breaking bad

Skyler is on the phone, Marie is warning her on the possibility Walter could pay her a visit. Skyler is unreadable, she’s reassuring her sister but it’s hard to tell if she’s scared, sorry for Marie who clearly is not even close to understand Walter’s mind and skills, or simply prepared for every possible outcome. But when the call ends and Skyler seems to talk to herself then the camera come closer, moving that little bit that reveals Walter presence: he was there all the time, concealed to our view behind a wooden column. I find this extremely representative of what we have and have not seen all this time, from the start: looking back, to me, is like Heisenberg was always there, very present, just in a blind spot, in a dark corner or in the middle of the scene but hidden to our view by a peculiar narrative perspective.

Walter is not become Heisenberg, Heisenberg was there, all the time, waiting for Walter needed him. We have given every sort of excuse to justify Walt’s actions because we liked him: it’s so easy to sympathize with a good, honest man beated by life, humiliated by his employer, kind of bullied by his successful brother in law. Walter appeared to our eyes so in need and yet so amusingly naive with is mad, desperate, plan to cook and sell drug in order to free his family from debts and secure his children’s future, that we couldn’t help ourselves to stand by his side. Then, the fun and the compassion escalated in admiration: Walter is a genius, an artist in his own field of expertise,it’s quite impossible to not root for him. At the beginning was easy: the cancer, the wellness of the family (a kid with problem plus a newborn little girl) were the perfect and natural excuse. Family first. Then Jane. Walter let her die...

... middle of paper ...

...ment in which Walter askes for a little help to the “universe” because “i’ll take care of the rest” and the keys car magically land on his lap, in that moment he has the odds with him. He comes back, finds a the way to terrorize and at the same time obtain Gretchen and Elliot help to secure once and for all the wealth, the future, of his family. He has his total revenge on Todd, Lydia, uncle Jack and their nazi folks. He frees Jesse not only phisically, but – as a side effect – psychologically. He, of course, won’t be remembered with love by his family, by Skyler, Walter Jr, Marie, but definitely he will be remembered by everyone. The blue crystal formula is gone with him but is going to stay in the history, criminal history but still. And at the very last, with nothing else to accomplish, he dies among the instruments of his art. In the end he dies at his own terms.