Note: Full spoilers for the episode follow.
It’s the beginning of the end for this first half of the final season; hold onto your butts.
First thing’s first, Skyler is clearly trying to poison Walt by buying lesser quality groceries at the local Albertson’s. It’s some long-term thinking, but I think it’ll pay off in the end. We’ve seen Walt’s health problems arise before—she probably gave him cancer, too. Somehow. She’s so tricky.
“Buyout” opened up with the residue from last week: Mike, Jesse, Walt, and newcomer Todd cleaning up their “mess.” The details were in their faces - particularly Mike’s. Jonathan Banks must have seen some stuff in his time.
They did their job with a thousand mile stare. When it was over, they talked.
I do love that this show still deals with the emotional impact of their own messes. Though Walt's gotten a lot more cold-blooded, every death is still a tragedy, even when they have to put it in a plastic container and seal it with hydrofluoric acid.
Todd’s apology seemed genuine. (I mean, he’s an actor and all, but Jesse Plemons acted like he was supposed to be genuine.) A lot of the questions I had were answered immediately: they almost certainly could’ve told the kid they were refueling the train or something and he wouldn’t have known a thing. But Todd was trying to impress his new bosses and you can imagine the whole “no witnesses” thing kept kicking around in his head. It was literally a shoot first, ask questions later moment—for him, anyway.
This reminds me, Mike at one point in this season said, “Just ‘cause you shot Jesse James don’t make you Jesse James.” There’s been a few western mythos and motifs in this season, with that and the train robbery. And we’re dealing a lot with the vast, open expanses of the Wild West.
What’s seemingly an awkward dinner table conversation turns into a very good point by Walter - his family has indeed fallen apart. He has nothing left to work for other than building an empire. (Although, which came first, the chicken or the egg?) Jesse is seeing things clearly.
What brought this episode (and maybe this whole season) clarity was that scene between Jesse and Walt, where Walt told us the backstory of Grey Matter. If I had to sum up Walt in a few words, they’d probably be superiority complex, repression, jealousy and anger. In this one, we saw just how deep that repression goes—and, if you remember the episode Grey Matter, good for you, but a reminder at this point in the series was refreshing. Even at his worst, Walt still remembers what’s driving him to build this empire. He doesn’t forget his roots… even if he sometimes doesn’t care so much about his family.
"Jesse, I know, it was regrettable. But that kid had a tarantula on him and he was going to use it."
And you know what, it was good to see Jesse being good ol’ Pinkman. The scene at the dinner table was comical and I don’t think Aaron Paul has gotten credit for his comedic acting in a long time. It’s hard for any actor to go from the Pinkman at the dinner table to the Pinkman in the opening scene in this one, but Paul pulls it off well.
I had questions about how dedicated Walt was to this whole idea - how far he would go to defend the idea and build this empire. If he had skated through the entire series without suffering consequences, that would’ve been cool; we’ve seen what he was willing to sacrifice, which is quite a bit, but not what he was willing to do to himself. Hard-wiring an electrical cord to burn through a plastic cuff, burning a scar into his own wrist in the process, should solidify that.
There’s only one other thing to really note, and that’s the ending to this episode - Mike was mad. (See more below.) Good for him for tying up Walt, but for a man as cool and calm and collected as he was, that was some real anger there.
We’re right now in the planning stages for the big mid-season finale in two weeks. A big plan will be revealed. Everyone probably won’t leave as happily as Walt suggested. But I bet it’s gonna be good.
There was a reference to Heat in last week’s episode. I ended up rewatching the entire thing for the first time since I was about 15. It’s Michael Mann’s masterpiece. It’s really worth watching; smart criminals, smart detectives, good dialogue, and a broiling, building plot that ends in a great climax. Anyway, in it, Robert Deniro plays a criminal (Neil) not unlike Mike: a cool, calm, collected pro who, up until the first robbery of the movie, has done a great job at being a criminal and staying off the radar.
Later in the movie, Neil gets a pretty easy choice: he can walk away at that moment with everything he’s got scot-free; or he can finish one last job. Neil, who’s always been a pro, makes the first decision he’s ever made based on anger and even though he gets his vengeance, it becomes his undoing.
Mike and Neil are definitely cut from the same cloth and I’m afraid to say that I'm beginning to think this is probably going to be the end of Mike.
Source : ign[dot]com
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