This is a male show about a male world. And it is among the best things ever placed on television. Every now and then, though, Breaking Bad reminds us in spectacular fashion just how compelling its female characters can be.
1 Walt has committed enough horrifying acts that Kuby shuts down Huell’s half-joking suggestion to grab all the cash and flee to Mexico. If this happened pre-“Face Off” (S4E13), those two would be very wealthy fugitives right about now (after they finish their Scrooge McDuck impressions). Even Saul’s more afraid of Walt than he used to be, falling back on therapy speak (“This is a safe room!”) after Walt suggests that it might be Saul, and not Hank, who should be sent to “Belize” to be with Mike.
SEASON 5 / EPISODE 11
“Confessions”
Written by Gennifer Hutchison
Directed by Michael Slovis
My Brother’s Keeper
“Would you just, for once, stop working me?”—Jesse
We all know that Bryan Cranston is one of the best actors alive. The acting skills of Walter White have often been trickier to measure. There are times when he could not seem more sincere when we know for a fact that he’s lying, and others where it’s hard to imagine him fooling anybody.
Until “Confessions,” the most convincing lie Walt ever told was about the poisoning of Brock, but as Cranston has explained, he hadn’t read the next episode’s script when he filmed that scene, so he was playing it as if Walt genuinely was innocent. “Confessions” is different. This is an hour in which Walt is lying so spectacularly, and so frequently, that you don’t even need an entire hand to count the moments where he’s completely honest. By the end of it, I was wondering if he even really wanted any of his car wash customers to have an A1 day.
Before this batch of episodes began, I asked Cranston and Vince Gilligan about Walt’s acting skills at this point in the series. Gilligan said that an upcoming episode would make it “explicit that Walt is a better actor than he used to be,” and “Confessions” is that episode. He performs for Walter Jr. to keep him from going over to Hank and Marie’s house. He performs for Jesse in the desert to talk him into leaving town with a new identity. He performs for Skyler (not well, admittedly, but she’s too distracted to notice) when he goes to fetch his gun out of the soda machine. And in the spellbinding monologue that gives the episode its title, he performs for the camera, for Hank and Marie, and for anyone else who might need to see the video, as he spins a manufactured yarn about Hank Schrader being Heisenberg and Walter Hartwell White serving as his victimized chemist.
What’s brilliant about that speech, and about all the lies and performances Walt delivers throughout the episode, is that they all have some element of truth within them. Walt’s cancer is back (even though we still don’t know how aggressive his condition is), but he’s only playing the cancer card to keep his poor son from being wooed by the Schrader side of the family. Walt knows Jesse well enough to believe that a fresh start would be better for him, even though his attempt to persuade Jesse to relocate is mainly to protect himself. Even his fake confession is peppered with enough real details—that Hank took Walt on a ride-along right after his cancer diagnosis, that Walt built the wheelchair bomb, that Walt and Skyler paid for Hank’s rehab, that Hank gave him that scar next to his eye—that they cast a sheen of truth on the whole illusion.
The eponymous confession begins in precisely the same way as the video Walt made in the opening moments of the pilot, as we watch him list his full name and address. But don’t be fooled: The man who made that real confession no longer exists. He was genuine and hapless and vulnerable in a way that Heisenberg has no need to be. The Walter White in this new video sure seems sincere—anyone who didn’t know the truth would be near tears hearing the despair in his voice as he talks about contemplating suicide—but it is an act of convincing fiction. His image isn’t any more real than his words: the deeper we get into this particular lie, the closer that director Michael Slovis zooms in on the TV screen, to make us aware of every single manufactured pixel that makes up Walt’s face. Hank in extreme close-up in that scene is a proud man being destroyed by a smarter and more ruthless opponent; Walt in extreme close-up is a collection of dots and lines that approximate a human being, but which contains no authentic humanity.
What’s striking about “Confessions” is that even as it’s demonstrating what an incredible actor Walt has become, it’s showing him play to an audience conditioned to disbelieve him. Walter Jr. is roped in, but Hank and Marie know the truth of what happened, and Jesse Pinkman has long since lost all faith in his former partner. Walter White is giving the performances of his life—somehow becoming more reprehensible with each one, when you wouldn’t imagine it could get any worse than manipulating his teenage son with talk of cancer—but they’re largely wasted on their recipients.
Jesse was kept on the outskirts of this half-season’s first two episodes—he doesn’t even say a word in “Buried” (S5E10)—which makes his explosion in the desert all the more notable. Jesse has been holding in all this resentment of Walt, afraid to speak it and suffer Mike’s fate, but when he stands in that arid country (having just seen a spider wander by, a taunting reminder of Drew Sharp’s murder) and listens to Walt try to hustle him one last time, he just can’t stand it anymore. He calls Walt out on all of his selfishness masquerading as generosity—and in a decision that makes the scene sting even more than it would based just on Paul’s performance, Walt won’t even grant his request for honesty. Instead, he hugs him—whether out of genuine concern, an insistence on sticking to his story, or a combination of the two—and Jesse lets the tears fly at the thought of all he’s lost in this partnership, and all that he’s about to lose once he skips town.
And then comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for: Jesse figures out that Mr. White1 poisoned Brock.
We knew that at least one of the secrets Walt has kept from Jesse, whether about Jane or about Brock, would come out before the end, and the only questions were when, how, and which one. As with Hank and Walt’s confrontation at the end of “Blood Money” (S5E9), this is a case of the Breaking Bad creative team moving at a different pace than we expected. Once upon a time, this was a series that proceeded much slower than we thought it would, and was all the more powerful for it; now, it’s going far quicker than we might have guessed, but this half of the season doesn’t sacrifice the methodical structure that makes each emotional moment land as heavily as this one does.
The moment where Jesse figures it out2 relies on the viewers having a good amount of recall, especially since we never saw all the steps of the poisoning happen on-screen. We found out after the fact that the poison came from a plant in Walt’s backyard, but Huell’s role in lifting the ricin cigarette had only been discussed briefly in the time since. Fortunately, when you have Aaron Paul playing the scene, his distress is so clear that it overrides any need for exposition (especially since Jesse explains it when he confronts Saul). Jesse Pinkman doesn’t often get angry, but when he does—like when he first believed (correctly, it turned out) that Walt poisoned Brock, or when he fought Walt in “Bug” (S4E9)—it’s terrifying, because he is such a raw and bleeding open wound. Walt is usually calculated in his actions, and even when he acts on impulse, there’s a sense of grandiose performance to it, but Jesse doesn’t have a filter, or any real interest in guile. He says what he feels without thinking of the consequences. He could take this discovery as an excuse to plot some elaborate revenge on Walt—whether going to Hank to make a confession of his own or finding a way to poison Walt—but Jesse can’t contain his rage a moment longer. He has to take out his anger on Saul for his role in the kabuki theater of the ricin cigarette, and then he has to drive straight to 308 Negra Arroyo Lane to try to burn that sucker down.
We know from the flash-forward in “Blood Money” that the house doesn’t burn down—there’s no evidence of any fire damage at all there, in fact—which weakens the cliffhanger a bit. But the pure, hurt
fury on Jesse’s face as he flings gasoline all around the living room is so overpowering that in the moment, it’s hard to think about the condition of the house a few months in the future, or anything beyond sympathy for Jesse (and awe for the intensity of Aaron Paul.)
Breaking Bad features an amazing collection of actors, especially when you factor in alums Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks. “Confessions” puts many of their skills on beautiful display even as it reveals that its main character has developed Emmy-worthy talents of his own.
How Jesse Figured It Out
As with Brock’s poisoning itself, “Confessions” rushes a bit on the details of Jesse’s epiphany, leaving some viewers confused as to how he realized the truth. Here’s all you need to know about what happened circa “End Times” (S4E12) and how all the pieces fit together:
1. In “End Times,” Walt arranges for Huell to steal the cigarette pack with the ricin cigarette out of Jesse’s pocket and replace it with a different pack, as part of his plan to get Jesse back on his side in the war against Gus. Saul calls Jesse to his office for shady reasons, and gets Huell to pat Jesse down aggressively (which Jesse gets upset about). Walt doesn’t use the ricin to poison Brock, but rather a Lily of the Valley plant that will have a similar but less dangerous effect on the boy.
2. When Jesse hears that Brock has been poisoned, he realizes that the ricin cigarette is missing, then (correctly) figures out that Huell stole it on Walt’s orders. He storms into Walt’s house and threatens to kill him for poisoning Brock, but Walt convinces Jesse that it was Gus, not Walt, who wanted to hurt the boy. Walt tells Jesse that it must be part of a plan Gus put in motion specifically to make Jesse come to this conclusion and murder Walt for him—and that it must have been Tyrus who lifted the cigarettes from Jesse’s locker at the super lab. Jesse (wrongly) accepts that Mr. White would never hurt a child, whereas Gus has a history of threatening to hurt children, and lets go of the theory about Huell picking his pocket.
3. Doctors later figure out that Brock was poisoned by a Lily of the Valley, not by ricin, making Jesse doubt Walt’s theory about Gus trying to manipulate Jesse into shooting Walt, and leaving him to wonder what really happened to the ricin cigarette. Walt stages a phony search of Jesse’s house and plants a fake cigarette (containing salt, not ricin) inside Jesse’s Roomba. None of this sits well with Jesse, but he once again believes Mr. White.
4. Over the course of season five, starting around the time of the murder of Drew Sharp, Jesse’s fears that he shouldn’t believe anything Walt says are confirmed. Walt claims to be broken up over Drew’s death, but then whistles while he works. Walt claims that Mike left town alive, when Jesse knows that Walt would have never taken out Mike’s guys unless Mike was dead. Walt gives Jesse a whole song and dance about how leaving town will be good for Jesse, when Jesse knows that it will be even better for Walt.
5. Having been primed to disbelieve any word out of Walt’s mouth, Jesse goes to Saul’s office, lights up a joint, and gets scolded by Saul, who knows his relocation expert won’t pick up anyone who’s high. Saul orders Huell to again pick Jesse’s pocket to get rid of the marijuana.
6. At the pick-up spot, a nervous Jesse reaches for his pot and can’t find it. He frantically checks all his pockets, but all he finds is a cigarette pack. Staring at the cigarette pack, Jesse realizes that Huell dipped into his pocket without him noticing and instantly understands that his first suspicions about the ricin cigarette were correct, and that Mr. White connived to turn him against Gus and endangered Brock’s life in the process.
That the ricin wasn’t actually used on Brock is beside the point. Jesse knew from the beginning (though he convinced himself otherwise) that Huell had picked his pocket, and that he must have done it on Mr. White’s orders. He has been thinking about this often in the months since it happened—far more often and more intensely than those of us watching the show have. When he realizes Huell picked his pocket again, and stares at another crumpled cigarette pack, everything clicks into place. All at once, he comprehends how strangely convenient it was that this terrible thing happened to Brock, which turned Jesse back into Walt’s ally at the exact moment Walt needed one against Gus. So Jesse does the only thing he can think to do: He goes on the warpath against Saul, Huell, and “that asshole Mr. White.”
1 Note that even after Jesse has realized Walt’s betrayal, he still refers to him as Mr. White, albeit while inserting “that asshole” as a modifier. Like Hank says, Walt really did a number on this kid; even now, he has to include a term of respect along with his utter contempt.
2 The hill of stones Jesse is standing in front of (at the corner of Juan Tabo and Osuna, which is a little under a mile down the road from Gale’s apartment at 6353 Juan Tabo) when he makes his discovery is the Bear Canyon Arroyo Spillway Dam, which looks very much like a row of tombstones. An appropriately eerie-looking setting for Jesse’s realization of just how badly he wants to hurt Mr. White.
SEASON 5 / EPISODE 12
“Rabid Dog”
Written and directed by Sam Catlin
Burn It Down
“We’ve come this far, for us. What’s one more?”—Skyler
The final half-season’s first three episodes weren’t exactly wall-to-wall action, but there was a relentlessness to them—particularly after the scene with Walt and Hank in the garage—that made it hard for either viewers or characters to catch their breath. “Rabid Dog” is the first hour of this batch where we, and they, can really pause for air. There’s time to stop and think, whether it’s Marie telling her therapist her fantasies about poisoning Walt or Skyler and Walt having a long discussion about the Jesse Pinkman problem. It’s an episode that begins and ends with the potential for a Walt/Jesse showdown, but the two men don’t see each other at all in the first scene and only speak briefly on the phone in the second. It’s a necessary episode, both for storytelling purposes—with Hank and Jesse finally working together, the chess board needs to be rearranged—and simply to keep the audience from having a heart attack before the finale. It’s not a vacation story, even though the Whites check into a luxury hotel and Hank packs Marie’s bags for something similar, but it does act like a break before whatever insane thing will happen next.
Though we get two different tense sequences at the White residence—one from Walt’s perspective, then another later from Jesse and Hank’s (with the latter cleverly wrapping up moments before Walt’s arrival)—this is, for the most part, an episode full of conversations. Most of those conversations happen to be about how far these people are willing to go to get what they want (or protect what they already have), and whom they’re willing to hurt and sacrifice along the way.
And the character in the most likely position to be a sacrificial lamb is poor Jesse Pinkman.
The episode’s title evokes that of “Problem Dog” (S4E7) and Jesse’s NA monologue about why he had to murder the harmless Gale. Now it’s Jesse who’s the one being referred to as a dog, as Saul and Skyler argue for putting him down, while Hank makes it plain to Gomez that he doesn’t care if the mutt lives or dies so long as Walter White goes down in the process.
Walt, though? His feelings for Jesse have always been complicated.
For the run of the series, we’ve debated how much Walter White genuinely cares about his former partner and student, and how many of his actions related to Jesse have been driven by need. Walt lets Jane die to protect himself, for instance, but he also believes that she’s likely to be a fatal influence on Jesse. He pays to put Jesse through rehab (which Hank notes in this episode). He goes to war with Gus Fring to save Jesse’s life, but then poisons Brock to manipulate Jesse into helping him kill Gus. When Jesse retires following the Drew Sharp killing, the safest course for Walt likely would be to send his protégé on a metaphorical trip to Belize, but he lets Jesse live, and eventually pays him the money he’d earned.
The bulk of “Rabid Dog” makes clear that Walt (whether he admits it or not) has put Je
sse into the same family category as Hank. Killing him would solve so many problems, but Walt won’t hear of it, and when he tells Saul not to float the idea again, it’s said with the most conviction he displays all episode. Some of this is misunderstanding, as he doesn’t realize that it was only Hank’s timely arrival that stopped Jesse from burning down his house, rather than a change of heart revealing what Walt believes to be Jesse’s true colors. Some of it is the usual Walter White arrogance: He genuinely believes that if he can just string together the right collection of nouns, verbs, and adverbs, then he can justify the near-fatal poisoning of a little boy and he and Jesse will be hugging it out once again. But much of it is the paternal feeling Walt has had for Jesse over the bulk of their partnership. Walt and Jesse do not often understand—or like—each other, but Walt has been more of a father to Jesse (for better and especially for worse) than Mr. Pinkman has been in years, and he has shaped Jesse in his image in a way he hasn’t achieved or attempted with the biological son who shares his name. Until their meeting in Civic Plaza goes awry, Walt can’t fathom ordering Jesse’s death any more than he could Walter Jr.’s.
Walt’s protective attitude toward Jesse is so outside the normal parameters of the great and terrible Heisenberg that it baffles both Saul (who knows about most of his client’s worst sins) and Skyler (who knows enough that she can imagine the rest). Skyler, having gone all-in on Heisenberg two episodes ago—and having learned almost immediately to regret it after she watched Walt record his fake confession—is now demanding something that would shake the Skyler White of the pilot to her core. After Walt did so many heinous things for the sake (again, ostensibly) of the family—a group to which this scruffy little drug dealer does not belong, as far as Skyler’s concerned—to not commit one more (final?) sin here seems like madness to her.
Breaking Bad 101 Page 22