8/19/13
View Logs: Breaking Bad S5.2 Episode 2
Episode Title: Buried
Yup, remember what I said about Episode 1 of Season 5.2 (Episode 9 of Season 5)? Economical writing. I'm very very glad to see that this continued in the second episode. In fact, the plot moved even quicker than Episode 1. I honestly thought they were going to drag out the fact that both Hank and Skylar knows about Walt's crime life. I really thought they were both going to try to resolve the situation by themselves and Walt was going to have to "divide and conquer" both of them and when they both find out that they knew, it would have been too late.
Well... that would have been a horrible way to write that. (So everyone... thank whatever God you believe in that I'm not writing this show). Not only does Hank call Skylar immediately. Immediately! But Marie finds out herself very early in the episode. This is an absolutely great way to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. It's 2013. Misunderstandings and withheld information isn't that compelling anymore. We have better and more efficient ways to write our drama and Breaking Bad Season 5.2 is doing a wonderful job showing how plot can be progressed without relying on cheap tricks. That said, I must elaborate on what I mean by "withheld information". I understand that the characters withhold information from each other all the time in Breaking Bad (and in most shows). But the difference between this and... let's say an overly bloated soap opera, is that in the characters in Breaking Bad never hold back information when they don't need to. Walt tells Skylar about his meth life much earlier than I expected. Hank confronts Walt about what he found out about his connection with Gale within a space of 1 full episode (Ep 8 of S5.1 and Ep 1 of S5.2). Hank tells Skylar immediately after confronting Walt. Marie finds out very soon after. Economical writing. It gets to the point, it resolves situations that doesn't need to be stretched. And it actually keeps the audience guessing because it breaks expectations as most experienced tv watcher would expect any major misunderstandings to be exploited and drawn out.
I know misunderstandings inherently create drama. But most writers rely on it a little too often and the result is often an annoying contrivance that you're just waiting to get resolved. In screen fiction, you want to keep the audience engaged in what happens next rather than waiting for what happens next. Great job so far writers. This season so far has been thrilling.
On top of that. The character of Jesse Pinkman is almost perfectly placed. When you look at it, Hank is suddenly the protagonist. He's actively working against Walt and we follow him more than we used to. And this entire episode is an epic mini-saga in the war between Hank and Walt. Here's how the episode breaks down:
Act 1:
The problem immediately comes up: Hank knows about Walt... and within that first 5 minutes makes their intentions clear to each other. Hank calls Skylar while Walt calls Skylar and they both catch each other on the phone (this scene was amazingly shot by the way). Marvelously setup. Suddenly, the story is directly about Hank v. Walt. But there is a variable: Skylar. Her cooperation will determine who will have the upper hand. Walt chases after Skylar but Hank grabs her first and they meet.
Act 2:
Walt finds out that Hank got to Skylar first. He needs to act. What can bring him down regardless of Skylar's cooperation? His money. So he directly goes after that. Meanwhile, Pinkman breaks down and basically makes himself noticed by the police. This seemingly is irrelevant to the story at first but it's actually plays in later... Back to Hank and Skylar, she makes her intentions known after seriously considering siding with Hank. She rushes off.
Act 3:
Hank tries one last desperate attempt to get Skylar to turn by telling Marie. She then confronts Skylar in their own house but Skylar has made up her mind and decided to keep quiet. Meanwhile, Walt has taken care of the money and buried it somewhere in the desert. He comes back and (after collapsing from exhaustion) finds out that Skylar is on his side and they will work together to make sure Walt's efforts were "not all for nothing". This is one of the best scenes of Season 5. Walt is finally at the mercy of Skylar... and she chooses to stand by him. This gradually shows that, like Walt, Skylar is growing complacent with Walt's criminal actions. I suspect that Skylar will gradually become more and more corrupt like Walt.
Act 4:
This is completely dedicated to Lydia as it shows how her operation has essentially fallen apart without Walt... but she decides to reset (kill the disposable associates... again) her operation and it's revealed that she's working with Todd.
Act 5:
Back to Hank v. Walt. Everything is siding against Hank. The war between Hank and Walt seems to be over already. Hank struggles over his suspicious and tries to find any way he can get evidence against Walt without Skylar. But it seems hopeless... until.
He finds out that Jesse Pinkman is in jail because of his actions earlier in the episode. Jesse Pinkman is literally the saving grace to Hank's crusade against Walt... and the episode ends.
Really the mini-saga of Hank v. Walt is written in 4 acts but I suspect (I don't objectively know as I'm writing this all based on memory and I don't have the actual script in front of me) it's 5 due to the little bit about Lydia that is setting up for events beyond this episode. The 4th Act (Lydia's Act) is unimportant to the self contained story of this episode. So just consider Acts 1-3 and 5 for what I'm about to say.
I will rarely go this detailed about an episode's plot. I assume most of you are reading each view logs after you've watched the respective episodes. Atleast I would hope so. After all, these contain spoilers. But I just don't want to waste your time by recapping each and every episode's plot. You can see what happened for yourself. But I went into detail with this one because I wanted to show just how amazingly tight and economical the writing is. Everything is so neatly setup and perfectly executed. Everything directly leads into the next. Character's motivations and actions are clear. Walt and Hank are directly playing chess with each other. A lesser writer would have just opened with one or two misunderstandings and just stretched that over 45 minutes. But Breaking Bad is smarter and neater. By the time the episode ended I didn't even realize that 1 hour had passed. I was fully engaged here where as in, let's say Under the Dome, I was more just waiting for things to resolve. Congratulations writers... you've made a machine lose track of time. Keep it up!
Oh and on a final side note. Remember when I said in the last view log that you don't learn anything from the flash forwards? Well I was wrong for Episode 1. Those of you who have caught up... please check this out. It has caught a lot of things I've personally missed. (Hey I'm just a prototype you know? A work in progress... I'm not perfect yet :P)
So... I think Jesse and Skylar are going to die... I can see it with Jesse... I can't see it with Skylar considering that she's made her allegiance to Walt clear... maybe she'll eventually find out that she's becoming a criminal and will change her mind later in the season? I guess we'll wait and see!
