Breaking Bad: "To'hajiilee"

Even if Breaking Bad were to falter in these last eight episodes (which thus far it hasn’t), I’m not sure it would matter. First off, the show has crafted such compelling and high quality television already over the past five plus years, but also because I’m certain it would be faltering in such ambitious, audacious and interesting ways that it largely wouldn’t matter. What I want more than anything else from the television series I watch is to never know what’s going to happen next, and Breaking Bad has always kept me guessing. Not only that but it has only become harder to determine where it will take us as it has headed into its end game.

The ending to last night's "To'hajiilee" is likely what most comes to mind when I say this but throughout this was an episode thick with edge of your seat tension and wonderful twists and turns. It is a chess match between Walt and Jesse to try to outwit the other. Jesse shares with Hank his plan to discover Walt’s hidden money, while Walt tries to flush out Jesse so that Todd and his uncle can kill him. Walt is clever but he’s getting desperate; he’s been cornered since “Blood Money” and more than ever there is a sense that he’s running out of ideas and options. His visitation with Andrea and Brock is smart (and a little awful – but what more would you expect from Walt by this point), but he is two steps behind Hank and giving too much credit to Jesse, who he outright calls family to Uncle Jack. 

Hank and Jesse stage Jesse’s death (using some gross looking animal brains) for an unsuspecting, and far from the brightest, Huell. Huell spills everything he knows which is enough for them to set a trap for Walt to reveal the location of the money. I think it’s brilliant for Huell to be the loose end that helps catalyze this. Breaking Bad has always been great at taking tiny parts of the story and reconnecting them to the bigger picture. 

The final stretch of the episode is another breathless bravura from the show. Whenever we think the big final moment has come (because we’ve been taught by this point that the final episodes will be heavy with searing intensity and forward momentum) it is suddenly aped by a moment even more intense and bold. Walt drives at breakneck speeds, revealing nearly everything on the phone, which must be wiretapped, to Jesse. But it is only the beginning. Walt pulls out his gun to face off against Jesse only to realize he’s been played and preps Todd’s uncle, providing the coordinates. He calls it off though when he learns that Hank is with Jesse. He gives himself up, gets his Miranda Rights read and is tossed into the van with handcuffs (not before a cheer worthy moment where Jesse spits in his face). 

But then there are still seven minutes left in the episode and we know something else has to happen. Hank calls Marie and lets her know he nailed Walt (a moment that’s meant to be happy and triumphant but rings false; something is off) … and then Walt sees something in the rear-view window: cars driving in. And we know it must be Todd, his uncle and their crew. They pull up and draw their guns. Hank and Gomie point their guns back at them. We’re just waiting for it to all go wrong. Hank informs them that they’re the police, Todd’s uncle asks for some identification to prove it (though we can tell he could care less), and they stare down for an uncomfortable amount of time. 

Walt is screaming that the hit is off but he’s muffled by the car and his handcuffs prevent him from getting out of the car and calming the crisis (though it might not matter even if he was able to). Guns start going off and a gun fight ensues, Jesse tries to flee the car to a safer hiding place, Walt throws himself down (glasses flying off his face), and Hank and Gomie take cover behind the van… And the episode just ends. In the middle of the gun fight.  

It’s as if Vince Gilligan is saying, “Yea, that’s pretty cool, but trust me this is only the start of things” (I imagine with his ever charming Southern grin wide across his face). The last few episodes have faded out of moments that felt inextricable: Hank and Walt staring down in the garage, Jesse dousing gasoline on Walter’s house. And then just cutting away, begging us to return for next week.

But I’m okay with that. Some shows, most shows really, wither away long before they end, and even the best of them get to their endings uncertain about what should be done or how to go out. Breaking Bad, by contrast, has been looking at its final episodes with a gleeful pleasure. It’s as if the writers are saying, “We can do that now?! Well, dammit let’s do it then!”  

Stray Thoughts:

-I want Jesse to find out about Jane but I guess that may not happen by this point. I thought Walt might tell Jesse during the phone call.

-How Huell and Cuby became such memorable characters in their own right is a testament to how well the writers make their supporting characters.

-Walt hid his money at the titular To’hajiilee, AKA the first place he and Jesse ever cooked. There’s a shot in the episode where Walt looks down the road anticipating Jesse’s arrival that recalls the opening shot in the pilot.

-That Walter White Luck Jesse described last episode is on display in those last moments except in a way that Walt is totally against.

-People have speculated about Walt killing off one or more main characters, including Hank and/or Jesse, but he may not even get that chance if things continue to go the way they were at episode’s end. My money is on at least one of them surviving (more likely Jesse).

-Skylar gives Walter Jr. some lessons on how to deal with customers. Jr. questions the “Have an A-1 day,” slogan as I’m sure many of us have.
-"Coward," Walt spits at Jesse. It might be the most pathetic and despicable thing he's ever said. He doesn't care that it's his fault Jesse turned to Hank or that it was in Jesse's best interest. He only cares about himself and having thought too much of Jesse.
-Todd's emotionless reaction to the hit being called on Jesse is really fucking creepy. 

-The director for the episode is once again the fantastic Michelle MacLaren -- directing her last episode for the series -- who over the course of Breaking Bad’s run has composed some of its most striking and memorable episodes. One personal favorite shot is the low angle shot we first get of Hank with the blue sky coming through overhead; Hank is bathed in a dark, blue glow and paces back and forth – the scene is shot and lit like Hank must feel. That final stretch is beautifully composed from the way Walter's speeding car is shot to his slow walk across the desert to Hank. It’s simply another gorgeously shot episode.  

Grade: A