Breaking Bad: Mandala
By fred | May 25, 2009
(S02E11) It is something we’ve pretty much knows from the get-go, from the very first episode of this show : it won’t have an happy ending. It just can’t end well, not when we’re dealing with what we’re dealing here, and especially not when our two leads behave the way they do. But if at first Jesse was the drug dealer, the “bad guy,” while Walter was only a poor family man hit by cancer, an high school teacher who learned he might not have long left.
Since then and especially during this season, we’ve seen things change. Or, we’ve seen Walter change. Walter might now be the bad guy, in that he’s the one forcing what happens and causing most if not all the pain and trouble in the people around him, he remains the driving force of the show, and/or the drug business in which he and Jesse are now in way too deep to ever get out of there well, or alive.
And it is a business. At first, Walter only wanted to make some cash, and Jesse has never had any hopes or aspirations to turn into anything bigger than the local small dealer doing just enough to keep alive. But Walter always wants more, he is always pushing and pushing, and that was doomed to have consequences. One of them, was the death of one of Jesse’s friends/dealers.
And for Jesse, it is a big deal, a very big one. Because he knows what it means on a larger scale, that they lost all street credits and people are coming to get them, and more importantly because he was a friend of his, and he is the one who send him out on the street, and put him in that corner, expanding as Walter wanted. He feels responsible, and is affected by that death.
For Walter, it was predictable and won’t mean more than one of the many difficulties they’ve had to face along the way. Walter is now turning this little – and originally meant to be temporary – experiment into a real business, and a full-time job. With the news that he’s getting better, Walter now fully embraces this as his new career, because he’s never felt as alive as when he’s doing it, so much that it’s become a drug to him.
This episode saw everyone fall down and surrender to their addictions, to what will inevitably cause their downfall. They all had a choice, at one point they could decide to walk away, resist the temptation and stay clean, on the right side of things, or give in. And every time, they gave in. Despite what she might think of him, and the fact that (much like Walter) Ted is conducting some illegal business with an (original) good-hearted motivations, Skyler clearly is going back to that affair she once had with her boss. And that is only because of Walt, because the lack of communication in their relationship had her seek away for another man’s attention and love.
If Jesse has always been using, Jane was clean. So far. But this week, she paused for a moment – and while the acting on this show, from absolutely everyone, has always been most excellent, let’s mention it again because in that pause, and despite not knowing a lot from her character, Krysten Ritter managed to convey quite a lot. Just amazing, and so was Aaron Paul was he started “floating around” for that matter, or everyone else, really. – she paused and she did not walk away, she did not do the right thing, and next thing you know, she’s introducing Jesse into the wonders on shooting heroin!
And Walter, of course, had a choice as well. He could walk away, he could keep things small, not rush into something without a clue what he’s doing really, and he could go see the birth of his daughter. Instead, he’s heading for a meeting with an incredible amount of meth on his back, worth more than he ever could dream of making before getting into drugs, and without a clue of what awaits for him.
Walter told Gus, our mysterious new partner, that he thought they were alike. Walter might be right, they are alike, but only when it comes to the chemical aspect of things, to cooking meth. Obviously, anything outside of the lab, and Walter is a mess. Gus owns 14 stores over the country, maintains a business without anyone suspecting a thing about what he does “on the side,” while Walter is breaking doors, trusting a junkie and getting so pissed that he forgot to turn his cellphone before putting it back in his classroom ceiling!
It’s amazing he & Jesse managed to get so far and still be alive, and even though they’ve had to kill a few rats to get there, they’ve been incredibly lucky. That won’t remain the case, though, and soon enough everything will fall apart. Only two episodes left before the season finale, and we find out more about the Teddy Bear floating in the pool, as well as the dead bodies in front of Walter’s house.
We’ve know it for a long time, this isn’t going to end well. Luckily for us, that doesn’t mean it won’t make the greatest thing on television in a while!
What did everybody else think?
Posted in Reviews
Shows: Breaking Bad
Vince Gilligan presented a graphic look at contemporary American society. The methamphetamine addicts, Tuco Salamance the local wholesaler, the street level methamphetamine pushers and the violence and corruption that is part of the illegal drug trade. And the enormous quantities of cash that is involved in the illicit narcotics business.
And how about the very sophisticated drug lawyer, Saul Goodman?
I particularly liked the portrayal of the Los Pallis Hermanos restaurant chain proprietor, Gus Fring. Fourteen cash and carry Mexican restaurants. What a great way to launder drug money!
I wonder if the average viewer is aware how close Gilligan’s plot is to much of contemporary American life. Especially, the clean businessmen who operate under the radar with their narco trade and money laundering. And these businessmen’s friends and neighbors just think these major drug distributors are just hard working, clever businessmen. God, how stupid we are!
How many handgun deaths, drive by shootings, episodes of gang violence, runaways, cases of prostitution, under the influence (auto) accidents, contract murders, HIV and hepatitis C infections and long term, drug related, imprisonments are the result of the tons of cocaine, methamphetamine and black tar heroine imported into this country, under the protection of our national leaders?
The only people that Gilligan left out were those at the very top of the drug prohibition cabal. That would be Bush 41 and Bill and Hillary Clinton. And the Clinton puppet Barack Obama. To learn more about these drug lords search: Clinton+Bush+Mena
Is this a great country or what?