“My Bottle, My Son, My House!!” yells Walt, the father of a handicapped son, and husband to a pregnant wife, to his brother in an episode of Breaking Bad titled “Over.” His denial is as naked as a naked stroll through a convenience store (literally), as he skips work to rid his house of wood rot. His corruption surfaces, again, to claim drug turf — while in the middle of buying cans of paint for the replacing of rotted wood.
Walt (played by Bryan Cranston) is a chemistry teacher turned drug producer turned meth lord, after assuming that his life is over soon after getting the news that he has lung cancer. But it would be long after the line is drawn that the word of remission for Walt’s cancer does nothing but tell him that he’s in the business of “cooking” pure blue meth for a damned long time.
So many times, Walt and his partner, a former chemistry student of his, face life-altering scenarios, where in one instance, they are trapped in the middle of a desert. The exchange of gun fire in a remote location, the detonation of another drug lord’s building, the different ways of rival’ bodies being dissolved (also coming down to a literal interpretation — an acid bath), this realistic AMC drama doesn’t stop there — Walt’s brother is a DEA agent. And at every turn of defiance, our main character gets more, and more pathologically unbalanced, as he drowns himself in his own lies. What’s worse, an attorney (played by comedic actor Bob Odenkirk) used to stage a paid scapegoat double for Heisenberg (Walt’s drug lord pseudonym) pops up in Walt’s chemistry room at school, to tell him that he knows everything.
With so many doors closed from so many competitors around the corner in the business of hard narcotics, and so much webbing of lies told, letting his family down for a rather deadly prison sentence isn’t a viable option. He knows all too well the last door remaining in breaking this bad is death. But as we find with the very ease in Walt’s ability to lock into that stone-cold look on his face, and the tactics used to avoid any chance of being even questioned by the authorities is that on the inside, he’s already dead. (This realization is also told in song at the beginning of a recent episode!)
Better than most of television in a long time, Breaking has yet to disappoint, however, this season comes to a close later this month (A). — AJP