Breaking Bad – Season 5, Episode 3 – Scarface ← FREE KRAUT!

Breaking Bad – Season 5, Episode 3 – Scarface 3

Something is bothering me. I get that Walt is supposed to turn into Scarface, but this season has surprised me thus far by how abruptly, and in some cases improbably, he has turned completely evil, self-confident and ruthless.  The show has always been over the top, from its very first episodes, but it has rarely lacked subtlety about its main character.

The best illustration, for me, is what has happened to Skyler.  She went from co-conspirator, worried for Walt’s safety and scheming on her own, to a terrified mouse – catatonic (last week) or hysterical (this week) in the face of evil.  And while Anna Gunn is doing her best with this,  I guess I am having trouble with the sudden transformation.  It’s not good enough to say it was brought on by Ted Beneke, because she expressed her fear of Walt right away – before she even knew about Ted.  I realize it would be jarring to discover that your husband is capable of killing multiple people, but Gus had threatened to kill Walt and his entire family – including her.  I am forgetting at the moment how much of that he shared with her, but that would seem to be a good explanation for why, in this case, homicide was a reasonable option.

And while I’m airing complaints, I’m also tired of Mike bitching and moaning about Walt killing Gus.  I realize it’s put Mike in a bad spot.  But Mike knows the business he’s chosen, and should stop whining about Walt killing his meal ticket and costing him money.  The show wants to paint Walt as a monster now, but Walt was the one who would have been dead if not for Jesse’s loyalty and humanity.

Finally, since when did Walt become such a power player and even a shrewd manipulator?  He’s not much different than before, just a guy who cooks great meth but has no way to distribute it or protect himself.  The show’s repeated insistence on giving Walt macho lines to spit out in this season’s episodes might be consistent with the show’s vision of what Walt is becoming, but it’s a little much.  His ability to manipulate Jesse isn’t new, but now he’s not overplaying his hand as he consistently has done in the past.

Other thoughts…

– Brock doesn’t know Walt.  So how did Walt poison him?

– Why did Jesse break up with Andrea?  It didn’t really track for me.

– Mike did pull a bit of a fast one, by taking all of these expenses out after the first cook without mentioning any of it before then.  But Walt can’t really complain, because he needs Mike as a partner, although Walt’s last lines suggest he would like to find a way to get rid of him, too.

– Walt’s plan to cook meth in town seemed clever enough, although it requires a lot of work and involves more people who can identify them.

– Is Skyler really going to walk around like a freaked-out zombie during the entire first half of the fifth season?  I get it, show.  Walt’s a bad, bad man.

– Walt’s scene with Marie showed him thinking on his feet, throwing his wife under the bus with a true story, and leaving Marie feeling sorry for him.

– Mike’s such a great character.  The pre-credit sequence showed Mike’s urgency and concern about getting to everyone who might talk.  It was the first time you could see him sweat, even if he was only getting angry at a security camera.

– I also love Saul, funny in just about every scene.

3 thoughts on “Breaking Bad – Season 5, Episode 3 – Scarface

  1. FreeSeatUpgrade Jul 30,2012 1:47 pm

    I agree completely about the heavy-handedness in the Bad Bad Walt character. I assume Gilligan feels he has to create Bad Bad Walt fully within the first few episodes so he can fit in everything he wants to have happen before the end. I can only hope that the character of Walt doesn’t become too one-dimensional in the service of the plot endgame.

    I don’t mind Mike bringing up Gus so much. For all his hubris Walt is totally ignorant of the actual work involved in what he proposes to do. Mike’s reminders of everything Gus took care of set up many different places where Walt may later fail.

    When Mike yelled at the security camera I took it to be a stress reaction from a serious fear of being jailed. It broke his cool; be interesting to see what that weakness might lead to later.

    "Kraut will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no kraut."
  2. lynnzgal Jul 31,2012 3:19 pm

    I don’t believe this broken Skyler is going to stay that way. She might be disillusioned, disgusted and in despair right now, but that is a tough, smart woman. I think the whole melt down in front of Marie was meant to alarm her. Her husband is DEA. He can put shit together and make 1 + 1 = 3.

    Which reminds me, I thought that scene at the end of last week’s episode was actually pretty powerful. Skyler’s laying there, apparently afraid to move a muscle out of sheer disgust and terror. But behind those eyes I feel like you could see her turning shit over in her mind, weighing all the possibilities.

  3. nevermoor Aug 3,2012 7:30 pm

    Finally saw the episode, and I’m surprised by these reactions.

    I think Walt seeing himself as a badass drug kingpin is totally consistent with the fact he just took Gus out. Walt has always had something of a napoleon complex as the nerdy useless whipped chem teacher; put him on top of the world and this seems totally consistent to me. I also think that is why Mike keeps going back to Gus: to tell Walt that he is no Gus.

    Also very much disagree on the not overplaying with Jesse point, since I saw the final lines as a threat to Jesse for not following Walt’s lead (since Jesse really could cook).

    I’m with bear on the jail scene. I saw impatience/panic not fear of imprisonment.

    Finally, Skyler. I’m disappointed with her direction since I was thinking she’d prove to be the actual bad-ass businesswoman that Walt can never be. I’m not at all clear why the laundering was ok but killing Gus wrecked her.

    "There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want"

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