TPG's Chemistry Class: Season 5, Episode 14 - Ozymandias (Breaking Bad Recap)

Whoah. Just got out of the shower. Why? Because that episode just made me feel completely dirty and filled with dark energy. This episode more than any other episode in the show just propels things completely forward. Where things go from here, who knows? Well actually, we kind of know because they involve a machine gun and some ricin. So now that the reaction has begun, let's just get right into it.

1. I loved the opening sequence of the happier times. Yet when Walt was taking the phone call with Skyler, did you catch how the shot was framed. Walt on one side, the RV in the middle, and Jesse on the other. Clever way to show just what had been connecting the goofy burnout talking to himself in the desert to the family man lying to his wife.

2. RIP Gomez, you had some great one liners. But seriously, how is Gomez going to bite it so brutally and Hank is going to get off (at first) with just a leg wound? What?

3. So far Walt has used the "fresh start" pitch on three people. First was Jesse. Second was Hank. And finally his family. Didn't work on anybody. Not only does Walt needs to get a new pitch, but he really needs to see how futile an offer it really is. Of course he'll learn this when he tries to go for a fresh start with the maroon van man and sees that it doesn't really work out.

4. Visual metaphors were abound in this episode. Here they are:

• The boiling water that opened the episode. Shows how things will finally react.
• Walt looks into the rear view mirror as he's pulling away. He knows that his past is the past but he's still going to have to deal with it.
• Walt approaches the wise native american dude but a fence separates them. The fence signifies morality, this is evident by the skull hanging on the fence.
• Marie is in black all episode, probably because whether she knows it or not Hank is toast.
• The colors of the clothes Holly wears are the exact same as the famous pink teddy bear.
• The car that Walt is in driving into the sunrise, not the sunset. This means he's off to a new life, although who knows how long it will last.
• Half of Jesse's face is completely mangled and destroyed, this is evidence of how is half broken but still has fight in him left.
• The dog seen at the end signifies Jesse who frequently associates with dogs (Problem Dogs, Rabid Dogs) on the show. The dog's path crosses with the car. Jesse and Walt will meet again.

5. "What's with all the greed here, it's unattractive," probably the most bizarrely zen thing ever said by a white supremecist on TV.

6. So the Jane death finally comes around full circle and I gotta say that was totally brutal. I guess since the reaction began at the pilot episode, Walt has been slipping further and further into darkness, and we didn't get a slip, we got a full plunge tonight. But still hearing him say it was so brutal.

7. Earlier I said RIP Gomez, guess I forgot to say RIP Hank. I knew he wasn't going to be around at the final episode, but I'm surprised he made it this far.

8. Yeesh, how terrifying is that lab set-up for Jesse. Chained to the ceiling, horribly beaten and disfigured, taunting by a threat to the only people he cares about, and of course locked in there with America's resident baby-faced psycho killer who "he has a history with!"

9. ULTIMATE MIND MELT FOR BREAKFAST -  One of the most striking things about this episode was how right until the end, the mega dramatic beats tended to occur offscreen. We were really only treated to the aftermath of Hank actually being shot, Jesse being tortured and giving up the information, and Flynn hearing the truth about his Dad. This is no doubt a decision by Vince Gilligan and co to prep us for the final satanic Walt monologue. It worked brilliantly.

10. DESSERT FOR MIND MELT - I was struck that that Walt snatched up the baby. His affection for Holly reminded me of another bald criminal who cared deeply for his family. That man would be Mike Ehrmantraut who like Walt left his daughter behind when the heat was closing in.

11. The real mystery of this show is who the hell is driving that maroon van?