Breaking Bad Virgin Diary – Bloody urine and bloody brilliant

by Dan Meier

'Breaking Bad' just gets more and more impressive, managing to stay profound and visceral in equal measure.

Season One, Episode Five: “Gray Matter”

“What I need is a choice.”

The highlight of this perfectly handled episode was surely the “family meeting” (not an intervention …), in which everyone gave their opinion on the issue of Walt refusing treatment. It started with Hank inappropriately guzzling bits of cheese; another of those subtle touches that conveys a huge amount about a character. In fact, this episode showed a human side to Hank, who protected Walt Jr. when he was caught trying to get beer and tried to help Walt at the family meeting, albeit using impenetrable baseball and cards analogies. The meeting itself, specifically “the talking pillow,” reminded me of Six Feet Under, which is all about the weird way in which the middle-classes repress their emotional problems. The discussion raised some interesting questions about euthanasia and choosing to die, with the brilliant Marie perhaps talking the most sense. It culminated with Walt’s speech, a moving and profound insight into the nature of terminal illness.

Meanwhile Jesse decided to cook meth with a man dressed as a dollar bill. His job interview at the start of the episode was tragically funny, as was the party that Walt and Skyler attended. Both situations highlighted the pride of each character; Jesse is too proud to stand around in a stupid costume for a living, while Walt is too proud to accept money from his old friend. Elliott Schwartz’s party was gloriously over-the-top to emphasise Walt’s own failings, as Jesse’s family did for Jesse in the previous episode. That impossible exaggeration is very effective, this time taken to the gloriously ridiculous extent of Elliott receiving one of Eric Clapton’s guitars as a present, before opening Walt’s own tiny offering.

The ending of the episode was somehow both warm and heartbreaking. When Walt awoke to find Skyler’s side of the bed empty, he decided that he will get the treatment, for her. That his love for her is so strong is beautiful, yet he will become the miserable, “artificially alive” man that he dreads becoming. On the plus side, this means that he’s going back to Jesse to make meth. Few closing lines can beat “Wanna cook?”

A few quick points:

I love how Jesse has actually learnt some chemistry thanks to his teacher, just not in the conventional way.
The sequence in which Jesse attempts to cook without Walt was one of those perfect combinations of music and visuals.
Jesse’s clip-on tie was another beautiful character touch.

Season One, Episode Six: “Crazy Handful of Nothin’”

“Sometimes it feels better not to talk.”

This show is wonderfully visceral when it wants to be. From Walt’s painful coughing to his loud vomiting, from his sad hair-loss to his bloody urine, this is the most raw, honest depiction of illness I’ve ever seen. That said, he does look seriously cool with his head shaved. Not that that’s any consolation obviously, it’s more to do with the strange freedom he’s granted by living in this existential space, on the verge of death. It’s what makes him able to threaten the psychopathically sadistic Tuco; he has nothing to lose. I love seeing this dark side to such an interesting character, and the flashforward to the explosive ending at the start of the episode made for an intriguing opening.

Also superb is the way everyone speaks, whether its Hank’s sheer crudity (“Chick’s got an ass like an onion … makes me wanna cry.”), or the dangerously unhinged meth-head Tuco (“This kicks like a mule with its balls wrapped in duct tape!”), there’s humour in almost every exchange. My favourite this episode came as Walt yelled at Jesse for not selling enough meth, but as his teacher; “I know a lack of motivation when I see it.” Jesse’s response, pointing out that Walt killed his only potential distributor, was inspired, especially as he still calls him “Mr. White.” One minute this mild-mannered man is your chemistry teacher, the next he’s making you sell his meth and angrily shouting at you to “just grow some fucking balls!” We’ve all been there.

Breaking Bad is impressively brave and audacious. What other show would give us a POV shot of a toilet bowl, which is then filled with a messy stream of blood-filled urine (apart from Peep Show, obviously)? There’s only one episode left in this season, and I could not be more excited about the climax.

A few quick points:

The shots of chemical-filled fluid bags again brought to mind Six Feet Under, with all its embalming fluid.
Another great musical sequence, as Jesse sells drugs accompanied by up-tempo bossa nova.
The unfair arrest of Hugo the lovely janitor made a nice point about racial profiling.
Because I haven’t referenced Pulp Fiction yet in this post, I’ll point out that there are two people with the surname Villalobos working on Breaking Bad, which is the surname of the taxi driver who drives Butch Coolidge from the fight. So there’s that.