Revelations

Tonight is the beginning of the end. It seems to have taken an age to get here, but finally part B of Breaking Bad’s fifth season has arrived. While I am so ready to see what Vince Gilligan has in store for the final eight episodes, I am so not ready for it to end. Understandably, Gilligan wants to end the show before it becomes irrelevant and the story of Walter White is tarnished. It is better for the show to end now and allow the character to pass into the realm of TV legends. But the show has been incredible over the past four and a half seasons and I am not quite ready to see it go.

One reason why the story of Walter White has been engaging and continues to draw drones of fans back year after year is because of the character’s transformation. Rarely in television do the viewers get to experience the development of a character as they challenge their own morality and legacy. Plenty of characters change over time but it generally more subtle and less overarching. Spike, a vampire in Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, slowly became a force of good rather than evil as that series progressed, but he still loved fighting, especially for a passionate cause. The only real distinction that can be made is that he once fought for lust (Drusilla), but eventually fought for love (Buffy).

Jesse with a gun – but who is on the other end?

Walter White takes the literary concept of character development to an entirely different level. It is difficult to believe sometimes that the same meek, bungling science teacher who had to moonlight as a car wash attendee is the man who became the manipulative, murderous emperor of meth. And really they aren’t the same character. It was a sort of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde arrangement, where Walter would don the hat and the name Heisenberg whenever he had something dangerous and immoral to perform. Slowly, over the seasons however, the Heisenberg persona has seeped into the man who was Walter White. Even when he is playing himself, Walter is often still playing a role. He is nowhere near as awkward as he once was and had graduated onto manipulating and misleading his own family members. The question that remains is ‘does he even know how to be Walter White anymore?’

The answer to that question will likely be addressed in the upcoming season, as Walter’s brother-in-law, Hank now knows who the elusive Heisenberg is. Hank has spent the entire series tracking the man known as Heisenberg and trying to stomp out the powerful blue meth. But every time he has gotten close, Walter has found a way to not only escape but to make his empire even bigger. And everyone around him has suffered the consequences while Walter has evaded punishment. Jesse Pinkman, his partner in crime, was brutally beaten and held at gun point numerous times, Gale Boetticher was killed, Gus Fring was blown up, Combo was shot and most recently Mike Ehrmantraut suffered a gunshot wound to the gut and bled out. Even Hank himself was nearly crippled as a result of Walter’s actions. Whatever sympathy or understanding Hank has for Walt will likely go out the window as soon as remembers that little connection.

There is one spanner in the works for Hank though. He may have the book and he may know that Walter White is Heisenberg but he can’t prove it. All the evidence surrounding the blue meth has been accumulated and there has never been any mention of a Walter White. The closest that they came was Gus’ laptop but Jesse’s big ass magnet idea put an end to that swiftly enough. Hank has already come under fire from his superiors for wasting resources in regards to Mike, and at least Mike’s name was related to the case. Using police resources to tail his own brother-in-law likely won’t go down well with the DEA, and, possibly, Hank may be reluctant to involve the authorities where his own family is involved.

This is my reaction everytime George R.R. Martin kills a character.

He may also find it difficult to gather any new evidence given that both Walt and Jesse are out of the business now. We have all heard that before. Walt briefly quit in the third season before being coerced back into cooking by Jesse and Gus and also considered stopping in the second season before he found his normal life unfulfilling. It is slightly more believable that Jesse would actually stop because he has actually lost more. In the course of the series, he has lost friends and loved ones. Not to mention, last time Jesse was on screen he was absolutely terrified of Walt. For Jesse, the meth business was always a means to make money and in the beginning that coincided with Walt’s desire to care for his family after his death. Maybe Jesse will go back to cooking but I would be surprised.

So what is the fate of Walter White to be? Even if he is out, there will likely be some opposition from Lydia and Declan, who were profiting from his scheme. Saul Goodman will be relieved, however. If he manages to free himself from those deals unscathed, and this is Walter White so anything is possible, the most probable outcome is that Hank will find some kind of evidence against him. Knowing Walter though, if the DEA come for him he won’t be taken alive. That said, there are a few revelations that have still to come out, such as ‘how did Jane really die’ and ‘who knows how to poison children with Lily of the Valley’. If the answers to those questions come to light, even Heisenberg may not be able to appease the wrath of Jesse.

Whatever the outcome, these final eight episodes are going to be an awesome ride. Gilligan has created an absolute classic story that was brought to life fantastically by Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and Dean Norris. All three of those actors deserve all the awards that could possibly be thrown at them.

Subtle

Mad Men has never been the kind of show to end with a bang. True to form, the season six finale ended with a much more subtle question of what comes next than most shows are capable of. Even compared to previous seasons of Mad Men, this was a much more subtle ending that usual; the kind that suggests everything can change but it is still possible that nothing could change at all. In case you missed it, Don Draper was fired from his job at Sterling Cooper and Partners after telling a client about how he grew up in a whorehouse and the episode ended with Don standing outside said whorehouse with his kids.

Though the episode ends leaving the viewer to ponder the significance of these events, the implications are huge. For six seasons Don Draper has tried to hide who he really is, eventually having to reveal to Betty and Megan (and, at one point, Faye) that he was really called Dick Whitman and that the real Don Draper died in combat. Never before has Don/Dick been as candid as to come out and tell a client about his past. This wasn’t even an existing client, it was a potential account and the other partners clearly feel that Don’s revelation lost them their business. As Roger put it, he ‘really shit the bed’.

Over the course of the six seasons, the viewers have waited for someone to find out who Don really is. Pete came close in the first season but it seemed like no one really cared or didn’t believe him. The second real threat came in the shape of security clearance for North American Aviation, wherein FBI agents interrogated Betty and Pete was forced to drop the account to protect Don. On both occasions Pete was involved and an outside source came close to revealing Don’s true identity. It is surprising that Don actually broke down and exposed himself and Pete wasn’t even in the boardroom.

Pete isn’t a fan of mysteries, and especially not when they kill his mum.

This doesn’t seem like a mental breakdown, however. Throughout the episode, Don was pitching to the partners that he should be allowed to move to Los Angeles in order to do creative for Sunkist whist building a new agency from the ground up. The idea was stolen from Stan but his real reason for doing so was that he and Megan could make a new start and be happy again. However, he decides eventually to let Ted go instead (so that Ted can make a new start away from Peggy) and tells the client about his sordid past. The change of heart appears to come after a phone call from Betty who suggests that Sally’s misbehaviour stems from growing up in a broken home. We, the viewers, know that Sally is being petulant because she saw her father cheating on Megan.

Betty’s words seem to cause an epiphany for Don who realises that his unhappiness is to do with Megan or Manhattan but he is unhappy because of his troubled and disjointed past. His method of making amends with this is to take off the mask of Don Draper and wear the face of Dick Whitman. Neither the company nor Megan appears to understand this, as one fires him and the other storms off, but Sally understands. The episode ends with a shared look between the two implying that part of mending their relationship and helping Sally with her feelings is for Don to be honest about his own broken upbringing.

For anyone willing to argue that Don was not actually fired but only put on an indefinite leave of absence, I would direct you to exhibit A: Freddy Rumsen. Freddy first appeared in season one and was let go from the company after he literally pissed himself. No one actually used the word ‘fired’ though, but it was made clear that he had no role in the company. Similarly, Don met his potential replacement as he was heading to the elevator, confirming the suspicion that his place in the company no longer exists.

Old town whorehouse; just a short drive from the police station.

When most shows end on a cliff-hanger or with certain story threads left it is a clear indication of the avenues the show will explore in the next season, if it gets one. Season one of Lost, for instance, had John Locke and Jack Shepherd staring down into the hatch in the finale, hinting that the contents of the hatch would be explored further in the second season. At the end of the first season of British drama, Luther, the title character’s name was yet to be cleared and the police were closing in on him and his accomplices who had just killed his wife’s murderer. The second season of Luther does not pick up the story immediately after but still deals with consequences of their actions, with the former division having been disbanded and working with Luther being seen as bad for a police officer’s career.

The difference with Mad Men is that there is any number of possibilities that could stem from the season finale. Megan may leave Don completely and move to Los Angeles herself to further her career. Don, without ties to the company, could move to Los Angeles with Megan anyway and possibly start up his own firm with Pete, who also moved out to Los Angeles after Bob Benson humiliated him in front of Chevy. Perhaps Don will get out of the ad business completely. Perhaps his candour will fail to have any impact on Sally, who will continue to rebel, or, and I hope, it could strengthen the relationship between father and daughter. Will the company even be able to survive without Don Draper or will it succeed by becoming the long rumoured all female dominated agency with Joan Harris as Head of Accounts and Petty as Creative Director? And what of Bob Benson? After a full season all we know of him is that we can’t be certain of anything.

It would have been easy for the show to end the season with something ostentatiously shocking. However, it requires more strength and care in writing to create a compelling character drama which will hook people and draw them in for another season, especially when that next season will be their last.

Broken

On July 15^th 2012, this coming Sunday, the fifth and final season of Breaking Bad will begin its first eight episode run, the second run will conclude in the summer of 2013. Much like House, it will be sad to see one of the best written shows end. We’ve followed Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston, as he has slowly delved deeper and deeper into the world of drug manufacture and distribution. It was extremely interesting to see the man who said he was the cook becoming directly involved with selling his product and how that changed his personality.

Walter White has always seemed like a man who has gone unappreciated for his greatness. At the start of the series, when we met Walt, we’re stepping in on the point where the straw has broke the camel’s back. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, he sets out to make sure his family are provided for after his eventual demise. As a high school science teacher and a talented chemist, who helped found Grey Matter Technologies in universe, he decides that the best way to make a large amount of money in a short space of time is to ‘cook’ methamphetamine. And in doing so, the character enters a dark and dangerous world, one that threatens to twist him and cost him all that he sought to preserve in the first place.

High school science has never been so dangerous.

Here we are, four seasons later, and Walter White is a changed man. He shows little or no remorse for any of his actions, including killing a man with his car and refuses to apologise to his wife for everything he’s put his family through. To be fair, Skylar White, his wife, played by Anna Gunn, can be a bitch even at the best of times, but Walter is no longer willing to accept that the lengths he went to in order to provide for his family were wrong. And for the most part of the series, Walter White has been somewhat sympathetic and the lesser of other evils. Tuco, played by Raymond Cruz, was out and out psychopathic while Gus, played by Giancarlo Esposito, was on a revenge mission against the Cartel. But Walt has survived both men and as we come to season five, he’s standing on the edge of a power vacuum.

With Gus dead and the Cartel severely crippled by Gus’ actions earlier in season four, there is now an absence of a major distributer of meth in Albuquerque. Once again, Walter White is faced with the choice to quit and get out of the business while he still can or stay in the game and try to become a major player. It’s like an extremely dangerous and disturbing game show. And twice in the show, once in season two and once in season three, Walter White did manage to stop cooking and go back to a normal life. In both situations, he beaome dissatisfied with his family life and his life as a brilliant chemist forced to teach high school science to a bunch of kids who laugh at him behind his back. The problem for Walt is that he knows he can do better than that. One has to wonder what might have become of Walter White had he not left Grey Matter Technologies? Would he still be the horribly insecure man looking for danger in order to make him feel alive? That would require some kind of alternate universe episode, which would feel slightly out of place in this show. But it’s interesting to consider.

Unlike many of the other times when Walt has been able to leave and get out of the game, there is little doubt about whether Walt will stay or go in Season five. Following his manic breakdown in the crawlspace and his statement to Skylar that ‘I won’, it seems like Walt is primed to take this job as far as it will go now. He is no longer the lesser evil, especially if the hints of the final episode are revealed to be true. One of the biggest questions of the final season has to be whether his partner Jesse Pinkman, played by Aaron Paul, will find out about everything Walt has done in secret that Jesse has blamed himself or others for? The more major secret isn’t even the possible manipulation in season four, but Jane’s death at the end of season two. Jesse blamed himself for giving her the drugs and it was because of her death that the plane exploded above Albuquerque. Walt has been the cause of countless deaths and the suffering of innocents as he has strived to carve a place for himself in the drug world. Tensions between Walt and Jesse have often fluctuated between bitter resentment to a rather chummy father-son relationship. But, if any of these secrets come to light, those tensions could be reignited. And it may very well be Jesse is the one who finally takes down Heisenberg, Walter’s criminal alter-ego.

Bet he regrets not staying in school now.

Of course, it would be unwise to count out Walter’s DEA agent brother –in-law, Hank Schrader, played by Dean Norris. For the past four seasons, Hank has been chasing Heisenberg and the blue meth, often coming close but never quite succeeding. Walt has gotten away with his activities under Hank’s radar so far, but with Gus gone and all other possible suspects eliminated Hank may just close in on Walter’s shady other life. If Walt is looking to make himself the new kingpin of meth manufacture and distribution he’ll become especially highlighted. Perhaps Jesse might even rat him out or tip off Hank when everything is revealed. However, Hank and Walt have grown close in four seasons, so will he even be able to bring down Heisenberg once he finds out it’s his own brother –in-law?

In any case, the fifth season looks and sounds like it’s going to be a great ride. There are so many possibilities in the way that this show could go from here that’ll it’ll be of great interest to watch it unfold. And given Vince Gilligan’s track record, both on this show and The X-Files, I think it is safe to say that the execution will be superb. Now, let’s just hope the word ‘execution’ doesn’t turn out to be a prophesy.