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”
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