WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.439 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. You know, usually 00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:05.259 when we talk about television history, especially 00:00:05.259 --> 00:00:07.459 the golden age dramas, we talk about the big 00:00:07.459 --> 00:00:10.500 moments. Right. The explosions, the shocking 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:14.080 deaths, the train heists. The water cooler moments, 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:15.980 basically. Exactly. The water cooler moments. 00:00:16.079 --> 00:00:17.519 We talk about those scenes where you just, you 00:00:17.519 --> 00:00:19.739 know, jump off your couch and scream at the screen. 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:23.890 But today we are doing something. A little different. 00:00:24.010 --> 00:00:26.269 We are. We're looking at a moment in television 00:00:26.269 --> 00:00:29.269 history that I think perfectly defines the phrase 00:00:29.269 --> 00:00:32.329 tipping point. But not because it's loud. In 00:00:32.329 --> 00:00:35.850 fact, it's excruciatingly quiet. It's awkward. 00:00:36.090 --> 00:00:38.929 It's really messy. And honestly, it is a little 00:00:38.929 --> 00:00:41.840 hard to watch. It is. We are going all the way 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.219 down into the murky, uncomfortable waters of 00:00:44.219 --> 00:00:46.780 Breaking Bad. Specifically, we are looking at 00:00:46.780 --> 00:00:49.460 season three, episode four. Titled Greenlight. 00:00:49.740 --> 00:00:52.079 Greenlight. Now, if you are a fan of the show, 00:00:52.280 --> 00:00:54.359 you might remember this as the specific hour 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:56.960 where the entire carefully constructed world 00:00:56.960 --> 00:00:59.719 of Walter White just, well, it crumbles. It's 00:00:59.719 --> 00:01:02.329 a complete study and meltdowns. That is the perfect 00:01:02.329 --> 00:01:05.510 word for it. Meltdowns. We aren't looking at 00:01:05.510 --> 00:01:08.090 the high octane cartel stuff today. We are looking 00:01:08.090 --> 00:01:12.010 at the messy, awkward human failures that happen 00:01:12.010 --> 00:01:14.670 when pride gets in the way of logic. So let's 00:01:14.670 --> 00:01:17.629 unpack this. This episode originally aired on 00:01:17.629 --> 00:01:20.450 April 11th, 2010. Can you believe it's been that 00:01:20.450 --> 00:01:22.569 long? It feels like yesterday in terms of the 00:01:22.569 --> 00:01:24.230 cultural impact, doesn't it? Oh, absolutely. 00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.319 But yeah, April 2010, the landscape of TV was 00:01:27.319 --> 00:01:30.079 so different back then. Lost was wrapping up. 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:32.719 Mad Men was right in its prime. And here was 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:35.140 Breaking Bad really finding its footing in season 00:01:35.140 --> 00:01:37.439 three. And just to set the stage for everyone 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:39.000 listening, because even if you've seen the show 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:41.700 multiple times, it is easy to forget exactly 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:44.400 where we are in the timeline. The characters 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:47.140 at this exact point are completely out of their 00:01:47.140 --> 00:01:49.299 comfort zone. They're surely unmoored. They are 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:51.640 flailing. And usually when characters flail on 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:54.359 the show, people get physically hurt. In green 00:01:54.359 --> 00:01:57.079 light, the hurt, it's different. It's highly 00:01:57.079 --> 00:01:59.900 psychological. It's humiliation. That is the 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:01.840 core theme running through this entire hour. 00:02:02.159 --> 00:02:04.599 Right. And to guide us through this analysis 00:02:04.599 --> 00:02:07.739 today, we have pulled a massive stack of sources. 00:02:08.139 --> 00:02:10.840 We are looking at detailed plot summaries, production 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:13.439 notes, and we've also got the critical reception 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.580 from the time it aired. So we have reviews from 00:02:16.580 --> 00:02:19.560 IGN, the AV Club, and some retrospective rankings 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:21.840 from places like The Ringer and Vulture. And 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:24.340 looking at those reviews is going to be incredibly 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:27.080 crucial later on. Oh, yeah. Because interestingly 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:29.360 enough, critics were actually a bit divided on 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:32.330 this one. It was not universally loved immediately. 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:34.409 No, it wasn't. Some people thought it was too 00:02:34.409 --> 00:02:36.650 slow. Some people thought it was way too cringy. 00:02:36.770 --> 00:02:39.250 Which is wild to think about now, considering 00:02:39.250 --> 00:02:42.469 how revered the season is. But our mission today 00:02:42.469 --> 00:02:45.949 is to figure out why. Why is Greenlight, which 00:02:45.949 --> 00:02:48.370 is often ranked relatively low by critics compared 00:02:48.370 --> 00:02:50.490 to the rest of the series, actually one of the 00:02:50.490 --> 00:02:52.569 most crucial turning points for Walter White, 00:02:52.810 --> 00:02:55.150 Jesse Pinkman, and Hank Schrader? It's the quiet 00:02:55.150 --> 00:02:58.240 before the storm. But it's also the exact moment 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:00.479 where the internal logic of these characters 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:02.740 shifts irrevocably. Honestly, if you skip this 00:03:02.740 --> 00:03:04.659 episode, the rest of the series just doesn't 00:03:04.659 --> 00:03:07.219 make sense. Before we get into the heavy psychological 00:03:07.219 --> 00:03:09.639 stuff, let's give credit where it's due. The 00:03:09.639 --> 00:03:12.060 creative team behind this meltdown masterpiece, 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:15.659 the episode was written by Sam Catlin. A truly 00:03:15.659 --> 00:03:18.819 fantastic writer who really, really gets the 00:03:18.819 --> 00:03:21.919 dark humor of the show. He does. And it was directed 00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:25.139 by Scott Winant. Now, here is a surprising fact 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:27.879 I found in the production notes. Scott Wainant 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:30.439 only directed two episodes of the entire series. 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:33.360 Just two. That feels really low, given how distinct 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:35.479 the visual style is here. I know, right? I was 00:03:35.479 --> 00:03:37.819 shocked. He directed Greenlight and, wait for 00:03:37.819 --> 00:03:40.560 it, Crawl Space. Oh, wow. Crawl Space. Yeah. 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:42.979 OK. That actually changes how I view Greenlight 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:45.280 entirely. How so? Because Crawl Space, for anyone 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:47.819 who needs a quick refresher, is arguably the 00:03:47.819 --> 00:03:51.060 most terrifying, claustrophobic episode of the 00:03:51.060 --> 00:03:53.800 entire run. It's the one where Walt is laughing 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:55.759 maniacally in the dirt under his house while 00:03:55.759 --> 00:03:58.460 the camera pulls slowly up, looking exactly like 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:00.840 he's in a grave. Exactly. The visual language 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.099 in that scene is iconic. See, that makes perfect 00:04:03.099 --> 00:04:05.439 sense now. If you think about the visual language 00:04:05.439 --> 00:04:08.199 and the sheer intensity of crawl space, and then 00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.599 you look at green light, whine it clearly. has 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:14.319 a profound knack for capturing characters who 00:04:14.319 --> 00:04:16.259 were totally trapped. Trapped by their own choices. 00:04:16.699 --> 00:04:18.379 Exactly. Yeah. Even though his run on the show 00:04:18.379 --> 00:04:21.199 was super limited, his impact was massive. He 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:23.060 inherently understands how to film desperation. 00:04:23.519 --> 00:04:26.699 In crawl space, the desperation is literal life 00:04:26.699 --> 00:04:29.439 or death terror. Right. But in green light, the 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:31.519 desperation is social and professional suicide. 00:04:32.399 --> 00:04:35.240 But the camera work, the way he isolates the 00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:38.100 characters in the frame, it is remarkably similar. 00:04:38.329 --> 00:04:42.529 It's 47 minutes of pure desperation. So let's 00:04:42.529 --> 00:04:44.569 dive into the first part of this disaster. We 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:47.290 have to talk about Walter White, because in this 00:04:47.290 --> 00:04:49.970 episode, we are witnessing a professional and 00:04:49.970 --> 00:04:53.730 personal implosion that is just honestly, it 00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:55.449 makes you want to cover your eyes. It is visceral. 00:04:55.560 --> 00:04:58.259 And it's really important to remember exactly 00:04:58.259 --> 00:05:00.459 where Walt's head is at right now. He thinks 00:05:00.459 --> 00:05:03.579 he's a big shot. He fully believes he is Heisenberg. 00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:06.500 He's been dealing with literal drug lords. He's 00:05:06.500 --> 00:05:09.660 negotiated massive deals. He's survived explosions. 00:05:09.959 --> 00:05:13.000 So he walks into this episode with a certain 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:15.620 swagger. A completely unearned swagger in the 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:18.240 context of the real civilian world. Precisely. 00:05:18.389 --> 00:05:20.449 Let's start with the confrontation at Benneke 00:05:20.449 --> 00:05:22.589 Fabricators. We know Skyler is working there. 00:05:22.649 --> 00:05:24.310 We know she's had an affair with her boss, Ted 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:29.029 Benneke. And Walt does not handle rejection well. 00:05:29.209 --> 00:05:32.050 To put it mildly. And remember, Skyler's using 00:05:32.050 --> 00:05:34.730 this affair as a weapon. She is actively trying 00:05:34.730 --> 00:05:36.850 to push Walt away to discuss him into granting 00:05:36.850 --> 00:05:39.589 a divorce. But Walt, being Walt, decides that 00:05:39.589 --> 00:05:41.810 the problem isn't his meth cooking or his lying. 00:05:42.110 --> 00:05:45.259 The problem is this other guy. Right. So. The 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:47.800 plot detail here is that Walt creates a massive, 00:05:48.180 --> 00:05:50.339 embarrassing public scene at Skyler's workplace. 00:05:50.899 --> 00:05:53.139 He marches in there to confront Ted. And I really 00:05:53.139 --> 00:05:54.600 want to talk about the way the scene is shot. 00:05:54.779 --> 00:05:56.680 The office is bright. It's incredibly clean. 00:05:56.839 --> 00:05:58.759 There are neat little plants. There's glass everywhere. 00:05:58.879 --> 00:06:00.839 It is a fishbowl. And here comes Walt, looking 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:03.980 completely disheveled, angry, bringing this dark, 00:06:04.120 --> 00:06:06.519 chaotic energy right into the sterile environment. 00:06:06.939 --> 00:06:09.459 He marches right up to Ted's office. And think 00:06:09.459 --> 00:06:11.060 about what this represents for Walt. Walt is 00:06:11.060 --> 00:06:14.259 a guy who, especially by season three, prides 00:06:14.259 --> 00:06:16.899 himself on being the danger. He operates in the 00:06:16.899 --> 00:06:19.040 shadows. He controls life and death. But here, 00:06:19.139 --> 00:06:22.220 in the bright fluorescent lights of a legitimate 00:06:22.220 --> 00:06:25.959 office building, he has zero power. His tough 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:28.920 guy Heisenberg stare just does not work on a 00:06:28.920 --> 00:06:30.800 corporate receptionist. None at all. And the 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:33.740 result is deeply humiliating. He tries to intimidate 00:06:33.740 --> 00:06:36.000 Ted. He gets right in his face. But Ted isn't 00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.699 Tuco. Ted isn't Gus. Ted is just a boring businessman 00:06:38.699 --> 00:06:41.560 who calmly calls security. And that is the central 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:44.240 clash. Walt is playing by cartel rules. He's 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:46.720 thinking, I will intimidate my rival. But he 00:06:46.720 --> 00:06:49.000 is in a civilian setting. And in the civilian 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.399 world, if you yell at someone, they don't cower 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:53.459 in fear. They call the cops or they have you 00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:55.220 thrown out. Which is exactly what happens. He 00:06:55.220 --> 00:06:57.220 literally gets physically escorted, practically 00:06:57.220 --> 00:06:59.959 carried out of the building. Yeah. But he doesn't 00:06:59.959 --> 00:07:02.500 leave quietly. He picks up that massive potted 00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:05.720 plant. The potted plant. It is such a pathetic 00:07:05.720 --> 00:07:09.000 gesture. He hurls it at the glass. It's a tantrum. 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.699 It's literally a toddler's tantrum. It is a total 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:14.319 loss of territorial control. He tries to bring 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:16.800 his drug lord energy into the civilian world 00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:20.620 and the civilian world just unequivocally. rejects 00:07:20.620 --> 00:07:23.519 it. He's loud, he's visible, and ultimately, 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:27.060 he's completely impotent. It's a stark contrast 00:07:27.060 --> 00:07:29.639 to how we usually see him. Usually he's the smartest 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:32.800 guy in the room. Here, he's just the crazy ex 00:07:32.800 --> 00:07:35.649 -husband causing a scene in a lobby. And that 00:07:35.649 --> 00:07:39.149 rejection just fuels the fire. Because immediately 00:07:39.149 --> 00:07:41.250 after getting tossed out of Benaki Fabricators, 00:07:41.370 --> 00:07:43.490 he spirals even further. He doesn't go home to 00:07:43.490 --> 00:07:45.189 cool off. He doesn't take a breath and reflect. 00:07:45.350 --> 00:07:47.490 He creates a domino effect. Or rather, he starts 00:07:47.490 --> 00:07:49.389 aggressively kicking over the dominoes himself. 00:07:49.449 --> 00:07:52.069 He really does. The next major beat involves 00:07:52.069 --> 00:07:54.850 Saul Goodman. Now, Mike Ermentrout, everyone's 00:07:54.850 --> 00:07:57.290 favorite cleaner, takes Walt directly to Saul's 00:07:57.290 --> 00:07:59.329 office. Which usually means serious business 00:07:59.329 --> 00:08:02.089 is about to happen. Mike is the calmest person 00:08:02.089 --> 00:08:04.269 in the universe, so if Mike is physically driving 00:08:04.269 --> 00:08:07.230 you somewhere, it is serious. Right. And Saul 00:08:07.230 --> 00:08:09.949 wants Walt to cook. That is the constant underlying 00:08:09.949 --> 00:08:13.029 pressure of this season. But things go sideways 00:08:13.029 --> 00:08:16.029 incredibly fast. Walt discovers that Saul has 00:08:16.029 --> 00:08:18.050 bugged his house. Which, to be fair to Saul, 00:08:18.110 --> 00:08:21.170 is a very Saul thing to do. It really is. He 00:08:21.170 --> 00:08:23.930 is just trying to protect his investment. He 00:08:23.930 --> 00:08:26.009 desperately needs to know if Skyler's going to 00:08:26.009 --> 00:08:28.089 the police. Sure. From a criminal standpoint, 00:08:28.089 --> 00:08:31.430 it makes sense. But Walt doesn't see it that 00:08:31.430 --> 00:08:35.009 way. He feels profoundly violated. And then Saul 00:08:35.009 --> 00:08:38.610 makes a mistake. A very big mistake. He tries 00:08:38.610 --> 00:08:41.169 to bond with Walt. He makes some, let's call 00:08:41.169 --> 00:08:43.509 them crude remarks about Skyler's affair with 00:08:43.509 --> 00:08:45.789 Ted. Yeah, he makes a joke about Skyler's taste 00:08:45.789 --> 00:08:47.990 in men. And that is the match in the powder keg. 00:08:48.070 --> 00:08:50.549 You simply cannot joke about Walt's masculinity. 00:08:50.990 --> 00:08:53.789 That is the one line you do not cross. Walt completely 00:08:53.789 --> 00:08:56.370 loses it. And this isn't the calculated cool 00:08:56.370 --> 00:08:58.690 violence of blowing up Tuco's office. This is 00:08:58.690 --> 00:09:01.509 messy. He physically tackles Saul. It's essentially 00:09:01.509 --> 00:09:04.450 two middle -aged men in bad suits awkwardly rolling 00:09:04.450 --> 00:09:07.409 around on the floor. It is. It is pathetic. It's 00:09:07.409 --> 00:09:10.070 not a cool cinematic fight scene. It's grunting 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:12.929 and flailing. Saul is yelling about his barn 00:09:12.929 --> 00:09:15.769 door being open. It's utterly ridiculous. But 00:09:15.769 --> 00:09:18.549 the consequences are not ridiculous. Walt gets 00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:20.929 up, straightens his jacket, and fires him. He 00:09:20.929 --> 00:09:23.330 looks at him and says, you're done. Yeah. This 00:09:23.330 --> 00:09:26.190 is a massive critical error on Walt's part. It 00:09:26.190 --> 00:09:29.809 is a meltdown, pure and simple. By firing Saul, 00:09:30.230 --> 00:09:33.149 he isn't just firing a sleazy lawyer, he is cutting 00:09:33.149 --> 00:09:36.529 off his entire money laundering capability. He 00:09:36.529 --> 00:09:39.250 is severing the vital link to the criminal underworld 00:09:39.250 --> 00:09:42.330 that actually protects him. Saul is the buffer. 00:09:43.009 --> 00:09:46.250 Without Saul, Walt is completely exposed. And 00:09:46.250 --> 00:09:47.970 the ripple effects are immediate. The source 00:09:47.970 --> 00:09:49.710 material points out something really sad here. 00:09:50.090 --> 00:09:52.149 Walter White Jr. Flynn is running that fundraising 00:09:52.149 --> 00:09:54.730 website, right? Save Walter White. Right. The 00:09:54.730 --> 00:09:57.389 website that Saul cleverly set up to funnel the 00:09:57.389 --> 00:09:59.629 drug money to the family so it looks like anonymous 00:09:59.629 --> 00:10:01.909 charity donations. And immediately after Walt 00:10:01.909 --> 00:10:04.590 fires Saul, Walter Jr. notices that the donations 00:10:04.590 --> 00:10:06.629 to the site have completely stopped. Because 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:08.850 Saul was the one pressing the button. Exactly. 00:10:09.269 --> 00:10:12.970 So Walt's ego, his sheer inability to handle 00:10:12.970 --> 00:10:15.879 a tacky joke about his wife's affair, literally 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.659 stops the money flow that is supposedly the whole 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:20.720 reason he got into this business for his family. 00:10:21.059 --> 00:10:24.080 He hurts his son, he hurts his financial future, 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.960 all because he couldn't take a joke. It perfectly 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:29.519 highlights the immense fragility of his ego. 00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:31.840 Yeah. He would literally rather blow up his entire 00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:35.080 operation than swallow his pride or admit that 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:38.690 he has been cuckolded. He is prioritizing his 00:10:38.690 --> 00:10:41.350 own feeling of being disrespected over the actual 00:10:41.350 --> 00:10:43.429 well -being of his family. But wait, it actually 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:45.110 gets worse. We haven't even hit the absolute 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:46.889 bottom here. We have the Benecki incident, the 00:10:46.889 --> 00:10:49.070 Saul incident, and then... Oh, the Carmen incident? 00:10:49.129 --> 00:10:51.289 The Carmen incident. I have to say, when I was 00:10:51.289 --> 00:10:52.990 rewatching this for the deep dive, I actually 00:10:52.990 --> 00:10:55.289 had to pause it. I physically could not take 00:10:55.289 --> 00:10:57.509 the secondhand embarrassment. It is arguably 00:10:57.509 --> 00:10:59.690 the most cringe -inducing moment in the entire 00:10:59.690 --> 00:11:01.950 series. Yes. And that includes the happy birthday 00:11:01.950 --> 00:11:04.129 song to Ted later on. Oh, please don't remind 00:11:04.129 --> 00:11:06.330 me of that. But yes, this might be the ultimate 00:11:06.330 --> 00:11:08.250 low point for Walter White as a human being. 00:11:09.690 --> 00:11:12.610 So let's set the scene. Walt is at the high school. 00:11:12.789 --> 00:11:15.269 He is still somehow working as a teacher. He 00:11:15.269 --> 00:11:17.669 gets called into the office of the vice principal, 00:11:18.230 --> 00:11:20.529 Carmen Molina. A woman who has been nothing but 00:11:20.529 --> 00:11:23.289 intensely professional and kind to him. She has 00:11:23.289 --> 00:11:25.289 been highly supportive of his cancer battle. 00:11:25.549 --> 00:11:27.929 She's been a friend. Exactly. She calls him in 00:11:27.929 --> 00:11:30.730 to talk about his erratic behavior, about his 00:11:30.730 --> 00:11:33.610 unexcused absences. It's a standard disciplinary 00:11:33.610 --> 00:11:37.730 meeting. But Walt... Walt is living in a completely 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:40.110 different reality. He's still heavily riding 00:11:40.110 --> 00:11:42.929 the adrenaline of his anger from this solemn 00:11:42.929 --> 00:11:45.889 Ted encounters. He is feeling this deeply twisted 00:11:45.889 --> 00:11:48.149 sense of entitlement. And what does Walt do? 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:52.059 He horribly misreads the entire situation. He 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.639 starts intensely staring at her. He compliments 00:11:54.639 --> 00:11:56.879 her eyes. That nice eyes. And then he makes a 00:11:56.879 --> 00:11:59.019 pass at her. He tries to forcefully kiss her. 00:11:59.320 --> 00:12:01.740 He leans entirely across the desk and just tries 00:12:01.740 --> 00:12:04.299 to plant one on her. It is excruciating. The 00:12:04.299 --> 00:12:06.340 heavy silence in the room before and after is 00:12:06.340 --> 00:12:09.600 just thick. It's deeply painful, and obviously 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:11.899 she rejects him. She pulls back, completely shocked. 00:12:12.279 --> 00:12:15.200 But it's not just a personal rejection. She immediately 00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:18.000 places him on indefinite leave. Which is standard 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.340 administrative code for, you are fired, but we 00:12:21.340 --> 00:12:23.200 are being nice about it because you have terminal 00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:25.519 cancer and we really don't want a lawsuit. Right. 00:12:25.919 --> 00:12:27.759 So let's just pause and look at the scoreboard 00:12:27.759 --> 00:12:30.269 here. In the span of about half an episode, Walt 00:12:30.269 --> 00:12:32.230 has been physically thrown out of his wife's 00:12:32.230 --> 00:12:34.750 office. He has assaulted and fired his criminal 00:12:34.750 --> 00:12:37.610 lawyer and he has sexually harassed his boss 00:12:37.610 --> 00:12:40.429 and lost his only legitimate job. Talk about 00:12:40.429 --> 00:12:42.909 aggressively burning bridges. It is a scorched 00:12:42.909 --> 00:12:45.909 earth policy on his own life. And what's truly 00:12:45.909 --> 00:12:48.289 fascinating here is the sheer awkwardness and 00:12:48.289 --> 00:12:51.830 deep desperation of that move on Carmen. It is 00:12:51.830 --> 00:12:53.809 not a romantic gesture. Not at all. It's not 00:12:53.809 --> 00:12:55.669 like he's secretly been harboring a crush on 00:12:55.669 --> 00:12:58.809 her for years. It is a raw attempt to assert 00:12:58.809 --> 00:13:01.850 dominance. You really think so? Absolutely. Think 00:13:01.850 --> 00:13:04.330 about the pattern of his day. He feels totally 00:13:04.330 --> 00:13:06.570 powerless with Skyler because she's sleeping 00:13:06.570 --> 00:13:08.590 with Ted. He feels powerless with Ted because 00:13:08.590 --> 00:13:10.769 Ted hadn't thrown out. He feels powerless with 00:13:10.769 --> 00:13:13.129 Saul because Saul was openly mocking him. So 00:13:13.129 --> 00:13:15.029 he retreats to the one place where he usually 00:13:15.029 --> 00:13:18.149 have absolute authority at school. Yeah. And 00:13:18.149 --> 00:13:20.610 he tries to exert physical power over Carmen. 00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:23.799 He thinks, I am Heisenberg. I can take whatever 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.220 I want. He's applying the ruthless logic of the 00:13:26.220 --> 00:13:28.980 drug trade to a suburban vice principal's office. 00:13:29.059 --> 00:13:32.559 Exactly. And it backfires spectacularly. He genuinely 00:13:32.559 --> 00:13:34.679 thinks his newfound alpha status is sexually 00:13:34.679 --> 00:13:38.000 magnetic. But to Carmen and to the audience, 00:13:38.220 --> 00:13:40.759 he's just a sad, sick, inappropriate chemistry 00:13:40.759 --> 00:13:43.480 teacher. It reveals just how deeply delusional 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:45.879 Walt has become. He thinks the world sees him 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:48.539 as a terrifying kingpin, but the world just sees 00:13:48.539 --> 00:13:51.029 a pathetic man falling apart. It really is the 00:13:51.029 --> 00:13:53.490 final nail in the coffin for Walt's respectable 00:13:53.490 --> 00:13:56.070 citizen persona. There is absolutely no going 00:13:56.070 --> 00:13:58.330 back to being Mr. White, the mild -mannered chemistry 00:13:58.330 --> 00:14:00.450 teacher after that. No. That door is permanently 00:14:00.450 --> 00:14:02.490 closed. Yeah. And he was the one who slammed 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:06.289 it shut. So while Walt is busy violently imploding, 00:14:06.490 --> 00:14:08.970 just setting his entire life on fire, we have 00:14:08.970 --> 00:14:11.809 Jesse Pinkman. And Jesse is on a completely different 00:14:11.809 --> 00:14:14.009 trajectory in this episode. It's almost a perfect 00:14:14.009 --> 00:14:16.570 inverse trajectory. Right. Let's move to this 00:14:16.570 --> 00:14:19.440 next part of the story. Jesse Pinkman's rise 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:22.139 and independence. Because while Walt is acting 00:14:22.139 --> 00:14:25.399 like a spoiled child, Jesse is, well, he's dealing 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:28.620 with some very real adult problem. He is, and 00:14:28.620 --> 00:14:30.139 he's dealing with them in a way that shows he 00:14:30.139 --> 00:14:32.279 has actually learned a thing or two from Walt. 00:14:32.419 --> 00:14:35.850 It starts with the gas station dilemma. I absolutely 00:14:35.850 --> 00:14:38.570 love this scene because it's so incredibly tense 00:14:38.570 --> 00:14:42.450 but also so completely mundane. The cinematography 00:14:42.450 --> 00:14:45.649 here is fantastic. It's gritty. It's washed out. 00:14:45.950 --> 00:14:47.750 Jesse is at a convenience store. He needs gas. 00:14:47.830 --> 00:14:50.490 He needs cigarettes. But he is entirely short 00:14:50.490 --> 00:14:53.210 on cash. Which is deeply ironic considering how 00:14:53.210 --> 00:14:54.990 millions of dollars are theoretically floating 00:14:54.990 --> 00:14:57.269 around in this business. But Jesse is dead broke. 00:14:57.429 --> 00:14:59.730 He is scraping for literal pennies. So what does 00:14:59.730 --> 00:15:02.899 he do? He pulls out a tiny little baggie of the 00:15:02.899 --> 00:15:05.600 blue meth. The blue sky? Right. He tries to bribe 00:15:05.600 --> 00:15:08.080 the cashier with meth. He tells her this is worth 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:10.720 way more than 20 bucks. And let's look at the 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:14.159 cashier for a second. This young woman, she is 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:16.379 understandably hesitant. She's looking at him 00:15:16.379 --> 00:15:19.960 like he is completely insane. But then the tension 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:23.399 dramatically ramps up. A uniformed police officer 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:25.940 queues up right behind him. This is a classic 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:28.220 Breaking Bad squeeze. The editing here is just 00:15:28.220 --> 00:15:31.580 so incredibly tight. Cut to the cop. Cut to Jesse. 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.159 Cut to the cashier. And the sound design drops 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:37.200 out a bit, intensely focusing on the sharp ringing 00:15:37.200 --> 00:15:40.240 of the cash register. Yeah. It's incredibly claustrophobic. 00:15:40.419 --> 00:15:43.039 It is. The cashier clearly sees the cop. Jesse 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:45.320 sees the cop. The cashier realizes that if she 00:15:45.320 --> 00:15:47.919 makes a scene or if she loudly refuses, the cop 00:15:47.919 --> 00:15:50.200 might intervene, and then suddenly there are 00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:52.019 illegal drugs on the counter right in front of 00:15:52.019 --> 00:15:54.179 him. So she makes a rapid panic calculation. 00:15:54.490 --> 00:15:57.450 It is ultimately safer to just quietly take the 00:15:57.450 --> 00:16:00.110 drugs and get this twitchy guy out of here than 00:16:00.110 --> 00:16:02.889 to cause a fuss. She bows to the immediate pressure. 00:16:03.250 --> 00:16:04.909 What really stands out to me in this scene is 00:16:04.909 --> 00:16:07.350 the immense risk. Jesse is living on a razor's 00:16:07.350 --> 00:16:10.470 edge here. He's frantic. He is literally bartering 00:16:10.470 --> 00:16:12.809 with a felony in front of a police officer for 00:16:12.809 --> 00:16:16.029 a single tank of gas. It contrasts so sharply 00:16:16.029 --> 00:16:18.250 with the highly calculated business moves he 00:16:18.250 --> 00:16:21.570 makes later in the episode. Here, he's a desperate 00:16:21.570 --> 00:16:24.269 street junkie hustling. Later, he acts like a 00:16:24.269 --> 00:16:26.889 major player. And that contrast is absolutely 00:16:26.889 --> 00:16:29.710 key. It shows us exactly where Jesse starts the 00:16:29.710 --> 00:16:33.529 episode desperate, low level. But it also shows 00:16:33.529 --> 00:16:37.389 his raw resourcefulness. He survives that terrifying 00:16:37.389 --> 00:16:39.730 encounter. Let's talk about that major shift. 00:16:39.980 --> 00:16:42.179 Because Jesse isn't just selling baggies for 00:16:42.179 --> 00:16:44.899 gas money anymore. He is cooking. He cooks a 00:16:44.899 --> 00:16:47.279 brand new batch entirely on his own. He diligently 00:16:47.279 --> 00:16:49.940 follows the recipe. He brings it to Walt, looking 00:16:49.940 --> 00:16:52.419 for maybe approval, maybe a partnership. Probably 00:16:52.419 --> 00:16:54.980 a bit of both. Jesse still deeply looks up to 00:16:54.980 --> 00:16:56.460 Walt, despite everything they've been through. 00:16:56.840 --> 00:16:58.740 He wants Mr. White to look at it and say, Good 00:16:58.740 --> 00:17:00.559 job. You actually learned. And what does Walt 00:17:00.559 --> 00:17:03.159 do? He totally dismisses it. He looks at the 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:06.819 crystal and coldly calls it substandard. Substandard. 00:17:06.940 --> 00:17:09.460 That specific word cuts so deep. Now we really 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:11.640 have to ask the critical question here. Is the 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:14.220 product actually bad? That is the million dollar 00:17:14.220 --> 00:17:16.779 question. And if you pay attention to the visuals, 00:17:17.240 --> 00:17:20.039 the glass is a perfect blue. It is clear. The 00:17:20.039 --> 00:17:22.359 shards are large. It looks exactly like Walt's 00:17:22.359 --> 00:17:24.839 pristine product. So is Walt just straight up 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:27.859 lying? Knowing Walt. And knowing exactly what 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:29.920 we know about Jessie's developing skills by this 00:17:29.920 --> 00:17:32.700 point, remember, Jessie's been paying very close 00:17:32.700 --> 00:17:35.240 attention. It is highly unlikely the product 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:37.880 was actually bad. This is purely Walt's pride 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:39.960 talking again. It's the whole I am the singular 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:42.880 artist mentality. Exactly. Walt desperately needs 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.619 to be the only genius in the room. If Jessie 00:17:45.619 --> 00:17:48.339 can suddenly cook the legendary blue meth without 00:17:48.339 --> 00:17:51.460 him, then Walt isn't special anymore. Walt is 00:17:51.460 --> 00:17:54.299 entirely replaceable. And Walt's fragile ego 00:17:54.299 --> 00:17:57.359 cannot handle being replaceable. So he gaslights 00:17:57.359 --> 00:17:59.420 Jesse. He tells him it's absolute garbage just 00:17:59.420 --> 00:18:02.279 to keep Jesse insecure and beneath him. So Walt 00:18:02.279 --> 00:18:04.140 cruelly rejects him. He thinks that by rejecting 00:18:04.140 --> 00:18:06.339 him, he's firmly putting Jesse back in his place. 00:18:06.700 --> 00:18:09.000 But this is exactly where Jesse surprises us. 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:11.779 Instead of sulking or giving up or going on a 00:18:11.779 --> 00:18:14.539 self -destructive bender, he decides to completely 00:18:14.539 --> 00:18:17.339 bypass the gatekeeper. He makes a massive power 00:18:17.339 --> 00:18:20.079 move. A legitimate, high -level business pivot. 00:18:20.250 --> 00:18:23.049 He firmly resolves to sell the product to Gus 00:18:23.049 --> 00:18:25.750 Fring directly. Which is incredibly bold. Gus 00:18:25.750 --> 00:18:28.529 Fring is a terrifying figure. Very bold. He uses 00:18:28.529 --> 00:18:31.009 Saul and Mike as mediators, even though Walt 00:18:31.009 --> 00:18:33.869 has quite literally just fired Saul. He says, 00:18:33.930 --> 00:18:36.630 I have the product. I want the deal. He knows 00:18:36.630 --> 00:18:39.069 the exact market value of what he is holding. 00:18:39.549 --> 00:18:40.869 And this is where it gets really interesting. 00:18:41.150 --> 00:18:44.630 Gus actually agrees. Gus Fring, the most meticulous, 00:18:44.809 --> 00:18:47.990 cautious man in the world, agrees to buy meth 00:18:47.990 --> 00:18:51.380 from a known user who just hours ago, bribed 00:18:51.380 --> 00:18:54.140 a gas station clerk. Well, see, that is the terrifying 00:18:54.140 --> 00:18:57.539 genius of Gus Frank. He reluctantly agrees to 00:18:57.539 --> 00:19:00.420 buy Jesse's product. But we have to look closely 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:03.559 at the why. Gus isn't just buying meth. He doesn't 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:06.240 need Jesse's few measly pounds of meth. He has 00:19:06.240 --> 00:19:08.579 a massive super lab waiting. He has an entire 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:10.660 international supply chain. So what exactly is 00:19:10.660 --> 00:19:12.839 he buying? He is buying leverage, pure and simple. 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.740 He is buying a wedge to aggressively drive between 00:19:15.740 --> 00:19:18.559 Jesse and Walt. Or, more accurately, he is buying 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:21.559 a surefire way to manipulate Walt. How so? Walk 00:19:21.559 --> 00:19:24.099 us through that. Gus is a master student of human 00:19:24.099 --> 00:19:26.559 nature. He knows Walt significantly better than 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.619 Walt knows himself. He correctly anticipates 00:19:29.619 --> 00:19:32.220 that Walt's massive pride and his pressing financial 00:19:32.220 --> 00:19:35.059 need, now that he's stupidly fired Saul and lost 00:19:35.059 --> 00:19:37.759 his teaching job, will eventually drag Walt kicking 00:19:37.759 --> 00:19:40.740 and screaming back into the fold if he sees Jesse 00:19:40.740 --> 00:19:43.289 succeeding with his formula. That is so deeply 00:19:43.289 --> 00:19:47.069 Machiavellian. It is 4D chess. Gus knows that 00:19:47.069 --> 00:19:49.390 the absolute quickest way to get Walt to cook 00:19:49.390 --> 00:19:52.869 again is not to politely ask him. It's to show 00:19:52.869 --> 00:19:55.710 him that someone else, specifically someone Walt, 00:19:55.789 --> 00:19:59.119 considers vastly inferior, like... Jesse is out 00:19:59.119 --> 00:20:00.920 there doing it and getting paid millions for 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:03.920 it. He is expertly weaponizing Walt's own massive 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:06.480 ego against him. It's brilliant. So Jesse genuinely 00:20:06.480 --> 00:20:08.640 thinks he's making a big boy business move. But 00:20:08.640 --> 00:20:11.140 really, he's just a pawn in Gus's incredibly 00:20:11.140 --> 00:20:13.539 complex game to capture the king. Precisely. 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:15.460 Jesse feels highly empowered. He's thinking, 00:20:15.880 --> 00:20:17.859 I sold to the big man, but the big man is just 00:20:17.859 --> 00:20:21.099 using him as bait on a hook. Wow. OK, so Walt 00:20:21.099 --> 00:20:23.799 is melting down. Jesse has leveled up, or at 00:20:23.799 --> 00:20:26.660 least thinks he has. Now let's look at the collateral 00:20:26.660 --> 00:20:29.279 damage of all this. Because the sheer explosion 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:32.380 of Walt's life sends dangerous shrapnel everywhere, 00:20:32.839 --> 00:20:35.519 we need to talk about Skyler and Hank. The two 00:20:35.519 --> 00:20:37.599 people standing closest to the fire. Let's start 00:20:37.599 --> 00:20:40.079 with Skyler. We call this section Skyler's Cold 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:42.039 War in the Notes. She is continuing the affair 00:20:42.039 --> 00:20:45.319 with Ted Benaki. Yes, but the internal dynamic 00:20:45.319 --> 00:20:48.250 has shifted entirely. Before, the affair was 00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:51.730 a secret, empowering rebellion. Now, after Walt's 00:20:51.730 --> 00:20:54.890 insane outburst, it is out in the open, at least 00:20:54.890 --> 00:20:57.630 at the office. It is. After Walt's plant -throwing 00:20:57.630 --> 00:20:59.950 outburst, her coworkers are incredibly suspicious. 00:21:00.170 --> 00:21:02.710 It's tense. They are whispering. But Skyla puts 00:21:02.710 --> 00:21:05.609 up this massive emotional wall. She outright 00:21:05.609 --> 00:21:07.970 refuses to tell Ted what is actually going on. 00:21:08.250 --> 00:21:10.250 Ted explicitly offers to let her move in, right? 00:21:10.650 --> 00:21:12.390 He desperately wants to be the knight in shining 00:21:12.390 --> 00:21:15.170 armor rescuing her. He says, pack a bag, bring 00:21:15.170 --> 00:21:17.230 the kids, come to my place. And she completely 00:21:17.230 --> 00:21:19.990 declines. She shuts him down cold. That refusal 00:21:19.990 --> 00:21:24.089 is extremely key. Why does she refuse? because 00:21:24.089 --> 00:21:26.470 Skylar is acting out against Walt by sleeping 00:21:26.470 --> 00:21:28.769 with Ted, but she isn't actually moving on. She 00:21:28.769 --> 00:21:30.650 isn't in love with Ted. She's just using him. 00:21:30.809 --> 00:21:33.869 In a way, yes, she is. She is trapping herself 00:21:33.869 --> 00:21:36.589 in an entirely new lie while desperately trying 00:21:36.589 --> 00:21:39.410 to escape the old one. She's profoundly isolated. 00:21:39.470 --> 00:21:41.390 She can't tell Ted the truth. She can't say, 00:21:41.750 --> 00:21:43.890 oh, by the way, my husband is a major meth dealer 00:21:43.890 --> 00:21:46.210 and a murderer, so she has to suffer entirely 00:21:46.210 --> 00:21:48.529 in silence. She can't give Ted the necessary 00:21:48.529 --> 00:21:51.630 context for why Walt is acting crazy, so she 00:21:51.630 --> 00:21:53.480 just has to look like the erratic woman with 00:21:53.480 --> 00:21:56.299 the violently crazy husband. She's just as horribly 00:21:56.299 --> 00:21:59.059 alone as Walt is, in a way. She really is. And 00:21:59.059 --> 00:22:01.319 she is slowly realizing that having an affair 00:22:01.319 --> 00:22:03.640 doesn't actually solve the fundamental problem 00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:05.660 of being married to a terrifying criminal. It 00:22:05.660 --> 00:22:07.960 just adds another massive layer of complication. 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:10.440 And then there is Hank. Oh, Hank. Hank Schwader. 00:22:11.409 --> 00:22:13.789 This specific storyline breaks my heart every 00:22:13.789 --> 00:22:16.450 single time I watch it. We see Hank's dark obsession 00:22:16.450 --> 00:22:18.630 really take firm hold here. The plot point is 00:22:18.630 --> 00:22:20.650 that Hank is supposed to finally go back to El 00:22:20.650 --> 00:22:23.490 Paso. The big promotion. The elite task force. 00:22:23.769 --> 00:22:26.910 The exact job every ambitious cop wants. Right. 00:22:27.269 --> 00:22:29.730 But at the very last minute, he completely ditches 00:22:29.730 --> 00:22:31.930 the assignment. He bails. Yeah. He literally 00:22:31.930 --> 00:22:34.690 turns the car around or rather stubbornly refuses 00:22:34.690 --> 00:22:36.710 to get on the plane. He confidently claims he 00:22:36.710 --> 00:22:40.380 has a brand new lead on the Blue Myth. And where 00:22:40.380 --> 00:22:43.319 exactly does this lead come from? It comes from 00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:46.259 the blurry ATM images at the gas station. Connecting 00:22:46.259 --> 00:22:48.400 right back to Jesse's desperate bribe in segment 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:51.500 two, see how incredibly tight this writing is? 00:22:52.259 --> 00:22:55.319 Jesse's tiny panicked mistake immediately becomes 00:22:55.319 --> 00:22:57.559 Hank's entire lifeline. Everything is deeply 00:22:57.559 --> 00:23:00.000 connected. So Hank sees the blue meth is back 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:02.539 on the streets. He tracks down the cashier. He 00:23:02.539 --> 00:23:05.319 intensely questions her. He is almost manic about 00:23:05.319 --> 00:23:07.779 it. He's aggressively showing her photos. He's 00:23:07.779 --> 00:23:10.220 leaning in way too close. And notice the crucial 00:23:10.220 --> 00:23:13.140 interaction with Steve Gomez here. Gomez is his 00:23:13.140 --> 00:23:15.589 partner, his closest friend. Gomez is deeply 00:23:15.589 --> 00:23:18.250 concerned. He gently asks about Hank's mental 00:23:18.250 --> 00:23:20.349 well -being. He knows Hank is dodging El Paso. 00:23:20.569 --> 00:23:22.289 He says, hey, man, aren't you supposed to be 00:23:22.289 --> 00:23:24.750 at the airport right now? But Hank completely 00:23:24.750 --> 00:23:27.990 dismisses him. He snaps at him. He angrily insists 00:23:27.990 --> 00:23:31.049 he is close to something big. If we tightly connect 00:23:31.049 --> 00:23:33.450 this to the bigger thematic picture, and actually, 00:23:33.750 --> 00:23:36.130 the critics at the A .V. club noted this perfectly, 00:23:36.789 --> 00:23:38.829 Hank constantly presents himself as this guy 00:23:38.829 --> 00:23:42.029 who is fully in charge. He is the tough, unshakable 00:23:42.029 --> 00:23:45.329 cop. But really, he's totally out of his comfort 00:23:45.329 --> 00:23:48.890 zone. It's severe PTSD, isn't it? It is absolutely 00:23:48.890 --> 00:23:52.150 implied, deeply untreated PTSD. Remember the 00:23:52.150 --> 00:23:54.710 horrific turtle bomb in season two? Hank saw 00:23:54.710 --> 00:23:57.750 his colleagues brutally blown apart. He is absolutely 00:23:57.750 --> 00:23:59.970 terrified of going back to El Paso, where he 00:23:59.970 --> 00:24:02.109 witnessed that extreme cartel level violence. 00:24:02.490 --> 00:24:05.299 He mentally cannot handle it. So the Blue Meth 00:24:05.299 --> 00:24:08.099 case isn't just a regular case to him? No, it 00:24:08.099 --> 00:24:10.400 is a psychological shield. He is burying himself 00:24:10.400 --> 00:24:12.519 obsessively in this local case, the Blue Meth, 00:24:12.839 --> 00:24:15.170 to completely avoid facing that trauma. He's 00:24:15.170 --> 00:24:16.650 not chasing the Blue Meth because it's the most 00:24:16.650 --> 00:24:19.430 logical, pressing police work. He's chasing it 00:24:19.430 --> 00:24:21.589 because it is his safety blanket. It keeps him 00:24:21.589 --> 00:24:23.250 firmly in Albuquerque. It keeps him safe. That 00:24:23.250 --> 00:24:26.210 is deeply tragic. He is destroying himself internally 00:24:26.210 --> 00:24:29.150 to feel safe externally. He's alienating his 00:24:29.150 --> 00:24:32.269 partner, risking his entire career, all because 00:24:32.269 --> 00:24:35.309 he is way too afraid to admit that he is afraid. 00:24:35.470 --> 00:24:39.289 And in doing so, he is ironically inching closer 00:24:39.289 --> 00:24:42.490 to the very immense danger he thinks he's carefully 00:24:42.490 --> 00:24:45.789 controlling. He's blindly... Heisenberg to avoid 00:24:45.789 --> 00:24:48.569 the cartel not realizing they're rapidly becoming 00:24:48.569 --> 00:24:50.589 one in the same. So we have all these incredibly 00:24:50.589 --> 00:24:53.349 tense threads tangling together. Walt's humiliating 00:24:53.349 --> 00:24:56.650 failure, Jesse's bold deal, Skyler's painful 00:24:56.650 --> 00:24:59.730 silence, Hank's dark obsession. And it all culminates 00:24:59.730 --> 00:25:02.190 in the climax of the episode, the literal meaning 00:25:02.190 --> 00:25:04.589 of green light. This is exactly where this symbolism 00:25:04.589 --> 00:25:06.829 really hits home. The final sequence of this 00:25:06.829 --> 00:25:09.730 episode is a sheer master class in visual storytelling. 00:25:09.900 --> 00:25:12.500 So let's carefully set the scene. Jesse makes 00:25:12.500 --> 00:25:14.819 the physical delivery to Victor. This is Gus's 00:25:14.819 --> 00:25:17.420 guy. The scary silent guy who doesn't talk much. 00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:20.000 Right. But there is a massive twist. Jesse gets 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:22.220 the money, but he is instantly outraged because 00:25:22.220 --> 00:25:24.160 he only gets half the money. He quickly counts 00:25:24.160 --> 00:25:26.839 and goes, where's the rest? He did all the backbreaking 00:25:26.839 --> 00:25:28.940 work, he took all the physical risk, but the 00:25:28.940 --> 00:25:32.059 envelope is extremely light. Why? Because Gus 00:25:32.059 --> 00:25:34.900 is masterfully playing the game. Victor coldly 00:25:34.900 --> 00:25:37.440 tells him, that's your half. The other half goes 00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:40.420 to your partner. Meaning Walt. Even though Walt 00:25:40.420 --> 00:25:43.359 emphatically did not cook it. Exactly. Gus is 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:45.640 forcefully binding them back together. The scene 00:25:45.640 --> 00:25:48.039 shifts. Walt is stopped at a normal red light. 00:25:48.099 --> 00:25:49.900 He's just sitting there in his horrible Aztec. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:52.839 He looks completely defeated. And Victor suddenly 00:25:52.839 --> 00:25:55.339 pulls up right next to him. The underlying tension 00:25:55.339 --> 00:25:59.339 here is palpable. Walt looks over. deeply confused. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:02.619 Victor casually tosses a heavy bag directly into 00:26:02.619 --> 00:26:05.539 Walt's open window. It aggressively lands on 00:26:05.539 --> 00:26:08.400 the passenger seat. It is the other half of the 00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:10.880 illicit earnings. Your half. Walt didn't cook 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:13.519 it. Walt explicitly rejected it. But he gets 00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:15.819 paid for it anyway. It is Gus clearly saying, 00:26:16.099 --> 00:26:17.859 we are in business together, whether you like 00:26:17.859 --> 00:26:20.779 it or not. You are irrevocably involved. I am 00:26:20.779 --> 00:26:23.460 paying you highly for your genius formula. Even 00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:25.339 if you arbitrarily decide you aren't the one 00:26:25.339 --> 00:26:28.140 actively using it, it's a very sharp hook. And 00:26:28.140 --> 00:26:30.259 then the radio. This is the part that actually 00:26:30.259 --> 00:26:32.720 gave me chills whenever you read the notes. While 00:26:32.720 --> 00:26:35.559 Walt is sitting there silently staring at this 00:26:35.559 --> 00:26:38.420 heavy bag of drug money, a local news report 00:26:38.420 --> 00:26:40.779 comes on the radio. The ultimate guilt trip. 00:26:41.240 --> 00:26:43.740 The universe heavily weighing in. The news report 00:26:43.740 --> 00:26:45.980 calmly states that Donald Margolis has been rushed 00:26:45.980 --> 00:26:48.220 to the hospital after a self -inflicted gunshot 00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:50.420 wound. And for those who might need a quick refresher, 00:26:50.700 --> 00:26:53.359 Donald Margolis is Jane's deeply grieving father. 00:26:53.759 --> 00:26:56.259 Jane, Jessie's girlfriend who tragically died 00:26:56.259 --> 00:26:58.839 of an overdose while Walt coldly watched and 00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:01.460 did absolutely nothing to save her. And Donald 00:27:01.460 --> 00:27:04.119 Margolis is also the distracted air traffic controller 00:27:04.119 --> 00:27:07.299 who, because of his profound, mind -numbing grief 00:27:07.299 --> 00:27:10.619 over Jane, accidentally caused the massive midair 00:27:10.619 --> 00:27:13.099 collision directly over Albuquerque in the previous 00:27:13.099 --> 00:27:16.579 season. The Wayfarer 515 disaster. So the entire 00:27:16.579 --> 00:27:18.500 universe is literally screaming at Walt through 00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:21.839 his car radio. It really is. Think deeply about 00:27:21.839 --> 00:27:24.480 the layers here. He is physically holding a bag 00:27:24.480 --> 00:27:27.339 of dirty money derived directly from the drug 00:27:27.339 --> 00:27:31.000 trade. That specific trade killed Jane. Jane's 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:33.480 death completely broke her father. Her father's 00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:35.859 immense grief caused the horrific plane crash. 00:27:36.220 --> 00:27:39.019 And now her father has actively tried to kill 00:27:39.019 --> 00:27:42.140 himself. Every single massive tragedy in the 00:27:42.140 --> 00:27:44.859 last two seasons can be directly traced straight 00:27:44.859 --> 00:27:47.759 back to Walt's selfish decisions. The sheer weight 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:49.660 of that. I mean, how does he not just intentionally 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:51.799 drive his car straight into a brick wall? He 00:27:51.799 --> 00:27:54.480 stares at the money. He intensely listens to 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:56.859 the radio. He is starkly faced with the ultimate 00:27:56.859 --> 00:27:59.759 undeniable evidence of his own extreme toxicity. 00:28:00.099 --> 00:28:01.900 And then the brilliant visual direction kicks 00:28:01.900 --> 00:28:03.839 in. This is the actual title sequence moment. 00:28:04.039 --> 00:28:06.859 Yes. Victor tosses the money. The grim news report 00:28:06.859 --> 00:28:10.940 plays. Walt steers blankly ahead. And then the 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:13.839 traffic light turns green. Green light. It definitely 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:15.960 not subtle, but it is incredibly powerful. What 00:28:15.960 --> 00:28:18.180 does it mean to you fundamentally? Because obviously 00:28:18.180 --> 00:28:20.650 it literally means go, but... It's highly multi 00:28:20.650 --> 00:28:23.250 -layered. On the absolute surface, green light 00:28:23.250 --> 00:28:25.589 represents Gus formally giving the go -ahead 00:28:25.589 --> 00:28:28.789 to the massive business operation. The lab is 00:28:28.789 --> 00:28:31.190 live. The money has physically changed hands. 00:28:31.849 --> 00:28:34.589 But on a much deeper, profound character level, 00:28:34.869 --> 00:28:37.910 it represents the entire world relentlessly moving 00:28:37.910 --> 00:28:40.509 on. The world moving on. The light turns green. 00:28:41.009 --> 00:28:43.589 Normal traffic moves. Regular life continues. 00:28:44.089 --> 00:28:46.529 The ordinary cars behind him start to impatiently 00:28:46.529 --> 00:28:49.319 honk. The world... absolutely does not stop just 00:28:49.319 --> 00:28:52.099 because Walt is suddenly feeling guilty. The 00:28:52.099 --> 00:28:54.539 massive machinery of life and the ruthless machinery 00:28:54.539 --> 00:28:57.079 of the drug trade just keeps churning forward. 00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:00.140 And Walt? Walt is totally stagnant. He's just 00:29:00.140 --> 00:29:02.339 sitting there completely paralyzed by the dirty 00:29:02.339 --> 00:29:04.720 money and the overwhelming guilt. But the light 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:07.160 is green. He is being forced to move. That is 00:29:07.160 --> 00:29:09.420 powerful. The universe is entirely indifferent 00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:11.319 to his internal suffering. It just loudly says 00:29:11.319 --> 00:29:13.670 go. And he has to make a choice right then. Do 00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:15.730 I sit here and face the music, or do I hit the 00:29:15.730 --> 00:29:18.210 gas? Do I fully accept the green light and become 00:29:18.210 --> 00:29:20.650 the absolute villain, or do I finally stop? And 00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:22.390 we all know exactly what he eventually chooses. 00:29:22.829 --> 00:29:25.609 He hits the gas. He always, always hits the gas. 00:29:26.109 --> 00:29:29.200 Man. OK, let's take a deep breath. That is an 00:29:29.200 --> 00:29:31.700 incredibly heavy ending, but we really need to 00:29:31.700 --> 00:29:33.740 look at how this episode was received because 00:29:33.740 --> 00:29:36.059 as you mentioned right at the top, it wasn't 00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:38.500 a slam dunk for everyone at the time. It's incredibly 00:29:38.500 --> 00:29:41.259 easy for us to sit here comfortably in 2026 and 00:29:41.259 --> 00:29:44.500 loudly say masterpiece, but back in 2010, not 00:29:44.500 --> 00:29:46.460 so much. No, it really wasn't. Let's look at 00:29:46.460 --> 00:29:49.180 segment five, critical reception and legacy. 00:29:49.579 --> 00:29:52.920 Back in 2010, Seth Amidin from IGN, who usually 00:29:52.920 --> 00:29:54.980 absolutely loved the show, gave it an 8 out of 00:29:54.980 --> 00:29:57.599 10. Which is technically a solid score, but for 00:29:57.599 --> 00:29:59.759 Breaking Bad, that's actually a little remarkably 00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:02.099 lukewarm. Usually they were consistently pulling 00:30:02.099 --> 00:30:04.359 nines and tens across the board. Right. And I 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:06.559 want to read exactly what he wrote, because it's 00:30:06.559 --> 00:30:09.119 fascinating in hindsight. He said, quote, two 00:30:09.119 --> 00:30:11.960 horrible meltdowns aren't so fun to watch. And 00:30:11.960 --> 00:30:14.660 he explicitly suggested that the series was lagging 00:30:14.660 --> 00:30:17.480 in quality since season two. It's lagging in 00:30:17.480 --> 00:30:20.480 quality? Yeah. It is... Honestly, so funny to 00:30:20.480 --> 00:30:22.839 hear that now, knowing exactly how explosive 00:30:22.839 --> 00:30:25.940 Season 3 ends and how Season 4 is widely considered 00:30:25.940 --> 00:30:28.779 a television masterpiece. But I entirely get 00:30:28.779 --> 00:30:31.460 it. At the time, week to week, people were impatient. 00:30:31.680 --> 00:30:33.920 They eagerly wanted the thrill. They wanted crazy 00:30:33.920 --> 00:30:36.440 tuco. They wanted giant explosions. They wanted 00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:39.440 the fun of the crime. Exactly. And a meetin' 00:30:39.839 --> 00:30:42.640 specific point about fun that is crucial to unpack. 00:30:43.240 --> 00:30:45.400 Is Breaking Bad actually supposed to be fun? 00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:47.440 That is a really good debate. I mean, throwing 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:49.660 the pizza on the roof is incredibly fun. Using 00:30:49.660 --> 00:30:52.180 giant magnets to destroy a laptop is fun. Sure, 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:54.500 there is brilliant dark comedy. But this specific 00:30:54.500 --> 00:30:58.000 episode, watching a sick middle -aged man awkwardly 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:00.619 fight his sleazy lawyer and get coldly rejected 00:31:00.619 --> 00:31:03.180 by a vice principal, that is absolutely not funny. 00:31:03.299 --> 00:31:05.640 It's deeply uncomfortable. It's pure cringe comedy 00:31:05.640 --> 00:31:08.519 entirely without the comedy. It's reality TV 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:11.240 levels of sheer awkwardness. So the core critique 00:31:11.240 --> 00:31:13.240 was basically, this is too horribly real. This 00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:16.569 is too depressing to watch. Yes. It felt to some 00:31:16.569 --> 00:31:18.569 like the narrative wheels were just spinning. 00:31:19.309 --> 00:31:21.869 But in clear hindsight, we know that the wheels 00:31:21.869 --> 00:31:23.950 firmly weren't spinning. They were aggressively 00:31:23.950 --> 00:31:27.210 digging deep traction into the mud so the narrative 00:31:27.210 --> 00:31:30.049 car could violently launch forward later. Noel 00:31:30.049 --> 00:31:33.089 Murray from the AV Club gave it a B. A -B. That 00:31:33.089 --> 00:31:35.759 is a very fine, acceptable grade. But he was 00:31:35.759 --> 00:31:37.759 definitely a bit more positive about the underlying 00:31:37.759 --> 00:31:40.700 themes. He praised the delicate balance of action 00:31:40.700 --> 00:31:43.640 and inaction, and he specifically pointed out 00:31:43.640 --> 00:31:46.259 Hank's deep struggle as a highlight. Yeah, Murray 00:31:46.259 --> 00:31:48.480 clearly understood that the episode was heavily 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:50.539 about the deep psychology of the characters. 00:31:51.099 --> 00:31:53.359 He astutely noted that it's fundamentally about 00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:55.460 how someone who consistently represents himself 00:31:55.460 --> 00:31:58.759 as fully in charge desperately deals with being 00:31:58.759 --> 00:32:01.240 totally out of his comfort zone. That perfectly 00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:04.039 captures both Hank and Walt. Hank constantly 00:32:04.039 --> 00:32:06.380 pretends to be the unbreakable super cop. Walt 00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:08.759 constantly pretends to be the untouchable kingpin. 00:32:09.140 --> 00:32:11.400 Both are spectacularly failing at the exact same 00:32:11.400 --> 00:32:13.319 time. What about the retrospective rankings, 00:32:13.619 --> 00:32:15.680 though? When we look back from 2019 or later, 00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:19.059 does time generally heal all wounds? Surprisingly, 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:22.140 no. It still consistently ranks very low. The 00:32:22.140 --> 00:32:25.440 Ringer definitively ranked it 56 out of 62 total 00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:29.099 episodes. Vulture ranked it 49th overall. 56 00:32:29.099 --> 00:32:31.940 out of 62. That is absolute bottom tier for a 00:32:31.940 --> 00:32:34.000 show this good. It really is. Why do you think 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:36.099 that is? Is it strictly just because it's widely 00:32:36.099 --> 00:32:38.380 viewed as a setup episode? I heavily think so. 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:41.660 It is a necessary bridge. It carefully moves 00:32:41.660 --> 00:32:44.460 the essential pieces from A to B. It totally 00:32:44.460 --> 00:32:48.160 lacks the explosive, shocking violence of one 00:32:48.160 --> 00:32:49.799 minute, which comes just a few short episodes 00:32:49.799 --> 00:32:52.680 later, or the intense, thrilling heist energy 00:32:52.680 --> 00:32:55.599 of Dead Freight. It is fundamentally an episode 00:32:55.599 --> 00:32:58.299 about embarrassing failure. And watching failure 00:32:58.299 --> 00:33:01.009 is just inherently hard to re -watch. It's basically 00:33:01.009 --> 00:33:03.269 the Scott's Tots of Breaking Bad episodes. That 00:33:03.269 --> 00:33:05.730 is a genuinely great analogy. It is absolutely 00:33:05.730 --> 00:33:07.269 the Scott's Tots. You desperately want to look 00:33:07.269 --> 00:33:09.490 away. You want to immediately skip the painful 00:33:09.490 --> 00:33:11.549 scene with Carmen. You want to fast forward the 00:33:11.549 --> 00:33:14.269 awkward fight with Saul. It literally makes your 00:33:14.269 --> 00:33:16.569 skin crawl. But despite the vocal critics saying 00:33:16.569 --> 00:33:19.150 it was noticeably lagging, the audience was definitely 00:33:19.150 --> 00:33:22.609 still showing up. Yes. The raw viewership data 00:33:22.609 --> 00:33:26.049 is highly interesting. The episode had 1 .46 00:33:26.049 --> 00:33:29.329 million live viewers. That was noticeably up 00:33:29.329 --> 00:33:33.069 from 1 .33 million for the extremely tense previous 00:33:33.069 --> 00:33:35.730 episode, IFT. So even if the official critics 00:33:35.730 --> 00:33:39.049 were openly saying, meh, the actual audience 00:33:39.049 --> 00:33:41.450 was steadily growing. The word of mouth was rapidly 00:33:41.450 --> 00:33:43.609 spreading. People intuitively knew something 00:33:43.609 --> 00:33:46.470 massive was building, even if this specific hour 00:33:46.470 --> 00:33:49.130 was a bit of a psychological slow burn. So what 00:33:49.130 --> 00:33:52.609 does this all ultimately mean. We've deeply unpacked 00:33:52.609 --> 00:33:55.230 the plot, the underlying psychology, the contemporary 00:33:55.230 --> 00:33:57.930 reviews. Let's cleanly summarize the key takeaways 00:33:57.930 --> 00:34:01.269 for everyone. Sure. In 47 short minutes, we vividly 00:34:01.269 --> 00:34:04.269 saw Walt Luce's family, his lawyer, and his only 00:34:04.269 --> 00:34:06.869 liquidimate job. We clearly saw Jesse vigorously 00:34:06.869 --> 00:34:09.349 prove he can actually cook and confidently engage 00:34:09.349 --> 00:34:11.170 in high level business, even if he's secretly 00:34:11.170 --> 00:34:13.840 being manipulated. And we painfully saw Hank 00:34:13.840 --> 00:34:16.119 repeatedly true that he absolutely cannot let 00:34:16.119 --> 00:34:18.400 go of this case because truly letting go means 00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:20.840 finally facing his own terrifying demons. And 00:34:20.840 --> 00:34:22.980 for you, the listener sitting at home, why exactly 00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:25.119 should you care about green light? I think this 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:27.920 very specific episode profoundly teaches us a 00:34:27.920 --> 00:34:31.159 deeply timeless lesson. Pride inevitably precedes 00:34:31.159 --> 00:34:34.420 the fall. Walt's massive unchecked pride completely 00:34:34.420 --> 00:34:37.960 destroys his entire safety net. But also, it 00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:40.320 clearly teaches us that desperately trying to 00:34:40.320 --> 00:34:43.119 aggressively control everything usually leads 00:34:43.119 --> 00:34:45.820 directly to abruptly losing control of absolutely 00:34:45.820 --> 00:34:48.559 everything. Walt forcefully tries to control 00:34:48.559 --> 00:34:51.920 Skyler, Saul, and the entire drug trade. He predictably 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:53.780 ends up with absolutely nothing but a heavy bag 00:34:53.780 --> 00:34:56.400 of cash he didn't even earn and a crushing guilty 00:34:56.400 --> 00:34:59.519 conscience. That is the ultimate irony. He violently 00:34:59.519 --> 00:35:01.840 wants control, but he has literally never been 00:35:01.840 --> 00:35:04.219 more out of control in his entire life. Exactly. 00:35:04.320 --> 00:35:05.960 Okay, we are wrapping up, but right before we 00:35:05.960 --> 00:35:07.579 go, I really want to linger on something you 00:35:07.579 --> 00:35:10.440 briefly mentioned earlier about Gus Fring. The 00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:12.380 ultimate puppet master. We talked extensively 00:35:12.380 --> 00:35:14.800 about how Gus strategically bought the meth to 00:35:14.800 --> 00:35:17.619 heavily manipulate Walt, but let's zoom way out 00:35:17.619 --> 00:35:20.449 for a second. You had a really profound thought 00:35:20.449 --> 00:35:22.489 about free will in this particular universe. 00:35:23.030 --> 00:35:25.489 I do. And this is something I really want everyone 00:35:25.489 --> 00:35:28.429 listening to truly sit with. We enthusiastically 00:35:28.429 --> 00:35:30.869 watch Breaking Bad, and we constantly harshly 00:35:30.869 --> 00:35:32.489 judge the characters for their poor choices. 00:35:32.610 --> 00:35:35.190 We say, why did Walt do that? Or why didn't Jesse 00:35:35.190 --> 00:35:37.710 just finally leave? Right. We literally scream 00:35:37.710 --> 00:35:40.469 at the TV, don't get in the car. But look closely 00:35:40.469 --> 00:35:42.550 at Greenlight. Look at the exact mechanics of 00:35:42.550 --> 00:35:46.110 it. Walt is entirely reacting to Gus's surprise 00:35:46.110 --> 00:35:49.260 money drop. Jesse is entirely reacting to his 00:35:49.260 --> 00:35:52.159 own crippling addiction and poverty. Hank is 00:35:52.159 --> 00:35:54.639 entirely reacting to his massive untreated trauma. 00:35:55.380 --> 00:35:58.019 Skyler is reacting entirely to Walt's unending 00:35:58.019 --> 00:36:00.800 lies. Everyone is just reacting. Is anyone actually 00:36:00.800 --> 00:36:02.940 initiating anything? Is anyone actually actively 00:36:02.940 --> 00:36:06.440 driving the car? Maybe Gus. Maybe Gus. But honestly, 00:36:06.619 --> 00:36:08.460 even Gus is constantly reacting to the violent 00:36:08.460 --> 00:36:11.000 cartel desperately protecting his own massive 00:36:11.000 --> 00:36:13.500 territory. The profound question I want to firmly 00:36:13.500 --> 00:36:16.199 leave you with today is this. In this deeply 00:36:16.199 --> 00:36:19.360 toxic ecosystem, is anyone actually making a 00:36:19.360 --> 00:36:22.570 genuine free choice? Or is absolutely everyone 00:36:22.570 --> 00:36:26.150 just traffic? Just traffic. Just cars helplessly 00:36:26.150 --> 00:36:28.849 stopped at a red light, blindly waiting for a 00:36:28.849 --> 00:36:31.429 powerful external force to suddenly turn it green. 00:36:32.210 --> 00:36:34.690 And when it finally turns green, they mindlessly 00:36:34.690 --> 00:36:37.469 move. Not because they actually want to, but 00:36:37.469 --> 00:36:40.349 entirely because the light changed. Because the 00:36:40.349 --> 00:36:42.449 strict circumstances completely dictated it. 00:36:42.590 --> 00:36:45.349 So Walt isn't necessarily breaking bad. He's 00:36:45.349 --> 00:36:48.309 just being violently pushed bad. Or maybe the 00:36:48.309 --> 00:36:50.429 green light isn't permission at all. Maybe it's 00:36:50.429 --> 00:36:54.090 a ruthless test and absolutely everyone spectacularly 00:36:54.090 --> 00:36:57.429 fails it. Wow. That is terrifyingly bleak. Oh, 00:36:57.429 --> 00:37:00.409 that's breaking bad. True. Well, on that highly 00:37:00.409 --> 00:37:02.329 truthful note, we are officially going to sign 00:37:02.329 --> 00:37:03.969 off. Thank you so much for listening to this 00:37:03.969 --> 00:37:06.769 extensive deep dive into the absolute psychological 00:37:06.769 --> 00:37:08.730 wreckage of Walter White. We will definitely 00:37:08.730 --> 00:37:10.670 see you on the next one. Goodbye, everyone. See 00:37:10.670 --> 00:37:11.889 you on the next deep dive.