know she is talking to the police, but Todd is very effective in assuring that Skyler will never say anything about Lydia. Lydia, of course, is not convinced. She thinks that since Skyler has seen her face, she needs to be removed entirely from the picture. Todd entices her by telling her that he has meth for her - and it's Heisenberg-level pure. She agrees to keep working with Todd and the rest of the gang.

I have to admit, Todd is the character I am least certain about here. I sort of like all of the development he's been getting these past few episodes, but since it's the very end of the show, it seems a bit too little too late. Oh well...

Jesse is being kept hostage, but he manages to devise an escape plan. Here we again see Todd portraying some oddly sympathetic qualities: he is kind to Jesse, even as he lowers him his food in a bucket because he's keeping Jesse trapped. It's an odd sort of dynamic. They once worked together. When Jesse manages to get out of his cage, he is immediately caught again. To punish him, they make him watch while Todd kills Andrea. They then threaten to do the same to Brock if he misbehaves.

Okay, wow. That was something I did not see coming. I'm beginning to think that sleeping with Jesse Pinkman is just as dangerous as with Sam Winchester! (forgive me if you don't get the joke... I really shouldn't even be making one, since this was such an intense moment). Aaron Paul's acting in this scene was top notch. All of his despair and anger was so visible and so heartbreaking.

Back to Walt, who we see still wasting away in his cabin. Then, he gets an idea. He puts about 100,000 dollars in a box and plans to mail it to Walt Jr's friend, so that it can sneak by the police and get to Skyler and Jr. He needs a way to clue his son in on the plan, so he makes his way to a bar and has a woman there fake a call to the school posing as Marie. When Jr. comes to the office and takes the phone, he listens in stunned silence as his father, weak and desperate for human connection, tells him the plan. Jr. takes a while to process what's being said, but when he does, he explodes at his father, accusing him of killing Hank and saying "why don't you just die?!" It was actually really hard to watch.

Walt, devastated, finally realizes that it's really all over. He calls the DEA to turn himself in, and then sits at the bar and orders a drink. However, something on the bar television catches his eye. It's Elliott and Gretchen Schwartz, talking about their company Grey Matter. They get to talking about Walt, and in an effort to distance themselves from such a notorious figure, they say that Walt contributed nothing more to the company than the name.

Walt is very angry about this. When the police show up, having traced the call, they find nothing but Walt's unfinished drink and money on the bar counter. Heisenberg is back.

As I kept mentioning throughout this review, I actually had quite a bit of sympathy for Walt in this episode. He was just so... desperate, and alone, and weak, and everything he had done was for nothing. Walter White has committed a lot of terrible acts in the five seasons that we've known him, and there is something so horrifically tragic about the fact that he can't even leave anything for his family. Skyler and Jr. are barely getting by, and Skyler is under attack from the police and from the public. It's sad to think that not even a little bit of good can come out of so much bad.

Now that we're down to the final episode, I'm really curious as to how everything is going to wrap up. Will we see a situation where Marie, Skyler, and Jr. can be okay? Will Walt die? Be taken into custody? Escape into the sunset? At this point, it's anyone's guess. Breaking Bad is a show that always keeps us on our toes.

9/10