Better Call Saul: Saul Gone

 "So you were always like this..."

And here we are. It's over... and it ends like this. Wow.

That was an hour of television that will haunt me for a long time.

Of course, there's no suspense about whether or not "Gene" is going to be caught: there's no escape for him, and we know that this is the last act of Saul's... no, Jimmy's tragedy. There can be no hope for him... but, unexpectedly, there's redemption. And, for that redemption to be genuine, there must be real catharsis, full confession and harsh consequences... eighty-six years in a prison Saul had earlier described as a "hellhole".

The episode is punctuated by flashbacks- with Mike, with Chuck, both better and wiser men than him, as he asaks them what they'd do with a time machine, all the answers being revealing. But it's Walter White who, with his typical arrogance, calls him out: this is really about regrets. And Saul, of all people, certainly should have had a few, as attested by the dizzying number of charges he's presented with.

And he seems to play his hand with very Saul Goodman cunning, getting a very lenient plea deal of only seven years in a not-too-bad prison. And it seems even that isn't enough. Kim has acted with integrity, leaving herself open to being sued by Howard's widow as atonement... but Saul, it seems, right up until the moment he steps into the courtroom, seems set to throw Kim under the bus, which would be far from surprising.

But... he doesn't. Instead, he admits all and takes the brutal consequences. Almost certain life in a hellhole prison... but he has Kim's respect again. And, through suffering, redemption. weirdly, Jimmy (not Saul) is probably happier than if he'd taken the seven years. He is, at last, doing the right thing. Even Jimmy McGill is not beyond redemption,

Wow. The script, the acting, everything. This in no way ended as I was expecting, but it feels perfect.

Breaking Bad: Felina

 "I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it. And... I was really... I was alive."

We start with Walt, miserable and freezing in New Hampshire. Alone, isolated, off grid, trying to get a car to start and getting a police scare to remind him he's hunted. Oh, and he's dying. He's in a grim situation.

Yet, from this downbeat teaser, we get Walt visiting Albuquerque one late time like an avenging demon. The plan to eventually provide for his family is inspired, even if, like everything else, it's Heisenberg. It's Heisenberg who tells the truth to Skyler. It's even Heisenberg who touches his baby daughter for one last time, as even monsters love their children. But monsters can be terrible, and Heisenberg more than most.

I correctly predicted before the start exactly who would die in this finale. That doesn't matter. Poetically, Jack and his whole gang, Lydia and Walt all HAD to die. It was just a matter of how, and it was all realised with such brilliance, from the machine gun contraption in the boot to the dispatching of both Todd and Jack.

Best of all, of course, is Walt's phone chat with Lydia, casually and cruelly telling her that the reason she probably feels under the weather is the ricin (at last!) that he slipped her.

Walt and Jesse's final parting is meaningful, as is Jesse's joyful freedom. For Walt, though, there can be only one ending.

A perfect finale to a perfect television series. This is literally sublime.

Breaking Bad: Granite State

 "Just so you know, this isn't personal."

Oh my. Where to start? Suddenly everything is going horribly wrong. Walt is still dying of cancer; chemo takes place in less than ideal conditions; he's forced to live in a shack in deepest, darkest New Hampshire (still a better fate than Saul, seemingly, destined for Nebraska, which this foreigner assumes to be the most obscure state in the USA- it's always the pretty much square ones), off grid, starved of company, unable to use his money or even send it to his family. Yes, Flynn is a good lad.

Also, Skyler is doomed. As Saul points out, she knows not where she is, and so she has nothing to trade. It all promises to be, as Walt (not Heisenberg; he even grows his hair), all for nothing.

Except he plans to kill Jack and all of his Nazi mates. My God, I hope so, after the slave labour for poor, despairing Jesse; the swastika tattoos; the callous murder of Andrea in front of Jesse. I'll say this now: Jack and his gang- including dead-eyed, evil Todd- are all going to die, like Walt will. I hope that amoral, cynical bitch Lydia dies too, but I suspect she won't.

And then we get the final betrayal, just when Walt appears to be ready to give himself up, as Elliott and Gretchen insult him on telly. One episode to go. I can't believe it. It will be quite the ride. This is how you do telly as art.This is Dickens. This is Thackeray. This is genius.

Breaking Bad: Ozymandias

 "What the hell is wrong with you? We're family!"

Having started my blog on this brutal and almost perfect piece of television, about how a man once lord of all he surveys who finds it all crumble to dust among the sands, with the above quote, I'll also now do something unusual and quote in full the eponymous poem from Percy Bysshe "the missus wrote Frankenstein" Shelley:

"I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.” 

It's all so very apt, is it not?

It all falls apart. We begin with an opening scene from the old days, when Jesse and Walt were friends and Heisenberg was not a thing. But the ghosts of the past fade away to be replaced by the intensity of the present, as Walt- not Heisenberg, perhaps for the last time- pleads for Hank's life, yet Hank is the alpha male even in death, as Walt is humiliated by Jack and his gang of white supremacist scum. He is no longer the kingpin, forced to run away. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Things get even more intense as Marie goes on the warpath, thinking Hank has Walt just where he ewant him... and forces Marie to tell Flynn the truth, in deeply painful scenes. Flynn's reaction- like R.J. Mitte's acting- is very real. He's just a teenage boy, young and naive. His parents are not who he thought they were, and his world falls apart. The lone and level sands stretch far away.

And then we have the intensity of the final scenes, the altercation between Walt and Skyler with a knife as an appalled Flynn calls the police on his father. And Walt's phone call to Skyler- with police listening in- is classic abusive spouse. He's lost the plot- and helped Skyler inadvertently by making her collaboration seem like coercive control.

Then there's Jesse, having a very bad day. He dodges being killed only to be forced to work as a meth slave to stop his girlfriend and stepson being killed. Ouch.

Everything has changed. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. Two episodes left. Walt has lost everything, and even been rejected by his baby daughter. Ouch. As a dad, this hits home.

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Breaking Bad: Rabid Dog

 "For three hours straight, all he talked about was something called Babylon 5..."

So this is it. The die is cast. From now on, all is in flux and there is no status quo. This is a supremely well-acted, written and directed piece of television, from Bryan Cranston's extraordinary "bad lying" acting to the shots of Jesse approaching Walt at the end.

Obviously, this episode is all about two things: Jesse turning against Walt and agreeing to cooperate fully with Hank (I'm glad he finally confides in Gomie), and Walt coming to terms with the necessity of killing Jesse. The dynamic between Jesse and Hank is fascinating.And it's ironic that the plan to have Jesse with a wire would have worked if not for his paranoia; it's only his angry phone call to Walt that makes Walt decide to kill him.

It's fascinating seeing Walt being advised to kill Jesse, not only by Seventies Porn Saul but by Skyler, who really crosses a line at this point. This resectable suburban wife encourages her husband to commit murder; her fall is complete.

Then there's the continuing naive faith of Flynn... surely his illusions will soon be brutally shattered? And the angst of Betsy, who may have said too much to her shrink. 

Nothing is safe. Anything can happen. Telly doesn't get much better than this.

Breaking Bad: Confessions

 "Goodbye, Mr Jesse Pinkman. Hello, Mr Credit to Society."

You have to hand it to this episode. I mean, I might as well just stop describing individual episodes of Breaking Bad as superlative, as you can pretty much take that for granted. But this particular episode manages to be basically functional, putting pieces in place for the next act, and therefore traditionally requiring a slight dip in quality.

Hah! No such thing happens.

The episode centres around Walt's incredible confession, a devilishy clever work of cleverness that weaves together the facts that we've all seen over the last few seasons in a way that implicates Hank. It's a tour de force of both writing and acting. Walt- no, Heisenberg, is as vgood an actor as Bryan Cranston here. There is no higher praise.

Yet Aaron Paul is no less superlative in his performance. The scene in the desert where, yet again, Jesse shows that he may be undereducated but he's bloody clevee, something the snobbish Walt will never realise. It's unsurprising that he refuses to cooperate with a secretive Hank, himself at the start of another descent into obsessive self-destructiveness, but less surprising that, as soon as he puts two and five together with the ricin (he's wrong, but sort of right,,,), he turms against Walt, in a very fiery way. Will he now cooperate with Hank.

This very much fees like the beginning of the end.

And there are stiull subtleties to mention. Walt manipulating his own son, the poor boy. Marie's alienation from obsessive Hank. Skyler's dead eyes. Todd muscling in on the meth trade.

This is soooo good. That is all.

Breaking Bad: Buried

 "We are here to do a job, not channel Scrooge McDuck!"

This is it, then. The final stretch of the final act begins. Jesse's very depressed, dropping millions of dollars around while spinning around, on his back, on a roundabout. Symbolic much? Also, we see how bloody cold Lydia is as he has a load of meth underlings slaughtered purely because their substandard cooking is harming the bottom line... and then not wanting to see the bodies of the men she's just killed as the ever-gentlemanly sociopath Tom guides her gently through.

But this episode is mainly about the reverberations caused by the now-open war between Walt and Hank- although Walt doesn't wank to send Hank to "Belize". Yet. But it's 3-D chess, as Hank tries to turn Skyler without- yet- realising how exposed she s. Marie is not so naive, and the scene between the two sisters is extraordinary.

Everyone is exposed, though, and Walt's money isn't the only thing that gets buried in ths episode. Walt, his cancer returning, says in a moment of weakness that he'll take the fall if Skyler can use the money to support their kids... but that's not how it works. Meanwhile, for Hank, he needs evidence. He can'tjust tell the DEA- and he's right: the moment it's known that Heisenberg is his brother-in-law, he's an ex-cop. Yet saying nothing potentially exposes him to prosecution too...

The rest of the season looks to be absolutely gipping. This is first class, tension-filled, perfectly shot character drama.

Breaking Bad: Blood Money

 "Spock's like a toothbrush."

This, ladies and gentlemen, is quite simply the finest episode of television drama that I have ever seen. I've seen, and blogged, a lot of telly. Naturally, we choose to watch what we are likely to enjoy, so, despite my individual tastes and quirks, I'm biased towards quality.

And nothing I've ever see tops this. Oh, the script- even the extended Star Trek dialogue riff which brilliantly introduces us to Jesse's depression- Aaron Paul gives the single best  performance of the condition that I have EVER seen, and would be the standoiut performer in any lesser episode of television. He is, in that sense, incredibly unlucky to share this episode with Dean Norris, Because, although one could argue that he benefits from a first class script and first class direction, he rises to the occasion with superlative aplomb. His performance- in facial expression, line delivery, every possible nuance- will live not only in the history of television, but in the history of acrting. In a word: wow.

Mr Norris' performance here is equivalent to any performance of Hamlet I've ever seen. The man is an acting genius.

The episode itself is gripping. Jesse is depressed, and seriously so. Walt and Skyler believe themselves to be free of the life of crime, but such things are impossible. Both Lydia and cancer are there to puncture such illusions. I mean, we really ought to praise Brian Cranston's acting too. His genius is so constant that we take it for granted.

The final scene..I struggleto think of one better. Hank is a jock, a simple man on the surface. But no human being is without complexity, as the character study of Hank has revealed over the seasons. And war is declared betweemn Hank and Heisenberg, as there can be only one alpha male.

Go Hank. And the deepest of respect to anyone involved in this work of art. Thank you.

Breaking Bad: Gliding Over All

 "Lydia, learn to take yes for an answer..."

SPOILERS. Be warned. Be very waerned.

Wow. This episode is extraordinarily played and shot, with a mood of foreboding and tension surrounding literally everything. This is, seemingly, the tale of Walt and Skyler rescuing their family, and retiring rich from criminality to a life of happiness ever after... something which we know damn well will never happen: Walt isn't in this episode at all. Only Heisenberg.

He has much blood on his hands, and not just Mike's. The nine potential informants- cleverly handled via the prisoner's dilemma by Hank- are all betrayed, stabbed multiple times in the chest, like Julius Caesar. Et tu, Heisenberg? This kind of darkness underlies the appatrent international success, shown by montages of success to ironic soundtracks, and literally more money than they could ever spend.

There is one notable loose end, of which we are purposefully reminded: the ricin, the Chekhov's Gun that seemingly never gets fired. But everything else is closed- even Jesse being paid off in an incredibly tense scene.

And then that ending, at the very last moment...

I'm glad I don't have to wait as long as the original viewers. Wow.

Breaking Bad: Buyout

 "I said I threw them. I would never come to the headquarters of our illegal meth operation, dragging a bunch of cops, would I?"

This is an extraordinary episode full of twists, turns, character moments and a very real sense that this final season is the last act of a very long theatrical tragedy, as Walt/Heisenberg spurns a golden chance to cash in, walk away from all this, and cash in as a rich man to try and rebuild relations with the family he's lost. But he won't. He's Heisenberg. And, in a pivotal two hander betweewn Walt (well, Heisenberg) and Jesse, he reminisces about the business (as we saw in Season One) that is worth billions today, yet he sold his stake for $5,000.

Walt is cursed by a tragic flaw which, I'm sure, will cause his downfall. He's addicted to the criminal life. He's Heisenberg.

Jesse and Mike are not like him. Admittedly, for Mike, it's the constant DEA harassment, but it's nonetheless clear that he's shaken by the murder of a child. As for Jesse, he's absolutely devastated. Aaron Paul, incidentally, is superlative here, not only in his very human reaction to the murder but in the awkwardness of the meal with Walt and a Skyler who is really downing the wine. This competent, intelligent if uneducated, morally complex man is suddenly reduced again to a child.

The cliffhanger is interesting, though. Both Jesse and Mike want to sell out for $5 million each, and leave the meth business forever. Yet there's a snag; the potential buyers need Walt out of the business, setting up a conflict of interest between Walt and his erstwhile comrades. But Walt, smug despite the gun to his face, has a plan.

I'm loving this.

Breaking Bad: Fifty-One

 "Tell me, can a geezer do donuts?

So Walt is fifty-one, exactly one year before the fast forward that opened the season... and little more than a single year, diegetically at least, from all this first started , which feels scarcely conceivable.This birthday episode is not full of action but of deep character drama, with both script and performances- all round- being simply superlative. Also, Rian bloody Johnson directs.

We start with Walt and Walt Jr being all laddish with fast, horrible cars. I realise, at forty-five, it's long past time for me to start planning m own mid-life crisis, but I don't think I'll be doing it like this, thank you very much. It's another sign of Walt's reckless side, and the hubris that suffuses this episode.

This is Walt vs Skyler. Emerging from the depths of her depression- literally; once again the swimming pool acts as a great big metaphor- Skyler is determined, even if only vaguely, not to accept Walt's criminal lifestyle. Not sharing his hubris; she can see what he can't; it inevitably ends only in death. Which is how I'm sure the season will end for Walt. Skyler realises she's powerless, her threats don't work after an almighty and extraordinary row between her and, well, Heisenberg. But she can wait, for the cancer. And outlive him. Compromised and helpless, this is her only option. This is intense stuff.

Skyler is right about the danger, but she's wrong to think there's any escape from the meth business. You leave it only by death. Dangers abound. Hank is doing sterling work at the DEA, making connections that will lead him, I'm sure, closer to Heisengerg,,, and he's getting promoted. Much will come of this, I'm sure. But for now it's fascinating to see the interplay between Walt and an unsuspecting Hank.

Then there's Lydia, the plotting psychopath, who is trying to get out of the meth business and whom Mike wants to kill because of it. There's a lot going on here, and so much tension. I'm not sure if the implied time bomb at the end is real or metaphorical, but it's the perfect ending either way. This is televisual perfection, as ever.

Breaking Bad: Hazard Pay

 "Just because you shot Jesse James doesn't make you Jesse James."

This is, perhaps, a quiet episode, one which has time to breathe and time for character development. Hence we have Skyler's breakdown, unsurprising after recent events, and Walt's inspired explanation to Marie, a brilliant scene. We have Walt and Jesse actually having a friendly conversation about Andrea, and Jesse is shocked to see Walt treat him with absolute trust and respect in how to handle it.

What makres the episode fun and fascinating in equal measure, though, is the premise: this is how one sets up a meth lab. We see Walt, Jesse and Mike- with assistance from Saul- inspecting potential front businesses before Walt hits upon a possible solution. Yet we also have a fascinating clash of the alpha males as Mike schools Walt on the realities of "business", of the many necessary underlings who need to take a cut, of the need to buy silence, of reality.

I strongly suspect, once things get harder, that Walt will cut corners, not do things Mike's way and show honour amongst thieves, and that may be his downfall in a final season which must surely end with his death. Walt, as the quote makes clear, is not Gus, after all. But I speculate.

This is an unusual change of pace, still bloody good telly but not in the usual way.

Breaking Bad: Face Off

 "All I can say is... if I ever get anal polyps, I'll know what to name them."

Wow. That's how you do a finale. This is the perfect showdown- tense, clever, beautifully shot (with Vince Gilligan himself writing and directing)- and with a magnificent climax.

This whole season has been Walt vs Gus, life or death. Here we reach resolution, helped my absolutely superlative performances from Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Giancarlo Esposito and Mark Margolis, who utters not a word, as ever, but conveys so much.

The various twists and turns of the plot are a delight, but ultimately Walt succeeds in having Gus killed... and the scene of his calm, collected, horrific death is extraordinary. So, of course, is the final revelation that little Brock was poisoned, not with ricin, but by Walt. Like Gus, Walt is now not above risking the life of a child. How far he has fallen.

This is not a Skyler episode, but her hands, too, are dipped inexorably in the blood. At the end, on hearing of Gus' death, she asks "Was it you?" and is told that "I won". She gets the rather obvious subtext loud and clear.

Ultimately, though, this is a big step, but one that makes sense, in the extraordinary evolution of Walt from mild-mannered, dorky chemistry teacher to a kind of drug Corleone. Simply sublime.

And the title? Nice pun, but my God, that's dark.

Breaking Bad: End Times

 "There will be an appropriate response..."

The landscape in Breaking Bad, showcasing the severely expansive vistas of New Mexico, have always brought about thoughts of a Western. Well, it's high noon. This is a showdown. The tension is unbearable before we even start, as Walt allows Skyler (who is starting to realise the fuller implications of what she's got herself into), Walt Jr and the baby to escape to protective custody with Hank and Maria. But a man's got to do what a man's got to do. So Walt holes up at home with that gun from a few episodes ago. Cranston is, of course, sublime throughout.

But so are Paul and Esposito, as Gus continues to manipulate Jesse, perhaps with too much transparency by now, paralleled by Hank manipulating Steve Gomez into a raid on the laundry... that seemingly accomplishes nothing. The umpteen dimensional chess continues, even as the stakes rise.

The tension rises, helped by some extraordinary directorial technique: I see Vince Gilligan directed this himself. And then suddenly the tension implodes, as we slowly, along with Jesse, absorb the news that Brock, the son of Jesse's erstwhile girlfriend, has been poisoned with ricin. That ricin. And we're so shocked at this point that we almost forget how exquisite is the plotting here.

Things speed up. Jesse tells his girlfriend (how will he explain it?) that it's ricin. And, in a scene that oozes superlative acting and direction from every pore, he visits Walt, blaming him and about to kill him. Only with Walt's gentle coaxing does it dawn on him that it's Gus who has the motive- manipulating Jesse, the one man stopping him from killing Walt, into doing his work for him- and the form, having killed children in the past.

Walt and Jesse are united, at last, against Gus. Yet Walt's intricate assassination attempt fails. Gus seems almost supernatural in his aloof, non-macho yet alpha male invulnerability.

I can't wait until the next one. My only regret is the fear that I will never again see television as good as this.

Breaking Bad: Hermanos

 "You're not in Chile any more...."

Breaking Bad doesn't have bad episodes. It doesn't really have good episodes either; just variations on excellent. This is one of the better variations, ans something new, something we've been waiting to see: a character study focusing on Gus. 

That's not to say it's all Gus, of course. We get to see a tenacious and rejuvenated Hank and a fascinatingly jittery and stressed out Walt who must surely be close to a breakdown with the need tourgently off Gus while Hank is prowling around... all while Jesse, under similar pressures, is as calm as a cucumber. We also learn that Jesse is giving money to his ex and her son but refusing to do the emotional labour of seeing them as that would mean having actual feelings.

Just as fascinatingly, Walt's panicking is preceded by a scene of him talking to another cancer patient and warning him against passive fatalism and letting go: Walt knows very well that he's mortal, but his life is bleeding well his for as long as he has it.

But, yes, Gus. Giancarlo Esposito owns this episode, with the slight variation of a blank facial expression being the key moment in several gripping scenes here. We get to see him handle a police interview with rehearsed aplomb, and how he can make Walt squirm with a look. And then, through a brief dreamlike shot of some water, we move towards an incredibly filmed, red and yellow tinted, glimpse into the past of the enigmatic Chilean. He's a compelling character, compellingly acted. And it's quite clear how, and why, he hates old Hector.

This is, yet again, extraordinary television.

Breaking Bad: Problem Dog

 "Let's ditch the thesaurus..."

I'm loving this season. It is, as I suspected, all a (mostly) very calm and totally zero sum comnpetition between Walt and Gus, only one of whom can survive. Gus is ultra-cool, calm and collected, a man of no drama and no sudden movres, for whom nothing is unplanned. Waly, or Heisenberg, may not be the polatr opposite but, well... he's capable of joyriding in a stupidly expensive car, setting it on fire ad having to pay $52,000 to but off the consequences.

There are other consequences too. One of them is a staggering income of millions per year, far more, as Skyler now realises, than one mere car wash could possibly launder. Still, I'm sure sjhe will find a clever solution. Skylrer, despite her protests, is proving to be quite adaptable,including in terms of her morals. With time to adjust, she's happy to accept a life of comfort from criminality, and also clearly finds Heisenberg sexier than Walt...

More immediately significant is Walt and Jesse plotting together to kill Gus. There's a clever, and well-earned, bit of misdirection here as we learn that Jesse, while he has his demons (the opening scene, with him shooting baddies in a video game but seeing one of the baddies turn into Gale, is dripping with significance for his character), is no fool, and realises exactly how he's being played by Mike and Gus. Yet the opportunity never quite presents itself.

Gus's trouble proves to come from another angle; there's a reason why Hank is doing so well lately as the gripping final scene has him doing his Poirot routine to his old DEA colleagues on why Gus is their man... and he has Gus' fingerprints as the coup de grace.

Yet it's Jesse's episode, and Aaron Paul is phenomenon. His final speech at the 12 step programme, angrily deconstructing the selfish amorality of the 12 step philosophy, is powerful. And he finally burns that bridge magnificently.

This is all very clever, and things are speeding up. Television doesn't get a lot better than this.

Breaking Bad: Shotgun

 "Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?"

This is a bloody clever, subtle, psychological episode, from the opening char chase with it's fittingly panicked-looking directrion to the final scene with Hank discovering the Los Hermanos Pollos connection.

At a surface level, much of thus episode is on the everyday mundanity of the work required in the meth trade, from cooking to money drops. There are multiple speeded up montages to the same soundtrack. Yet behind it all is tension; what is Gus, the unseen puppetmaster, forever in control with his all-seeing cameras, going to do to Jesse and then to Walt? This season seems to be shaping up to be a contest between the two of them but, at this stage, it's hardly an equal one.

Gus is controlled and controlling, his lack of presence being a sign of strength. He decides, and then stays in the background while his decisions are implemented. Doing, and having to be seen, is for underlings. Not having to be seen is power.

And Gus wins here. The manipulation of Jesse through clever psychology, driving the beginnings of a wedge between him and Walt through divide and rule tactics, works like clockwork. Walt may be having sex with Skyler again (crime is sexy, as in the first season), and be back in the family home,]the proud co-owner of a car wash-cum-money laundromat.

Yet Skyler is still naive, having no idea of the dangers Walt is in. Not least of which is his own tongue, as a tipsy Walt ends up perhaps saying things to Hank that he shouldn't have. 

It's going to be fascinating seeing how all this plays out. I'm loving this season.

Breaking Bad: Open House

 "What? I'm Nixon now?"

This entire episode is about a failure to communicate. Mostly. But it's also, of course, about Skyler mirroring the Walt of earlier seasons as she slips slowly into criminality... and not without success. 

Walt lies to Skyler about his black eye, a failure to communicate. There's a camera in the lab, a bluntly one way mode of communication to which Walt has an entirely mature and adult response. Walt and Jesse are barely communicating and, in Jesse's disgusting cesspit of a house which is an endless round of soulless parties mongst the squalour, Jesse just sits and gets high, interacting with no one.

Hank and Marie are, of course, mot communicating in a healthy way, and Hank's understandable depression does not in any ay justify his behaviour towards Marie. However, Marie seeks refuge in absurd lies and fantasies ultimately leading to disaster, humilation and criminality of a very white, middle class lady kind.

But Skyler is triumphant here, cleverly getting Bogdan's business of him for very little, and doing it through awesome skill and excellent communication. Yet the only skilful piece of communication in this episode is about swindling a poor bloke out of his business, not meaningful human connection.

Communication aside, this is a transitional episode that subtly advances the arc and moves pieces around rather than a big "event". Such episodes have to exist, and are rarely done with such skill.

Breaking Bad: Thirty-Eight Snub

 "They're not just zombies. They're Nazi zombies."

The opening scene with Walt/Heisenberg carefully buying a gun is fascinating, much as the boring detail reminds me of when I'm talking to a mechanic about my car, the workings of which which I know nothing. It shows, of course, that Walt realises he's in danger of being killed every time someone walks down the stairs into the lab. But his decision to buy a firearm illegally, despite the permissive laws of New Mexico, further underlines his commitment to go deeper and deeper into criminality. He can go only in the one direction.

Jesse is less pragmatic, spending with abandon and throwing over-the-top parties for his two friends and a load of strangers, horrible parties that I would hate. Yet he's a passive observer, in charge of the parties but not really part of them, the Boris Johnson of Albuquerque, trying to buy friendship with money alone. And he's passively lost his girlfriend, although not without leaving her with money he hopes she will use wisely, as he never will.

Hank isn't in a good place either, struggling with therapy. He's coldly pushing Marie away, rejecting her help as an undermining of his masculinity. He's also acquiring an interest in minerals, which is oddly nerdy for him. I'm not sure where this is going, but their marriage is looking decidedly troubled.

Walt and Skyler, meanwhile, despite superficial disagreements, seem to be getting closer as Skyler invests more and more deeply in Walt's criminal empire. Her plan to buy the car wash is aggressively (and misogynistically) rebuffed by Bogdan, still resentful of Walt, but she shows real skill as a bookkeeper.

Yet the episode hinges around the duo of Walt and Mike, two very intelligent and very ruthless men. Mike prevents Walt from making a very bad mistake in trying to kill Gus- who doesn't appear in the episode and from whose presence Walt is, apparently,banished, in an even more extreme manifestation of silence meaning power.

Yet, as Walt approaches Mike to seek a mutual understanding with Mike in one of those conversations thatare all subtext,trying to seekan ally against Gus, he gets a violent response. Yet has he truly lost in the longer term?

This is a fascinating, and masterfully crafted, episode.

Breaking Bad: Box Cutter

 "Well? Get back to work."

This is, of course, a superlative episode of television in its own right as well as being, although I say this unspoiled, the perfect season opening to set us up for a season based on competition between Heisenberg and Gus.

Yet it all boils down to one long scene, which I'll turn to immediately. Because we may start with a nice little flashback with Gale, ironiclly sowing the seeds of his own destruction, in flashback, as he encourages Gus to hire the creator of the mysterious blue meth. And we may then move on to the moment of the fateful shot- the camera focusing, as it should, on Jesse's horrified face as he does something he can never undo. But ultimately it's Jesse and Heisenberg (not Walt; only Heisenberg appears in this episode. That's a first.) who have to face the music as they wait for Gus.

As Gus enters, the tension is electric. Heisenberg is immediately out-alpha maled as he tries to justify his actions and emphasise his value- intrerestingly, taking a risk to protect Jesse. It seems what Jesse has just done has made Walt even more loyal to his friend. It's an extraordinary scene, which works due to the power of Bryan Cranston's delivery and the sheer menacing presence of Giancarlo Esposito. It's truly shocking when Gus, calm and silent up until this point-silence, in this case, means power- slashes Victor's neck and kills him. Walt and Jesse are too valuable, for the moment, but someone has to die.

It's an extraordinary and haunting few moments of television. The status quo is restored, on the surface, but it's kill or be killed.

Elsewhere, Skyler goes deeper into acceptance of her new criminal lifestyle- how far will she go? And Hank is not in a good place. He'd be in an even worse place if he knew what was funding his recovery. The direction is sublime, with objects used as reference points- that teddy bear eye again, and the knife used to kill Victor is seen earlier, like Chekhov's Gun. But this superlative episode is, ultimately, based around that one scene.