Breaking Bad Re-Up: Fly
In season 3′s “bottle episode,” Vince Gilligan and crew brought on one of my favorite contemporary directors, Rian Johnson. The episode featured only Walt and Jesse and 99 percent of it took place inside the Meth Cave. What started out as a humorous scenario bordering on slapstick turned into one of the most suspenseful and reflective episodes of the season.
We’ve seen Walt’s OCD come out this season, most noticeably when he scooped trash out of a pool that didn’t belong to him. But his need to kill the fly to move on with his life was pure mania. As the blood he’s inadvertently shed begins to sink into his head more and more, we might see his compulsions become more extreme. The episode peaked when he was “holding” the ladder for Jesse as he started to doze off from pills. When he started to apologize to Jesse about Jane, my fists clenched. Walt has made admissions before under the influence (second cell phone), so him spilling the truth about Jane’s death wouldn’t have surprised me (Walt moved Jane onto her back, causing her to choke). It’s going to happen. When is the only question.
Jesse’s cancer story pushed Walt into talking about how wishes he had died. For someone who just wanted to make a pile of cash before he died so his family wouldn’t have to worry, he’s lived too long and so many people have been hurt/killed. His family has left him and now he simply goes back and forth from his model home to the Meth Cave. He’s a big and important cog in a massive wheel. But he’s a hollow version of his former self. Eventually (if Gus doesn’t decide to have him killed first) Walt will have more money than he knows what to do with. But that doesn’t matter if his family will have nothing to do with him. At least Jesse has some lowlife friends to hang out with.
- Oh Mars
May 24th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
This episode reminded me a lot of the Sopranos “Pine Barrens” episode. Which I still think is not only the single best episode of that show, but one of the greatest episodes ever aired of any TV show.
I also think this season will be the last for Jesse. I think Walt’s warning at the end about not being able to protect him was Jesse’s last chance to stop being a fuck-up. And well I can’t see Jesse ever not being tempted to fly to close to the flame… it’s fuckin’ Jesse.
May 24th, 2010 at 5:17 pm
A thought about this episode, (which was the season’s highlight so far I’d say). We see Jesse and Walt bonding again, which was good, but then there’s Walt’s advice about skimming off the top of their batch at the very end. Jesse reverts back to his stand-offish way, but I wonder if – despite his reaction – Jesse will actually take Walt’s advice?
Breaking Bad is the most emotionally-exhausting TV fiction I’ve ever encountered, and last night’s episode was a peak IMO. Incredible. Rian Johnson did a great job here, but The Brothers Bloom was a pile of shit.
May 24th, 2010 at 5:43 pm
“the season’s hightlight so far”?? figures someone would say that, as far from the truth as it is. RV crushing episode? I think so….relax homie.
none the less, this episode offered a good eye into the mind of walt, and just how ocd he actually is/has become. i dont know if they can kill off jesse, that’s a huge hurdle and secondary-story killer. what I would like to see is the skinnier one of Jesse’s friends get off’ed, that guy is a god-awful actor!
May 24th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
i think he’s acting petty accurately to the sort of character he is. That’s what that dude would sound like in real life… a bad actor.
May 24th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I was totally thinking Pine Barrens too as I watched this. Classik.
@Stank, that dude is horrible. I always love some time with Badger though.
May 24th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Im a fan of Badger, HE’S accurate. But the whole “that’s how he would act” pertaining to the other guy, not so much
May 24th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
I think the ending of this episode kinda showed how the show will end. Especially with Jesse’s story about his aunt still hearing the possum due to the cancer spreading to the brain, and Walt not being able to sleep due to him still hearing and imagining a fly.
May 24th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
thats a cool analysis.
i feel like im back in film class, but I noticed that glass was used quite a bit – as in the actual substance-glass. lots of glass in this past episode, fly on the glass lightbulb, semi-close up of broken light bulb glass ont he lab floor, fly on walts glasses, lots of shots thru glass-windshields. got me thinking a bit…