Breaking Bad Season 6
Episode 9
To'hajiilee

I wanted to repair my last post, which is an emotionally hyper dismissal of my responsibility as a media critic, and so I’ve calmed down now and written the following: 

Now that I’ve gotten over the shock and emotion of episode 9 (or 605), To’hajiilee , it’s possible to do a real review.  On second viewing, when my mind is NOT turned off to what’s going on (I willingly suspend disbelief with film and TV so I can allow the show to take me where it wants to, then engage the brain later), this episode, like ALL episodes in this show’s history before it, is chock full of nuance, subtleties, design, purpose, and outright outrageous cinematic perfection.  

I’m not sure what they feed the people in that writer’s room, but they will all walk away this next year with little statues, along with the cinematographers.

Ok, for starters, there is the plot thickens.  You could not get a better plot point than Jul getting put under pressure to give up where the money was last seen.  The whole brains on the floor thing….wow.

But the scene I’m most impressed with, as usual with this show, is not one that involves guns, or squinty-eyed neo Nazis out of prison ready to do a hit, or barrels of cash in the sand, or even frantic driving by Walt.  It’s the scene where Walt visits Andrea and Brock at their home.  THIS I’m exited about.  Being a cinephile with a long history of looking at the projected/recorded image, I’ve seen a great deal of footage, but this is really good.  

Walt to Todd’s Neo-Nazi Uncle:

“ I don’t know where he is, but I know how to flush him out.”

So begins the segue into this wonderfully played scene.

Brock stares at a cereal box, Frootloops, and while eating them deciphers the kid puzzles on the back.

Mother asks a question that challenges Brock to answer well, demonstrating her commitment to her son’s relational growth, responsibility.  She comes into full focus in this shot.

The colors of the house are all yellowish, bright, full, happy, with soft white cabinets and trim, tall ceilings, comfortable, upper-middle class.  The gauzy and bright curtains have stars in them.  Andrea wears red.  She is luminous here, hair curled around her shoulders.  This is a warm and inviting home.

In comes the Devil.  Brock knows.  The interchange between them, the doubt in the boy’s face, the dismissal by Walt…this man in beige clothes, business casual, glasses, bandaged eye, and may I observe here…overly fleshy and white-looking head, does not fit in their colorful world.  He is tripping over himself, treading carefully, a bull in a china shop.

The very next shot from the kitchen perspective is set genius.  Set design, blocking, camera angle, lighting, everything, is so well done.  DETAILS.  The child’s art work on the fridge.  The brightly colored dishes on the island.  The wood floors.  But the blocking as well: Brock is in the background, but he is positioned directly between Walt and Andrea as they talk.  Walt’s threat is still looming over him.  Andrea is lower in the scene as well, and to the right, while Walt dominates the center.

Ok, all of this sounds really boring, I know (it’s not guns and brains, right), but it’s absolutely beautifully executed Breaking Bad work.  Nothing goes unnoticed, and nothing is without purpose.  There are about 50 more blocking and psychological manipulations of mise’-en-scene in this scene.  But those aside, there is Cranston and his superb acting.  He can play Satan better than the Devil can.  The Great Manipulator does his job here and is extremely believable.  Back to basics, THIS is what has made this show work from the start, the transformation of a simple, and even likable man from a Chemistry-teacher/dad….to Beelzebub.

Just stinking unbelievable how far we’ve come.

Get all the episodes.  Don’t start here.  Enjoy, if that’s the proper word.