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| Left to right: Krysten Ritter and Aaron Paul |
Are you tired of long, tedious accounts of Breaking Bad episode recaps? Then look no further than Breaking Half: a weekly column that takes the good and bad from each week's episode of Breaking Bad and dilutes it down to the core necessities. Each Monday, Breaking Half will attempt to take a few key moments from the episode and boil it down to one juicy paragraph.
Season 2, Episode 10"Over"
*Note: This is a video of Bryan Cranston winning an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama in 2009.
"Stay out of my territory."
-Walter (Bryan Cranston)
With the news that his cancer is in remission, Walter (Bryan Cranston) is treated to a little get together with friends and family. During this occasion, Hank (Dean Norris) slips Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte) some tequila. Walter takes control and decides to increase the dose until his son is vomiting in the pool. This leads Skyler (Anna Gunn) to spend most of her time at work talking to Ted (Christopher Cousins) since she believes that her husband's recent outburst means trouble. Walter takes this time to start working on repairs around the house, including work on the heater and the boards under his house, which apparently suffer from rot. Meanwhile, Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Jane (Krysten Ritter) have a day together to smoke and enjoy each other's company. However, when Jane's father Donald (John de Lancie) comes for a visit, Jane disavows any knowledge of Jesse in order to protect them. However, this starts a feud and causes him to leave, only to return after she apologizes. While gathering supplies at a hardware store, Walter notices that there are people buying equipment akin to a beginner meth lab. While he hasn't expressed interest in returning to the business, he clearly makes his point by telling them to stay out of his territory.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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| Bryan Cranston |
With exception to one specific scene, this episode felt more like exposition than a straight up episode. Not much happens in the way of sustaining plot, but we get to spend some quality time with these characters while they relax. Who knew that Walter was such the handyman? He may not have an exceptional presence, but his bizarre desire to improve his house almost serves as a metaphor for the broken home that he has created. It is ingenious and mostly works because Walter is convincing others that he is an upstanding citizen. Well, everyone except the new meth dealers at the hardware store.
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| Left to right: Cranston, R.J. Mitte, and Dean Norris |
Best scene: In one of the weirdest, darkest scenes that Walter the non-Heisenberg version has shown us, he gets upset when Hank takes his son from him. This is a running motif through the show, but his only way of proving his dominance is to make his son drunk off tequila to the point of vomiting in the pool and asking Hank to give him the bottle. At very least, this episode is quite symbolic in small ways, as the bottle suggests that Walter is a baby. Still, it expresses Walter's inner demons nicely and comes off as shocking, especially as this is the closest to evil that he has shown his family up to this point. It is unnerving and once again shows how Breaking Bad succeeds at having a penchant for playing close to the chest.
Come back tomorrow when we cover "Mandala"
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