The dazzling season finale of Breaking Bad eliminates many of Walt's problems while creating new ones. The following recap of Breaking Bad Season 4, Episode 13 contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
By Matt Zoller Seitz
Press Play Contributor
The last thing Gus Fring did was straighten his tie.
The seemingly indestructible drug lord bought it in a nursing home after going with his henchman Tyrus to kill his mute enemy, Hector Salamanca. The visit had been secretly engineered by Walt with the cooperation of Hector, who falsely made it seem as though he was about to become an informant for the drug enforcement agency in order to lure his enemies into range. The killing device was a bomb strapped to the undercarriage of Hector’s wheelchair. In a brilliant touch, the mute Hector triggered the bomb the same way he communicated his wishes, by repeatedly hammering on a small silver bell. In an even more brilliant touch, the explosion was conveyed in long shot as its force blew the front door off Hector’s room and sent debris and smoke into the hallway. When Gus stepped out of the room, I thought for a moment that he had miraculously survived the explosion — an outcome that would not have surprised me, given Gus’ past track record of surviving attempts on his life; but then the camera tracked forward and situated itself in front of Gus, revealing that half his face had been blown off. He fell out of frame, and buenas noches.
So where does that leave Breaking Bad? As is often the case — on the show and in life — an act of violence created or intensified as many problems as it solved. Jesse and the Whites no longer have to worry about Gus trying to kill them, nor do they have to worry about reprisals from the Salamanca clan, the most prominent members of which were already offed in previous episodes.
But a bombing at a nursing home will surely intensify the search for Heisenberg once the DEA realizes that the device was homemade, and therefore devised by someone with an intimate knowledge of chemistry. The law enforcement scrutiny of Walt isn’t going to go away; logically Jesse should get drawn into it as well, once the DEA figures out (via witnesses and surveillance footage) that Walt was at the same hospital as Gus and Tyrus at the same time earlier that day, and that Jesse and Walt had frequent cell phone contact, and even had a conversation on a hospital hallway bench in plain view of cops who later questioned Jesse about the poisoning.
You can read the rest of Matt's piece here at Salon.
A critic, journalist and filmmaker, Matt Zoller Seitz is the staff TV columnist for Salon.com and the founder of Press Play.
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Walt has now become the new Gus — a cunning killer willing to use anyone and anything to accomplish his purposes. Gus died because he violated his own rules of caution, blinded by his hatred of Tio. He wanted to have the bitter pleasure of injecting the fatal shot into Tio himself, so he exposed himself in the one place where he was not protected. He realized his mistake at the last instant — too late for him and Tyruss. He did not realize that Tio hated him so much that Tio was willing to cooperate with another enemy — Walt — and give up his own life, to kill Gus. Truly, “Mr. Chips” has become “Scarface,” as Vince Gilligan has said, especially since Walt, asked by Skyler as to whether he was involved in the death of Gus, answered laconically “I won.” He also murdered without hesitation at the laundry. I have been watching television over 50 years, and I cannot think of a better show that “Breaking Bad.” The recent episode “Salud” was the best hour of television since the moon landings. The only show that comes close to “Breaking Bad” in cinematic quality woud be the early episodes of “The Sopranos.” I think that “The Sopranos” lost something when Big Pussy went to sea. Nothing else comes close. I fear that “Breaking Bad” has lost something irreplacable with the death of Gus. Giancarlo Esposito deserves great praise for creating a great villian without histronics, a courteous monster, killed by a vicous, if crippled, beast, Tio. I have watched the episode again, and, if possible, I like it even more. It is finely crafted and layered. It has subtlety that rewards repeated viewing. I feel that I picked up so much seeing it again, For example, the mordant humor of Sol Goodman’s secretary grabbing her pathetic can of Mace when she hears the door shatter. Sol Goodman explaining to Walt the old, sick guy in the wheelchair — who Walt will remember — who has to communicate by ringing a bell — if that “rings a bell,” of course. Or the flop of Walt — an aging man with a fatal disease — crawling over the wall in his backyard. The gnarled glee of Tio as his message — “Suck My Dick” — is spelled out to the DEA in their meeting, as they anxiously scribble it down, letter by letter. This is a triumph. I just hope the Emmy’s realize it.
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I realize that this is a petty complaint, but I was spoiled on this episode by the RSS feed – would it be possible to put in some spoiler space for it?
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