Breaking Bad Recap: Everybody Roomba!

Recaps

By Saint Clare of Assisi | Tuesday, July 24, 2012 | 8:09 pm | 7 Comments
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Posted in: Breaking Bad, Featured, Recaps

Mike and Lydia wait for the nanny to leave the house. In the downtime, he keeps his gun trained on her and admonishes her for her idiocy. Two men died because of her. Lydia seems to have accepted that she’s about to die, but she’s got one request: don’t kill her and dispose of the body. She can’t bear the thought of her daughter growing up thinking her mother abandoned her.

The alternative—the daughter coming into her bedroom in the night and finding her DEAD BODY—is horrifying to Mike. But Lydia pleads with him. Kill her, fine, but leave the body. Oh, and try not to shoot her in the face, because that would make it extra horrifying for the child.

Finally, the nanny leaves. Lydia begs Mike not to make her disappear. And as he tries to steel up the courage to pull the trigger…suddenly, a change of heart.

Can she still get methylamine, he wants to know. She can. At least we know how she’s connected to Gus and Mike now.

WALT AND SKYLER’S HOUSE

Walt is in the kitchen cleaning up the dinner dishes when he gets a phone call. It’s Mike. He answers. Mike says he’s reconsidered Walt’s offer. He’s in. Walt merely says, “Good”.

THE BEDROOM

And then Walt goes to bed. Skyler’s still lying around depressed. Walt tries making small talk about how his cooking turned out tonight. (Seems like it should be a cinch for Walt, doesn’t it?)

She doesn’t respond. So finally he offers some real conversation. “It gets easier”, he tells her. Living with the guilt over Walt, and with the anguish over Ted.

He starts kissing her on the shoulders. It’s creepy as shit. Skyler is stunned and says nothing the whole time. But in the silence, Walt sums up the guiding principle he’s lived by for the past five seasons: “If you do things for the right reasons, you have nothing to worry about.”

THE END

 -So here’s my main takeaway from this episode, which I mentioned in my intro…Does it seem like Walt isn’t really the main character any more? This week almost seemed like Mike was the protagonist, since he’s given an actual story. He wants to get the hell away from Walt, but can’t because the Feds are freezing the nest egg he stored away for himself and his family. It felt like Walt was the villain and Mike the hero in a weird way. (Which is impressive, since Mike was originally a nameless fixer brought in for one episode to help Jesse get rid of his dead girlfriend). 

It’s almost like they’ve made Walt as evil as he can be, and now they’re focusing on everyone else…and since this is the last season, is that gonna be permanent? Last year he poisoned a kid! How much worse can he get? So I have a new prediction for Season 5…I’m guessing Walt is pretty much done developing as a character. He’s pure evil now. All that’s left for them to do with him is to show the consequences of his decisions We saw a little of this in the season opener, when Walt is in the future, presumably living alone under an assumed name, eating a lonely breakfast at Denny’s and buying machine guns out of paranoia. That’s where we’re headed, but I bet we’ll see less of Walt in the coming weeks as the focus shifts to the more redeemable people.

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Saint Clare of Assisi attended Boston University and has written for The Onion.  He took his name from the patron saint of television, who was a virgin and saved a boy from a wolf one time.

7 Comments

  1. 1
    someguy
    Posted July 24, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    So glad you are back. Your recaps add so much to the show for me. I was thinking the women Mike met at the coffee shop was Gus’s wife. I liked how Hank will take help from his partner with. His. Walking and treating Gomez like a friend and partner without the macho BS.I always have to watch the episode again after your recaps to pick up all the detail you caught and I missed. I want to know what Brook says about what he ate to get sick. He isnto old to eat plants. Thanks for you great insights

  2. 2
    mjhhawk
    Posted July 25, 2012 at 6:10 am

    Mike was watching “Caine Mutiny”, which is actually quite symbolic to the storyline as I believe the scene was was on they were just about to vote out the Captain (Gus) to replace him with another (Walt). Or it was another scene, but that does happen.

  3. 3
    mjhhawk
    Posted July 25, 2012 at 6:41 am

    I think Walt is and will always be the main character, but they are not afraid to turn the focus on other characters for development. In the past they have focused on Jesse, Skyler, Hank, Marie and did an entire episode on Gus’ roots. This is what helps keeps the viewers so engaged in the show. You have true feelings about every character. When things like Hank and Mike have their first confrontation you are completed conflicted, as you are pulling for both guys. I personally really hope they do an episode on Mike’s days as a Philly cop.

  4. 4
    timgunnssister timgunnssister
    Posted July 25, 2012 at 10:52 am

    Two things I LOVE about this episode: 1) Mike drinking an Ensure with a beer back – priceless! and 2) Merkert saying that “It was right in front of me the whole time” or words to that effect talking about Gus being the criminal overlord. Do you suppose that gets Hank wondering what’s been in front of HIM this whole time?

  5. 5
    timgunnssister timgunnssister
    Posted July 25, 2012 at 11:05 am

    Oh, and wasn’t Lydia sitting with the Madrigal executives in the DEA office? I assumed that’s how she knew Mike – she is/was a Madrigal employee and Gus’s local go-between/finder of stuff.

    And in the final scene, it sounded to me as though Walt said something about ‘family being the most important thing’. It sounded all creepy and Godfather-y to me. And Skyler looked absolutely terrified.

  6. 6
    annie anniedawg25
    Posted July 25, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    @timgunssister…yeah totally creepy! as was the boob grab.
    Sky is terrified of him….he knows it, and doesn’t give a shit. If anything, he likes it! EEK

  7. 7
    maryedith
    Posted July 27, 2012 at 8:09 pm

    Awesome recap as usual. Two things: I think Walt’s flaw is not just that he thinks other people are stupid but that he’s gotten greedy. It’s not about paying for cancer treatment anymore; it’s about the big payoff. Nobody who wants a big payoff for the sake of a big payoff ever gets the big payoff. Also, I don’t know if you mentioned this after the first episode, but when Walt popped those pills in the cold open I wondered if his cancer had come back? We don’t normally see him popping pills, do we?

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