Breaking Bad, Recapping Worse: Season 5, Episode 6 "Buyout"There was a commercial for Ciroc Vodka during Breaking Bad tonight, featuring numerous luminaries such as Michael K. Williams (Omar from THE WIRE) and Aaron Paul (Jess from BREAKING BAD). I realized that there was a golden opportunity for The Container Store to hire Bryan Cranston to do some TV spots. They can highlight shopping there for oversized plastic receptacles, which are just perfect for dirty laundry, bird seed or any of those nasty chores involving hydrochloric acid.
"Ricky Hitler" Hector Salamanca would have appreciated the note Mike leaves for the DEA agents. Of course, being basic cable, they had to blur part of the word…but I'm fairly confident it said
"Frak You". Mike's clearly a big BSG fan.
I'm unsure If I buy Skyler being THAT upset about Walt spilling the ricen beans about her affair with Ted. Would she have preferred he out-and-out lie as he was being pressed for answers by Marie? After all, she's the far more skilled liar in that marriage. But would something like postpartum depression have been a better answer?
Walt talks about there being plenty of time for soul-searching a year & a half later. I wonder -- does he really believe that? At what point does he take stock of the misery he's either directly or indirectly caused over the course of the past year? Jesse's got the murder of Gail to atone for, and the guilt of the deaths of Combo and Andrea's brother continue to eat away at him. Not to mention the well of sadness he still draws from whenever he thinks about Judy. But Walt has rung up a body count that would put Vic Mackey, Tony Soprano and Jack Bauer all to shame.
Jesse's a bit disconcerted by the fact that Walt is whistling merrily -- a great little moment that says SO much without words -- and also effectively undercuts everything Walt had just said to him. That may be the "Creepy Walt" moment of this episode.
"Are we in the meth business? Or the money business?"I'm hard pressed to recall if Jesse has ever set foot in Walt's house before. We are then treated to a callback to a few key plot points from the beginning of season 2 (Walt determining $737,000 is the amount of money he needs to amass for his family before he dies) and the full backstory of his pre high-school teaching life from the middle of Season One (that he helped found the company "Grey Matter", but bailed out before it became the next Apple). As with shows like "The Shield" or "LOST" -- I'm always doubly impressed when facets of story lines can play a part literally
years later. It makes the entire series feel that much more like chapters in an epic tome.
"You asked me if I was in the meth business or the money business. Neither. I'm in the empire business."The dinner scene was exquisitely awkward. If you didn't realize Jesse is the heart & soul of Breaking Bad before, you certainly should have by now. And although this season has (as we were forewarned) grown darker and darker -- there's still room for levity here and there:
Saul Goodman sighting! Few things more satisfying than a solid dose of everybody's favorite shyster. How I'd love to see him appear on an episode of THE GOOD WIFE. C'mon AMC & CBS: make it happen!
And that final look on Walt's face, with Mike's gun pressed firmly into his temple -- means Heisenberg is back in charge.
"Everybody wins."
