Br Ba S5 E11: Confessions

After every episode of Breaking Bad, especially in season five, I have been trying to predict the turns the series will take. There will be just enough development in every episode that the story can go a number of plausible ways.

After “Confessions,” I am done trying to make any predictions because the show is smarter than me and I have no idea what will happen next. I was shocked speechless when Walt taped the confession that falsely implicated Hank in the meth business. That monologue was a riveting moment in a season full of them. The man just finds more and more new lows to sink to. The way Walt was able to summon crocodile tears was chilling and disgusting. For a moment there, after Walt said he was going to confess and the show went to commercial, I thought maybe he would do the right thing and actually confess. In contrast to his sincere video confession in the pilot, now it’s more lies on top of lies and the despicable act of framing his brother-in-law. He is a sociopath at this point and there is no turning back.

I was agreeing with Marie that Hank should go to the DEA immediately with the information. The entire thing will be a mess, and it will be the hardest thing he’ll ever have to do, but I think hiding this blackmail would just make it worse. Of course, the problem is that the evidence against Walt and the fake evidence against Hank are circumstantial and either man could be believable as the culprit. There is also the matter of the drug money used to pay Hank’s medical bills. Once again, this series shows that decisions can have enormous consequences down the road.

Either way Hank plays it, the family is destroyed and no dinner at a Mexican restaurant can reconcile the Whites and Schraders. You can’t come back from something like Marie telling Walt he should kill himself and then Walt blackmailing Hank.

Walt continues his manipulations with Jesse but the scales have finally fallen from the latter’s eyes as he warns his former mentor not to “work him.” There was a moment when the two hugged that I thought, “He’s still working you, kid” and I was afraid Jesse would fall for the lies again. I think Jesse is just exhausted and that showed especially in his tremulous relief and tiny note of hope in his voice when he talked about going away to Alaska. For a moment, I did think Walt would shoot Jesse and I think Jesse was right that doing so in the middle of nowhere was Walt’s backup plan. That hug between the two in the desert definitely seemed like a last goodbye before the war starts.

Serendipity in the form of a cigarette pack and pick-pocketed pot finally revealed to Jesse that Walt poisoned Brock and his rage was unholy and thrilling. The flash-forwards show us that he didn’t actually burn down the White house but there are more questions now as to what stopped him and how the confrontation between Pinkman and Mr. White will play out.

I was expecting Jesse to realize Walt poisoned Brock but not so early in the series. There are still five episodes left and so much has happened, yet there’s still the feel that Breaking Bad is building up to something. After the revelations of the first three episodes, I have a feeling the explosion is going to be massive.