Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Blood Money Review( My Thoughts and Recollection of Breaking Bad )

Fall has passed, leaving what was once nurtured by nature at an end. An abandoned and looted residency, that was once occupied by the loving family of Nobel Prize chemist Walter White is now left asunder: shattered pieces of glass and the dust that has long occupied this house can be said to symbolize this divide. However more or less this divide has been long established by Walter's troubled past with Gray matter, leading up to his recent involvement in the drug industry, specifically the production side of methamphetamine.

This life he has lived up on till this season is warranted by this rise and acquisition of an empire, but that is not to forget the hurdles he faced along the way from psychotic meth head Tuco Salamanca or even the cunning Gus Fringe. Despite his rise in the "empire business," consequences must be brought to those who have done wrong to those around them; Heisenberg's uncertainty principle does not apply in the world of breaking bad, as the momentum and position of Walter will ultimately reach a definite location, an end .

The final eight episodes of Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad are now airing, and the weight and intensity of each episode is measured by the performance given by the actors, screenplay, cinematography, and a myriad of other factors that help amplify the cinematic quality of this show. The cold open gives a endearing image a loving father and expert chemist turned to the prospect of becoming a self-made millionaire in the meth business. That much is true, however all that build meets an ultimate realization when arrives some few months after he is presumably on the run, leaving behind his family and loved ones. He arrives to his home which has been long abandoned, as he goes in to pick up his ricin that he hid in an electrical outlet from the season 5 premiere, we takes a good look at himself. We see Walt's hazy reflection of his own image, filmed by Michael Slovis, through a the shattered mirror in his bedroom. Growth, decay, and transformation is said to the study of chemistry, the study of change according to Walter White. But what we see in Walt's apprehensive grin, his old weathered look is bitter regret. This expressive exposition by Bryan Cranston is only enhanced by the leathered look of his home which has taken toll where the coloring of the has turned from clear to opaque, that the only light being shed on Walt's home is the seemingly blinding light of revelation creeping behind the cover boards of the windows, by production designer Mark Freeborn, leaving behind a permanent stain across his living room wall labeled Heisenberg, the cause of this change.


As he leaves he greets his old neighbor Carol who is terrified at the sight of Walter. This shot from the cold open is paralleled later in the opening act of the show where Walt is seen with his family having a barbecue, greeting Carol who is happy to see him; en-capturing the pure emotive change that this show conveys for the past five seasons. Elsewhere Jesse Pinkman, portrayed by Aaron Paul, is seen speechless, with a look of disgust and terror on his face. These mixture of emotions have manifested a state of hysteria where he chooses to throw out the five million dollars that Walter has given him. His state of mind is to acknowledge that his simply blood money, money that was given only through the means of eliminating anyone in the way of the drug business. Admittingly children we're killed, and whenever children are killed people blindly say that once that happens things have escalated too far, but I do not believe that same emotion can be reciprocated by Jesse. Jesse feels that children embody a certain purity, that they are absolved and stood clear of the corruption that surrounds them. However when this unfettered purity is encroached by immorality and violence, Jesse feels that he is personally responsible for violence that is lashed on those who are innocent, that the drug money he would normally accept must be refused under the knowledge that it is "blood money."

Without dragging on plot details and the cinematic atmosphere of the show, I will lastly comment on the mental state of DEA agent Hank Schrader, portrayed by Dean Norris. At the midseason finale Hank had an epiphany on the crapper when reaching for Walt Whitman's Leaves of Green. Surveying through the pages of the book he notices a note that resembles the penmanship of Gale Boetticher, Walt's former assistant in the Fringe meth lab. He puts one to one together and realizes that Walt may be in fact the Heisenberg that he has been searching for almost a year. Now a year later, this premiere depicts Hank leaving the restroom seconds after his discovery. Walking to his family, who presume to enjoy their barbecue, we overhear Marie jokingly state that Walt is the "devil." This perfectly juxtaposes the image of Walt as a father who is holding her daughter caringly and the Heisenberg, "the one who knocks." By circumstance Hank is faced with a dilemma with not only facing on the prospect of turning in his own brother in law and destroying family ties, but also ruining his career by indirectly covering for his brother's criminal activities. It's an interesting dilemma, which is only amplified during the ending scene between the confrontation of Hank and Walt. Hank begins to pummel Walter and coarsely swear at him for making him look like a fool; that he will do anything it takes to turn him in. Regardless of the fact that Walter's cancer his returning, he has spread his cancer to those around him leading to the deaths of hundreds: the victims of 737 accident, the nursing hospital, and the countless victims who are caught in Walt's path. Hank cannot forgive him, yet hesitates to turn him in because he is speechless by not only this revelation, but this betrayal. Hank loves he brother in law and it feels as if Walt has just nailed him in a coffin, unable to fathom which way he should go and how to even begin pursuing this ordeal. Whatever path he chooses to take will be interesting nonetheless, but as Walt suggests maybe the best path to take is one where he "treads lightly."

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