Monday, March 29, 2010

Breaking Bad- Mr. Pollo's Game of Chicken

Flynn White- "My name is Walter Jr."

Breaking Bad is a real character driven show. That is, it is driven by the character of Walter White. Like him or not, he's such a strong personality that its almost impossible to not be drawn in by his actions. What makes Breaking so good is that although slow moving, the story telling can be really good. Last night's waning moments of the episode were a great example of how it has the ability to force the audience to wonder and ask questions through story telling, while keeping you so very excited throughout.

The final house break-in scene was foreshadowed by two earlier moments in the episode. The Two Suits met with Tuco's mute papa to find out who this crazy Heisenberg actually was. After using a ouija board and the old man's trusty bell, The Two Suits got a name- WALTER WHITE. On the other side of the story there was the Wire Tapper. We met him earlier in the ep when he received a call from who I thought was Saul Goodman saying that "We may have a wife problem."

Jump back to the end of the ep where all of the action goes down. The Wire Tapper, in all of his casual style, walks up to the White Home and drills his wire tap into the side of the house. While all of this is happening, Walter is frantically trying to break into his own home because Skyler locked him out. Once he gets in through the crawl space, and The Wire Tapper goes back to his car, we get the real magic.

The Two Suits show up to the White Home with an axe ready to do business. They're thinking to themselves, "get in, get out, nobody gets hurt (well except Walt)." As the silent killers wait for Walt to get out of the shower, The Wire Tapper makes an urgent phone call saying that there is a problem. Who's on the other line? Mr. Pollo himself. How powerful is this dude. Is he in charge of all the meth in the world? Anyway he simply texts "Pollos" to the The Two Suits and they forget all about killing the meth manufacturer that has done them so much harm. They got out of there as fast as Jack Donaghy when someone says "Twig and plum."

T-time and I predicted that The Two Suits would get to the ABQ by this second episode but wouldn't be confronted with Walt until ep two. Does this Mr. Pollo put a wrench in that prediction? Is he gonna sideline The Two Suits for a while? Or is he going to use them for some other plan that he's concocting in that giant factory of his? Whatever happens, I'm extremely intrigued by where the story is heading.

Other Points

- I'm really starting to enjoy Walter Jr. now that he hates his mom and likes Walt. As the quote at the top shows he is very proud to be named after his father and might be getting rid of the ridiculous nickname of Flynn for the time being.

- Very little Jesse action in this one. He was very subdued throughout, while managing to blackmail (through the help of Saul) his parents into selling him the house that he used to live in.

- Walt has really lost it. Between him going agro on the food hut police officer and having to clean out the motel pool because it had some debrit in it, I'm starting to be worried about him.

- More subtle humor from the writers and Bryan Cranston. When Skyler won't let Walt in for dinner, he pleads with "we've got dipping sticks."

2 comments:

  1. I dont think the text said pollos. i think it was just from pollos, then we didn't get to read it.

    Dippin sticks line was incredible

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  2. I thought Walt got a message one time that also just said "Pollos." Maybe you're right though that it is from Pollos in that he might not want to use his real name with people.

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