Warning: Breaking Back and Forth is a weekly feature where Chris and Jeff discuss the latest episode of Breaking Bad in detail. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you should probably hold off on reading any further.
Jeff: As we head into the final stretch, we get “To’hajiilee,” an episode in which during the first half there is this great cat-and-mouse game going on between Walter and Jesse. Walter is trying to draw Jesse out so he can kill him. Jesse is working with Hank to find a way to build evidence against Walter. The best Jesse can come up with is finding Walter’s money. And that’s what sets off what becomes an amazing episode during the second half.
Chris: Agreed. After last episode which was a lot of set-up that didn’t seem to be moving anywhere. This one came back and made everything entirely worthwhile. The game that went on between Walt and Jesse was phenomenal as each kept one-upping the other at every turn.
Jeff: And for once in the entire series, Walter was outsmarted big time. Except, like Jesse has noted, he is just too damn lucky.
Chris: Right. We know that Walt survives the gunfight despite being locked and handcuffed in the back of Hank’s vehicle. He might be the luckiest man alive.
Jeff: They had him dead to rights. He was cornered and out of options. He gave himself up, and yet, Todd and his crew show up to kill everybody. There were a few things that surprised me about that whole final sequence. For one, I was surprised that Walter didn’t figure out what was going on before Jesse, Hank, and Gomez showed up. I thought as soon as he saw nothing there, he would realize that he had just confessed everything, and that Jesse was working with Hank. It goes to show that Walter really thought Jesse would never turn on him.
Chris: Yeah, for the first time ever, Walt seemed out of his element. Jesse hit him where it really hurt, his money. Walt has stuck to the notion that he did this all for his family and that he never wanted any of them to get hurt. It showed when Todd showed up and Walt tried to call the attack off because he did not want Hank to get hurt. It also showed when he went to Todd to have Jesse killed. Instead of just exacting revenge, he wanted it to go without pain. Like he thinks of Jesse, like the family dog or something.
Jeff: What was great about that is Walter made a point of arguing that Jesse wasn’t a rat. It must have hurt when he found out Jesse had turned. But that was the other thing that blew my mind about the final showdown in the desert. One, I thought Walter knew what was going on right away and called Todd to kill Hank, Jesse, and Gomez. And then, when he realized it was them, he called it off. I thought Walter would cling to his self-preservation, but he finally resigned to the fact that he was caught.
Chris: That did throw me off a bit. I mean, I’m sure I would act irrationally too if my money was being threatened like Walt’s was but even after realizing that it wasn’t in danger he seemed to not get it. And then he didn’t seem to put two and two together that Hank and Jesse were working together. It all seemed a bit against type for Walt. But it did make for one hell of an episode.
Jeff: Yeah, especially those final moments. I knew for sure Todd was coming no matter what, and bad things were going to happen. I just wasn’t sure whether Walter called them back to tell them to come, or they would come on their own because they need Walter. Turns out it was the latter, because Walter tried his best to prevent the violence at that point.
We ended on a cliffhanger there, but I think Hank, Jesse, and Gomez are not walking out of that desert. The question is: what happens to Walter? I could definitely see Todd and his crew taking him hostage and forcing him to cook, even as Walter becomes national news.
Chris: Could very well happen that way. Although, I think Jesse might get away. Maybe its my liking of the character and wanting the best for him but for a split second they showed him opening the door to the car before the shooting started. I’m hoping that he somehow is able to get away.
Jeff: I think if Jesse got out of that car before the gunfire started, he would have been the first one shot. I hope the best for him, too, because I like his character, but I don’t think there are going to be any happy endings for any of the characters in this show. It would be cool if Jesse got away and found happiness, but look at how brief Hank’s moment of happiness lasted. By the way, how the hell did Hank and Gomez not get killed immediately???
Chris: Bad aim I guess. I mean they were outgunned five to one but they were holding their own when the credits came up. Still as you said, it doesn’t look good for them, which brings everything to the big question then, who was Walt going to use that assault rifle on? Todd? His crew? Lydia?
Jeff: Your guess is as good as mine, but I don’t see Hank or Jesse living much longer. So that leaves Lydia and Todd, etc. And Walter going out with one hell of a bang.
Chris: This is like a really long adaptation of Scarface and I love it.
Jeff: Gilligan promised a Scarface story arc right from the start. I’m just happy that it has turned out to be way more entertaining and compelling than Scarface. (Sorry, Scarface fans.)
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