Unlike season four's blood-drenched premiere, Breaking Bad's season five opener is bloodless—but it's certainly not without the series’ trademark tension. This season, we find a considerably wearier Walter at a diner. Clearly, an unspecified time has passed since Gus’s death and Walter looks like complete shit (and there’s some indication that his cancer might be coming back in full force). Obviously something went down, and this may be the beginning of the end. After making a tradeoff with a stranger in the restaurant’s bathroom, receiving a key and a solemn "good luck," Walter steps outside and uses the key to open the trunk of a car, revealing a pretty large gun. And just when we expect shit to finally hit the fan… it’s revealed to be another of Breaking Bad’s trademark teasers and we’re whisked right back to where we left off at the end of season 4. Sure, it’s nowhere near as stylish as the one-eyed pink bear teaser, or as shocking as Victor’s murder at the beginning of Season 4, but seeing Walter sitting alone at a diner while melancholically celebrating his fifty-second birthday was an incredibly tense couple of minutes because I honestly believed that the show might kill him off right then and there. Knowing how much this show gets away with subverting viewer’s expectations, it might have been completely reasonable to see him die, but of course that’s not to be. So we now follow Walter returning to the house and ridding himself of the evidence connecting him to Gus’ murder and Brock’s poisoning. But before he can finally relax and enjoy his victory, Walt realizes he’s forgotten one major thing that can tie him to Gus: the security cameras in Gus’ lab.
With Jessie in tow, Walter meets with an extremely irritated Mike (kind of hard not to be when you just found out that your boss has been killed) and Jessie literally has to throw himself in front of Mike to keep him from killing Walt. After realizing that they’re all screwed if the DEA finds the tapes that connect all of them to Gus’ meth dealings, Mike reluctantly decides to help the meth-dealing duo and informs them that all of the video feeds go directly to Gus’ laptop, which is located in his office. However, the DEA gets to the laptop first and all seems lost, until Jessie (in a scene hilariously sold by Aaron Paul) blurts out that they should use magnets in order to destroy the laptop. After procuring a large magnet, Walt and the gang sneak into where the laptop is being held and use the magnet to basically decimate the evidence room and flee before the cops arrive. Mike, furious that Walt seems to be so level-headed, asks how he knows the trail won’t lead back to them, at which Walt simply replies: "Because I said so?"
While that’s going on, Skylar learns that Ted—her boss whom she was having an affair with—is alive after breaking his neck attempting to escape from Saul’s goons. Ted immediately tells Skylar that he hasn’t spoken to anyone about what really happened to him, and has said that it was an accident and swears he’ll never speak of the truth to anyone.
Walter returns home after terrorizing Saul into continuing to work with him, and embraces Skylar. The episode ends with Walt coolly stating that he forgives her, at which I gasped at how cold of an asshole Walt has become.
SumOlogy: We’re almost at the end stretch here, but damn, this is going to be a thrilling couple of weeks.
Grade: A
Leftovers
Even though technically there will be a sixth season of Breaking Bad (AMC has us right where it wants us, and we’ll all be salivating until the final episodes premiere), this really feels like the beginning of the end, with the episode’s cold open setting up an apocalyptic tone and the sense that this might be the end for Walt. Whether or not we’ll actually find out this season or (*gulp) have to wait till next year remains to be seen.
If you needed any proof that Walter is a lost cause, this episode provided it: Walter broke bad last season and we’re seeing the full effect of it. White is seemingly confidant; his “I said so” pretty much showed that he feels he’s some criminal mastermind. But who can blame him? He outsmarted Gus. Though while the oft repeated line “We’re done when I say we’re done” (which is marvelously sold by both Cranston and Bob Odenkirk) is Walt at his most menacing, it’s the rather cold way he tells Skylar that he forgives her, that really makes the case.
Despite the show’s increasingly bleak content, it always manages to find time for some inspired humor. In this case, Jessie blurting out his magnet idea (I expect there to be some kind of Jessie Pinkman/Insane Clown Posse crossover to be making the rounds on the internet soon) was absolutely hilarious. But I have to give it to Mike—world weary, angry, Mike—for inducing the most laughs, by basically calling out Walt’s plan and being an overall grouch. (“Keys scumbag. It’s the universal sign for keys!”)
It’s clear that this is only a temporary truce: Walt killing Gus didn’t exactly thrill Mike (especially since Jessie had to dive in front of Mike’s gun before he gunned Walt down), so he’s helping only because he’s also tied to Gus. Once that’s finished, how long do you think it’ll be before Mike decides to turn on Walt, or even when Walt decides to turn on Mike?
It’s interesting the relationship Jessie has with both men: both are obvious father figures for the boy, and it seems like he’s torn between the two. Though, Mike does, in his own hardass way, care for Jessie and warns him that he should just simply get the fuck out before Walter ruins him even further.
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