What I’m Watching: Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad: Season 3, Episode 10 “Fly” (B)

This isn’t a bad episode by any means, but it feels like a bit of a wasted hour in the midst of such an excellent and fascinating season. So many intriguing threads are going, and this episode presents more of a metaphor than a plot progression (also an occasional issue on this season of “Lost”). Walt staying up for over twenty-four hours straight trying to kill a fly sure feels like an externalization of the anguish and hardship he’s experienced in his efforts to provide for his family and deal with his disease. Still, his time spent in lockdown trying to extinguish the contaminant does elicit some interesting discussion between him and Jesse. His speech about how there should be a succinct way to explain and rationalize to his family why he did what he did was particularly moving. I got very nervous while he was talking about how he ran into Jane’s father at a bar and then later brought Jane back up while Jesse was on the ladder. Jesse raised a scary possibility when he suggested that Walt’s cancer could be causing him to lose touch with reality, and I was worried that Walt would spill the beans about his role in Jane’s death, especially when Jesse said to him directly “it wasn’t your fault.” It’s fun to see how Walt and Jesse switch roles in the lab, with Walt giving up just as Jesse starts trying and falling asleep by the time Jesse actually kills the fly. The final parking lot interaction where Walt says that he won’t be able to protect Jesse if he’s skimming off the top was capped by an equally intense and serious response from Jesse: “who’s asking you too?”