How Breaking Bads Highest Rated Episode Changes Walter White
How Breaking Bad’s Highest Rated Episode Changes Walter White
Deserving of its many accolades, Breaking Bad’s “Ozymandias” achieves the impossible; it convinces viewers to hate Walter White.
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He slips into the skin of the downtrodden anti-hero, but Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) is not a moral character. His role as a meth-making kingpin isn’t some elaborate performance, shielding a frightened and broken man. His actions aren’t noble gestures meant to save his loving family from financial ruin. But, for the majority of Breaking Bad’s run, the chemistry-teacher-turned-drug-lord manages to hold onto this lie. To convince himself of it so strongly that he also manages to convince viewers.
Like Tony Soprano before him — and Joe Goldberg after him — Walt survives and thrives on the illusion of a grander purpose, a path paved with good intentions and a vague understanding of his own misdeeds. After all, the worlds these men inhabit feature far worse people. And, there’s always a scarier monster looming in the shadows. But, with its unique writing, deliberate framing, and heartbreaking conclusion, season 5’s “Ozymandias” works to shatter the greatest white lie in television history.
The most watched episode of the show’s run, “Ozymandias” is widely considered to be it’s best. The episode was written by Moira Walley-Becket and directed by Rian Johnson, a duo also famous for the show’s most polarizing installment: season 3’s “Fly.” This divisive bottle episode sees Walt and his partner, Jesse Pinkman attempt to kill a fly occupying the meth lab. While little else happens, to defenders of the episode, the fly is more than an annoying insect. Walt’s obsession, they claim, is not with the fly itself but, with a chance at redemption. Though the protagonist’s efforts to redeem himself are a running theme throughout the series, the episodes penned by Walley-Becket and directed by Johnson capture it in a wholly unique way.
According to one video essayist, “Ozymandias” in particular strips away the cool and shiny veneer of past installments to reveal an ugly and unpalatable reality. In wild contrast to almost all other episodes, these 47-minutes of television aren’t fun anymore. Despite heaping well-deserved acclaim onto it, critics and audiences profess to finding the episode unnerving, saddening, and deeply unpleasant.
In contrast to the sharp cuts of previous episodes, used to evoke an action movie-esque flair, many of the scenes in “Ozymandias” drag on. Seeming far removed from the fearsome kingpin with a hard and clever look in his eyes, at the 27-minute mark, the episode spends an agonizing amount of time following Walt as he pushes a barrel of cash through the dessert.
A sweet, somber song plays in the background. And, as the camera finally cuts to an onlooker, audiences may be reminded less of a gritty action hero and more of a beetle pushing dung. The climax of the episode involves the rest of the White family returning home, believing Walt to be in police custody. Walt, meanwhile, is already in the house, packing the family’s things at a breakneck pace.
It’s here that viewers notice a stark contrast in the shots featuring Walt, and the shots with his family.. Certain directorial choices are made, evoking an unbearable tension in viewers. Walt’s section of the scene is as frantic as the character: edited much more quickly, and loaded with camera movement. The shots containing the rest of the family, however, are slow and unmoving; they linger on Skylar White’s tired and unassuming face, their son Flynn’s anger and disappointment, and baby Holly in her car seat.
The steady dinging of Flynn’s seatbelt warning feels like a ticking timebomb. Viewers watch in tense, horrified fascination knowing their paths will inevitably converge. And, when they do, a deeply painful truth is finally revealed: Walter White is alone. Furthermore, the show’s protagonist deserves this fate.
As Walt pleads with his family to leave with him, Flynn demands an explanation. Gone is the snappy dialog, and the spaghetti Western-style framing. Father and son scream over each other: a moment that seems eerily real. In his frustration, Walt demands to be listened to, and the camera jolts forward, pulling both faces into frame, and escalating the scene’s claustrophobic feel. Skylar and Holly’s playpen are positioned in the background, and when the no longer dutiful wife places her daughter inside it, Skylar and Walt begin arguing as well.
These shots contrast each other. A closeup of Walt is deliberately followed by a full shot of Skylar. Where Walt stands alone in his frustration and convictions, Skylar will no longer be convinced. After learning that her brother-in-law Hank is dead, Skylar enters the kitchen, grabbing a knife to defend herself.
A fight ensues, and rather than the polished, adrenaline-inducing action scenes of previous episodes, this fight feels saddening, unchoreographed, and dangerous. As Skylar and Walt grapple with the weapon, the camera lingers on its edge, as though it’ll penetrate the screen. After Flynn rushes forward to defend his mother, Walt breaks.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” he cries, “We’re a family!” As Holly’s cries fill the background, a shot of Walt’s enraged visage parallels a shot of Flynn shielding his anguished mother. The camera slowly drifts from them, pulling closer to Walt as he whispers, defeated: “We’re a family.”
Ironically, it is here that Walt realizes he has no family. As Flynn calls the police, Holly’s once-safe playpen is framed like the bars of a trap. Walt picks up the wailing infant and promptly rushes out the door. The camera lingers on a frantic Skylar, pounding on the windows of Walt’s get away car, running after it in vain, and pleading with her husband to stop. He doesn’t.
When circumstances — and his own guilt — force Walt to return his daughter, the episode ends with a lonely drive down an empty road. And three things are finally made clear: Walter White is in the wrong. Walter White always has been. And, Walter White is fundamentally alone.
Link Source : https://www.cbr.com/breaking-bad-ozymandias-changes-walter-white/
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