Breaking Bad: "Rabid Dog"

One of the biggest decisions creator Vince Gilligan made early in Breaking Bad’s run was to keep Jesse Pinkman alive. Gilligan had planned to kill the character off towards the end of the first season but the writer’s strike prevented him from following through. Gilligan quickly realized based, partly on how great Aaron Paul was in the role, that Jesse was too good of a character to lose that early in the show’s run. In time, Jesse became arguably equally as important and integral to the show as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White. Gilligan began splitting the episodic time between the two characters and using this time spent with Jesse to slowly switch our sympathies away from Walt and onto Jesse.

Some argue that Hank, in time, has slowly become the series protagonist in disguise but that argument could very well be made for Jesse as well. I have long since stopped rooting for Walt. I’m interested in what Walt does but less on an emotional level and more on a narrative level. The power of Breaking Bad draws from its deep bench of supporting characters who have turned into stand-ins for the humanity that Walt has increasingly been lacking. Nowhere has this been truer than with Jesse Pinkman. Jesse is the moral compass of the show now, and in a show all about morality and the consequences that come when you start “breaking bad”, being the moral compass is a big freaking deal. Whenever Jesse has considered something to be “wrong”, within the logic of the show it has been very, very wrong.

So if you’ve been a hold out on the Dislike Walter White Front, surely the reassurance of the show’s moral center will make you realize that Walt is, in the words of Jesse himself, “the devil”. But I bring up the equal screen time dedicated to the two characters because it almost feels more fitting that the final conflict of the show is coming down not to Walt and Hank but rather Walt and Jesse. 

Jesse wasn’t going to burn down the house. We know in nine months when Mr. Lambert arrives back to Negro-Arroyo Lane that his house is still standing. So when Walt arrived to find his house gasoline drenched but otherwise unharmed, it wasn’t really a surprise. Nor was it a surprise to watch Walt weasel his way out of yet another mess. There’s a tonality to Bryan Cranston’s voice when Walt starts lying. It has a sickeningly confident rhythm to it. By now it has a quality of trying too hard to convince whoever is hearing it; there’s a playing acting feel to it. Skylar immediately picks up on its falseness and asks Walt to drop the act once they’ve reached the hotel (When she asked how Saul was, I was cheering. Walt’s routine has gotten old). Walt keeps lying to those closest to him even when he ought to know it isn’t going to work. He lied to Jesse’s face in “Confessions” and Jesse spit back, “Quit working me!”      

  

No, what was surprising was the series shifting away from its clockwork, real time storytelling midway through to show events from Jesse’s perspective. It was a necessary storytelling decision – one that arguably could have been handled in a slightly different manner – but it still was a little jarring. The show couldn’t lose its momentum when showing things from Walt’s point of view, so it made sense. On the other hand, at this point, the show has earned the right to tell things how it wants to. 

Hank talked Jesse down from the edge of oblivion and proceeded to use him to build his case against Walt. Hank is driven by a sense of justice but he’s selfish about his pursuit. The way he talks about taking down Walt isn’t about doing the right thing but the satisfaction of it. When Hank tried to convince Skylar in “Buried”, he was unconcerned about her interests or feelings, and he’s even less concerned about Jesse. Steve Gomez, Hank’s partner, is more cued into how Jesse feels and how he might be right, but Hank dismisses Gomie’s suggestions. 

So Hank has a confession from Jesse but a “my word versus his word" situation and some potent but circumstantial evidence in the form of a voice message Walt leaves for Jesse. Jesse is weary about taking the meet up with Walt, but Hank recognizes the strong feelings Walt holds for Jesse. 

Then we come to that final scene. Breaking Bad has crafted some intense, visceral moments but in these last few episodes it has made some of its best. In that moment as Jesse approaches Walt on the park bench anything could happen. I know that’s a cliché phrase but it’s rarely been a truer sentiment than for Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad is a show that constantly surprises us and it does it ways that are astounding, ambitious and set it apart from nearly every other show on television. Consider the possibilities in that moment: Jesse goes over to Walt and is killed (by Walt, by that strange man), Jesse goes to Walt and they talk (he gets no useful information, he makes Hank’s case), Jesse turns away and goes back to the van fearful for his life, Walt realizes Hank is listening and does something to counter, and so on and so on. And we could buy any of these eventualities. 

But the show seems insistent that Jesse find a way to get back at his former mentor. And at the same time Walt seems insistent to stop anyone from taking him down, even his adopted son. For five seasons the show, intentionally or not, has been earning the right to set up a conflict like this between its two protagonists. And, well, I couldn’t be more excited and sick to my stomach (in a good way of course). 

Stray Thoughts:

-Marie’s reaction to Jesse staying over at the house is fantastic. That’s two characters that have been kept apart for too long and together make the stuff of pitch comic blackness. All in all -- including the therapy scene -- a very good episode for Betsy Brandt.

-Walt claims he’s in it for his family but everyone that is in his family is in no way better off because of his actions. Take your pick. One worth mentioning: Walter Jr.’s heartbreaking hug. He’s the only one still in the dark and it is devastating. Also in a fitting bit of irony, Jr. calls out Walt on his lies. Walt should be better at this by now.

-The way Aaron Paul is able to instill so many emotions into saying “Mr. White” is a thing of acting beauty.

-Perhaps I’m reading into it too much but the gasoline seeping into the floor too deep to be gotten rid of feels like a commentary on how Walt’s gone too far to get away with things this time.
-The episode's title, "Rabid Dog", recalls the season four episode "Problem Dog" where Jesse in an AA session describes Gale as a dog that needed to be put down. 

Grade: A-