“Breaking Bad” New Episode Re-Cap… Don’t F*ck with Walter White! (Video)
(Jesse Pinkman and Walter White in full uniform on ‘Breaking Bad’)
Part 1 of season 8 of Breaking Bad left us on a cliff. It appeared as if dopeman, Heisenberg, aka Walter White’s identity was finally uncovered by his brother-in-law and Narc detective Hank. Boing Boing writes, “The final moment of last year’s Breaking Bad midseason finale shows Hank Schrader’s great epiphany. On the toilet, Hank looks directly behind him for reading material, and happens upon a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass — gifted to Walt by Gale Boetticher, one of the many pseudo-innocents left in a bloody wake as Walt ascends to control meth production. Hank flips the pages, and discovers a curious personal message that unlocks the answer to the riddle he’s been toying with for five seasons.”
We assume in yesterday’s opening episode that Walter White is going straight to jail. However, the show opens up with more suspense. Obviously time has passed because Walter White doesn’t have his trademarked bald head as he returns to his abandoned home. No one is there, not his wife or son, just a bunch of trespassing skateboarders in the dried-up pool in the backyard. We wonder … did he just return home from prison? Was he on the run? Walter White walks into the boarded-up house to retrieve what appears to be a computer chip hidden behind a light switch.
Then the episode spins and rewinds back to Hank, Walter, and the blended family at a bar-b-que in Walter White’s backyard. We see the scene where Hank is in the bathroom making the discovery with the Walt Whitman book. Now the continuing story begins with Hank returning to the backyard and looking at Walter White real greasy. Hank is in total shock. He can’t process the fact that his own brother-in-law may be the biggest meth dealer in the country and the one he’s been pursuing for many months. Hank and his wife leave before Hank has a massive panic attack.
After Hank is released from the hospital, he gets home, has the case files delivered from his office, and he immediately putz all the pieces of the puzzle together. Meanwhile, Walter White and his wife, Skylar go on about their car wash business as usual, both excited that White is ‘no longer in the meth business because he has more money than he can count’. His partner, Jesse Pinkman, however, is traumatized from everything bad thing that happened, and goes back to getting high with his meth-head friends. Jesse, obviously out of his mind at this point, later decides to take the 5 million dollars that White gives him, to the lawyer, Saul, to disperse to the victims of their cartel’s actions. Saul calls White to inform him of Pinkman’s actions. Walter tells Saul to hold on to the 5 mil.
Walter White pays Pinkman a visit to return the money and tries to talk some sense into him. Pinkman labels it blood money and reiterate that he doesn’t want it. If you recall, this relationship between Pinkman and White, started as a teacher/student relationship, so their ‘business’ partnership is a dynamic one. In retrospect, Walter White is suppose to be a role model. But it’s a safe bet to say that maybe White hasn’t steered Pinkman the right direction.
White informs Pinkman that they are out of the business and suggest that they try to lead ordinary decent lives. Pinkman inquires about their third partner, Mike, as he fears that White murdered him. Walter lies and says he didn’t kill Mike, but he did. It doesn’t appear that Pinkman believes him, making him more depressed.
Fastforward to Walter White’s house during a family dinner, and we’re slightly reminded that White has cancer as he rushes in the bathroom to vomit. Then he goes to look for the ‘Walt Whitman book’, unaware that Hank has this book and is comparing writing samples from the case. However, in the middle of the night, White figures it out. He steps outside to check his car, and finds a tracking device, confirming that Hank is hot on his trail.
Meanwhile, Pinkman is losing his freakin’ mind. High on weed or meth or whatever, Jesse drives around a rough neighborhood throwing stacks of money into people’s yards. The next day, Walter White pays Hank a visit and confronts Hank about the GPS tracker. Hank then closes the garage door and punches Walter white in the face. He tells Walter White that he knows that he is ‘Heisenberg’ and tells him to rot in hell.
Walter White responds, “In 6 months you won’t have someone to prosecute. I will never see the inside of a jail cell. And (if you know who I am), then maybe your best course may be to tread lightly.”
Walter White, was that a threat? I guess we’ll just have to see. Assuming that the next episode will tell us if Hank prosecutes White or not,I’m sure we’re all hoping White gets away with it. Right?
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VIDEO – Walter White, Breaking Bad’s compelling central character, can be heard reciting a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem about the decline of empires in the latest teaser trailer for the final run of the serial crime thriller.
The brief clip – which contains footage of the acclaimed drama’s New Mexico settings, including White’s suburban home – is being interpreted by fans as signalling the downfall of the cancer-stricken high school teacher turned crystal meth kingpin.
Read by Emmy-winning actor Bryan Cranston, White’s creaking voice recalls how powerful leaders can be left with little more substantial than pride about their former glories in the end.
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains,” he reads from the 19th-century sonnet.
The final image viewers are left with is of a black pork pie hat – the hatwear of choice for White’s drug lord alter ego, Heisenberg – in isolation in the desert. Mirror