Breaking Bad - "Face Off"

Season 4, Episode 13

Even more stupendous than one could possibly imagine

 “I won.”

-Walter White

This is a bit weird for a show and a network that generally keeps things fairly close to the chest, but there was some discussion about spoilers and spoiler-ish material surrounding tonight’s excellent season finale. The first instance was the appearance of the episode’s first minute over at HitFix. Sure, there wasn’t anything spoiler-y about it, but it was a still a bold move on the marketing department’s part, and I know many people avoided it because of the fact that, especially in season three, the first few minutes tended to act as mini-movies, which tended to set up the episode’s theme and/or tone.

The second is arguably less substantial, but more important for the purposes of this discussion. As I’ve mentioned before, I follow several critics on Twitter, and one who didn’t have access to screeners took some umbrage with those that had seen the episode sounding off about how awesome it is. While his complaint does sound on par with Sheldon Cooper’s level of spoilerphobia (“My mind is going into pre-blown.”), I do think there’s something to be said for setting expectations too high. Breaking Bad has been known for truly astounding episodes, and this is definitely one of those shows where if you claim that a certain episode was the best one ever, you risk people going in with unrealistic expectation.

But can Breaking Bad really be spoiled? Now, this could easily turn into a discussion on whether spoilers are always bad, and indeed, many sites have had that discussion before, and I’ll admit that on a few occasions knowing about a character’s death ahead of time has helped me appreciate their final path, but I let’s focus specifically on this show. Now, there were defiantly developments tonight that would have been completely ruined by spoilers, but they would have been devoid of context, and it’s the context surrounding each twist  - the buildup to them, what they actually mean, et cetera – that really matters, and the context that made this episode so damn awesome.

But all of this is to say that “Face Off” did exceed expectations, and very well may be the best episode of the show to date. (I tend to wait to make those kind final judgments until a re-watch a series’ in its entirety, all seasons back-to-back, but I’m more than okay with making a cursory judgment here.) Because twists alone are never enough to make an episode great, let’s table that discussion for a moment and instead talk about this episode as the culmination of the season, and the final puzzle piece in what has been a very complex and intellectually satisfying season.

The biggest debate over the season was whether or not the show’s suddenly shift into a deliberately slow pace was a good or bad thing, but that debates soon fizzled out when it became clear that the show was playing a longer game than usual, and tonight’s premiere had to silence any remaining doubters. Almost like the season in miniature, tonight’s episode started off fairly slowly for a season finale, but finally built to a beautifully dark crescendo. I wouldn’t called is spoiler-y, but most people go into a finale with a certain set of expectations, and it’s up to the show to both live up to those expectations while also making the episode feel distinctly original. And at that, “Face Off” did a very good job indeed.

First, the finale must build off of everything that came in the season before it. So I already talked about the idea that this episode was basically a structural copy of the entire season in miniature from, but the finale went beyond that. The scene where Gus changes suits so that he can go see Hector Salamanca was obviously meant to evoke him changing his outfit in “Box Cutter”, as was the tense scene that followed where he actually confronted Hector and you were sure, just absolutely sure, that Hector would die a horrible, bloody death. It was the kind of structural bookend that seemed to bring everything full circle, even as everything was about to change.

But more than anything, all of the bits of story came together in one beautiful mess. (That is, the narrative was clean, but it was a messy day for the character. Aw, you get my point.) If you had told me a few weeks ago, for instance, that Walt and Hector would eventually become allies, I would have laughed at what sounded like an incredibly ridiculous idea. But having seen Gus’ path of destruction, and knowing that part of that destruction was in fact revenge against Hector, it’s a paring that now makes sense. Yet it’s also something that you don’t see coming – because again, the idea seem ridiculous out of context – and the combination of surprise and resolution blends perfectly.

But perhaps the biggest payoff tonight, and one that certainly only makes sense in retrospect, was Gus’ death (which, in the fashion of a very dark pun, also served as inspiration for the episode’s title). Perhaps we should have seen it coming – not only because it was quite obvious early on that the season was shaping up for a confrontation between Gus and Walt, but because Gus was following a fairly standard Icarus-inspired arc. Gus, like so many famous dead characters before him, spent a lot of this season expanding his reach, and though it seemed like his badass self couldn’t be stopped, he was ultimately done in by his own hubris. It’s an old tale, but given the numerous balls that this season was juggling, it was also one that most of us didn’t see coming for the sheer reason of being distracted by everything else that’s going on.

The other major development tonight was Walt’s return to bad-ass mode. It’s something I briefly talked about last week, but the season made long work out of breaking Walter down and showing us his most sad and pathetic side, and that makes his actions last week and tonight stick out in shocking contrast. But I believe that contrast was the point. On one level, this move is about the showing discovering Walt’s breaking point by pushing him until he can no longer have the luxury of acting petty. But on another, it’s about showing us that there’s always been two side to Walt, and thought he’s man that’s usually sensitive to his circumstance, you can never be totally sure that he might change on you. (Also, he finally got around to firing off Chekhov’s 38 Snub that he’d been carrying around for so long, which was symbolic of his transformation, but also tied up yet another loose end.)

Second, it has to be entertaining, preferably in a way that no other episode that season has. There’s a fairly old school of thought that says that finales have to be the biggest episodes of each season, and that’s been a detriment to certain show who feel as if they have to follow that model. (Specifically, I’m thinking of Russell Davies-era Doctor Who, but they’re also others.) But in recent years, the “HBO Model” – where in the penultimate episode of the season holds all the action, and the finale is a wind down from those events and a lead up to the next season – has taken hold, and it’s changed the perceptions of what cable dramas should do.

So it was always bold of Breaking Bad to adopt the older model, but it many ways it’s a show that seeks to do old school basic correctly, and tonight’s episode delivered on that. There were plenty of tense scenes, like Gus visiting Hector and Walt sending his neighbors into a possible trap (seriously, I jumped when Walt’s phone rang), but there was also plenty of intrigue – like watching Walt and Hector’s plan slowly unfold – and action – Gus being blown up, Walt and Jesse destroying the meth lab (and looking very much like last season’s Cousins doing it) – that kept everything clicking along at a nice pace.

Finally, it must leave us wanting more. Okay, NOW we can talk about all those twists, because, well, HOLY SHIT. Last week, when discussing Brock’s poisoning, it didn’t even cross my mind that Walt might have actual killed him, not only because what I thought I knew about Walt, but also because Gus was clearly being set up as the “villain” of the season. But Walt being the one who poisoned Brock – and not with ricin, but with Lilly of the Valley, the plant that we saw him looking at last week – is the kind of development that not only upends our expectations, but leaves us wanting to know more – and not in the “how did that happen?” sort of way that usually indicates a show with now plan to go, but in a manner that suggest much more trouble on the horizon

We know how the twist happened, and we even know why it happened. The only question now is what comes next. Walt’s new sense of darkness is obviously a move taken to lead us into the show’s end game next season (and was Gus’s death, which, as I discussed last week, seems to be part of the show’s plan to return to a small focus), but it also leads to a lot of questions about how that end game’s going to play out. Though Gus’ death would seem to signify that Walt could leave the drug business if he wanted to, his new depths of darkness would seem to suggest otherwise. Each season has seen Walter grow into a bigger bastard than before, but he always had a leash holding him back. Now he’s off the leash, and without any remaining sense of morality holding him back, he’s about to leave his mark all over the place.

Breaking Bad won’t return until next summer, but be sure to come back to the blog next week when I start reviewing season two of The Walking Dead.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:  

Now that I think about it, Hank didn’t really end up doing a whole lot this season, especially considering what the earlier episodes hinted at and all the excellent scenes that Dean Norris got to play. But a great performance and some intriguing scenes doesn’t really make up for the fact that Hank was a MacGuffin, in the sense that his only real role this season was to unknowingly stir the shit up for Walt. All told, it was a beautifully constructed MacGuffin, given that it meshed with the overall plot well and most people didn’t see it coming, but a MacGuffin is still a MacGuffin, and that’s a bit sad for a show like this.

Jesse’s defense for mentioning the ricin to Andrea was the his “brain makes connections”. I’m a bit bummed that the agents were so skeptical of that because, well, my brain makes weird connections like that as well, and I would hand to end up in police custody just because I brought up something weird/illegal that I randomly know about.

Speaking of bookending elements, the shot of Jesse in the oversized yellow lab suit reminded me a lot of how he looked in the oversized red shirt back in the premier, how small and childlike he looked then. Jesse underwent a large transformation this season, as he quickly became more resourceful, more responsible, and basically more adult like in the face of the adversity. Tonight’s episode, which sees him once again no longer in charge of his situation by the end of the episode, robs him of his adulthood and downgrades him back to child in an adult’s world. It will be interesting to see how that dynamic plays with a darker version of Walt, and what will happened when he learns the truth. (And that’s to say nothing of the still lingering secret of Jane’s death back in season two.)

A few episodes back, I mentioned that I thought the weird camera angles were getting a bit old. Seeing them once again in the finale, which was directed by Vince Gilligan, I can’t help but wonder if there was something thematic in all of those shots from the point of view of various inanimate objects. It’s something I’m going to be mulling over in the days ahead, but if you have a theory, share it below.

“How is that news, exactly? The two of you being in trouble?”

“What you tell ‘em?” “I told them they were a couple of dicks.” “He’s a wordsmith.”

“He rings a bell. Does that ring a…? I mean, the guy actually has to ring a bell.”

“You need to go poopy? Have you gone poopy already?”

“Honey, ‘dea’ isn’t a word. Help me out here.”

“You mean the old cripple guy with the bowel? Who would rather crap on our floor than talk to us? No, I don’t remember him at all. Why?”

“Well, at least this time he didn’t shit himself. I guess that’s progress”