I’m going to say something controversial here. I hate Skyler. I know, I know, she’s easily one of the most loved female characters of the last ten years. All kidding aside, I know people love to shit on Skyler for being a nagging obstacle for Walt’s misdeeds, and that isn’t really fair. This is a complex show where we find ourselves rooting for the bad guy (though that’s becoming less and less true with every episode), and there has to be someone that provides a moral compass. And for a while, that was Skyler. I’m fine with that. While it got annoying sometimes to listen to her constantly justifying her own poor decisions because her husband was lying to her, she was a necessary part of the show. But since she’s become involved in Walt’s dirty dealings, all of that has changed.
She knows the terrible things Walt has done and yet she chose to stay with him. And it doesn’t matter what her reasons for doing it were, she chose to stay with this “terrible” man and now she spends his ill-gotten money, and even helps him launder it. And yet she still thinks that she’s allowed to judge his actions, ALL of which have been for the betterment of his family. I am by no means condoning the terrible stuff Walt has done, but she is now a party to all of those things, and she needs to come to terms with that.
She even had the nerve to suggest killing Jesse in this episode, after all of the judgement she has put on Walt for doing similar things in the past. The difference is, this time she’s in danger, not just Walt. Good to know where your priorities are, Skyler.
But that’s enough Skyler bashing for today, because this episode suffers from a much larger, worrying problem. Not enough happens. The entire episode is spent leading up to a confrontation that never even happens. I mean, come on Vince Gilligan, we only have four more episodes to go in the life of this show and not only do we still have no context for the future scenes, but there is no clear road to how this will all end. I have the utmost faith that something crazy and amazing is going to happen to put on back on the right track, but nothing in this episode would lead one to believe that. Don’t get me wrong, there were still some great character moments and it’s cool to see Hank and Jesse (kind of) working together, but that just isn’t enough anymore. It looks like Jesse has big plans for next episode and Todd appears to be making a comeback to hopefully shed more light on the meth business, but we’ll just have to wait and see. The problem is, we just don’t have that much time left to wait.
Positives:
-Hank and Jesse together
-Huell got more lines
-looks like we’re headed somewhere cool next episode
Negatives:
-Skyler being oblivious to her hypocrisy
-didn’t care at all about Marie’s therapy session
-episode felt like it was treading water
Score:
7/10