Holy Moly- Are you still rooting for Walt, what did you think of the episode, and where is the show going next?

Breaking Bad- "Face Off"

Does anyone remember Dragon Ball Z? Ern’s little brother used to watch it with her, and we would just sit and complain about how nothing ever happened. It was an action soap opera. It was like there was only one fight per season, and everything was building toward the hero’s defeat of that one enemy per season. The people would stand with their arms raised and just grunt and scream at each other, while the side characters danced around, uselessly. And yet, we watched the show every day, because we cared, and we wouldn’t have missed a second of those battles. This season of Breaking Bad reminds us of that. It took Walter White forever to gather that spirit bomb. And like it Dragon Ball Z, it was terrifically violent and totally worth it in the end.

Jesse is held and questioned about Brock’s poisoning. He calls Saul, and Saul shows. Jesse tells Saul to tell Walt that his opportunity to kill Gus might come in Tio Salamanca. Gus’ house and businesses are watched, and Gus has his guard up regarding anything with Jesse or Walt. So Walt crafted the craftiest plan of his life to get Salamanca on his side and kill Gustavo Fring.

Salamanca asks to see the DEA (Dea’s not a word, honey), and Hank has to go down to the office to see Salamanca. Salamanca spells insults out at Hank, and it’s apparent that he’s not giving the DEA anything. Ratting Gus out to the DEA was not Walt’s plan though. Walt just wanted Gus’ man, Tyrus, to see Salamanca there. Walt hides outside the old folks home. That old lady had a crush on him! But Walt had no time to get some. Gus came into Salamanca’s room with a lethal injection. Salamanca gives him the best dirty look we have ever seen in our lives and Walt’s bomb goes off. The room explodes. Gus walks out looking worse than Two Face, and then he collapses.

Some might criticize that shot as unrealistic, cartoon-ish, or silly. We thought it was fantastic. When you do a slow build to extreme violence, the violence really has to deliver. At that point, waiting tensely for Gus’ downfall for weeks, we wanted him dead and we wanted him REAL dead. We cackled mercilessly at that shot. It gave us the catharsis we wanted. At that point, we were hyperventilating with excitement, because we saw that there were about seven minutes left in the finale. How was the finale going to top Gus’ death and leave us breathless in the last couple of minutes?

Brock’s doctors figured out that Brock was poisoned by a flower called Lily of the Valley, not ricin. Jesse is released and taken by Gus’ men to the lab. Walt comes in, gun blazing, and he saves Jesse. Jesse and Walt go burn down their lab, which was awesome. At this point, Walt has bombed a nursing home, killed multiple men, and now risked the lives of a bunch of immigrant workers. Jesse tells Walt that it looks like Brock is going to make it. Walt looks relieved and emotional. The two shake hands and part, agreeing that even if Brock just accidently ate some flowers, Gus still needed to die.

Skyler watches the news and calls Walt about the explosion and fire. She asks Walt if he killed those men. “What happened?” she asked. “I won,” Walt answered. Behold, the one who knocks. So, we were all sulky because the episode didn’t end with Hank realizing that Walt is Heisenberg. We thought that was going to happen this season. But we think it’s fitting that this showdown occur during the final season, especially since we think the show gave us something better.

The last scene was a shot of Walt’s pool area, and there sat a potted plant labeled “Lily of the Valley.” WALT!!!!! We’re pretty sure that Walt didn’t mean to kill Brock in order to secure Jesse’s allegiance, because he’s an expert chemist and would know how much to give the child to kill him versus threaten him. And he seemed really relieved and emotional that Brock was ok. But we are still appalled. That’s nothing to what Jesse is going to be. Walt hurt a child to take Gus down. That’s a line crossed. We thought Walt was getting a little better, but no. This ushers in the reign of evil Walt.

Now that we’ve seen the end of the season, a few things have become clear. First of all, the spinning gun next to the pool. Twice it stopped at Walt and the last time it spun to the flower pot. This shows us how long Walt has been planning this. We wrote the gun spinning off as a show of nervousness, but now we have been corrected. Repeat after us: Everything Breaking Bad does is intentional. Also, was that a school schedule that the legal secretary was shredding? Did Saul and Walt poison Brock while he was at school?

For anyone who questions whether Walt actually poisoned Brock, read this Vince Gilligan quote about his brilliant ways: But there’s the old Billy Wilder quote, which I am going to misquote, that if you give the audience 2 plus 2 and let them add it up to 4 themselves, they’ll love you forever. I abide by that. The audience is plenty smart, and I like giving them as little as possible, and letting them do the math themselves.

There is also a question as to whether Tyrus died in the bombed room, because the reporter said, “Three men may have died.”Tyrus could be in critical condition. We can just see him joining forces with Mike to get revenge. What about Mike? We are really glad he made it through the season and look forward to his character being used later. We think it’s probable that Hank or someone will find Jesse and Walt on Gus’ security tapes. And we know that there will come a day when Jesse finds out about both Jane and Brock. This whole thing could kill with Jesse blowing Walt away. And Walt will deserve it. Team Jesse!

Episode grade: A+
Season grade: B+