Shea Reviews – Breaking Bad S05E09 – Blood Money

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It’s finally back. After months of waiting to find out what Hank would do with the knowledge (or at least, suspicion) that Walt is Heisenberg, after months of waiting to find out if Skylar would finally forgive Walt now that he’s out of the business, after months of waiting to find out how Walt got his hair back…we still don’t really have answers to any of those questions. If anything, all we have are MORE questions. But that’s not to say that this was an uneventful or underwhelming “premiere”. In fact, quite the opposite.

Hank had another panic attack and Marie nagged him about it. Jesse pouted and shed a few tears for children. Walt Jr continued to only have lines while sitting at the dinner table. Honestly, most of this week’s episode felt like a regular Breaking Bad episode, whatever that means. But there was this extra weight to everything now that we know this show is coming to an end soon. Everything is important now, because we don’t know what will end up mattering in those last 42 minutes of this show’s life. Those who have been with the show for 5 years know that creator Vince Gilligan loves to leave little breadcrumbs of foreshadowing for us to find, even if most of them don’t make sense until the end of the season (see: pink teddy bear). We can only guess that the same is true here, especially in the “future” sequences. I’m sure there will be dozens of nuggets and clues to analyze once all is said and done, but we won’t know what they are for another two months. That’s part of the fun of this show, looking back and seeing where connections could be made.

I pride myself on usually being able to solve a TV mystery before I’m supposed to, or knowing who the bad guy is before the show’s protagonist, but Breaking Bad is a show that almost always keeps me guessing. We all knew the eventual confrontation between Walt and Hank was going to happen in a big way, but I don’t think I’m alone in thinking they’d wait until near the end of the season. But, in the stand out scene of the episode, Breaking Bad continues to surprise it’s viewers by putting that confrontation in THE FIRST DAMN EPISODE. And it. Is. Glorious. There’s just the right amount of punches thrown, Walt cowering, and thinly veiled threats to know that this won’t be the only time these two go one on one this season. And it seems that Walt’s new enemy is no longer the greater of two evils as in past seasons. Rooting for him just keeps getting harder and harder.

I’m very curious about how the return of Walt’s cancer will affect the story, since he clearly overcomes it leading into the “future” sequences. And I can’t imagine we’ll go the rest of the season without Walt and Jesse cooking a single batch, but I’ve been wrong before. Several times.

Positives:
-sets the tone for everything to come
-scenes in the “future”

-Badger’s Star Trek episode

Negatives:
-story with the overseas conglomerate needs more focus
-Jesse continuing to feel sorry for himself
-underscoring felt a little bit heavy at times

Score:
8.5/10

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