Breaking Bad - "Crawl Space"

Season 4, Episode 11

It all comes together

“It’s not all supermodels and speed boats, you know.”

-Hank

It all makes sense now. I don’t just mean the various plot threads that have been existing concurrently this season, though I will get to those soon. I’m talking about the subtle, character-driven long game and Vince Gilligan and his team have been playing at. I have written quite a few times this season about how I’ve found the move disorienting, if still fantastic, but it still feels good to be back to the traditional Breaking Bad visceral style of storytelling. There is something almost comforting about how unnerving those last ten minutes were, about how uncertain it makes us about the characters’ futures, about the “hol-eeee sheeeeeiittt” it engenders in us.

This is most likely going to be one of those episodes that becomes defined by its closing minutes, but for once, I’m okay with that. Though entertaining as always, I didn’t feel as if everything that preceded that closing segment was as tight and sharp as it could have been. Yet those closing minutes make up for it,  and what really makes them work, what makes the sequence go that extra mile, is something that I’ve always enjoyed watching TV show doing: finally setting off that long domino train it’s been building up all summer, as all of the season’s element finally click into place. Let’s recount all that the show has done to get us this far:

Walt vs. Jesse. Though it’s been around so long that you could almost consider it a staple of the show, Walt and Jesse’s antagonistic relationship took a real turn this season, a not just in the fact that the anger between the two seemed to increase. No, this season became a real reflection time for the two of them, as both Gus and the show have sought to keep them apart. Though it helped us get to this moment narrative-wise, it was also subtly priming us for this moment on an emotional level, so that we could let go of a relationship once so central to the show’s proceedings.

Though the audience on some level must have known that this time apart wasn’t going to end well for Walt, it’s hard to let go of that perceived bond between the two of them. Walt and Jesse have been through a lot, and though they more or less hate each other, they still feel an obligation to one another, a sense to protect one another. I thought that was a truth we would always be able to count on. But instead we had to watch as Jesse heartbreakingly threw Walt out of his life, knowing full well that he was handing him over to Gus’ men. Yes, Jesse did make sure that Walt didn’t die, but on some level he also had to know that taking away Walt’s life would ruin him, and possibly send him over the edge. And that’s even colder.

The Cartel Unrest. Up until this point, Gus wasn’t such a bad dude. Sure, he was a criminal, but in the world of meth dealers, he was calm and rational, someone who’s actions one could reasonably predict his actions. But starting with “Box Cutter”, we saw a change in Gus, as his problems with the cartel grew larger, he grew more and more rash, desperate, and, in many ways, crazy.

After attempting to play nice failed, Gus suddenly through caution to the wind, vigorously and violently going after the people those that tried to destroy his business, the same people who were responsible for the death of his best friend (and possible lover.) And then, after he had destroyed his enemy had secured his business, risking his life in the process, he had one final move to do before being safe again. He was on the warpath and he couldn’t stop himself. He had to destroy the unpredictable Walt.

The Return of Ted. Let’s face it, after season three, it seemed as if Ted’s role in the show was over. He had helped to push Skyler and Walt as far apart as they would go, to help reveal the antagonism and darkness that comes with a broken marriage, and eventually a divorce. But by season’s end, they seemed to be on the mend, as they now had a common goal to work towards with the carwash. For the past few weeks, Ted’s return has seemed like an anomaly, something to help keep Anna Gunn busy while the action was elsewhere.

I should have known better, really. In fact, I even expected Ted’s actions to affect Walt in some way; but my fears were along that of Skyler’s – that Ted’s inaction would have the IRS looking into Walt’s largess. But Ted was never the problem. Skyler was. She pushed, and she pushed, and she pushed, and then she sent thugs until Ted wrote the check to the IRS, effectively freeing Skyler and Walt from having to worry about the government coming after them. Only that final solution came at a very bad time, at a time that Walt needed the money for a solution of his own.

Hank’s Solo Adventures. Much like Ted, Hank’s return seemed as if it would meet up with the A-plot almost tangentially, just another worry for Walt to deal with. Which, given that that’s been Hank’s role for most of the show’s life, seemed like an acceptable thing for him to do this season as well. But Hank’s accident had awoken something in him. He became more focused, more obsessive, and when geodes and crystals wouldn’t do it for him, he turned once again to solving cases. His determination was so great that nobody – not Marie, not his bosses, not Walt – could get him to stop. And it’s that determination that became the true thorn in Gus’ side, the thing that broke the camel’s back. It’s Walt’s inability to stop Hank that led to Gus firing him.

Walter’s Pitiful Nature.  Except not really. All season long, the show has been doing the counterintuitive but highly fascinating move of slowly breaking down Walt’s badass exterior and replacing it by revealing the pitiful, selfish, neurotic, petulant person inside. And as much as Walt likes to make himself the victim, it’s his inability to play it cool and be diplomatic that’s landed him in this latest debacle. He was the one that bugged Jesse’s car out of paranoia, inflicting the final blow to their relationship. It was his acting out, his refusal to keep his head down that landed him on Gus’ radar, which made him a factor worth eliminating. It was his insistence that he could keep Hank away from Gus’ meth business – a goal he should have realized that he couldn’t do – that was the final straw to Gus firing him.

And it was his insistence that he couldn’t die because Jesse wouldn’t allow it, his one final attempt to prove he’s smarter than Gus, that put Hank’s life in danger and had those of his family threatened. And that meant turning to a plan B. But this Plan B wasn’t an escape plan so much as an alternate route, and that rash decision meant that he had no safe stash of money to count on. By failing to stow away money that no one else could touch, he has effectively screwed himself. No wonder Walt, lying there in the dirty crawl space beneath the house, finally defeated, stopped crying and started laughing manically as the camera panned away, subtly shaking in time with the bouts of creepy guffaws that rocked his body.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:  

Another awesome thing about tonight’s episode that I wasn’t able to fit in above was that makeshift hospital that Gus has setup in Nowhere, Mexico, complete with extra blood for him, Mike, and Jesse. And those doctors leaving Mike to die in the car, while they saved Gus? They may be cold, but they also know who butters their bread.

One thing I’m not entirely sure on: Where did all the money go? I mean, I know Ted took away $600K and change, but I seem to recall Walt admitting that he makes upward of $7 million a year. I’m guessing that the money has to be somewhere (they were awfully worried about the attention it might bring if they deposited it in a bank), and presumably they can go and get it right? I’m probably forgetting something; Breaking Bad has never had problems with plot holes before.

Oh, and so Ted’s dead. Though that has no real impact on Walt’s immediate situation – the money was gone by the time Ted was dead/Walt needed it – but that dead body’s probably going to come back and bite them in the ass at some point.

Man, BB really likes breaking out that bleeped f-bomb in the “previously on” segment, don’t they? It’s almost as if they’re touting their creative freedom over every show that isn’t on basic cable.

I don’t know how they managed it, but that long shot of Walt, Gus, et. al. in the desert, with the clouds passing by overhead and shrouding them in shadow was just too cool for words.

“Frozen yogurt always taste like ice cream.” “Well then I feel sorry for your tastebuds.”

“It kinda feels like one of those cones they put on a dog to keep it from licking it’s balls.”

“Huell, you happy?” “Reason'bly.” “What would make you unhappy?” “This little mofo not doing what he’s being told.”

“Unless you don’t have cable, in which case it’s gonna suck.”

“You’re just pressing buttons and it’s making you do magical stuff.”