WARNING - This review contains spoilers! - WARNING
Wow.
I say this at least a couple of times a year (usually during an episode of Game of Thrones), but that was the best hour of TV I've ever seen (yes, I'm looking at you, "The Constant", S4 E5 from Lost).
"Ozymandias" was directed by Rian Johnson ("Fly" S3 E10, "Fifty-One" S5 E 4) and written by Moira Walley-Beckett. The episode takes its name from a poem, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1818, about the decline of leaders and the empires they build. And what we just witnessed was the total disintegration of Walter White. The flashback at the beginning was our first clue that something horribly wrong was going to happen. Here, you have a naive Walter White, clad in tighty whities, calling his wife after his first cook in the desert at this cursed spot. He and then-pregnant Skylar talk about potential baby names, and Skylar talks about a $9 Ebay profit. This is a Walt that has to practice his lies. This is a loving family that struggles with same challenges that we do every day: working late, pizza for dinner, paying the bills. Then this innocent scene fades away and is replaced by the aftermath of the shootout.
Gomez deserved a better final scene and death, but we knew he was going to be carried by 6 as soon as Uncle Jack, Todd, and crew arrived last episode. Hank is badly wounded and still fighting, as he reaches for the shotgun that Jack kicks away. Walt offers Jack the spoils of the Heisenberg empire, a buried $80 million if he will spare Hank's life, even stupidly giving Jack the coordinates of his buried treasure. And Hank's final scene is fitting, as he goes out the hero:
(Hank to Walt): "You want me to beg? You're the smartest guy I ever met, and you're too stupid to see he made up his mind ten minutes ago.
(Hank to Jack): "My name is ASAC Schrader, and you can go f--ck yourself."
Then Hank takes a bullet to the head and dies.
The difference between Hank and Walt was clearly made. Walt, even at his most menacing Heisenberg, never will possess the courage and moral center that Hank did. Hank would have never shaken hands with a threatening Uncle Jack. When Walt gets into his Chrysler, he glances at himself in the mirror, then turns it away. He can't stand what he sees.
And Gilligan and company did something that most shows are afraid to do. They killed off a major character. Most shows fall in love with their creations, and if Breaking Bad was any other show, a "major character death" would have been Lewis, Flynn Junior's friend.
Walt died with Hank. What we have left is a shell of a man. A cold corpse. He's breathing, his heart is beating, but he's dead inside. Both of them, Walt and Heisenberg. All of his deluded hopes and dreams will not happen now. He can't go back to being a chemistry teacher, working at a car wash, being a husband and father. Because its over. He is no longer The One Who Knocks.
Walt started this chain of events to leave his family some money after his death from cancer. But that noble gesture was pushed aside, as the broken man that's been disrespected by his former partners and Bogdan realized that he could become someone to be respected (and feared), and hubris took over. Heisenberg was born. The man nodding to Jack's questions is not alive. The man that tells Jesse "I watched Jane die" is not alive. The Walt you see rolling the barrel of money now is just a primitive animal, doing whatever he can to survive.
Flynn Jr. finding out the truth about his father is heartbreaking. He loves and respects his father so much, he just can't believe what he's hearing from Skylar and Marie. And he gets his hero turn when he tackles Walt following the incredibly tense knife fight, steps between Walt and Skylar, then calls 911. Flynn's eyes are open now. He may even start skipping breakfast.
Skylar sees the situation more clearly also. She knows Hank is dead, and that there will be no happy ending. So she does what she must to protect her children. That's why Walt's abduction of baby Holly is even more heartbreaking. At least he came to his senses and left Holly where she can find her way back to her mother.
And Walt's last human act before he gets in the vacuum cleaner repair guy's van is to call Skylar, knowing that the police are probably there and listening, and letting her off the hook for her crimes.
Yes, Breaking Bad is over. Only two episodes to go, but its all resolution at this point. Walter White, father-husband-teacher-lapdog, is dead. Heisenberg, liar-drug lord-murderer, is dead. RIP. In his place is a walking corpse that goes by the name of Mr. Lambert.
We know that Walt is coming back on his 52nd birthday, thanks to the flash forwards. We know he's bringing a M60 machine gun. We don't know who its intended victims are. We want to believe that he's coming home to save Jesse, but that's not it. He just called for Jesse's death. No, Jesse is now the property of and head cook at White Trash Inc., so there's going to be high quality blue meth on the market again. And the great Heisenberg can't have impostors knocking off his product.
We are witnessing TV greatness. Let's enjoy the final 90 minutes. There will be no half-measures.
What did you think?
Random Thoughts:
- What the heck did Jesse say in the flashback? It caught Walt off-guard.
- Poor Marie. She's the show's most tragic character, the Buddy Garrity (Friday Night Lights) of Breaking Bad.
- Last week I thought Uncle Jack was the scariest character ever. Now I'm convinced Todd is. "I'm sorry for your loss."
- Loved the scene where Skylar briefly considered her options: the knife or the phone. Good choice!
- "Lambert" is Skylar and Marie's maiden names.
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