Breaking Bad Review: “Live Free Or Die”

Ahhh, it’s that time again, the incredible story of Walter White and his crazy meth-cooking-life are back for a last season. The void that we were left with on Sunday night when Game of Thrones ended has finally been filled, and dont even pretend Newsroom or True Blood are even in the same conversation. Breaking Bad is, in my opinion, the best show on television right now because of the out of this world acting by Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul and literally every single supporting character on the show. Not to mention the writing – Vince Gilligan has really created a masterpiece with this show and will be working the rest of his life because of it.

So, where did we leave off last season? Walt won the season long war with Gus Fring by ingeniously rigging a bomb to Don Salamanca’s wheelchair and blowing them both up in a nursing home. The other big reveal at the end of the last season was that we found out that it was Walt who poisoned Brock, Jesse’s girlfriend’s son, who Jesse had gotten very attached to. He needed Jesse to defeat Gus, and he needed him to be on his game – ready to take risks. We knew Walt had a dark side, but poisoning a child?! There wasn’t another, less crazy option? I took that as a sign that we haven’t seen how bad Walt can get yet.

**Spoilers Ahead**

Im not going to cover every detail because I assume if you are reading this that you’ve already watched the show, so I’ll just cover the key points that stood out. Let’s begin! The episode opens up with a lot of confusion. Walt is in a Denny’s, with a full head of hair, a beard, and breaking up bacon to make the letters “52” on his plate. I honestly didn’t know what to think – he looked crazy and homeless. He then does some shady deal in the bathroom where he exchanges cash for a set of keys and goes to the parking lot and opens a trunk that is full of ammo and the biggest machine gun I’ve ever seen. I was on the edge of my seat wondering what the hell is going on with this. I had a feeling though that it was going to be like the pink stuffed animal thing they did a few years ago, where we find out more and more in the intro, until the season finale where it all comes together.

Something that really struck me was how sad Walt was that he couldn’t share his victory in killing Gus with anyone. He went home, had a drink, and was kind of like, I did it, I’m the king, now what? Where is my parade? Schuyler and Walter Jr. came home from Hank’s house where they heard the news about Gus. A very excited Walter Jr. says, “When this hits the news Uncle Hank is gonna be a hero,” which makes Walt even more depressed since Hank didn’t do anything at all besides figure out who Gus was. He then tries to talk to Schuyler who is clearly terrified of him at this point. I can’t imagine that she’ll ever be able to look at him the same after knowing what he’s done and what he’s capable of.

This season, Hank is back on his feet, but you can tell that he’s extremely disappointed that he wasn’t able to bring down Gus himself. Also, he didn’t get to enjoy the vindication that he was right all along about Gus, especially when everybody in his own department and the F.B.I. thought he was crazy. I have a feeling a big portion of the last few episodes will be Hank finding out what Walt has been doing this whole time. I can’t imagine what’s going to happen or how it’s going to go down, but I can’t wait. It’s going to be epic.

In this episode, we see Mike feeding chickens which he has taken the time to name – this was bizarre to say the least. I really like Mike’s sympathy for Jesse though, you can tell he really cares for him. All of the bonding they had last season really paid off for Jesse. It especially paid off for Walt since on more than one occasion Mike’s relationship with Jesse has saved Walt’s life. They are a good trio together and have a dynamic that makes every scene with them very tense, but fun. Mike definitely has some great lines too. My favorites were: “I am done listening to this asshole talk,” “Keys, scumbag. It’s the universal symbol for keys” and “I can see a lot of possible outcomes for this thing, and not a single one of them involves Miller Time.”

Now to the Ted fiasco, we all thought he was dead, even worse – HE’S ALIVE! He has a broken neck and is scared to death of Schuyler – this is going to get ugly. Schuyler clearly feels terrible about what she’s done, but he’s an idiot for not sending in the money to the IRS. I’m not saying he deserved to have his neck broken, but karma’s a bitch. I think she knows that she scared the shit out of this guy and likes the power. When Walt later finds out about this he tells her, “I forgive you.” I think that he was trying to extend the olive branch to Schuyler, kind of saying, “Hey, we’ve both done some bad things lets forgive each other.” And the look on her face said, “What I did was bad, but you’re a monster – we’re nothing alike.” It is going to be very interesting to see the path that their relationship takes this season.

This has been long, I know, but let’s end with hands down the best scene in the episode: testing out the magnets in the junkyard. It proves again that Walt is freaking genius and that Jesse is awesome. YEAH BITCH MAGNETS!!!!!

Get ready for episode two!