I just have to preface this post by saying that it opened with a song by “Knife Party”, AKA my favorite DJ. Ugh, I died. It played while Walt was parking his and Walter Jr.’s new extravagant cars in the driveway while Skyler’s station wagon was parked on the sidewalk. Walt Jr. is really becoming a junior version of Walt, RIP Flynn.
Honestly, I felt so bad for Skyler this entire episode. I look back on earlier seasons and see how confident and self-aware she was, and when I look at her now she is just a shriveled up, former version of herself. When Walt and Walt Jr. asked Skyler to make the “one” bigger on the “51” she was making in bacon on Walt’s plate, I thought back to an earlier episode of Breaking Bad. Skyler and Walt Jr. were at the kitchen table, and Walt Jr. told Skyler that he preferred Raisin Bran Crunch over plain Raisin Bran. Skyler sassily told Walt Jr. that if that was the cereal he wanted, he could go to the supermarket and buy it himself. What would that woman say to the woman Skyler has become?
As Walt and Skyler are getting ready for bed, she casually mentions that maybe Walt Jr. should attend boarding school in Arizona. Although Walt’s point that it wouldn’t really make sense for him to transfer the year before college technically made sense, Walt is so self-involved that he doesn’t even recognize Skyler’s fear behind the question: that her children will get involved in her husband’s mess.
THE SCENE WHERE WALT LEFT WORK EARLY TO GO TO HIS “SURPISE PARTY”….this was the first time throughout this ENTIRE series that I was actually rooting against Walt. I was literally praying to the screen that there was no surprise party waiting for him. The dick doesn’t deserve it. I was so satisfied when Walt Jr. was just watching TV and Skyler was heating up roast chicken. Yeah, take that Heisenberg.
And then, the pool scene. As Skyler started approaching the pool she reminded me of the character Opehlia in Hamlet. Yes, I’m aware of how tool-ish that sentence just sounded, but really think about it: Ophelia descends into madness and decides to kill herself by drowning. But as Walt was carrying on about how supportive everyone has been since he was diagnosed with cancer and Skyler started slowly walking into the pool, I thought about another gem from pop culture: The Sopranos. When AJ tried to drown himself no one was around, he had a cinderblock, a rope, and a garbage bag around his head. It was a cry for help and an authentic, premeditated, suicide attempt. Skyler tried to “drown herself” in front of her husband, sister, and brother-in-law, with no cinderblock, rope, or garbage bag in sight. This act was clearly not premeditated- she was just so nauseated by Walt that she decided to impulsively make a statement. To be honest, I’m surprised Hank and Marie saw it as a cry for help. If Skyler were my sister, I would be wondering why on her husband’s birthday, as he tearfully discussed his plight against cancer, she decided to do that: I would start questioning Walt, not Skyler.
Nonetheless, Skyler suggests that Marie and Hank take the kids for a while so she and Walt could “work things out”, so ultimately her plan worked and the kids are removed from the house. The scene in the bedroom with her and Walt was heartbreaking to watch. Skyler is nothing like Carmela Soprano- she had no idea what she was getting herself into when she married Walt. In fact, not only did she have NO idea she was marrying a future meth kingpin, but she thought she was marrying a nerdy, gentle, high school chemistry teacher. The only thing Skyler has left is smoking cigarettes… because every cigarette Skyler smokes represents being one day closer to Walt’s lung cancer coming back, and one day closer to her freedom.
Although this episode was mostly about Walt’s personal life, there were developments in his new meth business as well. I mean, first and foremost, he’s back to wearing the Heisenberg hat. You don’t look cool Walt, you look like an asshole. Also, Jesse meets with Lydia to get the barrel of methylamine but it appears that the DEA is tracking the barrel, so he leaves without it.
Ultimately, Mike decides that Lydia planted the tracking device on the barrel and he has no choice but to kill her. Jesse might just be the only morally sound character left on this show, so he protests killing her by saying that Mike could be wrong. This was a frantic scene of yelling and blocking doors, and Walt just sat silently in the corner stroking his Heisenberg hat. My bet: Walt planted the tracker. My next bet: Walt’s pissing off way too many people and is going to get himself killed. The episode ended with the clock ticking… and then it faded to black.
Once Upon a Time Dating 