Wednesday, July 25, 2012

What I’m Watching: Breaking Bad




Breaking Bad: Season 5, Episode 2 “Madrigal” (B+)

In a departure from last week’s peek into the future, this installment opened with an international clip that was perfectly eerie and haunting, representing the global scale of Gus’ operation. It’s intriguing to see that start and then zoom in on how small-scale the cleanup is for those affiliated with Gus and trying not to get caught by law enforcement. Mike’s diner meeting with Lydia boiled things down to specifics, and after Mike’s negative reaction to the notion of killing eleven people, she took it upon herself to hire someone to kill him. Mike isn’t one to be blindsided, and he even managed to turn the situation to his advantage when he decided to spare her life, accepting Walt’s earlier offer to be a partner in their newfound grassroots drug-cooking business. In his interrogation, Mike managed to piss off Hank enough that he’s sure to continue going after him, especially now that his last hunch turned out to be right. The meeting between Walt, Jesse, and Saul was unsettlingly calm, and a carefully-treading Saul couldn’t avoid irking Walt after his parable about a man who wins the lottery. Walt’s dry response of “What lottery did I win, exactly” was a sign of his lack of amusement, and it’s likely to be an increasingly darker road from here on out. If Jesse ever finds out that Walt did in fact poison Brock, things are going to get really bad, though something tells me Walt will be ready for it, as evidenced by his stoic statement to Skyler that it gets easier.

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