Walt and Heisenberg: Felina

The last episode of breaking bad... obviously it was amazing. Couldn't have ended it any better myself (as if i could've done anything at all better than Vince Gilligan). Last night, while watching through the full episode for maybe the 1000th time, I noticed something thats really eerie and really awesome at the same time. The episode starts with Walter in a vehicle. As the camera is focused on car mirror, you see Walter staring into the reflection of his own eyes and say, "Just get me home... Just get me home. I'll do the rest." My theory: This is Walt speaking to Heisenberg. Walt is asking the Heisenberg side of him for one last favor, and that is to get him back to new mexico for his chance at revenge. When i made that realization, i thought it was really cool. Walter White actually addressing his murderous Scarface esc. other half. Also, bare with on the crappy photo, couldn't find online so i ended up taking a photo of my computer screen, best i could do.

Hank

Hank Schrader. To many, he became the hero in Breaking Bad. Why not? He's the good guy, right? He's the cop going after the king pin mass murdering drug lord, otherwise known as his brother in law, Walter White. Is he really a good guy though? I say no, in fact I'll go as far as to say that Hank is no better than Walter. In reality, they're similar in a lot of ways. Lets start off with ego. There was only one ego to start off Breaking Bad. Before there was Heisenberg, on the very first episode, sitting in the White family's living room boasting about his job: is Hank. Hank even has the audacity to make a toast to Walter for his birthday, and then drinks Walter's beer taking it right out of his hand. When the show begins, the ego is Hank. a couple seasons later, Walter has the same personality with every move he makes being controlled by his ego. Why is Walter a bad guy? Sure, he murders people etc., but I mean when, as viewers, did we really begin to hate Walt for the monster he is? I know when I did. it was when i came to the realization that Walt was doing all of these terrible things because he was attempting to make riches that he felt were stolen from him when he sold his share of his future billion dollar company. But, if you think about it, is Hank any better? When Hank makes the realization that Walter is Heisenberg, his goal isn't to being justice to a criminal. His goal is to redeem himself for chasing a man for so long that was literally right in front of his face. He didn't care about what was right or just, he cared about not looking like a complete idiot in front of the whole DEA. Sure, in the beginning he said all of his evidence was circumstantial, but at the point where he cracked Huell and had Jesse willing to testify, what stopped him? The same thing that drove Walt into the murderous path of darkness. His ego. To go beyond that, Hanks took his ego over his life. Hank died because he would rather be the macho super cop instead of... well, alive? Think about it. Walt and Hank, they're not different. Just on opposite sides of the playing field

Holly White

Holly White. Walter and Skyler's infant daughter, and a huge part of Walt's Journey. Per usual, the theme of colors becomes very relevant to this post. Ever since we as B.B. watchers have made the connection that pink equals bad, we've been scared for baby Holly. Why? She's always in pink. Almost every time we see Holly White, she's in her pink baby outfit as if its supposed to be some kind of cute color scheme while I'm screaming at my TV for Holly to watch out for her life. Vince Gilligan had everyone believing that Holly was in some type of trouble, especially when we jump to season 5b, specifically the episode Granite State. The White family comes home to Walter packing their belongings and telling them he can't explain now, but they need to get out of there. Little does Walter know, his son was informed just 15 minutes earlier that his father was the New Mexican scarface of meth. Not only that, but Skyler is fully aware that Hank had Walter in handcuffs and assumes the worst. Skyler slashes Walt with a knife, and a wrestling match for the weapon ensues all but 5 feet away from Holly. I know I'm not alone when I say this, I was about ready to shed tears because sure one way or another that knife was going to find its way plunged into Holly's chest. I was wrong, but Vince Gilligan's genius never fails. Allow me to elaborate. Walter speeds off with Holly. Later, he's shown changing her diaper. Walt encourages Holly to say "Dada", but instead, Holly starts crying for Skyler, saying "mama". Right than and there, Heisenberg dies. Walter White is all that remains, leading to his selfless act of calling Skyler acting as Heisenberg to de-criminate her for any acts she had done. Those tears he cried; those were the tears of Walter. He then leaves Holly in a safe place to be found, and proceeds to finish his mission. Some may argue: If Heisenberg is dead then why does he want to kill jack? I can answer this. There is nothing left for Heisenberg to defend. No empire, no meth, no turf. That is Walter White taking revenge on a man who killed a member of his family. You need to remember Walter has always been a flawed character, even before Heisenberg, and vengeful is definitely a word to describe him. So even though we all think Holly's constant pink attire was there just to throw everyone off: wrong. There was death, it wasn't Holly. Holly was bearing the signal of death, and the one who died, just with the words "mama" instead of "dada" killed Heisenberg off forever. Had he still been alive, Elliot and Gretchen would each have a bullet in their skull or ricin in their system, something along those lines, instead of a ingenious scapegoat for Walt to get what he originally wanted: for the money to get to his family when he's gone.

The Rowboat Painting

This post is deticated to one of my favorite examples of the symbolism in subtle things in Breaking Bad.

The rowboat painting first appeared when Walt was in the hospital after devising a plan to fool his peers and loved ones into thinking that dehydration and heat exhaustion caused him to blackout and end up naked passed out in a supermarket. In reality, Walt had thinly escaped death and even more thinly escaped being caught by his brother in law DEA agent, Hank. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING in Breaking Bad is done by accident. Walt stares deeply into the painting with no emotion at all, a painting which shows a man, alone, rowing away from his family into the abyss, if you will. We see the painting again during the first meeting between Walt and Uncle Jack. Lets start with the painting itself, in my interpretation, the painting theoretically resembles Walters journey farther and farther into "bad". When we first see it, Walt is first leaving shore, lying to his family and friends, barely escaping death, starting to go into the deep. By the time you see it again, many murders and unspeakable acts later, Walt is attempting to organize the murder of 10 men, all without showing one bit of remorse. Showing the painting yet again means a lot. My interpretation: this is it. Once Walter commits these murders, there is absolutely no turning back. We saw it before, Walt was just getting started. We see it now, Walt's family that he was drifting from at this point in time are simply hostages in his meth empire. The painting is also showing the significance of Jack, who would successfully organize the prison murders and end up murdering Hank in the future at gunpoint.

The Pink Teddy Bear

The first topic ill touch upon is one that Breaking Bad fans everywhere will love: thats right, you guessed it: the pink teddy bear. Because i would wish Breaking Bad spoiled upon my worst enemy, I'm going to throw this up. "SPOILER ALERT"

The pink teddy bear is arguably the most well known case of symbolism in the history of breaking bad. First, lets lay out everything the bear is allegedly linked to:

1. Foreshadowing of the plane accident

2. Foreshadowing of Gus Fringe's death

3. Death or Doom in general

Lets start with the Plane crash. The pink teddy bear is shown in flash-forwards in four different episodes during season two. Put the names of the episodes that the teddy bear was shown, in order, this is what you get: "Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ". I gotta say, this is yet another example of a long list of awesome shit Vince Gilligan does that the average show watcher wouldn't ever know about. Who'd be looking for something that subtle anyway? Only Breaking Bad fans. If i go on my whole post will be a rant on how much better Breaking Bad is than anything else, so I'll continue. During the first flash forward, you see the bear floating in a pool. half of the bears body is burned up, and you have no idea why. The second time you see the bear, its in another flash forward of it in a pool, but this time, the bear is picked up and put into an evidence bag. Next appearance  then shows an item of Walter's and two dead bodies in a box where the teddy bear is placed. The bear is seen next in a flash forward crashing down into the water while Walter looks down. Leading up to the plane crash, no one knew that half of the foreshadowing they were witnessing. No other show could put the foreshadowing of a plane crash incidentally caused by Walt as a damaged teddy bear that actually fell out of crashing plane, but when you see it all happen it fits together perfectly. Now lets talk Fringe. Gus Fringe's death is foreshadowed by the teddy bear. How? The burned off half of the bears face resembles the half face of Gus's body after a bomb went off right in front of him. Somewhat obvious if you ask me. The pink teddy bear is also frequently found on people who are in serious trouble or even meet their demise later in the show.

                                          The Bear can be spotted subtly floating in Jane's muriel

                       A blurry shot of the bear on sale at the supermarket where Walt collapses

The bear is in the tree in the background before jesse gets into Hanks car

First Post: Blog Concept

My blog is going to be about the AMC television show Breaking Bad. Thats Obvious though, unlike a blog that simply talks about whats going to happen next (If AMC was still airing new episodes) and summarizes episodes, Ill be talking about the "finer arts" of the show, if you will, and what also, in my opinion, sets Breaking Bad from any other show in television. To go back to that statement, I have rather strong opinions on Breaking Bad. Yes, its widely acclaimed as one of the, if not the greatest show of all time. If you ask me though, NOTHING is in the same league as Breaking Bad. sure, all great shows have great acting, great action, and great story lines. It's just the way breaking bad blends them all together along with the attention to detail that Vince Gilligan puts into the foreshadowing of whats to come... it's nothing short of genius. The concept of my blog will be focused on just that, along with the ever so dark underlying themes and symbolism that fills every episode with that jaw dropping awe and the need to watch more.