After what seemed like an eternity, we will finally be able to continue watching how the story of Walter, Jesse, Gus, Hank, and a host of others will unfold. To be honest, I had no idea how the writers would continue the story after season 3's very dramatic final scene. Would Walt and Jesse be on the run? Did Jesse actually shoot Gale? What will Gus do when he finds out Gale's been killed? We truly could not have guessed the answers to these questions, we had to watch. Part of what makes Breaking Bad such an interesting show is its ability to keep us on our toes at all times. I can honestly say that I have not been able to correctly guess where the plot might be headed at any point during the series. Whether I was watching the first season, the second, or the third, any ideas I had turned out to be wrong.
The season 4 premiere managed to answer the immediate questions that the season 3 finale left for us to ponder. Before we got into the mix of things we were treated to a flashback sequence of Gale setting up the under-ground lab for the first time with Gus. It is revealed here that Gale had a huge role in convincing Gus to hire Walter White to cook for him. I liked this scene because for the episode to make sense, it was absolutely necessary as I will explain later. Following the flashback, we see the immediate aftermath of Jesse's shot, and Gale's death. Aaron Paul's acting in this shot is absolutely phenomenal, he manages to bring out the emotions of having to commit murder for the first time in his life, and as the audience we fully understand what he is going through. In my opinion Paul is the best actor on the show, as the degree of difficulty on this particular scene was through the roof and I think only he (out of the whole cast) could have pulled it off. Gus's henchman (not Mike) arrives and finds Jesse sitting in his car. He takes Jesse back to the lab where Walt and Mike are waiting. This is where things slowed down a bit, as Mike insisted on waiting on Gus before doing anything else and we got some shots of other characters. Marie coping with Hank's inability to take care of himself is probably the best of these shots. It truly is tough watching Hank struggle with simple tasks such as going to the bathroom on his own, and Betsy Brandt portrays Marie's struggles with the whole situation very well. Hopefully Hank being incapacitated wont drag on for too long, in my opinion it would make things very stale. Other characters that were featured were Skyler White and Saul Goodman. Saul is as paranoid as ever and is seen checking his office for bugs and wire-taps, while Skyler is as manipulative as ever, getting a locksmith to open Walter's apartment for her, and driving his car away so her son wont get his hopes up. I really do not like the direction Skyler's character is going, I find it very tough to watch scenes where its just her, and honestly she just does not bring as much to the table as she did in seasons 1 and 2. Hopefully, the writers will find something for her to do, other than causing audiences to cringe and beg for her scenes to end.
The climax of the episode occurs when Gus finally confronts Walter and Jesse in the meth lab. He doesn't say more than 5 words, yet he completely dominates the scene with his demeanor. It was easily the best scene in the episode and I honestly can't do it justice by re-telling it. Essentially, Gus murders the henchman that grabbed Jesse because the guy started cooking Meth so that they would not be behind schedule. He also did not clean up the crime scene of Gale's death. The combination of these two mistakes lead to his demise. We see that Gus is as rational, cold, and calculating as ever and he tells Jesse and Walter to "Get back to Work" (his only line) implying that everything is OK...for now. Personally, the murder took me completely by surprise, but when the episode ended I fully understood why it happened with the help of Jesse. Jesse tells Walt that Gus can only count on them to cook and keep their mouths shut, as finding another Gale is impossible. Gus also wants the very best product (which Gale told him only Walt makes in the opening flashback). So now we have an uneasy relationship between Gus and our favorite cooks with another complication... The police find Gale's Lab notes in his apartment at the end of the episode! What does this mean? I would share my theory, but I will be wrong as I usually am with this show.
All in all, this was a very solid, but not great episode. It was ultimately always going to be a let-down after many months of anticipation, but it did address the most pressing questions, and has opened up some interesting story-lines (the main one being the discovery of Gale's lab notes). It will be interesting to see how Jesse's character will develop now that he is a murderer, watching him cope with things should be interesting. We have yet to see if Skyler will eventually 'break bad' for the sake of her family (she is on the path, a story that would be better than hearing about her outrage at Walt for the 80th. time). As for Walt it is unclear whether he will try to betray Gus and try to get out of the drug game, or whether he will just go about his work, but I find it hard to imagine that Gus will pass up another opportunity to kill the thorn in his side that is "Heisenberg". One thing I know for sure is the fact that I am glad that Breaking Bad is back, and will enjoy watching how things unfold.
Overall Rating for the Episode: 7/10 (Not the best season opener, but given the circumstances, the writers probably used this episode to make future ones better)
Best Scene: Gus Killing his thug. I don't think anything else comes close.
Like the article? Leave us a comment and follow us on Twitter at Daki_4, FunSocialJovan, and Luka_M91
No comments:
Post a Comment