Breaking Bad: The Most Crucial Episode

la buddy are you asking me to come work for you at great men why not you you'd fit right in you're brilliant you you you got a ton of experience Breaking Bad is famously a show about change but when exactly did that change take place when did Walter White go from this veggie bacon were watching our cholesterol to this I am the one who knocks the key episode of the series the crux of the entire show is the fifth episode of season one gray matter in the previous episode Walt refuses Jesse's money and swears off cooking meth because he just killed a guy good the hell off my property but then two episodes later he invents a new identity for himself Heisenberg the gray matter shows Walt's transition between these two states without this episode the show could have fallen apart so how did this happen well there's three sequences in this episode centering on Walt's refusal to accept chemotherapy I called them the offer the options and the choice these three sequences carefully show Walt's decision-making process and provide a roadmap to his soul the offer happens in Elliott Schwartz s birthday party and though they never say it specifically I assume this is Elliott's fiftieth birthday given that everyone is making such a fuss and Walt just turned 50 but Elliott's party is much more extravagant than Walt's he's being treated as the guest of honor the center of attention while he's opening his presents just any strip that's one of classes while Walt was sidelined at his own party looks like Keith Richards with a glass of warm milk the episode even opens with Walt insulting his own birthday gift to Elliott's stupid gift know what I was thinking immediately he's telegraphing that he feels inferior to Elliott and his money this difference in status is evident by the wardrobe worn by the party guests Jesus guess we didn't get the beige memo they wear beige a color that symbolizes normalcy in Breaking Bad Elliot is wearing beige over a white shirt symbolizing his dinner purity and goodness the Walt and Skyler are over dressed in gaudy blue I look like I'm wearing a prom dress 2095 honey you look fine they're wearing what a poor person might think rich people would wear to a pool party it's interesting to rewatch this episode knowing more about Walt's past and I sold my share to my two partners care to guess what that company is worth now two point one six billion as of last Friday I look it up every week so you can only imagine what must be going through his head as he browses through their library when he's standing here he's framed it looks small and out of place what looks at a Scientific American cover story about Elliot echoing this scene in the pilot as well exercises in a dull dim room he stares at an award for contribution to the research that won a Nobel Prize and might as well have been a participation certificate or an award for attendance so in this episode as Walt looks at this magazine cover we now know he believes that all of this should be his my hard work my research and you and Elliott make millions off it the party guests talk about his glory days extolling him like a legend Beckett Caltech he was he was just a master of crystallography but now he couldn't even admit that he's a mere high school teacher I I gravitated toward education ah what university after Walt's gift of ramen noodles touches Elliot the to reconnect was the same guy who always smelled like chocolate milk it was then the unexpected happens Elliot the billionaire asked for Walt's help you may be exactly what we need by doing this Elliot places himself in a lower status position now Walt has a glimmer of hope maybe now his genius will be recognized he can return to the lab reclaim a small piece of what should have been his maybe now it can be his face on a copy of Scientific American but then the most crucial moment the most crucial line and breaking bad we have excellent health insurance best God look how defeated Walt is as he realizes Elliot didn't actually need his help he just pitied him a moment ago they were two men making a deal and now Walt is once again low-status Elliot is the real man who provides for his family Walt as a loser who needs to beg for help just to survive rather than faces insecurities in a mature way Walt externalizes his feelings some face-saving [ __ ] and then in a moment of metaphor shadowing his wounded male ego focuses his rage onto Skyler I don't like the way you talk about my private affairs just like many fans of Walter White did in real life social media skyler going over his head to ask for help makes him feel like less of a man like a boy whose mom is helping him try on pants she made him feel like he doesn't have a say in his own life and as we'll see in the next sequence that's the last thing that Walt wants in the second sequence which I call the options it centers on the intervention Skyler holds for Walt the family's goal is to beg him to accept treatment not just to accept Gretchen and Eliot's money but to accept any treatment at all and this is one of the best intervention scenes in TV history right up there with The Sopranos great my own mother kill your [ __ ] [ __ ] first the family appeals to Walt Skyler is emotional and concise now that Elliott is more than willing to pitch in well I know I understand that it's hard for you to accept help maybe it's the way you were raised Hank it's lost in a tangent it's a bottom of the ninth bases are loaded you're up but Walt Jr's remarks probably cut the deepest your Abruzzi no father wants his son to question his courage or call him out for not being a man but then Murray turns the scene on its head by introducing another point of view I think you should do whatever you want to do and then she sways Hank maybe what's a die like a man all right this adds humor to the scene but it also shows that Walt's decision isn't cut and dry there is a nobility in choosing how you want to die then Walt takes command and carefully lays out his feelings in a brilliant four minute monologue it boils down to this what I want what I need is a choice and this is also where he spells out his motivation for the entire show my entire life it just seems I never you know had a real say about any of it and he also tells us his greatest fear me what a some some dead man some artificially alive and that's how you would remember me that's the worst part Walt doesn't want to be used by other people he doesn't want to be a thing he wants to be alive remember his confession from the final episode of the show I did it for me I liked it I was good at it I was alive that brings us to the third section the choice Walt wakes up in bed alone he sees Skyler isn't there and he buries his face in her pillow smelling her hair he smells her beauty product and realizes how much he's going to miss her and that he wants to be with his family as long as possible the pile of books at the bedside catches his eye the baby books have dropped to the bottom of the stack in favor of a new book about treating cancer by eating healthy food that's when he realizes that no matter what Skyler won't stop fighting for his life this quiet moment with household objects is actually foreshadowed by Skylar's talking pillow at the intervention that reads find joy and the little things so in a roundabout way the talking pillow spoke to wall Walter is an analytical man he always weighs every option carefully before making a decision in this short moment he's thinking through every possible outcome for himself and his family he realizes that Skyler will never support his decision she will resent him for the rest of his life so will his son they want him to fight but he won't take money from Gretchen and Elliott he resents them 4 billion an empire on his research my hard work my research and you and Elliott make millions of it he would have to forgive them for being successful if they used that success to save his life and his pride just can't let him do that he can't take their charity because that money rightfully belongs to him so if he accepts treatment there's only one way he can pay for it by cooking meth and this is the exact moment he makes the choice at this point Walt is no longer innocent he's already killed a man but here's where he decides that he's okay with the consequences he decides that no matter what I will have a choice if I can't decide I die I'll decide how I survive and this reveals the double meaning of the episodes title gray matter it's the name of Walton Elliot's company but it's also the name given some parts of our neurological system all our choices happen here in the gray matter between our ears Walt makes a choice Walt decides what kind of man he wants to be oh through the treatment later at his treatment he's wrapped in plastic like the artificial thing he dreaded becoming but he can live with that now because secretly he's made a different choice to become a criminal it to be truly alive the episode ends with him visiting Jessie and uttering the four words that will condemn him forever what a kook the reason this episode is so vital is that Walt was offered an out but he turned it down this reveals his original sin pride say my name it turns out that Walt is not actually a good man he's an evil person hiding inside a good man's skin pretend for a second that Walt was never offered this option that every decision he made really was to protect his family and not his ego eventually when Gus threatened his children he would have done the rational thing and gone to the police the Walter White full of pride could never admit defeat he had to win I would he digs deeper into the criminal underworld it's not enough for him to work for Gus he has to become Gus I'm in the Empire business after this episode Walt would never again make a pros and cons list before killing a man from now on there would be no limit to his monstrosity because he gives himself permission to become a monster at this exact moment Heisenberg was born goddamn right all right guys what did you think about the video let me know in the comments below and if it's your first time here please subscribe for screen Crush I'm Ryan Arry [Music]

Channel: ScreenCrush

Views: 1,902,278

Keywords: breaking bad, video essay, better call saul, most important episodes, breaking bad video essay, the take breaking bad, screenprism breaking bad, lessons form the screenplay breaking bad, nerdwriter breaking bad, lindsay ellis breaking bad

Id: Zs7tJaw8NOc

Length: 10min 22sec (622 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 24 2020