Breaking Bad’s Granite State Broke My Heart: Episode 515 Recap
We’ve all been watching Walter White walk the proverbial plank in these last episodes of Breaking Bad. It’s just a matter of HOW and WHEN as opposed to IF.
I haven’t recapped the past two episodes but each one rendered me LITERALLY unable. I kept telling myself I’d write about them but all I could type was PLMGLFFOJRJFORJREFMRFLFMLEMFL.
*I assume that if you’re reading beyond this point, you aren’t concerned about spoilers.*
I’m STILL reeling from Hank’s death, Walt and Skyler’s knife struggle, his kidnapping of baby Holly and ALLLL the other things from last week that had my heart in my chest. And Sunday’s episode? Well it basically punched me in the gut, slapped me in the face and had me so deep in my feelings that the opposite thing happened. I HAD to write about it. I HAVE FEELINGS!!!
As Anna Gunn was accepting her “Best Supporting Actress” Emmy Award for her role as Skyler White, I was tuned into AMC for one of the most intense hours of television I’ve EVER watched. EVER.
So many moments in this episode pretty much crushed me and had me rendered unable to deal with anything. But here’s 7 very specific gut punches I received.
* Marie’s mourning – My LEAST favorite character on the show is Marie. I’ve never been a fan of her purple-wearing ass. But when she was in the car with the cop assuring her that he will find Hank’s body, my heart broke. The look on her face, knowing her husband and best friend was dead was just soooo heart-wrenching.
* Heisenberg no more – Saul and Walt both called the “vacuum cleaner” guy to fix their life and ended up as temporary roommates because of it. When Walt was telling Saul that he was leaving to give his family a better chance at life and had to be READ FOR FILTH by his now-former lawyer, it was like DAMB!
Walter is so out of touch with life and so unwilling (or unable) to realize the amount of damage that he’s done that he is borderline delusional. He thought him making that phonecall to Skyler would “clear her name” and allow her to use the DRUG MONEY he’s earned. Sir, that joint can’t sit in no Chase account accruing interest! YOU KILLED PEOPLE FOR IT! And got the whole Southwest addicted to bomb ass meth.
But I think the part of this scene that was the most pitiful was when Walt tried to go all Heisenberg on Saul, telling him to come with him on the lam. And before he could back Goodman against the wall, he crumbled on the floor in a cancer-induced coughing fit. Heisenberg no more. *cues violins*
* Skyler’s suffering – We see Saul’s points are perfectly right because Skyler is being interrogated by feds who want information on Walt’s whereabouts and she, of course, knows nothing. And she’s smarter than Walt for at least knowing that she’s up shit’s creek because of this mess he left her in.
Cute blazer, doe!
As if that isn’t bad enough, she’s in a little hotel when she hears movement in baby Holly’s room. I GASPED when she walked in and she was grabbed by a masked man from behind. And that evil summabitch Todd all in her face warning her not to say anything to the cops about “that pretty dark haired lady” that came in the carwash. LYDIA CAN DO TO HELL, DOE!
Skyler’s face! She was just so petrified. When they left and she was able to grab baby Holly, I just wanted to stroke her hair and lie to her that she’ll be ok. The poor woman CANNOT catch a break!
Did you notice that for once, Holly wasn’t in a pink hat? The little girl was wearing a bright yellow one, which in this show means NOTHING good. Read about the theory of colors in Breaking Bad for more.
* Mr. Lambert – Vacuum cleaner dude drops Walt off in a remote cabin in New Hampshire, telling him he is now “Mr. Lambert.” That’s Skyler’s middle name.
He is told not to leave, otherwise he will be caught. All Walt has left now is a barrel of money ($11 million) he cannot use and his Heisenberg hat.
This scene just showed how little the man has left, even though he has what he was originally going after: money. And that money is useless to him. The sadz.
* Jesse’s Ice Scream – Jesse is locked in a hole in the ground and Todd the UNCHILLABLE GOON comes by to drop off some ice cream to him as a pat on the back for cooking 96% pure meth. CAN THE MAN GET SOME SPRINKLES?!? Damb!
As if that wasn’t pitiful enough. Seeing Jesse’s beat down face makes my stomach hurt. Poor Pinkman. But he found the will (or desperation) to escape the locked hole. He ran out of it and towards the fence the neo-nazis surrounded their place with and as he climbed, they showed up behind him.
All I could tweet was:
Shit.
— Awesomely Luvvie (@Luvvie) September 23, 2013
Because I knew there’d be hell to pay. And I wasn’t ready for whatever form it’d come in.
Todd goes to Andrea’s (Jesse’s ex-girlfriend) house and tells her to come out because Jesse is in the car. I kept saying “no no no no no.” So when her back was turned and a bullet went through her head, I SCREAMED along with Jesse.
Jesse’s screams BROKE. MY. HEART. Even more than the death of Andrea. The fact that they made him watch this woman he loved DIE as a result of HIS desperation to be free from them.
YOU SON OF A BITCH, TODD!!! I HATE YOU SO MUCH!!! AND YOU TOO UNCLE JACK!!! *cries*
Also, is that little boy Brock gonna wake up to find his mama deader than dead on his front porch?? *cries more* I’m so unable to DEAL still! SO. DAMB. UNABLE! This moment CRUSHED me like a little mosaic tile and I am STILL reeling.
* Lambert to Heisenberg – A month has passed and Walt is trapped in the cabin, living in a jail of his own doing, basically. He’s grown a beard and has lost so much weight that his wedding ring won’t stay on his finger. After hearing about his family struggling to survive and Skyler working taxi dispatch to make money, Walt gets the bright idea that he can make use of the money in the barrel by mailing it to his son Flynn via one of his friends. The fact that he is still THIS delusional is just tragic because once again, he thinks he can fix it with money. Well, he thinks he can FIX IT. And he cannot.
And his conversation with his son was really interesting to see. Walt LOVES his family but he still won’t acknowledge that he is no longer in their heart. He’s done so much that is now hurting them and dude thinks just because his motives might have been to provide for them, they can let him cook (ha!) for all the terrible stuff he’s done. NO, SIR! NAWL!
So when he calls the police to give himself up, it’s of a man rejected and dejected. But when he hears his Grey Matter partners talmbout how he didn’t have anything to do with the company’s success, they lit the fire he needed. Because Walter White is mainly driven by ego.
That is the face of a man who just snapped. Walter is fresh out of dambs to give. Now he has his name to avenge. Forget the fact that his family was suffering ALL because of him and his antics. Nope.
One more episode left to go and I cannot even DEAL with how nervous I am. I already know I’m going to cry. Partly because one of the best TV shows EVER is ending. But also because no matter who is left standing, there will still be lots of grief.
Walter White is already a dead man and what we’re just waiting for is HOW he is going to meet his end. Most of us think Jesse is going to die but I think everyone is still holding out a piece of hope that maybe he’ll be the last man standing. Although, Jesse is already a shell of a man and his survival might actually be more painful than if he just dies. He deserves to be put out his misery because he’s suffered SO MUCH. I will WEEP for Pinkman the most, I think. Because no matter what happens, he loses. In fact, they ALL lose.
Breaking Bad has made it clear that there will be no winners, just those who get to see another day.
Five more days until Vince Gilligan and his team crush my spirit. I’m holding my breath.
What did you think about this episode and what are your predictions for the finale?
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24 Comments
Jesse’s cry tore at my soul, like I was at home legitimately sad for him! Initially, Jesse was the only person I wanted to survive all this madness but, as you said, I think survival would be a fate worse than death at this point. I’ve finally come to the conclusion that no one will win. That way I won’t be too upset next Sunday
It ripped my heart to pieces!!! AAAAHHHH poor Jesse, man. Before these last 7 eps, I REALLY wanted Jesse to survive. Now I just want them to let him die so he can stop suffering.
I didn’t start watching Breaking Bad with the rest of the world, but when I heard about it maybe a few months back (shame on me for not being in touch with life), I went straight to Netflix and tuned in. I watched every last season in about a 4 week period, and then was able to catch up via television with everyone else. When I say I AM SCARED about this finale. Honestly, I’m trying to think about how this is gonna end and I just don’t know. I’m not in favor of anybody anymore lol.. they have all wronged me. I used to feel sorry for Walt, but now this man is lost & CRAY! I’m over him and his Heisenberg hat. I’d be in that log cabin praying that God takes my soul after everything I’d done. If he doesn’t just give up the ghost and float away already!? Jesse… poor Jesse.. I, too felt his screams for poor, gullible Andrea. I rolled my eyes as soon as she unlocked her door chain..smh. I’m remembering though in an earlier episode that they flashed forward with Walter. He looked the same way he looks now that he’s Mr. Lambert, but he goes back to his home that has now been invaded by skateboarders and he grabs the ricin poison from the outlet. Has this already happened? Or will this happen in the finale? What’s he gonna do with it? So he has to escape New Hampshire somehow, right? I guess these are rhetorical questions lol. So I’m all kinds of ready for this outcome.
That happens in the finale what we are seeing now is what lead up to Walt with a fake name and the house abandoned & trashed.
I did just like you. I JUST started watching Breaking Bad last year after I binge-watched the seasons on NetFlix. The finale scares me shitless! I don’t e’em know what to do to prepare myself to watch it.
I think she was still in the house when Opie & the Creepy Redneck Band stopped by. She was sitting on the couch smoking and looking out at the patrol car monitoring her house when she heard the baby cry. After Todd and ’em left, she must have moved out to that apartment referenced to by the Vacuum Repair Guy.
You beat me to it!
Yes that was their house. Later when Ed(vacuum cleaner guy) visits Walt he tells him she’s moved.
Yep in her house with a cop car parked out front.
Todd is crazier than crazy. Walt looked healthy when he was in that restaurant getting the guns, then again getting the ricin. Do people think he was dead? Remember the neighbor fainting? Almost cried when he gave the cleaner 10K for one hour.
I hope we learn whT really happened at Gray Matters.
I think Carol the neighbor was scared because they now know who Walt is & the last anyone in that neighborhood had seen of him, he was running away with baby Holly.
Nah. The neighbor was scared because EVERYONE knows about Heisenberg now.
That’s what I mean about who Walt is. He is Heisenberg, a baby napper, a killer and more.
Everybody is going to die. It’s the way of the AMC shows. They kill everybody we love. Vince Gilligan, George RR Martin, Steven Moffat and all those other brilliant writer goons get high from our pain. Oh, and Shonda too. *shakes fist at sky* Yet we still love them…
Everyone dying would make sense. I’ma still cry, doe.
The internet has a new name for Todd and that is Meth Damon.
LOL LOL LOL LOLLLLL *dead*
Meth Damon is perfect! LMAO!
Skyler was still in the house when those goons broke in. Stupid cops outside talkin’ bout: Nope, no activity.
I have no predictions. I just hope that it ends better than Dexter.
I want to share an interesting prediction from a friend of mine which is:
So basically after Walt goes all “Scarface” on Todd’s Nazi family, he’s going to take his barrels back and invest it all in Grey Matter under his family’s name, ensuring that they end up holding a majority share of the company.
I like this in the sense that Walt will kill the m-fers who have entrapped Jesse, took his money, and aided in ruining is final plans while at the same time royally screwing over his old (very rich) pal – the thing that started Walt on this messed up journey in the first place.
All I know is, Lydia better DAH! DAH I SAID! Please put some ricin in her precious tea. I also think Walt might take some of the ricin himself, since the cancer is killing him anyway – he’ll just end his life – maybe after some sort of confession – and free his family from the mess he’s made.
Skyler, Flynn, and Holly will survive – I think Jesse may die, too. Like you said, the poor boy is already so broken.
I know Walt is a despicable man, but I do want to see him sticking it to the Grey Matter peeps, the Nazi’s, Todd, and Lydia before whatever punishment he most certainly deserves to face. Because they all freaking deserve it.
Walt ain’t here for Jesse. He’s the one who gave him up to the neo – Nazi’s.
Skyler ain’t all that innocent either between her cooking the books and encouraging Walt to “take care of” Jesse with thet “What’s one more?” mess. I wouldn’t be that upset if the kids ended up with Marie.
Jessie ain’t all that innocent either. He doesn’t deserve to be Todd’s little meth pet, but he rally should have listened to Mike and stayed away from Walt.
We don’t know what happened with Grey Matter. All we know is Walt was dating Gretchen, they were on vacation in the Hamptons and Walt up & packed his dereon duffle, then sold his shares to them. Despite that when he got sick they offer him a job which would have paid for his medical bills and provided for his family after his death, bit Walt was too proud for that and now retcons the situation that they forced him out of the company for next to n money. Considering they stayed with the company and built it up to the billion dollar enterprise it is, I don’t blame them for trying to distance themselves from Walt & the Heisenberg foolishness.
But Jack, Todd & Lydia? Burn them folks.
I think Walt sold his stake I the company so he could buy the house for skyler and Walt jr. When they were newlyweds
When Skyler went for that knife in the previous episode, I started singing “When A Woman’s Fed Up.”
That M60 we saw Walt with in the flash forward in the opening of the season is probably for Uncle Jack, Todd, and their bitchmade crew. The military mounts those things on Humvees and they are used to take out multiple hostiles in seconds before they knew what was happening. Their bullet proof vests ain’t got shit to say to those 7.62 armor piercing rounds. Good luck with that, guys! The only one who might leave there alive is Jesse because he’s underground, not because Walt saves him.
After Gretchen and her husband said he contributed nothing to their company other than the name and his son rejected him, his only “legacy,” which is so important to Walt’s narcissism, is Heisenberg. He doesn’t want people putting out his blue meth. Then there’s the fact that the only way they could be making it is if Jesse is still alive which means the broke their deal to kill him. Heisenberg is all Walt has and even if he has to leave everyone’s edges tattered, including his family’s, he’s gonna protect it.
I hope Lydia has to die a long, slow, painful death of ricin poisoning.
Jesse is like a long suffering beloved family pet. He just needs to be put down like Old Yeller because he’s suffered too much.
I’ve been watching since the pilot; missed a few episodes here and there, but I’ve been playing catch-up this weekend. I don’t usually buy movies, but this series I’m buying for sure! It’ll be good for a sick day or snowed-in day or days.