WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.240 Welcome back to the deep dive. Today we're we're 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:04.559 actually doing something a little bit different. 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:06.780 Usually, you know, we take a really broad topic, 00:00:07.179 --> 00:00:09.339 maybe a new technology or a huge historical event, 00:00:09.359 --> 00:00:11.179 and we try to pick it apart over the hour. Right. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:15.490 But today. We're zooming way in. We are putting 00:00:15.490 --> 00:00:18.609 just a single hour of television under the microscope. 00:00:18.769 --> 00:00:22.030 And not just any hour either. Exactly. Not just 00:00:22.030 --> 00:00:24.350 any hour. We are looking at what is widely considered 00:00:24.350 --> 00:00:28.030 the single greatest hour of scripted drama in 00:00:28.030 --> 00:00:30.329 history. We're talking about Breaking Bad and 00:00:30.329 --> 00:00:34.359 specifically the episode Ozymandias. It's really 00:00:34.359 --> 00:00:36.960 the hour that changed the medium, I think. Yeah, 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:38.939 totally. For anyone who watched it when it first 00:00:38.939 --> 00:00:41.539 aired, or even for people discovering it now, 00:00:41.619 --> 00:00:44.259 there is very clearly a before and an after. 00:00:44.619 --> 00:00:46.740 It's the exact moment where the show stopped 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.179 being this dark adventure and just became a full 00:00:49.179 --> 00:00:51.640 -blown tragedy. It's so heavy. I mean, I rewatched 00:00:51.640 --> 00:00:54.000 it to prep for this deep dive. And I honestly 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:56.460 had to pause it like three times. It is just 00:00:56.460 --> 00:00:58.929 relentless. It really is. But before we get into 00:00:58.929 --> 00:01:01.469 the actual emotional damage it causes, let's 00:01:01.469 --> 00:01:03.670 talk about its status in the culture. Because 00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.790 we throw around words like greatest a lot, but 00:01:06.790 --> 00:01:09.189 in this case, the data actually backs it up. 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:11.390 Oh, it absolutely does. If you look at the critical 00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:14.430 consensus, it is just overwhelming. I mean, even 00:01:14.430 --> 00:01:17.189 recently in 2024, Rolling Stone updated their 00:01:17.189 --> 00:01:19.569 ranking of the best TV episodes of all time. 00:01:19.870 --> 00:01:21.989 And Ozymandias was sitting right there at number 00:01:21.989 --> 00:01:24.030 one. Number one. Yeah, number one. And you have 00:01:24.030 --> 00:01:26.250 to remember, that's against the Sopranos, against 00:01:26.250 --> 00:01:28.769 the wire. against literally everything that has 00:01:28.769 --> 00:01:30.989 come out in the massive streaming era since. 00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:33.609 And then there's the IMDB score, which is a whole 00:01:33.609 --> 00:01:36.629 other saga in itself. Oh boy, yeah, the IMDB 00:01:36.629 --> 00:01:39.750 saga. For over 13 years, this held a perfect 00:01:39.750 --> 00:01:44.090 10 out of 10 rating. That is with over 200 ,000 00:01:44.090 --> 00:01:47.510 people voting. Statistically speaking, that just 00:01:47.510 --> 00:01:49.549 shouldn't happen. No, it's basically impossible. 00:01:49.650 --> 00:01:51.769 Right, you usually get trolls or contrarians 00:01:51.769 --> 00:01:53.450 or... Honestly, just people who accidentally 00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:55.170 click the wrong button on their phone. Yeah. 00:01:55.370 --> 00:01:57.650 But for a decade, it was absolute perfection. 00:01:57.909 --> 00:02:00.349 It was the only episode of television to hold 00:02:00.349 --> 00:02:03.569 that perfect score for that long. It became this 00:02:03.569 --> 00:02:05.750 sort of Internet monument. Of course, as we will 00:02:05.750 --> 00:02:07.909 discuss later on, monuments tend to crumble. 00:02:08.409 --> 00:02:11.689 Right. The 2026 review bombing war. Yes, we definitely 00:02:11.689 --> 00:02:13.569 have to talk about that war later. But the fact 00:02:13.569 --> 00:02:17.349 that it stood for so long is just a massive testament 00:02:17.349 --> 00:02:20.389 to how undeniable this piece of art is. And the 00:02:20.389 --> 00:02:23.620 award shelf is pretty crowded. too, right? Writing 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:26.500 Emmy for Moira Wally Beckett, lead actor for 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:29.300 Bryan Cranston, supporting actress for Anna Gunn, 00:02:29.539 --> 00:02:32.159 it basically swept the board that year. Which 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:34.479 brings us to our mission for today. We aren't 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:36.300 just going to sit here and recap the plot. If 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:38.819 you're listening to this deep dive, you probably 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:40.800 already know that Hank dies and Walt goes on 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:42.759 the run. Yeah, you know the basics. Exactly. 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:45.479 We want to unpack how this thing was made. We 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:47.460 want to look at the production secrets, you know, 00:02:47.539 --> 00:02:50.060 the stuff they hid in the desert floor, the specific 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.259 camera lenses they used to make Walt look small. 00:02:52.460 --> 00:02:55.680 And we want to understand really why it hits 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.599 the viewer so hard. And we've got a great stack 00:02:58.599 --> 00:03:01.199 of sources here to help us do that. We have production 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:03.219 notes, interviews with creator Vince Gilligan, 00:03:03.500 --> 00:03:06.280 psychological profiles of the characters, and 00:03:06.280 --> 00:03:09.099 some deep literary analysis of the poem that 00:03:09.099 --> 00:03:11.900 actually gave the episode its name. We're going 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.080 straight into the collapse of the Heisenberg 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:15.960 Empire. And we should definitely start with the 00:03:15.960 --> 00:03:18.580 architects of that collapse, because interestingly 00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:20.960 enough, the creator of the show, Vince Gilligan, 00:03:21.500 --> 00:03:24.500 didn't write or direct this. That is so surprising, 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:26.819 right? Yeah. You would think for the climax of 00:03:26.819 --> 00:03:29.979 your lice work. You would absolutely want to 00:03:29.979 --> 00:03:31.699 be the one behind the camera calling the shots. 00:03:31.860 --> 00:03:34.819 You really would. But he handed the keys over 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:37.400 to Moira Wally Beckett and Rian Johnson. Which 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:39.840 is a huge deal. It shows a tremendous amount 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.340 of trust on Gilligan's part. And you have to 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:44.460 understand the dynamic between Wally Beckett 00:03:44.460 --> 00:03:46.740 and Johnson. They were self -proclaimed partners 00:03:46.740 --> 00:03:49.080 in crime on that set. They had worked together 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:51.979 before on a very specific, very controversial 00:03:51.979 --> 00:03:54.580 episode called Fly. Oh, I know Fly. That's the 00:03:54.580 --> 00:03:57.180 bottle episode from season three, right? Just... 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:59.620 Walt and Jesse trapped in the super lab trying 00:03:59.620 --> 00:04:02.860 to kill a single housefly for 45 minutes. Exactly. 00:04:02.919 --> 00:04:04.659 That's the one. And for listeners who might not 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:07.400 know the exact term, a bottle episode is usually 00:04:07.400 --> 00:04:10.139 done just to save money. You use one existing 00:04:10.139 --> 00:04:13.419 set, minimal cast, no big expensive location 00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:15.580 moves. Just trapping the actors in a room. Right. 00:04:16.000 --> 00:04:19.160 And Fly was highly polarizing. Some fans absolutely 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.459 hated it because the plot basically stopped dead. 00:04:21.959 --> 00:04:24.040 But others loved it because it was just deep 00:04:24.040 --> 00:04:26.199 psychological surgery on those two characters. 00:04:26.540 --> 00:04:29.459 So Gilligan takes the exact team that made the 00:04:29.459 --> 00:04:32.300 slowest, most psychological episode and gives 00:04:32.300 --> 00:04:34.920 them the most explosive, plot -heavy episode 00:04:34.920 --> 00:04:37.319 of the entire series. It's brilliant when you 00:04:37.319 --> 00:04:39.759 really think about it. Fly proved they could 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.120 handle the intense claustrophobic emotional beats 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:45.459 between Walt and Jesse. Ozymandias is essentially 00:04:45.459 --> 00:04:49.000 just Fly writ large, but with gunshots and kidnappings 00:04:49.000 --> 00:04:52.259 and huge desert landscapes. And I read that Gilligan 00:04:52.259 --> 00:04:54.920 gave Wally Beckett unprecedented freedom here. 00:04:55.069 --> 00:04:57.370 Usually a showrunner is constantly rewriting 00:04:57.370 --> 00:04:59.670 scenes, tweaking the dialogue. But for this, 00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:01.910 Wally, Beckett, and Johnson basically oversaw 00:05:01.910 --> 00:05:04.009 the final cut themselves. Yeah, Gilligan watched 00:05:04.009 --> 00:05:06.110 it and reportedly just said, this is the best 00:05:06.110 --> 00:05:08.250 episode we have ever done. Let's talk about the 00:05:08.250 --> 00:05:10.610 production timeline because I found a fact in 00:05:10.610 --> 00:05:12.610 the source notes that genuinely blew my mind. 00:05:13.430 --> 00:05:17.230 The episode opens the flashback right. We see 00:05:17.230 --> 00:05:19.589 Walt and Jesse in the old RV back in the good 00:05:19.589 --> 00:05:22.430 old days. Walt is in his underwear. Yeah. Jesse 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:24.730 is acting like a fool. It's the pilot era. It 00:05:24.730 --> 00:05:26.829 is such a heartbreaking scene because it shows 00:05:26.829 --> 00:05:30.930 us exactly what we've lost. The innocents, well 00:05:30.930 --> 00:05:34.050 if you can call meth cooking innocent. But here 00:05:34.050 --> 00:05:36.879 is the kicker with that scene. That flashback 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.040 was the very last thing they shot for the entire 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:41.060 series. Wait, hold on. The very last thing. Yes. 00:05:41.500 --> 00:05:43.879 After the grand finale. Yes. After everything. 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:46.620 And it wasn't just some weird scheduling quirk. 00:05:46.819 --> 00:05:49.120 It was a physical necessity for the actors. Think 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:50.639 about what Walter White looks like in season 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:52.699 five. Right. He has the shaved head, the harsh 00:05:52.699 --> 00:05:55.060 goatee. He looks terrifying and haggard. And 00:05:55.060 --> 00:05:57.240 Jesse has super short hair and all those scars 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.660 on his face. But back in the pilot era, Walt 00:05:59.660 --> 00:06:02.060 had that floppy brown hair and the big mustache. 00:06:02.600 --> 00:06:04.759 Jesse looked like a kid in baggy clothes. So 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:06.540 they couldn't just throw a wig on him and call 00:06:06.540 --> 00:06:08.540 it a day. They could have, but this is breaking 00:06:08.540 --> 00:06:11.879 bad. They do not do half measures. The production 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:14.980 actually paused. They waited for Bryan Cranston 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:18.040 and Aaron Paul to physically grow their real 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.800 hair back out. That is just insane dedication. 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:22.980 So the crew wraps the main show. They probably 00:06:22.980 --> 00:06:24.939 have a huge wrap party. Everyone cries and says 00:06:24.939 --> 00:06:26.720 goodbye. And then months later, they meet up 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.500 out in the desert one last time. Exactly. Ray 00:06:29.500 --> 00:06:31.980 and Johnson came back just to direct that one 00:06:31.980 --> 00:06:34.920 single sequence. It adds this weird metal layer 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:36.860 of nostalgia to the scene, if you know about 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:39.860 it. When you watch Walt and Jesse fading out 00:06:39.860 --> 00:06:42.420 at the end of that cold open, the actors are 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:44.139 actually saying goodbye to those characters for 00:06:44.139 --> 00:06:46.579 the final time in real life. They are ghosts 00:06:46.579 --> 00:06:49.699 in their own show. Wow. That context makes the 00:06:49.699 --> 00:06:52.040 transition to the present day so much harsher, 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:54.879 because we cut from that soft, golden, nostalgic 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.240 flashback straight to the brutal reality of the 00:06:57.240 --> 00:07:00.040 shootout. And apparently the vibe on set for 00:07:00.040 --> 00:07:02.879 the main shoot was not fun at all. It was incredibly 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:04.720 intense. You have to remember, these actors had 00:07:04.720 --> 00:07:07.459 been living inside these skins for five or six 00:07:07.459 --> 00:07:10.970 years. They loved each other off camera. And 00:07:10.970 --> 00:07:13.610 the script called for them to just absolutely 00:07:13.610 --> 00:07:16.129 destroy one another emotionally and physically. 00:07:16.410 --> 00:07:18.329 Yeah, the source mentions Bessie Brandt, who 00:07:18.329 --> 00:07:22.550 played Marie. She actually refused to read the 00:07:22.550 --> 00:07:24.329 scene where Hank dies. She just wouldn't read 00:07:24.329 --> 00:07:26.470 it. She completely avoided it. She couldn't do 00:07:26.470 --> 00:07:29.569 it. It was too painful for her. She said in an 00:07:29.569 --> 00:07:31.170 interview, and this was seven years later, mind 00:07:31.170 --> 00:07:33.170 you, that she still hadn't watched the episode. 00:07:33.370 --> 00:07:36.189 She lived it on set, but she couldn't bring herself 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:39.069 to witness it as a viewer. That is real trauma 00:07:39.069 --> 00:07:42.029 from playing a role. And Anna Gunn, too. I mean, 00:07:42.149 --> 00:07:45.269 Skyler goes through the absolute wringer in this 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:47.110 hour. We'll get to the big knife fight later, 00:07:47.110 --> 00:07:50.269 but she talked about the scene where Walt kidnaps 00:07:50.269 --> 00:07:52.769 the baby. She called it the hardest but richest 00:07:52.769 --> 00:07:55.490 scene of her entire career. And there is a moment 00:07:55.490 --> 00:07:57.350 during the baby scenes that we really need to 00:07:57.350 --> 00:07:59.730 highlight, because it is one of those pure movie 00:07:59.730 --> 00:08:02.790 magic moments that you just can't plan for. The 00:08:02.790 --> 00:08:05.410 mama moment. Oh, yes. This is legendary. This 00:08:05.410 --> 00:08:07.470 is the scene in the public bathroom right after 00:08:07.470 --> 00:08:11.310 Walt takes her. Right. Walt has kidnapped his 00:08:11.310 --> 00:08:13.810 infant daughter Holly. He is on the run. His 00:08:13.810 --> 00:08:16.930 whole life has collapsed. He stops in this dingy 00:08:16.930 --> 00:08:19.769 bathroom to change her diaper. He's trying to 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:22.110 coo at her, trying to play the good dad one last 00:08:22.110 --> 00:08:25.170 time. Now, in the script, the baby is just supposed 00:08:25.170 --> 00:08:28.209 to be there. Babies don't exactly take direction. 00:08:28.449 --> 00:08:30.509 Obviously not. You can't tell a 10 -month -old, 00:08:30.730 --> 00:08:33.210 hey, look really sad about your father's criminal 00:08:33.210 --> 00:08:36.259 enterprise collapsing. Exactly. But while they 00:08:36.259 --> 00:08:38.580 were rolling the camera, the baby's real mother 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:40.860 was standing just off camera to keep an eye on 00:08:40.860 --> 00:08:43.659 her. The baby spots her real mom, reaches out 00:08:43.659 --> 00:08:48.159 her little hand, starts crying, mama, mama. And 00:08:48.159 --> 00:08:49.779 Brian Krantz just rolls with it. He doesn't cut 00:08:49.779 --> 00:08:51.639 the scene. He doesn't cut. And this right here 00:08:51.639 --> 00:08:54.720 is why you won the Emmy. He stays 100 % in character. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:57.460 He looks at this baby who's actively rejecting 00:08:57.460 --> 00:08:59.980 him and calling for her mother and his face just 00:08:59.980 --> 00:09:02.399 completely crumbled. It's devastating. It fits 00:09:02.399 --> 00:09:05.120 the narrative so perfectly. Walt has taken this 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:07.340 child to prove he's still a family man, but she 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:10.080 doesn't want him. She wants the mother he literally 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:13.240 just assaulted. It underscores his total, utter 00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:15.519 isolation at that point. It's amazing that they 00:09:15.519 --> 00:09:17.700 recognized what they had and kept that in the 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:21.279 final edit. It feels so raw and unscripted. It 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:23.860 was a happy accident that became the thematic 00:09:23.860 --> 00:09:27.299 core of the entire sequence. But let's zoom out 00:09:27.299 --> 00:09:29.519 to the desert for a minute. We need to talk about 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:32.000 the actual fall of the Empire, because the episode 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:34.879 starts with the immediate aftermath of that massive 00:09:34.879 --> 00:09:38.460 gunfight. Hank is shot in the leg. Gomez is dead. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:41.519 The neo -Nazis are completely in control. This 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:43.919 is the exact moment where Walt finally loses. 00:09:44.539 --> 00:09:46.980 He has spent five seasons outsmarting literally 00:09:46.980 --> 00:09:49.580 everyone. He's like an evil MacGyver. He's the 00:09:49.580 --> 00:09:51.600 guy who blew up a nursing home just to win a 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:54.580 turf war. And here he has absolutely nothing 00:09:54.580 --> 00:09:57.080 left but his money. And he tries to use it. He 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.919 offers Jack Welker $80 million in cash to let 00:09:59.919 --> 00:10:03.139 Hank go. And this is a really important psychological 00:10:03.139 --> 00:10:05.460 beat for Walt. Critics often say Walt is purely 00:10:05.460 --> 00:10:07.500 selfish and ego -driven, but here in the dirt, 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:09.419 he is willing to trade his entire life's work, 00:10:09.460 --> 00:10:11.539 every single dime he earns, just to save his 00:10:11.539 --> 00:10:13.899 brother -in -law. But Hank knows better. Hank 00:10:13.899 --> 00:10:16.259 has the line of the episode, maybe the line of 00:10:16.259 --> 00:10:18.659 the entire series, to be honest. You're the smartest 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:20.600 guy I ever met, but you're too stupid to see 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:23.019 he made up his mind 10 minutes ago. Man, it gives 00:10:23.019 --> 00:10:25.740 me chills just hearing you say it. It's Hank. 00:10:25.899 --> 00:10:28.299 reclaiming his power in his final moments, isn't 00:10:28.299 --> 00:10:30.960 it? It absolutely is. For the whole show, Walt 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.580 has made Hank look like a fool. He has run circles 00:10:33.580 --> 00:10:36.080 around him right under his nose. But in the very 00:10:36.080 --> 00:10:38.659 end, Hank is the one with the crystal clear vision. 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:41.879 He sees the brutal reality of the situation while 00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:44.899 Walt is still pathetically bargaining with murderers. 00:10:45.179 --> 00:10:48.340 Hank dies with his dignity totally intact. I 00:10:48.340 --> 00:10:50.559 read in the production notes that the writers 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:53.090 were really specific about that. They wanted 00:10:53.090 --> 00:10:55.029 his death to be dignified and honorable. They 00:10:55.029 --> 00:10:57.090 did not want him begging or pleading for his 00:10:57.090 --> 00:11:00.409 life. And they actually had to film it in minimal 00:11:00.409 --> 00:11:02.450 takes because of weather and time constraints. 00:11:02.490 --> 00:11:04.309 Yeah, they had to move fast. And then the shot 00:11:04.309 --> 00:11:06.129 happens. Yeah. And Wal just hits the ground. 00:11:06.269 --> 00:11:09.210 Okay, here is where we need to get a little technical. 00:11:09.830 --> 00:11:12.370 Because there is a visual shot here that people 00:11:12.370 --> 00:11:14.549 feel in their gut, but they might not realize 00:11:14.549 --> 00:11:17.610 exactly how it was achieved. When Walt collapses 00:11:17.610 --> 00:11:20.230 in grief, the camera is positioned really low 00:11:20.230 --> 00:11:23.250 to the ground. And as he hits the dirt, the ground 00:11:23.250 --> 00:11:25.610 literally seems to shatter underneath him. Yeah, 00:11:25.610 --> 00:11:27.149 I remember that. It looks like a mini earthquake. 00:11:27.570 --> 00:11:29.850 Or like, his grief is so incredibly heavy it 00:11:29.850 --> 00:11:32.149 physically breaks the planet. I always just assumed 00:11:32.149 --> 00:11:34.789 that was CGI added in post -production. No, and 00:11:34.789 --> 00:11:36.519 that is exactly... why it looks so incredibly 00:11:36.519 --> 00:11:38.399 good. It was a practical effect engineered by 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:40.639 Rian Johnson. They actually dug a hole in the 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:43.120 desert floor before filming. They built this 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:45.700 rig essentially a set of wooden puzzle pieces 00:11:45.700 --> 00:11:48.000 that fit together perfectly to look like solid 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.820 ground, and they covered the whole thing with 00:11:49.820 --> 00:11:52.399 dirt. So it's basically a tiny trap door. Kinda, 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.259 yeah. It was wired to a manual trigger. The second 00:11:55.259 --> 00:11:57.960 Cranston's knees hit that specific spot, the 00:11:57.960 --> 00:11:59.700 special effects operator pulled the trigger and 00:11:59.700 --> 00:12:01.659 the pieces fell away slightly dropping down. 00:12:02.100 --> 00:12:05.320 It created these deep instant fissures in the 00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.539 earth. It is a literal physical manifestation 00:12:08.539 --> 00:12:12.519 of his world breaking apart. That is wild. If 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:14.259 you did that in CGI, it would look floaty and 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:16.679 fake. But because it's real dirt and real gravity, 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.840 your brain just accepts it as a visceral reality. 00:12:20.059 --> 00:12:22.700 That is such a subtle, genius touch. Most directors 00:12:22.700 --> 00:12:25.379 would just push in on his face, crying. Johnson 00:12:25.379 --> 00:12:27.580 makes the earth itself react to the tragedy. 00:12:28.220 --> 00:12:30.539 But then, as if losing Hank wasn't bad enough, 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.519 we get the betrayal. Walt looks over and spots 00:12:33.519 --> 00:12:35.500 Jesse hiding underneath the car. This is the 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:38.320 moment that truly tests the audience. Walt blames 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:40.879 Jesse entirely for Hank's death. He points him 00:12:40.879 --> 00:12:43.179 out to the Nazis, he hands him over, but he doesn't 00:12:43.179 --> 00:12:45.720 just let them take him. He has to twist the knife 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.960 on the way out. The Jane moment. Yes. He stops 00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:51.200 the Nazis from dragging Jesse away, just so he 00:12:51.200 --> 00:12:54.580 can say, I watched Jane die. This is a secret 00:12:54.580 --> 00:12:57.299 he has held since the end of season two. He looks 00:12:57.299 --> 00:12:59.059 Jesse in the eye and tells him, I could have 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:02.259 saved her, but I didn't. Why do you think he 00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:04.240 does that? Is it just pure spite at that point? 00:13:04.580 --> 00:13:08.659 It is pure, unadulterated malice. It's the very 00:13:08.659 --> 00:13:11.460 last shred of whatever goodness was left in Walter 00:13:11.460 --> 00:13:14.840 White just evaporates into the desert air. He 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:17.240 is hurting so deeply about Hank, so he wants 00:13:17.240 --> 00:13:20.059 to inflict maximum psychological pain on the 00:13:20.059 --> 00:13:22.559 person he blames. Cranston has actually noted 00:13:22.559 --> 00:13:24.240 that this was the moment he felt the audience 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:27.279 finally turned on Walt for good. Right, because... 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:29.519 You can justify the drug dealing maybe if you 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:32.440 squint. You can justify the self -defense killings 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:35.659 of rival cartels. But kicking your surrogate 00:13:35.659 --> 00:13:38.019 son when he's literally being dragged off to 00:13:38.019 --> 00:13:41.090 be tortured, that is just... unforgivable. And 00:13:41.090 --> 00:13:43.590 the show makes a very smart choice here. Jesse 00:13:43.590 --> 00:13:46.629 is taken into slavery to cook meth, but the actual 00:13:46.629 --> 00:13:49.049 torture was mostly left off screen. They didn't 00:13:49.049 --> 00:13:51.210 want to manipulate the audience's emotions too 00:13:51.210 --> 00:13:53.850 cheaply with gratuitous violence. The emotional 00:13:53.850 --> 00:13:56.490 violence of Walt's words was more than enough. 00:13:56.649 --> 00:13:58.809 And then Walt is left totally alone. The Nazis 00:13:58.809 --> 00:14:00.490 take all the barrels of money, they leave him 00:14:00.490 --> 00:14:03.409 just one out of pity. And we get this incredible 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:05.610 wide shot of him rolling that single barrel through 00:14:05.610 --> 00:14:08.129 the desert. Ah, the dung beetle shot? Is that 00:14:08.129 --> 00:14:09.669 what they called it on set? The dung beetle. 00:14:09.850 --> 00:14:12.950 Yes, they did. Rand Johnson had a very specific 00:14:12.950 --> 00:14:15.750 visual metaphor in mind for this sequence. He 00:14:15.750 --> 00:14:18.110 wanted Walt to look like a tiny dung -deedle 00:14:18.110 --> 00:14:20.820 rolling a ball of Well, a ball of crap across 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:23.740 the sand. To get that specific look, they used 00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:27.059 a very long lens. Explain that for the non -photographers 00:14:27.059 --> 00:14:29.799 listening. What exactly does a long lens do to 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:32.059 an image? Sure. So a wide angle lens, which is 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.360 what a lot of movies use, makes things look close 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.120 and it distorts the edges. A long lens, like 00:14:37.120 --> 00:14:39.159 a telephoto lens you'd use for sports photography, 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.639 compresses the background. It makes the background 00:14:41.639 --> 00:14:44.379 look massive and strangely close to the subject. 00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.500 So they took the camera track and parked it way, 00:14:47.559 --> 00:14:50.710 way back far away. from Cranston. This flattened 00:14:50.710 --> 00:14:53.669 the entire image. It makes Walt look like a tiny 00:14:53.669 --> 00:14:56.509 insignificant speck against this massive uncaring 00:14:56.509 --> 00:14:59.649 desert landscape. He is just a little bug pushing 00:14:59.649 --> 00:15:02.169 his dirty money. It really sells the idea that 00:15:02.169 --> 00:15:04.289 he is incredibly small. Yeah. He thought he was 00:15:04.289 --> 00:15:06.889 this massive kingpin, but the desert just does 00:15:06.889 --> 00:15:09.970 not care about him. Exactly. And that grand visual 00:15:09.970 --> 00:15:12.509 transition leads us perfectly into the next segment. 00:15:13.019 --> 00:15:16.379 We go from the vast, open, quiet desert where 00:15:16.379 --> 00:15:18.860 the Empire fell straight into the claustrophobic 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:21.500 family home where the family shatters. This part 00:15:21.500 --> 00:15:23.639 of the episode honestly feels like a horror movie. 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:26.360 Marie has gone to the car wash and told Skyler 00:15:26.360 --> 00:15:29.200 the truth. Skyler now knows Walt has been arrested, 00:15:29.379 --> 00:15:31.620 or at least she thinks he has, based on what 00:15:31.620 --> 00:15:33.980 Hank told Marie on the phone. And so she finally 00:15:33.980 --> 00:15:36.399 tells Walter Jr. And that scene with Junior is 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:39.399 pivotal. He is the very last truly innocent person 00:15:39.399 --> 00:15:42.110 left in the show. When Skyler tells him the truth 00:15:42.110 --> 00:15:44.549 about his dad being a meth kingpin, he doesn't 00:15:44.549 --> 00:15:46.889 just quietly accept it. He lashes out. Yeah, 00:15:46.889 --> 00:15:49.210 he's furious. He tells his mom she is as bad 00:15:49.210 --> 00:15:51.669 as Walt for keeping the secret for so long. It 00:15:51.669 --> 00:15:53.629 is the definitive end of his childhood right 00:15:53.629 --> 00:15:55.549 there in the middle of a car wash clothing store. 00:15:55.710 --> 00:15:58.750 And then they go home and Walt shows up and he 00:15:58.750 --> 00:16:01.460 is frantic. He's bleeding. He's screaming. We 00:16:01.460 --> 00:16:03.799 have to go pack your bags right now. The tension 00:16:03.799 --> 00:16:07.000 here is just unbearable. Skyler looks at him, 00:16:07.019 --> 00:16:09.200 looks at his reactions, and she realizes Hank 00:16:09.200 --> 00:16:12.080 is dead. Walt tries to lie. He gives her the 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:14.960 whole I negotiated, I made a deal speech. But 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:16.960 she sees right through it immediately. And she 00:16:16.960 --> 00:16:19.200 makes a terrifying choice. She steps between 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:21.100 him and her son, and she grabs a kitchen knife. 00:16:22.299 --> 00:16:24.379 Let's talk about the choreography of this physical 00:16:24.379 --> 00:16:27.840 fight. Because TV fights usually look very polished, 00:16:27.860 --> 00:16:30.899 the punch block kick. This fight was just messy. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:33.899 It was scary. It was incredibly clumsy. That's 00:16:33.899 --> 00:16:36.659 what made it so terrifying to watch. Wally Beckett 00:16:36.659 --> 00:16:39.299 described writing this confrontation as operatic 00:16:39.299 --> 00:16:42.080 with these distinct crescendos and decrescendos. 00:16:42.419 --> 00:16:44.139 Skyler slashes his hand with a knife and then 00:16:44.139 --> 00:16:46.419 suddenly they are just wrestling on the floor. 00:16:46.460 --> 00:16:48.379 Scrambling. Right. It's not martial arts. It's 00:16:48.379 --> 00:16:50.559 a desperate husband and wife rolling in the dirt 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:53.460 of their own hallway. And Johnson drops the camera 00:16:53.460 --> 00:16:55.840 right down to the floor with them. So we as viewers 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.419 are trapped in the chaos right alongside them. 00:16:58.720 --> 00:17:00.980 And the most shocking part of it, every single 00:17:00.980 --> 00:17:04.089 time I see it, Is Walter Junior? He intervenes. 00:17:04.329 --> 00:17:06.990 And physically, this is a huge moment. He tackles 00:17:06.990 --> 00:17:10.630 his father. He throws his entire body over his 00:17:10.630 --> 00:17:13.190 mother to shield her from Walt. It's a complete 00:17:13.190 --> 00:17:16.329 reversal of roles. The son suddenly becomes the 00:17:16.329 --> 00:17:20.069 protector of the family against the father. And 00:17:20.069 --> 00:17:22.769 then he does the one thing Walt absolutely cannot 00:17:22.769 --> 00:17:25.509 fight. He calls the police. That phone call is 00:17:25.509 --> 00:17:28.210 haunting. He says, my dad pulled a knife on my 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:31.230 mom. That is the exact sentence that ends Walt's 00:17:31.230 --> 00:17:33.170 life effectively. It is the exact moment Walt 00:17:33.170 --> 00:17:36.509 realizes he is fully dead to them. He can have 00:17:36.509 --> 00:17:38.730 80 million dollars, well, or 11 million, which 00:17:38.730 --> 00:17:40.490 is what he's left in that barrel. He can be the 00:17:40.490 --> 00:17:43.150 great Heisenberg, but his own son looks at him 00:17:43.150 --> 00:17:46.390 with pure unadulterated terror. So Walt does 00:17:46.390 --> 00:17:48.309 something completely irrational. He takes the 00:17:48.309 --> 00:17:50.230 baby. The kidnapping scene. I read in the notes 00:17:50.230 --> 00:17:52.130 that there were like a hundred onlookers watching 00:17:52.130 --> 00:17:54.069 them film this sequence on the street. Yeah, 00:17:54.069 --> 00:17:56.569 they were filming on location in a real Albuquerque 00:17:56.569 --> 00:17:58.869 neighborhood. You had paparazzi super fans, local 00:17:58.869 --> 00:18:00.369 neighbors all just standing around. It was a 00:18:00.369 --> 00:18:03.049 total circus. And Anna Gunn had to summon this 00:18:03.049 --> 00:18:05.529 primal guttural scream while running down the 00:18:05.529 --> 00:18:07.829 actual pavement chasing a moving truck. With 00:18:07.829 --> 00:18:09.589 all those people watching. Plus I think the note 00:18:09.589 --> 00:18:11.210 said there was erratic weather and they were 00:18:11.210 --> 00:18:13.210 super late on the shooting schedule too, adding 00:18:13.210 --> 00:18:15.930 to the pressure. Exactly. She delivers. She looks 00:18:15.930 --> 00:18:17.789 like her heart is actively being ripped out of 00:18:17.789 --> 00:18:19.369 her chest. She basically said it was the hardest 00:18:19.369 --> 00:18:21.750 scene of her life. She is running. She's stumbling. 00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:25.890 It's not a pretty Hollywood hero run. It is pure 00:18:25.890 --> 00:18:28.809 motherly panic. Yeah, it's so real. And that 00:18:28.809 --> 00:18:31.670 final image of the street of the truck driving 00:18:31.670 --> 00:18:34.069 away, leaving the mother screaming on her knees 00:18:34.069 --> 00:18:37.009 in the middle of the road, that is the true emotional 00:18:37.009 --> 00:18:39.750 climax of the series. The meth business is done. 00:18:39.910 --> 00:18:42.869 The cartel is done. Now it is just a destroyed 00:18:42.869 --> 00:18:45.230 family. Which brings us back to the title of 00:18:45.230 --> 00:18:49.769 the Deep Dive today, Azimandias. We established 00:18:49.769 --> 00:18:53.789 it's the best episode of TV, but why that specific 00:18:53.789 --> 00:18:56.589 name? It's not just to sound fancy and intellectual, 00:18:56.710 --> 00:19:00.529 it is a very direct reference to Percy Bischelli's 00:19:00.529 --> 00:19:02.670 famous poem. It is, and the show isn't being 00:19:02.670 --> 00:19:05.029 subtle about it either. Bryan Cranston actually 00:19:05.029 --> 00:19:07.470 recited the entire poem in a promotional teaser 00:19:07.470 --> 00:19:10.329 trailer for the final season back in 2013. The 00:19:10.329 --> 00:19:12.069 showrunners were practically screaming at the 00:19:12.069 --> 00:19:14.490 audience, this is the theme, pay attention. So 00:19:14.490 --> 00:19:16.369 for those of us listening who haven't read Shelley 00:19:16.369 --> 00:19:18.589 since high school English class, break it down 00:19:18.589 --> 00:19:21.670 for us. What is the poem actually about? The 00:19:21.670 --> 00:19:24.329 poem describes a traveler in an antique land 00:19:24.329 --> 00:19:27.549 who comes across a ruined broken statue in the 00:19:27.549 --> 00:19:30.230 desert. It's the statue of an ancient king named 00:19:30.230 --> 00:19:32.710 Ozymandias, which is actually another name for 00:19:32.710 --> 00:19:35.910 the Egyptian pharaoh, Remes II. And there is 00:19:35.910 --> 00:19:37.829 a boastful inscription on the pedestal of the 00:19:37.829 --> 00:19:40.990 statue. It reads, my name is Ozymandias, King 00:19:40.990 --> 00:19:43.650 of Kings. Look on my works, ye mighty in despair. 00:19:43.769 --> 00:19:45.650 Which sounds very much like a Heisenberg monologue. 00:19:45.890 --> 00:19:48.269 I am the one who knocks. Exactly. It embodies 00:19:48.269 --> 00:19:51.289 tyrannical aspirations and ultimate hubris. But 00:19:51.289 --> 00:19:53.809 the brutal punchline of the poem is that around 00:19:53.809 --> 00:19:56.089 this boastful statue, there is absolutely nothing 00:19:56.089 --> 00:19:59.480 left. The poem says, nothing beside remains. 00:20:00.299 --> 00:20:02.799 Round the decay of that colossal wreck boundless 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:05.160 and bare the lone and level sands stretch far 00:20:05.160 --> 00:20:07.359 away. The king thought his mighty empire would 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:09.700 last forever, but it's just a colossal wreck 00:20:09.700 --> 00:20:12.579 now, just sand. And the episode maps onto this 00:20:12.579 --> 00:20:16.359 analysis perfectly. Walt is Ozymandias. He absolutely 00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:18.640 is. He built an empire. He wanted to be the king 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:22.099 of kings, but... By the end of this 47 -minute 00:20:22.099 --> 00:20:25.460 hour, he is left with a colossal wreck. His brother 00:20:25.460 --> 00:20:28.440 -in -law is dead. His son hates him. His wife 00:20:28.440 --> 00:20:31.119 is broken. His money is mostly stolen. He is 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:33.220 standing in the desert with nothing to show for 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:35.579 his hubris. There's a brilliant visual detail 00:20:35.579 --> 00:20:37.319 that connects to this, too, from the sources. 00:20:38.180 --> 00:20:40.319 In the opening flashback, when we see the RV 00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:43.880 in the Pila era. The pants. The pants. Walt is 00:20:43.880 --> 00:20:46.200 standing there in his tighty -whities without 00:20:46.200 --> 00:20:48.720 his trousers. It's a funny visual memory for 00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:50.759 the fans, but there's a specific line in the 00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:54.319 poem that says, two vast and trunkless legs of 00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:57.539 stone stand in the desert. The shot of Walt's 00:20:57.539 --> 00:20:59.740 pale, pantsless legs standing in the desert dirt 00:20:59.740 --> 00:21:02.519 is a direct visual illusion to those trunkless 00:21:02.519 --> 00:21:05.359 legs of the statue. He is already a ruin from 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:07.099 the very beginning, he just doesn't know it yet. 00:21:07.359 --> 00:21:09.319 And the source material points out that the desert 00:21:09.319 --> 00:21:11.519 environment itself remains totally unchanged 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:14.359 despite all the violence. That is a crucial thematic 00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:17.200 point. The desert is the sand in the poem. It 00:21:17.200 --> 00:21:19.440 doesn't care about Walt's meth empire. It doesn't 00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:21.660 care about Hank's badge. It absorbs the blood 00:21:21.660 --> 00:21:23.900 and the money and just keeps being an indifferent 00:21:23.900 --> 00:21:26.799 desert. It reinforces that classic Western trope 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:29.380 of nature's total indifference to human struggles. 00:21:29.779 --> 00:21:32.759 It highlights the complete emptiness of Walt's 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:35.420 desires. So Walt has lost his empire. He has 00:21:35.420 --> 00:21:38.420 kidnapped the baby. And now we get to what is 00:21:38.420 --> 00:21:40.640 arguably the most debated and controversial scene 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:43.519 in the episode. The phone call. Ah, yes, the 00:21:43.519 --> 00:21:45.539 phone call. This is a scene that launched a thousand 00:21:45.539 --> 00:21:48.440 internet dissertations. It is easily the most 00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:50.819 analyzed aspect of the hour. So the stage for 00:21:50.819 --> 00:21:53.000 us. Walt is calling home from a payphone. Mm 00:21:53.000 --> 00:21:54.940 -hmm. He knows the police are at the house. He 00:21:54.940 --> 00:21:57.799 knows the line is being recorded. He calls Skyler. 00:21:58.089 --> 00:22:00.509 And he just verbally eviscerates her. He calls 00:22:00.509 --> 00:22:03.029 her a stupid bitch. He tells her she has no right 00:22:03.029 --> 00:22:05.549 to his money. He aggressively claims that he 00:22:05.549 --> 00:22:07.690 built the drug empire completely alone and that 00:22:07.690 --> 00:22:09.809 she was nothing but a nagging weight around his 00:22:09.809 --> 00:22:12.369 neck the entire time. And Skyler is standing 00:22:12.369 --> 00:22:14.809 there in her kitchen, surrounded by cops, crying, 00:22:14.869 --> 00:22:18.390 holding the phone. It is incredibly brutal to 00:22:18.390 --> 00:22:21.369 watch. But the big question is, is he telling 00:22:21.369 --> 00:22:24.650 the truth? That is the ultimate debate. Interpretation 00:22:24.650 --> 00:22:27.390 A, which is very popular, is the strategic ploy. 00:22:27.549 --> 00:22:30.750 Walt knows the cops are listening in. He is intentionally 00:22:30.750 --> 00:22:32.710 putting on a performance, painting himself as 00:22:32.710 --> 00:22:35.650 the soul monster and Schuyler as his terrified 00:22:35.650 --> 00:22:38.349 victim to clear her of complicity. He is giving 00:22:38.349 --> 00:22:40.910 her a legal out to save her from prosecution. 00:22:41.109 --> 00:22:42.990 The writer Moira Wally Beckett actually weighed 00:22:42.990 --> 00:22:44.690 in on this, right? I read she said this wasn't 00:22:44.690 --> 00:22:47.099 really open to interpretation. She did. She was 00:22:47.099 --> 00:22:49.400 very clear that she wrote it as a strategic move. 00:22:49.619 --> 00:22:52.259 She sees it as Walt's final desperate act of 00:22:52.259 --> 00:22:54.900 protection for his family. But then as viewers, 00:22:55.140 --> 00:22:58.000 we have interpretation B, which is genuine rage, 00:22:58.359 --> 00:23:00.539 because the specific things he says on that phone, 00:23:00.539 --> 00:23:02.960 they feel a little too real. Yeah, he attacks 00:23:02.960 --> 00:23:05.059 her for telling him to stop dealing early on. 00:23:05.400 --> 00:23:07.359 He attacks her for disrespecting him. That's 00:23:07.359 --> 00:23:09.579 old baggage. Right. And that is why the scene 00:23:09.579 --> 00:23:12.160 is an absolute masterclass. Yes. It is a legal 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:16.259 ploy, but he is using his real genuine resentment 00:23:16.259 --> 00:23:19.720 to fuel the performance. He is channeling all 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:21.619 the anger and wounded pride he has felt toward 00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:24.099 her for five seasons into this protective lie. 00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:26.299 It's a lie that is completely wrapped in the 00:23:26.299 --> 00:23:29.140 ugly truth. There was a really fascinating critique 00:23:29.140 --> 00:23:32.839 from Emily Nussbaum at the New Yorker about this 00:23:32.839 --> 00:23:35.380 specific scene that was in our notes. She argued 00:23:35.380 --> 00:23:37.779 that the episode was actually trolling the fans 00:23:37.779 --> 00:23:40.410 here. the bad fans specifically. Who exactly 00:23:40.410 --> 00:23:42.690 are the bad fans in this context? Well, you have 00:23:42.690 --> 00:23:45.029 to remember the Internet culture back in 2013 00:23:45.029 --> 00:23:47.710 when this aired. There was a huge, very loud 00:23:47.710 --> 00:23:50.170 segment of the viewership that despised Skyler. 00:23:50.650 --> 00:23:52.930 They saw her as the annoying, nagging wife who 00:23:52.930 --> 00:23:55.289 just wouldn't let Walt be a cool badass drug 00:23:55.289 --> 00:23:57.890 lord. They even sent real life hate mail to Anna 00:23:57.890 --> 00:24:00.630 Gunn. It was deeply misogynistic and ugly. So 00:24:00.630 --> 00:24:02.589 Nussbaum is saying this phone call addresses 00:24:02.589 --> 00:24:05.490 that specific toxic part of the audience. Yes. 00:24:06.049 --> 00:24:08.609 She argues that by having Walt use that exact 00:24:08.609 --> 00:24:10.710 hateful language, calling her a bitch, telling 00:24:10.710 --> 00:24:13.029 her to shut up and toe the line, the show is 00:24:13.029 --> 00:24:15.470 holding up a very harsh mirror to those fans. 00:24:15.750 --> 00:24:17.769 It's essentially saying, is this what you wanted? 00:24:18.170 --> 00:24:20.349 You wanted him to put her in her place. Well, 00:24:20.349 --> 00:24:23.220 look at it. It's not cool. It's deeply abusive. 00:24:23.579 --> 00:24:26.240 It's horrific. It completely strips away the 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:28.380 power fantasy aspect of the viewership. That 00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:29.859 is a brilliant way to look at it. It's like the 00:24:29.859 --> 00:24:32.059 show is actively punishing the audience for rooting 00:24:32.059 --> 00:24:34.819 for Heisenberg all those years. Exactly. And 00:24:34.819 --> 00:24:37.700 Brandon Taylor from UBC made a very similar point 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:40.460 in his analysis. He suggested that the episode 00:24:40.460 --> 00:24:42.700 serves as a critique of the audience for deriving 00:24:42.700 --> 00:24:44.920 pleasure from Walt's violent actions up to this 00:24:44.920 --> 00:24:47.660 point. We cheered for the cool train heist. We 00:24:47.660 --> 00:24:50.220 cheered for the clever explosions. Now the show 00:24:50.220 --> 00:24:52.559 is making us sit in the awful rubble and asking, 00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:55.200 are you still entertained by this man? And the 00:24:55.200 --> 00:24:57.980 music choices reinforce this dark mood perfectly. 00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:00.559 The song that plays right after the phone call 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.500 when Walt leaves the baby at the fire station. 00:25:02.859 --> 00:25:05.059 Take My True Love By The Hand by a group called 00:25:05.059 --> 00:25:07.740 The Lime Leaders. It's an older folk song, very 00:25:07.740 --> 00:25:09.839 haunting. What's the significance of that track? 00:25:10.319 --> 00:25:12.740 The lyrics heavily foreshadow his fate. They 00:25:12.740 --> 00:25:15.099 sing about saying goodbye to everyone. It underscores 00:25:15.099 --> 00:25:18.160 his total permanent isolation. And it connects 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:21.680 directly back to the baby. Holly rejected him 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:23.960 calling for mama. And now he has to say goodbye 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:26.359 to his true love, his family forever. He leaves 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:28.920 his own daughter sitting in a fire truck. That 00:25:28.920 --> 00:25:31.319 is the definitive end of Walter White as a father. 00:25:31.839 --> 00:25:34.599 So the episode airs. It completely devastates 00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:37.079 everyone who watches it. Critics call it visceral 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:39.660 and a terrifying culmination of the series. TV 00:25:39.660 --> 00:25:42.240 Guide names it the best episode of the 21st century. 00:25:42.539 --> 00:25:45.000 It wins all the Emmys. And it gets that legendary 00:25:45.000 --> 00:25:47.900 perfect 10 on IMDB with hundreds of thousands 00:25:47.900 --> 00:25:50.559 of votes. But nothing gold can stay right. Or 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:53.359 rather, nothing Ozymandias can stay. We finally 00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:55.319 have to talk about the cultural downfall, the 00:25:55.319 --> 00:25:58.180 great review bombing campaign of February 2026. 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:00.400 This is a story that I honestly think will be 00:26:00.400 --> 00:26:02.380 taught in internet sociology classes someday. 00:26:02.740 --> 00:26:05.319 It is so petty but so incredibly revealing about 00:26:05.319 --> 00:26:08.579 human nature and fandoms. It really is. So fast 00:26:08.579 --> 00:26:13.259 forward 13 years to February 2026. HBO releases 00:26:13.259 --> 00:26:16.519 a new highly anticipated show, A Night of the 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:19.200 Seven Kingdoms, which is a Game of Thrones spin 00:26:19.200 --> 00:26:22.400 -off. There is a specific episode in that run 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:24.599 called In the Name of the Mother. I remember 00:26:24.599 --> 00:26:26.619 when that aired. It was an incredible hour of 00:26:26.619 --> 00:26:28.839 fantasy television. It was fantastic. And for 00:26:28.839 --> 00:26:31.920 a brief shining moment on IMDb, it hit a perfect 00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:35.000 10 .0 rating. It threatened the long -standing 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.240 king. And the Breaking Bad loyalists just did 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:39.720 not take that well. They viewed it as a direct 00:26:39.720 --> 00:26:42.160 act of aggression against their monument. They 00:26:42.160 --> 00:26:44.359 couldn't handle Ozymandias sharing the throne 00:26:44.359 --> 00:26:47.519 with a fantasy prequel. So a coordinated group 00:26:47.519 --> 00:26:50.160 of Breaking Bad fans went to the IMDb page for 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:53.019 the Thrones episode and review bombed it. They 00:26:53.019 --> 00:26:55.000 spammed it with one star ratings, not because 00:26:55.000 --> 00:26:57.140 they actually hated the episode, but just to 00:26:57.140 --> 00:26:59.579 mathematically drag the average score down. Which 00:26:59.579 --> 00:27:01.619 is just so childish when you think about it. 00:27:01.740 --> 00:27:03.500 It's literally, my dad is stronger than your 00:27:03.500 --> 00:27:06.839 dad, but with TV shows. But the Internet entirely 00:27:06.839 --> 00:27:10.039 works on retaliation. The Thrones fans saw this 00:27:10.039 --> 00:27:12.980 unprovoked attack, and they organized a counterattack. 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:15.960 They flooded the sacred Ozymandias page with 00:27:15.960 --> 00:27:18.920 one -star reviews. Thousands and thousands of 00:27:18.920 --> 00:27:21.599 them overnight. And the perfect math just couldn't 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:23.519 hold up under that much weight. It couldn't. 00:27:23.579 --> 00:27:26.220 Ozymandias finally dropped. It lost its perfect 00:27:26.220 --> 00:27:29.359 ten. It fell to a nine point nine. The Internet 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:32.180 monument was officially defaced. But the absolute 00:27:32.180 --> 00:27:34.480 best part of this whole story is who actually 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:37.240 won the war, because while these two massive 00:27:37.240 --> 00:27:40.059 fandom giants were aggressively nuking each other, 00:27:40.299 --> 00:27:42.420 who quietly slipped past them to take the crown. 00:27:42.559 --> 00:27:44.700 This is the ultimate irony of the situation. 00:27:44.700 --> 00:27:46.680 While the Breaking Bad and Thrones fans were 00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:48.960 busy destroying each other's scores, the series 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:51.480 finale of six feet under an episode called Everyone's 00:27:51.480 --> 00:27:54.480 Waiting didn't have any active. It had a pure 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:56.799 high score that no one was messing with. So when 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:58.799 the dust finally settled from the review bombs, 00:27:59.160 --> 00:28:01.460 Six Feet Under mathematically slipped in to become 00:28:01.460 --> 00:28:04.400 the new highest rated episode. That is just too 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:07.299 perfect. The quiet show about death and undertakers 00:28:07.299 --> 00:28:10.039 wins the massive internet war. It really fits 00:28:10.039 --> 00:28:12.180 the Ozymandias theme of the episode, doesn't 00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:14.700 it? The mighty and boastful fight for dominance 00:28:14.700 --> 00:28:17.660 and ultimately destroy their own empires. And 00:28:17.660 --> 00:28:20.519 the quiet truth just wins out in the end. So 00:28:20.519 --> 00:28:23.700 as we wrap up this deep dive today, Ozzy Maria 00:28:23.700 --> 00:28:26.700 stands as a massive monument to consequences. 00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:29.319 Narratively, for Walter White, it is the end 00:28:29.319 --> 00:28:31.920 of the road. He loses literally everything he 00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:34.339 claimed he was fighting to protect. It strips 00:28:34.339 --> 00:28:36.660 away the cool factor of Heisenberg completely. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:39.160 And emotionally for the viewer, it's a harsh 00:28:39.160 --> 00:28:42.019 wake -up call. It forces us to confront the ugly 00:28:42.019 --> 00:28:44.279 reality of what we were gleefully watching for 00:28:44.279 --> 00:28:47.059 five years. It strips away the cool black hat 00:28:47.059 --> 00:28:49.180 and the sunglasses and leaves us with a broken, 00:28:49.480 --> 00:28:52.539 crying man sitting in a dusty van. leaves us 00:28:52.539 --> 00:28:54.700 with a final provocative thought to chew on. 00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:57.059 The source material reminds us that the desert 00:28:57.059 --> 00:28:59.019 remains unchanged despite all the destruction. 00:28:59.579 --> 00:29:01.339 It's totally indifferent, and it makes me think 00:29:01.339 --> 00:29:03.680 deeply about the legacy we try to leave behind. 00:29:04.140 --> 00:29:06.500 Walt killed people, he poisoned a child, he destroyed 00:29:06.500 --> 00:29:09.019 his entire family, all to leave a legacy. To 00:29:09.019 --> 00:29:11.539 leave a pile of money. To leave a feared name. 00:29:11.690 --> 00:29:14.369 Right. And in the end, the money is stolen by 00:29:14.369 --> 00:29:17.390 a gang of neo -Nazis. The name is completely 00:29:17.390 --> 00:29:20.329 hated by his own son. The only actual legacy 00:29:20.329 --> 00:29:23.190 he leaves is generational trauma. It raises the 00:29:23.190 --> 00:29:26.390 ultimate question. If our works, our careers, 00:29:26.569 --> 00:29:28.549 our money, our little empires are just going 00:29:28.549 --> 00:29:31.890 to turn to dust in the wind, like Ozymandias' 00:29:32.049 --> 00:29:35.130 statue, what does that say? about what actually 00:29:35.130 --> 00:29:37.349 mattered. Is the only thing that actually survives 00:29:37.349 --> 00:29:39.509 the relationships we protect, or in Walt's case, 00:29:39.609 --> 00:29:41.750 the ones we destroy? I think the episode strongly 00:29:41.750 --> 00:29:43.569 argues that the relationships are the only thing 00:29:43.569 --> 00:29:45.930 of actual value, how you treated the people around 00:29:45.930 --> 00:29:49.400 you. And Walt failed that test completely. He 00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:52.400 traded his family's genuine love for the temporary, 00:29:52.839 --> 00:29:55.740 a plastic barrel full of cash, and the cash just 00:29:55.740 --> 00:29:57.579 ran out. That is a very heavy thought to leave 00:29:57.579 --> 00:30:00.079 you all with today. But hey, that's exactly why 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:01.740 this is considered the best hour of television 00:30:01.740 --> 00:30:03.980 ever made. It forces you to think. It demands 00:30:03.980 --> 00:30:06.230 that you reflect on it. If you haven't watched 00:30:06.230 --> 00:30:08.049 it in a few years, I highly encourage you to 00:30:08.049 --> 00:30:10.150 go back and rewatch it with all these production 00:30:10.150 --> 00:30:13.230 secrets in mind. Look for the physical puzzle 00:30:13.230 --> 00:30:16.130 pieces in the dirt when he falls. Listen to the 00:30:16.130 --> 00:30:18.490 clumsy background noise during the knife fight. 00:30:19.009 --> 00:30:21.549 Watch Bryan Cranston's eyes when the baby calls 00:30:21.549 --> 00:30:24.390 for her mama. It is an absolute master class 00:30:24.390 --> 00:30:26.529 in storytelling. It truly is. There's nothing 00:30:26.529 --> 00:30:28.470 else quite like it. Well, thanks for diving deep 00:30:28.470 --> 00:30:30.210 with us today. We will catch you on the next 00:30:30.210 --> 00:30:30.369 one.