Posted on 09/10/2013 11:21:52 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Last night's Breaking Bad left off in the middle of a gunfight, with Gomez and Hank trying to fend off two cars' worth of Todd's Nazi family. Gomez had a shotgun; Jack and Kenny each had some kind of assault weapon. But there were Hank and Todd, each with a handgun. Bang, bang, bang. It was just the most recent instance of Todd mirroring another character. We've seen him be like Walt, we've seen him mirror Jesse, and then last night we saw him mirror both Skyler and Hank. For a very late addition to the cast, Todd sure has become important.
Early on, Todd was a mirror for Mike. In his first appearance — as part of the Vamanos extermination front — Todd spotted a nanny cam in the house Walt and Jesse were about to use as a onetime cook site. It was an instance of Mike-style attention to detail (think of Mike cleaning up Jesse's apartment when Jane died), with the same kind of modest presence that disguises an intense dark side. Two episodes later, in "Dead Freight," Todd works seamlessly alongside Jesse and Walt, pulling off the great methylamine heist of '12. And then in one of the show's most striking scenes, Todd pulls out a gun and kills a child.
But dirtbike-riding, tarantula-trapping Drew Sharp is not the first kid to be shot on Breaking Bad. There was Tomás Cantillo back in season three, who was shot and killed in "Half Measures," presumably at Gus's behest. If Todd and Gus ever crossed paths, we didn't see it, but when he killed Drew Sharp, it was a total Gus move. At that point, Jesse thought Gus had poisoned Brock — so in Jesse's eyes, that was another Gus-style transgression. But Walt knew better; in his eyes, Todd was making a Walt-like move, and in its own sick way, that was flattering. Not unlike the Salamancas, Todd has an important professional criminal relationship with his uncle. Not a lot of solid father-son relationships on Breaking Bad! This is why so many characters seek out authoritative male approval and attention!
Since then, Todd's bounced between Jesse and Walt. He's a protégé — so he's Jesse. But he's very precise and committed — so he's Walt. He doesn't have a natural aptitude for meth-cooking — so he's Jesse. But boy, is he ever applying himself — back to Walt. When he helped Walt dispose of Mike's body, he channeled Saul: I don't need or want a full explanation; let's just get the dirty work over with. In this season's "Buried," Todd leads a blindfolded Lydia through a maze of corpses that she refuses to see or acknowledge, which is more or less how Walt led Sklyer through the first few seasons of the show. Denial's a hell of a thing.
So we've seen Todd channel the bad guys. But he's channeled the good guys, too. (Good being a relative term here; it's Breaking Bad, after all.) When he sat at breakfast bragging to his uncle Jake and associate Kenny about the train heist, he sounded just like a season one Hank bragging about his DEA busts; mostly telling the truth, leaving out the unsavory parts, and basking in the adoration of a rapt audience.
Todd's even able to echo parts of Skyler's story lines. Breaking Bad is a surprisingly desexualized show. Usually in this antihero genre that Walter White gets lumped in with, we see a tremendous amount of womanizing: We saw it from Tony Soprano, from Don Draper, from Vic Mackey. And often shows that have this much violence — say, Game of Thrones or Dexter — have a lot of sex and nudity to go along with it. Not so Breaking Bad. There's very little tenderness, very few loving relationships, and almost no eroticism. But then there was Todd's charged conversation with Lydia and his wistful examination of the lipstick stain she left on his These Colors Don't Run mug, and suddenly things were as sensual as they'd ever been. The only other time we've seen anything that overtly sexual was Skyler singing "Happy Birthday" to Ted, just before they rekindled their affair. And the way Todd cradled the mug felt like a direct callback to Skyler at the end of "Fifty-One," when she sat in the living room, ashing her cigarette into an Area 51 mug.
We see Hank in Todd, we Skyler in Todd, we even see Marie's perky telephone demeanor maybe sort of in Todd. We see parts of Walt and Gus and Mike and Jesse in Todd. And what they all add up to — Todd himself — is someone pretty awful. Oh, he's devoted, he's easy to work with, and he even seems to be enjoying himself at least some of the time. But Todd's also maybe a psychopath, or at least he's someone detached enough from the experiences of life that he's unfazed by murdering a child. He's a bad, bad guy. And with him, Breaking Bad is telling us that the bad side wins out — add up all the good things about the show's universe, and add up all the bad things, and guess what? The bad part wins. The dangerous part, the criminal part, the cold part, the cruel part — even when someone has goodness in them, when he or she is smart and passionate and reliable. Even then, the bad part is more powerful. Just ask Heisenberg.
“i think gomez and hank are done. the foreshadowing call to marie, i may not be home for awhile, teary love you stuff.”
Notice Hank also talked about calling the Tribal Police to let them know where they were. That’s what he should have done, but instead he made the call to Marie first. If he hadn’t been in such a hurry to brag about catching Walt, backup would have been on its way.
So, that mistake could be his undoing.
why do you think that? millions of baby girls are in pink stuff.
I wouldn’t say I’m “rooting” for Walt - but I still wanna like the guy. Even though he’s done some evil things, sometimes they were for semi-good causes. I just don’t like the fact that he got so involved in what he originally hated. He just wanted to make that original $175,000 or whatever and then he was going to stop. There was always something pulling him back in, be it Jesse, Tuco or Gus, etc. Now we have Todd’s uncle pulling him back in.
I agree that I was astonished that Pinkman turned on him like that. However- Walt has talked quite a lot of mess to Jesse over the course of the show....calling him “stupid”, “idiot”, etc.
I didn’t start watching this show till last summer and caught up by watching 3, sometimes 4 episodes at a time. I was hooked. I’m wondering if the last show will lead to a spin-off?
>>Lots of times people forget governemt agents can lie to you.<<
Truth.
Or, “church” as Skinny Pete would say.
While I agree we’ll have to disagree, Hank gets in the bar fight while deep into PTSD due to the Tuco shooting. It wasn’t a matter of him wanting to prove he wasn’t a coward. It’s not an altogether uncommon result of PTSD. Something he tried to hide from everyone.
>>why do you think that?<<
More tongue-in-cheek than anything...a play on Gilligan’s use of color schemes and the creepy foreshadowing of that damn teddy bear...
excellent pickup about him not callign dea for backup, or tribal police. That crossed my mind too, he had to brag to marie he got his “white whale”. Poppa Doyle- or whoever the French connection officer was, he gets to put the cuffs on the criminal and frog march him to jail. I think that phone call was the critical mistake. Not thinking Walt would call someone for help was a critical mistake too.
See this is where Hank’s character flaws/weaknesses have done him in too. So fixated on getting him at all costs. Screw Jesse. Screw other junkies and snitches. They’re scum. If they die so be it. This whole show, has had all the cahracters under stress, showing inherently what’s in them, good and bad, and how they deal with it. Some rationalize it away. Some pull back but then get back into it. Some appear calm but one more thing may blow their control over themselves (marie, losing Hank ex).
>>caught up by watching 3, sometimes 4 episodes at a time.<<
Same here. My wife and I would ‘binge-watch’ several episodes a night.
12am...”Just ONE more, c’mon..”
“We got work in the morning, we’re gonna die!”
That’s a fantastic point.
I think Holly gets killed too. Two ways. Lydia orders an attack on the family and Holly dies in the process. remember Walt sweared to her on his children’s lives, Lydia is fixated with her own daughter, etc. It would be ironic as Holly was a main reason pushing walt to get into the meth business.
Other way is Marie loses it after Hank’s death, tries to take Holly again and somehow accidentally injures/kills her in the process. Would kind of go to her klepto tendencies but also her genuinely trying to get Holly out of that family.
It was the shooting of the boy. Jesse has a real soft spot for kids, and the boy being shot, and Walt just continuing to do his thing, whistling while doing it, that is what Jesse can't get over. That is what is driving Jesse at this moment. And, also, fear that Walt will come after him. And, the realization about Brock's poisoning and Walt's involvement in that.
But, the shooting death of that little boy was the catalyst for Jesse's current behavior.
Word is they are kicking around a spin off for Saul Goodman.
I think he’s a lot closer to 52 now than we know. I would bet more than half the year he’s been 51 is over.
That bugged me too. But what bugged me more was Walt losing total control when Jessie called him claiming he had found the money and was burning it.
Walt was screaming confessions and drving like a madman. Heisenberg would never have reacted that way.
It was almost too shark jumpy for me.
He won’t save Jesse. Cardinal sin of ratting out Walt - AND working with - the cops. Walt - NEVER the DEA. Never.
He thought Jesse was trying to kill him, not sell him out to the cops. He was trying to talk with him even though he was worried Jesse may still want to kill him. With Jesse bringing the DEA and workign with them, no.
He wasn’t Heisenberg in that episode. He was wearing beige. He hasn’t been Heisenberg since the last half.
I think the prison assassination montage to “Start All Over Again” is the first, Crystal Blue Persuasion is next.
Or even better... Walt escapes the country, and flees to Syria where he tries to restart his meth operation with a new assistant supplied by the Syrian government. Then, when he is off running an errand, Haboob the assistant pours the wrong chemical in the batch, resulting in a nerve gas “attack” on a civilian area.
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