<p>It wasn’t one of the great episodes, but it had to cover a lot of ground to set things up for the final 8 next year. I have mixed feelings about the montage sequences. They were so well done cinematically - yet I was thinking “really?” because they made Walt look like he’s got superpowers. Also, not enough Jesse for my liking.</p>
<p>But the actors were, as always, terrific, especially Anna Gunn and Dean Norris. Maybe it’s Hank who’ll bring Walter down. Now to spend the next 10 months tapping my foot impatiently…</p>
<p>Anyone think of the Godfather when all those people were being offed? It was like the scene when Michael’s son was being baptized with cuts to all his enemies being slain. </p>
<p>Both Michael and Walt are protecting their families. </p>
<p>“It had to be done,” has become the limit of Walt’s moral compass. </p>
<p>(There was an explicit Godfather refreence in Breaking Bad’s doppelg</p>
<p>And speaking of The Godfather - did I see a bunch of oranges in the last BB episode somewhere? I seem to remember that but can’t recall the details now. Whenever I see oranges in a film or TV show now, I think “uh oh.” Though maybe sometimes an orange is just an orange.</p>
<p>I though the last episode was very good and I long suspected it would be a small clue that would be Walt’s undoing. That Walt Whitman scene was so intense between him and Hank that I was glad it resurfaced. I think the final eight seasons will be a lengthy cat and mouse game – a complicated battle between good and evil. And I think Jesse will turn on Walt knowing he will never be safe as long as Walter is free.</p>
<p>I have to ask…does it get better? I watched the first 4-5 episodes on Netflix a few months ago to see what all the hullaballoo was about and was nearly physically ill. The Sopranos did not affect me this way. For some reason this show upset the hell out of me.</p>
<p>Is it the violence that disturbs you, Snowdog? I think there are shows that are truly offensive in their use of violence - but I believe this one uses it to show the true human cost of violence. I also think that the show’s message is profoundly anti-drug; meth is in no way glamorized or shown as cool.</p>
<p>Walter’s character, and his descent into true evil, are quite disturbing. The dread I feel watching this show is pretty intense, but I’ve never felt ill from it. I do think the show is outstanding television.</p>
<p>frazzled - I can’t put my finger on it. The graphic violence certainly. I nearly lost my dinner in episode 3 or 4 when they were cleaning up after Jesse tried to melt the body in the bathtub.</p>
<p>But I think you said it…the sense of dread. The vulnerability of Walt’s son. The feeling there is no redemption anywhere. I just couldn’t take it :(</p>
<p>I really enjoy BB and “The Monsters on Elm Street” theme is one of my favorite things about it. Seeing how Walt has become evil through and through has to make you wonder if he ever was the ordinary guy we thought he was - or if there is such a guy.</p>
<p>Anybody else glad to see the return of the fly?</p>
<p>Snowdog, I happen to think the very first episode of Breaking Bad is the single most compelling hour of TV ever made, and I’ve turned many people into rabid fans of the show just by insisting they watch that episode. If you haven’t been drawn in by the first 4 or 5 episodes, I guess the show is just not for you. But if it’s any help, one critic noted that the show is the most moral one on television, because everyone who does wrong is eventually punished–a view that certainly informs my guess about how it will all end.</p>
<p>Well I went back to it. As depressing as it is, my curiosity got the better of me. And the acting is really good. But with regard to the above comment, I don’t see it. Not at all.</p>
<p>The one character with a shred of conscience is surely going to be murdered soon by a sociopath who walks the earth leaving a trail of blood and completely untouched by any form of punishment or retribution after 5 full seasons.</p>
<p>I have to disagree. I don’t believe that Walt is, even now, untouched by punishment or retribution. He lives in fear, his family is in danger, his marriage is just about dead, the money he risked everything for hasn’t bought him security - and it’s all his own fault and he can’t pretend it isn’t for long. To say nothing of the reckoning we all know is coming. </p>
<p>The show doesn’t back down from punishing the innocent to exact retribution on the guilty (much like real life, right?). Walt will be punished even if he somehow recovers his health and eludes discovery for his crimes. (Just please don’t let it be the baby …)</p>
<p>Walt is clearly delusional at this point. He truly thinks that he can just walk away from everything he’s done since his diagnosis and resume a normal life. Skylar is so traumatised and trapped by what she knows and what she’s done, and by her desire to protect her children from harm, that she is supporting Walt’s delusion. I love that each character’s personal flaws and weaknesses are built on, step by step, to lead to an inevitable but heartbreaking finale. No one is going to walk away unscathed and no one is truly innocent anymore.</p>
<p>I can’t think of any other tv show (or feature film for that matter) that has been so beautifully crafted to show how ordinary people with ordinary flaws can, under the proper circumstances, fall so far from grace. I can’t wait for next season when Hank finally leaves that bathroom.</p>
<p>For sure Walt is riding for a fall. There wouldn’t be a show if the rest of the season involved him and Skylar settling down and making prudent investment decisions. Although the venture started out as a way to take care of his family, it very quickly became all about him.</p>
<p>The fact that serious crime doesn’t pay in the long run, most of the time, doesn’t make the show moral (no idea which critic wrote that, but it does grate on me that some look at every piece of art through that lens); as was pointed out, no one’s hands are clean. Hank laughed about his role in making sure the janitor with some weed in his truck would have trouble finding another job, while his shoplifter wife got sympathy and understanding. This is more like Goodfellas in terms of “morality” although Walter White is, to me at least, several degrees more sinister than Henry Hill.</p>
Again, I don’t agree - I see a man locked in dread. He’s like Macbeth, who was also pretty arrogant but not immune from self-loathing.</p>
<p>What kind of punishment are you looking for that would make the show “moral,” in your eyes? The days of the Production Code, which dictated that any wrongdoing had to be punished before the final fadeout, are long gone - so long gone that it never even applied to television programming. I think “Breaking Bad” upholds the moral code of personal responsibility like few other shows I’ve ever seen. Walt has escaped discovery and whatever official punishment he’s due, so far. But there are other kinds of punishment.</p>
<p>Do you think the point of the show is that Walt is getting away with his crimes?</p>
<p>Oh, Walt isn’t getting away with anything - you can see retribution coming his way. Vince Gilligan said as much (“some bad things happen to Walt next season”) when he was on “The Colbert Report” recently.</p>
<p>I agree that “Breaking Bad” is one of the - if not THE - most moral shows on TV. Every time I see Walt, I can’t help but think “Pride goeth before a fall.” </p>
<p>In some ways, Walt doesn’t just have cancer - he IS the cancer in the lives of his family and among his aquaintances.</p>
<p>Yes, I agree that the show has one of the strongest senses of morality of any television show. Walt’s life is truly a living hell. The scene that sticks out to me is that of Skylar and Walt looking helplessly at the pile of money in the storage unit.</p>
<p>None whatsoever, I don’t look for moral lessons on TV. I was responding to an earlier comment. I was actually hoping that Jesse would finally get away rather than die like the rest of Walt’s castoffs.</p>
<p>I myself am hoping that Jesse walks away, unscathed. Hopefully holding the smoking gun he uses to kill Walt with. I think Skylar and the kids will be okay. She’ll wisely live off that money she’s got locked away in storage. She’ll no doubt find another man to take care of her. She’s a survivor. I still feel sorry for the older son. He could have been an innocent, but he got caught up in teenage angst and the bravado of his DEA agent uncle. The baby, a mere afterthought. I suppose even if the whole Walt family is slaughtered, sans baby, Marie and DEA hubby will adopt it.</p>