Monsters of Television

“There’s no better reason than family.”

When it comes to Breaking Bad, I’m always changing who I root for. I’ve steadily stopped rooting for Walt (and as this season has progressed, IN ONLY 2 EPISODES, I find him truly despicable); I’ve never liked-liked Jesse, seeing him as more a victim (which this season has only intensified so far); the rest of the White family is a bit of hit of miss (I’ve come around on Skyler, but poor Walter, Jr. just loves breakfast). Gus is likeable due to sheer performance chops, Hank is perhaps the most insanely human character on the series, and Saul is a wonderful study of a guy in over his head.

So if there’s still a character I’m actively rooting for, that I actively get a un-guilty thrill from (which is what I get from Walt now), it’s Mike. And through this episode, I was wanting him to get out of this life. I want him to relax, drink beer and Ensure, and play Hungry Hungry Hippos with his granddaughter. Even though the man is the hardest of hard-boiled assassins and P.I.s, he’s a tired and beaten down man who wishes the world would just wise the hell up and leave him alone.

Now that the immediate threat is taken care of — Gus’s laptop — Walt is looking to re-start his business because he’s $40k in the hole (a necessary plot point needed to justify his continue cooking (has he really spent all this money…?)) and he needs help. It’s great to me to watch the series come full circle with Gus removed from the picture. Walt doesn’t have the capital to start an operation that he has grown accustomed to, but he oh-so-wants to. So he’s looking to employ folks.

Mike is, essentially, the new Jesse. Mike is, in Walt’s mind, no better than a street dealer thug, in charge of distribution and gathering the necessary chemicals. Jesse, presumably, will just be cooking. Likely Walt’s envisioning a more complicated role for Mike, but the way he lays it out shows the lack of respect Walt has for a man who could very easily kill him without him even knowing.

And that becomes the crux of Mike’s existence in this amazing little episode. There’s a complete lack of respect for a man of Mike’s stature and experience at every turn in this episode. Walt walks into the man’s home, thinking he can just buy Mike with a cut of the profits. Lydia (how wonderful is this character? I hope she’s sticking around) behaves as if she’s in the film noir/spy film she likely believes Mike models himself after and then ignores his wisdom in whacking Gus’s eleven other key players (“We don’t kill 11 people as some sort of prophylactic measure.”). One of those guys underestimates him and falls for Mike’s favorite trick (dude must keep balloons in his trunk).

His turn in the DEA interview room with Hank and Gomie is also rife with a disrespect, but one that Mike is likely expecting. He’s on the other end of the table now, and as a cop, he probably behaved in a similar manner prior to his big blow up in Philadelphia (I never want to know what it is; it doesn’t matter). So he’s used to this game, and there’s nothing either Hank can do or say that will rattle him until he mentions Kaylee and the untouched $2 million Mike had Gus set up.

It’s part of that game, and Mike understands that, but it’s enough to cause Mike to do exactly what he doesn’t want to do in aligning with Walt. Lydia’s pleading not to disappear, not to scar her daughter, speaks those concerns he has with Kaylee and her future. It was a gut-wrenching scene, because I wanted Mike out of this, out of all of it. But he just can’t go, and that’s the tragedy of Walt’s existence: He destroys everyone. Everyone.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Want to direct you to Alyssa Rosenberg’s piece on Walt as an abuser. Love. It.
• Which leads me to telling you about how intense I found Jesse’s breakdown upon finding the ‘ricin’ cigarette. Just damn.
• “That last one is essentially ketchup.”