First off, this post is all about the opening episode of season 3 of the AMC show Breaking Bad. If you have not watched it don’t read this post, go watch it. If you don’t know what “Breaking Bad” is, it is the best show on television, go out and find season one and two and watch them and thank me later.
Ok… on to the good stuff. WOOO! My favorite show is back and back with style baby ya! So much to say…
The Big Reveal
The most significant plot point of the show of course was the end of the big secret. Walt finally told his wife what he has been up to (sans gory details of course). The keeping of this secret and all the lies born out of that was the central theme (I believe) of both seasons one & two. Walt never got a chance to explain the altruistic intention behind his actions to Skylar, because by the time he got around to telling the truth he had already destroyed her trust, and that is all that really matters in a marriage. It means nothing to Skylar when Walt says that he did it all for the family because as far as she is concerned he turned his back on the family the moment he started lying to her. She is of course perfectly justified to feel this way, although it is also true that she is lying to him about certain complications in her relationship with her boss. Skylar will not have anything to do with Walt unless (until?) she herself is in a desperate situation and he appears to be the only way out. I predict that this situation will present itself when Skylar is arrested for cooking the books at her new job.
I truly hope the writers do not let Skylar fade into the background now that we have wrapped on this theme (and quite possibly on their marriage). She is an excellently written and portrayed character. I don’t think they will, in fact I predict a major fall from grace with her this season as she finds a way to break bad the Skylar way. And I’m not just talking about smoking while pregnant here.
Walt & Jesse
The relationship between Walt & Jesse is obviously the bread & butter of this show and the writer’s have acknowledged that by shifting the secret-keeping theme from Skylar to Jesse. This time around though, the secret is much bigger and carries far more devastating consequences. I’m talking of course about the fact that Walt killed Jane. Walt cannot admit this under any circumstances (and conveniently, can rationalize it to himself that he did not actually kill her, but simply did not prevent her from dying… a highly flimsy rationalization but one that Walt will cling to tenaciously). The writers brought this theme in when Jesse tells Walt he feels responsible for the plane crash because Jane’s despondent dad caused it. Walt is desperate to absolve Jesse of any guilt over Jane’s death because he absolutely cannot tell Jesse the truth. He knows that if Jesse ever found out what really happened he would lose Jesse forever, and Jesse is his only true family at this point. Jesse is the only person in the world that knows both Walt and Heisenberg. Jesse is also Walt’s only chance at redemption here, he feels that if he can somehow save Jesse from himself then it will make up for all the horrible things he has done. So far, this is not going so well, as reflected by the devastating words spoken in response to Walt’s question “Who are you?”
Jesse: “I’m the bad guy.”
Ouch.
The Eye
Oh how I love this show and its crafty use of artifacts. We were first introduced to the teddy bear eye in the first few frames of season two as it floated in black & white across the surface of Walt’s pool. First, a few things about the teddy bear: obviously it represents innocence lost (or rather, burned and disfigured). It was the same color as the shirt Walt was wearing when it plunged into his pool (pink, which was an odd color to see on Walt)… and thus can be said to represent Walt’s innocence lost more specifically. And, of course, it came from one of the planes that Walt indirectly caused to collide midair above his house – a tragedy that claimed 167 lives (167 also being the most commonly known police code for murder due to the film of the same name… just in case we didn’t get the point that Walt essentially murdered all those people by his actions).
Finally, this innocent & disfigured child’s toy comes plummeting out of the sky and hits Walt’s pool with the force of a small meteor just moments after his family falls apart. The teddy bear (and by extension… its eye) is therefore just as significant an artifact to Walt himself as it is to us the viewers. If there is any part of Walt that even remotely wonders if there is a God, he has to be more than a little disturbed by it picking his pool to fall into at that specific moment in time.
Why then, is Walt keeping the eye? I think it is because it connects him to his victims. That eye once belonged to a stuffed animal that once belonged to a child that died because Walt did not save Jane. Walt feels responsible for the plane crash, and holding on to this memento is his way of both acknowledging that and punishing himself. He will not admit this in any other way, as doing so would entail admitting that he killed Jane and he will never do that. This theory of mine that the eye is an artifact of guilt for Walt is supported by the way he furtively hid it from Hank.
Aside from what it represents for Walt, the eye also has enormous symbolic significance for the show overall. The introduction of the eye was particularly ominous. We initially had no way of determining that this was a teddy bear’s eye and not the eye of a human being. It shows up in the first few frames of season two and is left unexplained until the final scene of that season. The season itself was all about consequences and I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that the eye symbolizes the all-seeing eye of consequences.
And now this eye has found its way to Walt’s new home and sits under the bed… watching. I predict it will remain there until the end of this season when it will be involved in something simultaneously sublime and horrible… perhaps involving the Silent Twins.
The Silent Twins
Oooooh, reminiscences of the deliciously creepy bad guy in No Country for Old Men… doubled! This is going to be good (and oh so very bad).
What do we know about these two? They don’t talk. They are twins. They are Mexican and members of a gang that the mere mention of scares the talk out of some cocky kid (something to do with the skulls on their boots). They are not poor. They are cold killers. They are followers of Santa Muerte (Saint Death). They appear to be on a one-way mission (evidenced by them leaving their clothes and car behind… beautiful scene with the keys on the goat by the way). They like blowing stuff up… even when it means a long walk out of the desert for no good reason. They are now in America and their target is Heisenberg.
Scary.
Speculation? Could be Tuco’s cousins… but then wouldn’t they be after Hank? He was, after all, the one who killed Tuco. More likely, the quality of the Meth Walt has been cooking has drawn some unwanted attention. This is more likely the writers picking up the threads they laid down in season two with the narcocorrido music video at the start of episode seven. This is really really bad news for Walt & Jesse if anyone’s been following any of what’s happening in Mexico lately.
So much to look forward to… it was definitely a welcome and satisfying return of a near perfect show.