What is ‘Breaking Bad’ About: Season 5, Part 2 Preview (Part 1)
First, some reminders.
After the untimely death of Gus Fring, Walt and Jesse took on Mike as a business partner (ostensibly, to run the operations end of things). Together, they started Vamanos Pests, a front that allows them to cook their meth in people’s homes under the guise of fumigating.
It was a grand idea, but of course, nothing’s ever easy for Walter White. There’s Lydia, an overly anxious executive at Madrigal Foods who supplies the necessary methylamine to make the blue crystal. She’s being watched like a hawk by Hank Schrader. So, for that matter, is Mike–along with 10 guys he had working for him under the Fring regime. In fact, these 10 guys have been picked up and placed in protective custody. As far as Walt and Lydia are concerned, it’s only a matter of time before these guys roll on the whole operation.
Meanwhile, Jesse’s moral compass is continuing to swing toward a true north. Still reeling from the near-death of his girlfriend’s son at the end of season 4 (a poisoning orchestrated in secret by Walt), he is understandably conflicted about the direction Walter is taking the business. It’s a take-no-prisoners mentality—heart-wrenchingly illustrated when one of their associates shoots a kid on a bike who comes upon them during a chemical heist.
Mike and Jesse want out and a competitor from Phoenix wants to buy their methylamine. But the deal can only be made if Walt sells too–meaning, Walt’s infamous blue meth would be off the market, permanently.
Now, we all know why Walt got into this business, right? It was to guarantee the financial security of his family. Along the way, however, his objective changed. Never mind that his son barely speaks to him and his wife, now running his money laundering front, is practically catatonic in his presence, Walt is still sociopathically fixated on the idea that somehow he will end up with a happy family at the end of all this.
Aside from that, Walt’s no longer focused on making money. After all, as Skyler points out, he’s made more cash than he could realistically spend in a lifetime–and far more cash than she can reasonably launder at a small-town car wash. Nope. He’s got other things on his mind: as he tells Jesse in the first half of season 5, “I’m in the Empire business.”
It’s easy to guess that Walt won’t be giving up his share of the methylamine to go live a quiet, albeit vey very privileged, life in the suburbs. Instead, he takes of the business by brute force—convinces Declan to take over distribution with the very memorable directive: “Say my name.”
Heisenberg is back, and in full glory.
The next order of business is to do away with Mike’s guys. The only obstacle to that end? Mike himself. Once he gets his pay out from Walt, Mike has every intention of spending his golden years watching his granddaughter grow up. But with pressure from the DEA growing, he has no choice but to run. Walt grabs this, his final opportunity, to get the names of Mike’s guys. Facing off, the two men no longer have any reason to play nice, and Mike tells Walter exactly where he can stick it–oh yeah, and he’s not giving up his guys. Furious, Walt shoots Mike. It’s an emotional reaction, further proof that Walt is no Gus Fring. He knows it, too: but is unable to apologize, even as Mike dies by a creek bed. He only offers, feebly: “I just realized I could get the names from Lydia.”
With Mike out of the picture, Walter is free to do away with the rest of the Fring ring. He hires a team of hitmen to take them all out. It’s a coordinated effort, orchestrated by Todd, an enthusiastic minion from Vamanos Pests. In five minutes, all 10 guys are identified, isolated, and murdered by any means necessary: shivs, garrote, one is even burned alive. It’s the most unnerving sequence of the entire season, intensified by the juxtaposition of Walt, not directly involved, awaiting notification from his point person, calmly watching the minutes tick by on his watch from the safety of his dining room.
Nobody is safe from Heisenberg: Lydia knows it, and she rightfully pitches a plan to expand distribution to the Czech Republic, saving her own life, at least for the time being.
Jesse knows it: he walks away from his $5 million share following Mike’s departure. Months later, when Walt comes knocking on Jesse’s door, Jesse greets him with a mixture of forced pleasantness and just-barely-concealed terror. Their partnership is dissolved, Jesse knows he’s nothing to Walt but a imminent threat. What part will he play in the upcoming season?
Even Skyler knows it: she spent the entire first half of the season trying to keep Walt away from their family, sending the kids to live with Hank and Marie. But the final episode found their family reunited, a tenuous civility established between Walt and Skyler. What changed her mind?
What will happen in the second half of season five?
Come back tomorrow for my predictions.
For more on the first half of Breaking Bad’s final season, check out my recaps on Fansided: