Quick Take: Breaking Bad, "Green Light"
"Everything's maximum interesting." – Jesse Pinkman
Review: Breaking Bad, "Green Light"
(S0304) Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) came out of rehab with the clarity that he's "the bad guy," and he's carried that revelation with an unsettling sort of calm this season. While I've long thought that Paul has done an outstanding job with the character, I found Jesse to be whiny and annoying in the past, particularly with his gangster pose-as-mask over his deep insecurities. But now I'm really impressed – the new Jesse is a mysterious and dark force that has blown into the landscape of Breaking Bad.
While we haven't seen a ton of Pinkman over the last few weeks, his new attitude is striking when he pushes meth on a "civilian" gas station clerk as a "trade" to fuel his RV/mobile meth lab. "Everything's maximum interesting," he says, with a peculiar and disturbing glint in his eyes.
Speaking of unsettling, or unseemly if you like, is "Better Call" Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk, who keeps getting better every week) and Mike listening to recorded tape of Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Skyler (Anna Gunn) arguing in the aftermath of her telling him (I.F.T., as we recall) that she slept with Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins). Amongst other things, it's clear that gone are the days that Walt could act as a lone wolf and obfuscated player in the drug trade.
Ironically, the "silver lining" that Walt is now losing from his fallout out with Saul is that while the latter is self-interested to the hilt, he actually protected Walt and guided him away from danger (Mike stationed outside his house as the cousins arrived) and massive stupidity (sneaking back into Ted's/Skyler's office being one). Without Saul, Walt is one step closer to a mistake that will get him killed or imprisoned. And that point is exacerbated to the hilt by the chalk mark of a sickle on the pavement outside the house, revealed only after Walt shoos Mike off.
Much like in "I.F.T." and throughout the series, there were moments of tremendous comedic relief to undercut profoundly tense or disturbing scenes. Case in point is Walt attempting to move an insanely heavy potted plant to smash through Ted's (insanely heavy potted plant-resistant) Plexiglas window, causing a riot to erupt near the front lobby of the company. Skyler runs downstairs, hissing, "What are you doing?" Walt looks back and, practically sheepish, retorts that, "I'm trying to talk to Ted."
Alan Sepinwall has noted that the bad decisions that the circle around Walt are beginning to make (Hank taking out a bar of bikers singlehandedly, Skyler sleeping with Ted) can be traced directly back to his "breaking bad." I was reminded of that in the awkward but darkly hilarious scene in which Walt hits on the school principal to get "revenge" on Skyler… it doesn't go over that well, let us say. And it makes perfect sense from what we know of Walt that he would differentiate getting fired from "a sabbatical… indefinite," when Jesse finds him with the telltale box 'o office crap outside the school.
On yet another ironic note, Hank's (Dean Norris) aversion for going back to El Paso and the hellish frontlines of the drug war puts him closer to the trail of finding "Heisenberg." Jesse has upped his own meth cooking game to the point where he can at least pass it off as the real deal, though Walt scoffs that he is embarrassing himself. Amongst the things that Walt seems genuinely clueless about, in his haze of dealing with Skyler's I.F.T. and getting fired, is that new blue crystal meth on the streets could bring Hank and the law closer to his door… if the cousins and the cartel don't get to him first, that is.
Once again we have a "reveal" of the episode title in the final seconds of the final scene. A car pulls up alongside Walt's and a bag comes flying through his window. "Your half," one of Gus' men says and peels out.
Looks like Walter H. White is back in the drug trade whether he likes it or not.
More thoughts on "Green Light":
Video: Breaking Bad, "Green Light"
Get a look inside "Green Light," from our friends at AMC:
Recap: Breaking Bad, "Green Light"
Walt heads to Beneke to confront Ted, who refuses to see him. "You don't want to be a man about it?" Walt shouts. As Skyler and her co-workers watch, Walt hurls a huge potted plant at a window into Ted's office. It bounces off harmlessly. Three warehouse men arrive and toss Walt out the front door. Seconds later, Mike drives up and whisks him away. More at AMC.
From Around the Web: Breaking Bad, "Green Light"
