Breaking
Bad: Season 5, Episode 14: ‘Ozymandias’
Review by Kartik Chainani
If emotions have ever run high for you when watching a
television program before, last night’s episode of Breaking Bad is very likely to at the very least, make your heart
race furiously. Tensions were already left high last week, as we were left in
the middle of an insane gun battle between Hank and Gomez and the neo-Nazis who
came to “rescue” Walt, who remained frantic in the middle of it all. Of course,
it wouldn’t be Breaking Bad or Vince
Gilligan’s style to instantly start us right back in the middle of that. As
usual, we were given a cold open that seemed unrelated to the current events of
the show. However, what was a little change of pace from the normal cold opens,
was that this one was a flashback to seemingly happier times; times that at
this particular moment in the show, seem as much like a completely different
lifetime to us as they do to Walt. We were taken back to Walt and Jesse’s RV
days of cooking, to hear Walt calling Skylar to make an excuse for why he would
be home late that evening. To me, this scene really exemplifies not only the
amazing transformation that Walt has undergone, but the depth of acting ability
that Bryan Cranston is blessed with. The look on his face as he nervously
brainstorms the lie he plans to tell his wife is almost one of innocence, which
is a complete 180 from the Walter White we know now. The fact that Cranston is
still able to draw back to who his character used to be so easily really shows
how remarkably diverse his skills are. Anyway, in this scene Skylar tells Walt
that she has been thinking about naming their then future baby girl ‘Holly’.
The fact that the writers felt it necessary to bring this to attention at this
moment sent a chill down my spine about the baby’s fate in present-day. There
has been much speculation by fans that the show has dropped plenty of Easter
eggs leading to Holly’s death, and even non-believers of this theory can’t
brush this blatant hint off as irrelevant. It seemed certain something
unfortunate was in the works for baby Holly.
With the nostalgia of the
early days of Walt and Jesse’s cook in our heads mixing with the fear and
paranoia about what would happen to Holly, we were immediately thrown right
back into the action. Not surprisingly, the 2-against-5 battle seemed to end.
We had to see our favorite DEA sidekick meet his sticky end, as Hank still
desperately tried to fight. It was somewhat surprising that Walt rushed to
Hank’s side and was even willing to give up his fortune (which we finally
learned the value of, $80 million) to save his life. It always seemed that Walt
cared about nothing more than his money, but we saw there was still some humanity
left inside him. However, that may have been shattered when they decide to kill
Hank anyway. Hank’s death in this scene hits us all just as hard as it hit
Walt, which is credited to the beautiful cinematography that makes Breaking Bad unique. The combination of
the background sound muffling out and the screen blurring in such a way showed
us just how much this affected Walt, and hit us in our gut as well. It was very
hard to see Hank’s motionless body being dragged into a hole, as this is a
character that we’ve all loved to watch evolve. As much as we all hoped he
would be the one to take down Walter White, a part of us knew his fate would
lead him here one way or another.
Walt, now seemingly broken,
agrees to leave town with the $10 million that Jack and his crew leave him, but
not before attending to the unresolved issue of Jesse Pinkman. It almost seems like Walt blames Jesse for
Hank’s death. We see the cold stare Walt gives Jesse as Jack kneels him down in
the same execution-style he had Hank, it seems certain that Jesse is about to
meet his end as well, which would have been way too much for me to handle in
one episode. His hate for Jesse now seems inflexible, and he even went as far
as to finally tell him how he didn’t bother saving Jane’s life as sort of a
final slap in the face. Luckily, Jesse didn’t die here, and they take him
hostage to teach them the cook that Walt had promised them, because apparently
$70 million isn’t enough for these guys.
All of this was a lot to
handle, but only half of the episode had ended. There were still matters to
deal with at home, starting with Walt Jr. finally learning who his father
really is. As he’s done throughout the show, Walt Jr. refuses to believe
anything negative about his father, and doesn’t take the news well. Until of
course, the White family confrontation that had us all holding our breath. It
seemed certain that at least one member of the White family would die in this
scene. Skylar, who couldn’t take any more after finding out what happened to
Hank, finally brought her empty threats to life, and pulled a knife on Walt.
With this epic knife battle in the White family room, baby Holly’s cries heard
in the background, and Walt Jr. leaping in to protect his mother, I truly felt
that somehow baby Holly would end up dead. Instead, she ended up kidnapped by
Walt, which I guess is the lesser of two evils. This was one fight that the
White family will never recover from. The cops were finally called and
basically told everything they were needed to know about Walter White.
Though it’s incredibly hard to
highlight in this particular episode, watching Marie’s reaction when she learns
about Hank was one of the most heartbreaking things we saw. While starting off
as such a miniscule side character, watching Marie’s journey has turned into a
huge part of this story. It was already hard enough to listen to her say she’ll
stand by her sister’s side during Walt’s arrest, because she had no idea what
had already happened. Marie is a character who complemented Hank perfectly.
Both were opposites in many ways, but were two of the only characters with a
solidly “good” core. Like I said in the beginning, if you have any feelings at
all, they’re going to be in full effect during “Ozymandias”.
Alas, we finally saw the events that led to Walt turning
to a new identity, as he took off into the sunset in that red van that Jesse
never entered a few episodes back. It would seem that he’s left his old life
behind, but we’ve seen too much from flash-forward scenes to know that his new
life is short-lived. What was most interesting is that when Skyler begged him
to come home with Holly, he told her he “still had things to take care of.” To
me, this makes it seem that Walt is intending to return soon, and most likely
to seek revenge. Power has always controlled Walter White, and he sure as hell
isn’t going to end things with it being stripped away from him. With an
emotionally deep episode in the dust and only two episodes to go, we can only
hope that we see him gain that revenge soon.
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