Br Ba S5 E10: Buried

So now Mr. and Mrs. White have both been punched or slapped in the face by Mr. and Mrs. Schrader respectively. The main players are choosing their sides.

The scene with Skyler and Marie in the bedroom was hard to watch. Skyler had such a visceral reaction as she allowed herself to realize just how much damage Walt had done and how long she was complicit in it. Walt and Skyler did not directly cause Hank to get shot, true, but I could read Marie’s unspoken accusation. What she didn’t have to say was “You know my husband faces danger from meth dealers and those are the people you’re in bed with? And stayed in bed with even after he ended up in a wheelchair?” I can’t say I blame Marie for slapping her.

The scene that followed, with Marie trying to get Holly out of the house and out of danger, was brutal (a child in peril in fiction always pushes my emotional buttons). It was a terrible foreshadowing that the Whites are involved in some dirty business, they may not be out of it yet, and there’s still a baby in the house.

Hank could have gone about confronting Skyler in a less tone deaf way. He’s disgusted by Walt’s actions but acts as if he’s talking to one of his buddies at the office about nailing a bad guy. “I don’t want the bastard to run out the clock,” he says. That’s still Skyler’s husband and I guess she decided at the end of the day, they’re still husband and wife.

I am amazed that a basket case like Lydia voluntarily started working in such a high stress business as the international meth trade. She’s definitely in a world where she doesn’t belong, with her Louboutins descending into the dirty meth lab. She is canny enough to order the massacre of Declan and his partners but can’t bear to look at their bodies. I think Lydia is the wild card in Breaking Bad and may be what will convince Walt to cook again. Either that or the Czechs will get him.

It looks as if Jesse, almost catatonic with guilt, will be the key to this whole unraveling. Now I’m thinking instead of Jesse killing Walt, Walt might be the one to kill Jesse. This makes sense because that’s the one murder Walt could commit that would completely corrupt him in the viewers’ eyes. I had said I didn’t want Jesse to die because he’s such a great character but I have made my piece with his possible death. The show is ending anyway so technically all the characters will die since we won’t see them again.    

Breaking Bad is shaping up to be a true tragedy and I could feel that in the inter-family confrontations this episode. The Whites and the Schraders are in an impossible situation. The hurts have cut too deep for any reconciliation. Skyler and Marie will each lose a sister. Walt may lose his freedom or his life. Hank may lose his career as well as his family. These characters are heading for a disaster that they cannot avoid and it’s becoming clearer by the episode.