Written by George Mastras, producer and writer of the Emmy nominated episode "Dead Freight"
Directed by Michelle MacLaren, who recently directed "Buried"
Last week in the comments, I mentioned how Walt has lost a step and no longer inhabits his Heisenberg persona. He's made sloppy, arrogant, emotional mistakes to lead him to where he is, with Hank on his trail. Now in "To'hajiilee" he makes a few more egregious errors that bring him to the convergence at the episode's conclusion.
When he's barreling toward his money at full speed and gives his confession on the phone it's because he got angry at Jessie. Rather than talk him out of it like he usually does, he falls victim to his emotion and loses his mind on Jessie, in the course of which he gives a full confession naming murders all the way back to Crazy 8. He calls Jesse "stupid" which he has never done. But here he's underestimating both Hank and Jesse, never surmising, or even thinking about, them working together let alone the possibility they could outsmart him. He lets a "look over there"distraction get the best of him, never hesitating. Would Heisenberg have picked up on the dirt not matching? Hank even rubbed that bit in. Walt bulled through the ruse as fast as he bulled his car down into the dessert. Hank meanwhile doesn't balk for a second at Walt's attempt with Brock's mother.
Walt always told Jesse "apply yourself" rather than verbally beat him down for his poor grades. He said the same thing to Todd during those early cooks. For whatever potential he didn't realize in his research and missing out on Grey Matter, he was clearly an excellent teacher able to focus his chemistry brilliance with teaching, which is a wholly separate skill. Walt lost control of that here and gave up everything. I imagine the reason Walt was so well able to manipulate people came from the same well of talent that he pulled from for his teaching ability. Walt's no longer teaching (despite a promise to Jack for one last cook) and is no longer able to manipulate and control Jesse because the skills he uses in both cases are not as sharp as before.
- POV bingo - meth cooking surface. First shot of the episode
- The more Walt relies on these crazy white supremacists, the worse off Walt is.
- Obviously Walt survives, given the flash forward
- No clue
- if Walt and Jesse's conversation was recorded
- if Walt and Jesse's conversation was legally recorded
- if a recorded conversation between them would be admissible
- Walt doesn't bare his soul to Hank in defeat. He doesn't point out the money. He doesn't confess. Still looking for a way out, not willing to close that door
- As I watched I wondered if Walt contemplated suicide at that moment but now that I think about it, he wouldn't. I do think his life flashed before his eyes and he decided he's going to continue to not admit anything and try to find a way out, much calmer than he was when on the phone with Jesse
- Walt maintains Jesse is not a "rat" but in fact "family". Such close family he wants him killed
- Unfortunately, Jesse is ratting to Hank as they speak
- The plotting is so tight at this point they're overlapping scenes.
- It is kind of funny to have Walt's ominous call at last week's end responded to by Todd with almost a sing-song "Okay sure"
- The Crazy 8 murder was possibly the roughest to watch because it was the most personal. Walt had to get his hands dirty as opposed to using a car or bomb.
- Those almost seem small compared to how big the operation got. But Crazy 8 and others represented points where Walt crossed into new territory
- Even after all that, Walt still has to cook for another guy.
- Who actually put the Jesse murder into perspective for Walt, as much as he didnt want to hear it about the "angry non-rat" (regardless of what he was in reality)
- Todd wondering about the quality of his coffee is funny. He cooks all this meth using science then a Mr. Coffee after
- Remember Gale's uber coffee machine? Even Walt was impressed
- The blue meth which Tuco originally gave a WTF to has become the best brand in the world, and is now preferred
- There was some imitation blue meth for a period of time, right?
- I thought the blue came from Walt manufacturing his own Pseudophedrine?
- Originally thought they'd get Walt from something with the dirt and the odometer but it's better for the characters that they outsmart him and force a mistake
- The scene brough back a lot of past episodes, like Hank stepping out in the dessert to shoot Tuco, or Walt and Jesse's first cook
- Maybe Walt's BFG is meant for Jack & Co.?
- Huel went down quick, but as I mentioned before, sometimes we accept these jumps in order to move things along
- Jesse did shoot Gale in the face. He's not sharing that with Hank, so he's still liable for it. It can be thrown in his face at any time and put him away as long as Walt would be.
- Next week is "Ozymandias"
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