Dialogue Dive: Tension in Breaking Bad's End Times

this video is sponsored by audible click the link in the description to start your free trial and get your free book if you have watched any of my past videos it is no secret that I am a fan of Breaking Bad and when Jesse pinkman's El Camino movie coming out on October 11th which seems like an eternity in a half way my love for Breaking Bad has been reinvigorated causing me to spend most of my free time watching an unhealthy amount of clips from the show's 5 seasons while I was deep in this procrastination I happened to rewatch a scene from season 4 that was so damn good that I felt I needed to share my excitement with all 50,000 of you the scene in question is end times the penultimate episode of season 4 where Jesse confronts Walt at gunpoint now for all of you who know and appreciate this scene you might find it a bit strange that I wanted to do a dialogue dive on it by enlarge it's pretty straightforward just two characters in a standoff for roughly five minutes the dialogue of the scene doesn't have complicated subtext or character introductions or super nuanced editing but that's kind of the point I chose this scene with Walt and Jesse for the very reason that it is simple and straightforward yet so very effective it is one of the tensest scenes in the entire show and that is really saying something as I have said with all of my past dialog dives you don't need to be a professional editor to appreciate the scene or know it's well-crafted but since I am a professional editor I think I can provide some insight for those interested on how such a basic scene use narrative techniques to create engaging edge-of-your-seat tension for those of you who might need a refresher on the scene I will play it in full first without any of my commentary gosh that really never gets old okay so now that we've seen it let's go back to the beginning to unpack the writing within [Music] what are you doing why did you do it why Jessie Gus gave me no choice I had to call the DEA to protect my family what else could I no no son of a [ __ ] you thought you did so first off just like any tension in any good narrative this scenes tension is based around the unknown by definition if you know how something is going to play out there is little need to feel apprehension about it for this scene specifically the tension is will Jesse shoot Walt a first-time viewing audience wouldn't know the answer to this and would therefore feel tension however this scene does something very interesting and very effective along with focusing on the unknown aftermath of the events that the characters are in tension is also derived from the unknown events that preceded this conflict you know she did dialogue that references events from the past is a staple of the scene and provides additional sources of tension so keep an eye out for that such dialogue creates a scenario where the audience is not only concerned with the mystery of what will happen they are concerned about the mystery of what has happened just just put the gun down okay just put it down and we'll talk alright tell me tell me what it is you think I did Brock why did you poison him so a great technique to create tension in storytelling is to make the audience the least informed participant basically what that means is that even though characters have information on a particular matter of conflict the audience does not a form of storytelling that uses this a ton is anime a character will have an ability or transformation or will have already laid a trap that the audience did not know about this all goes back to tension created by the unknown if the audience knows every trick of every characters leave the revelation of such tricks in a time of conflict have much less impact so what does this have to do with Breaking Bad well this scene puts the audience in the position of being the least informed participant a first-time viewer would have no idea why Jesse will be pointing a gun at Walt right now Jesse knows and we find out later Walt knows but the audience doesn't this creates the most of unknown circumstances for the audience allowing for the most tension Jessie could have come inside the house immediately and said why did you poison Brock but that would have been a waste of this awesome moment of uncertainty instead Jessie enters and plays what cinemasins would call the pronoun game why did you do it why you thought you did and while it's true that the pronoun game usually isn't a good thing writing is all about execution not content here it works great because it allows the dialogue to capitalize on these early moments where the audience is at its least informed there is another cool aspect of the section I want to go over - just just put the gun down okay just put it down and we'll talk alright you tell me tell me what it is you think I did Brock why did you poison him one of the great things about this scene is that it has the same composition as a fully-fledged narrative as you might already know the three basic parts of a story are the introduction the midsection and the climax each of these parts is traditionally home to an essential aspect of the narrative for example the introduction almost always presents the audience with the inciting incident this is the event that causes the overall conflict within this story when considering dramatic television the three parts of a story are usually told across 45 minutes to an hour and for movies the three parts span an hour and a half to two hours this scene in Breaking Bad condenses those parts down to just about five minutes now if we think of this scene as a complete narrative the section we just watched would be the introduction and this Brock why does your poison will be the inciting incident included within the hospitalization of Brock is the event that has caused the conflict for our established characters creating a scene with the same components of a narrative gives it an independent feeling as if it could stand alone as a self-contained story the first 30 seconds or so of this scene work excellently as an introduction because the dialogue establishes the characters the inciting incident and the conflict while preparing the audience for the rising action in the upcoming mid section who's Brock you saw him in my living room just last night you came to my door and you looked right at him so it's tell me you don't know the boy Jessie I have no idea who these people are so a key component of any midsection is the delivery of information that relates to alters or enhances the conflict established in the introduction if this were a sci-fi or fantasy this is where we would typically receive all the rules around the world and powers within this scene of Breaking Bad follows the same template by delivering the majority of its plot pertinent information in the midsection in order to fuel the rising action and give weight to the inevitable climax and as I said before a key method the scene makes use of is referencing events that happened before this confrontation you saw him in my living room just last night you came to my door and you looked right at him so it's tell me you don't know it in fact almost all of the dialogue in the next hundred seconds of the scene will be in reference to past events Jessie will give his arguments for how he sees the past events and Walt will give his however keep your ears focused on how the dialogue never puts the audience in a place of certainty everything these two characters say will still leave room for doubt which in turn leaves room for the audience to be in the unknown which as we've said is the basis of tension the boy Jessie I have no idea who these people are no please okay but that's Brock and he was he was poison the ricin he's dying because someone gave it to him and all you and I were the only two people on earth who knew about it no wait a minute wait a minute maybe he went into your pockets you know I had it I had to cigarette with the ricin in my pack this morning the last time I saw Brock was last night and this morning I switched the cigarette into a new pack there's no way Brock took it himself see here is just a quick example of dialogue presented that the audience cannot be certain of we never actually see Jessie switch the ricin cigarette into a new pack on screen we as the audience just have to assume that he did it leaving room for doubt and I think he clearly listen you said it yourself that you had it this morning then when could I have possibly gotten it you had so do it yeah yeah I went to his office he called me it just had to see me today it's big man on the bodyguard patted me down that's when he must have sold off me right that's the plan was that the plan this particular portion of dialogue is really great in my opinion it turns the scenes focus from unknown past events to known past events but still derives tension by making us second-guess those known past events a first time viewing audience would know for a fact that Jesse went to Saul's place and got patted down when it happened there really wasn't much reason to think about it deeply but in the context of this new conflict the audience is now inspired to feel doubt about that known past event this leads back to making the audience the least informed participant Jesse was 100% correct in suspecting Huell of lifting the ricin from him at the request of Walt but if a first-time viewing audience knew that it would have undercut the tension of the scene due to the certainty of Walt's guilt and as we've said the most pressing source of tension is the unknown aftermath of will Jesse shoot Walt but the other significant sources of tension are based in uncertain events that precede the current conflict the tension of Jesse shooting Walt is contingent upon whether or not Walt poisoned Brock but whether or not what poisoned Brock is contingent upon him having a method to do it which Jesse believes is the lifted ricin and Jesse believing that Walt used the ricin is contingent on Walt being the only other person that knew it existed while the primary source of tension in the scene is still will Jesse shoot Walt the real source of conflict is did Walt poison Brock if the answer is no that means Jesse won't shoot Walt in vice-versa if the answer is yes by having two points of unknown circumstances that are contingent upon each other one passed and one future the scene effectively creates double tension and what's more by having the past point of tension become contingent on two other on certain events the audience becomes that much more unsure about what to believe and what will happen Jessie why God would I poison a child to get back at me because I'm Alby Gus and this is your way I've written my heart out before your daddy God if we are going to think of this scene in terms of being constructed like a narrative this dialogue establishes a crucial piece of information that was missing prior to this character motivation Jessie wants to live a happy life with Andrea and her son Brock that is his goal as a character therefore Jessie believes that whoever poisoned Brock is trying to keep him from achieving that goal and as a very basic rule in writing dictates an antagonist is a character who attempts to keep another character from achieving their goal in this situation - Jessie Walt would be the narrative antagonist just admit it's Mitch what you did and now we transition into our climax the reason that this upcoming section is the climax is because the previously established information and tension comes to a head in this section and is eventually resolved I'm not I'm not possible stop laughing just as a quick note I thought it was a great choice by the writing team to have Walt laughs in the situation remember a first-time viewer doesn't know that Walt is actually behind Brock's hospitalization so the scene needs to create a scenario where there is tension in believing Walt's innocence or believing Jesse's accusation of guilt how this relates to Walt's laughter is that we've seen it from him before [Music] Walt sinks into basically what amounts to abdic mania in the crawl space laughing when he thought he was a goner this was a genuine reaction from him that the audience saw therefore having Walt laughs here with Jesse would prompt the audience to think that the situation is genuinely out of his control in that he's a goner when of course he has Jesse right where he wants him it's just a nice detail of consistency to keep the audience in the tension of not knowing what to expect or what to believe who do you know who's okay with using children Jesse who do you know who's allow children to be murdered Gus yes he has been ten steps ahead of me at every turn and now the one thing that he needed to finally get rid of me is your consent I thought he's got dead now this is yet another wrinkle in the application of tension this dialogue references a known past event the murder of children in order to present an alternative explanation to an unknown past event why Brock was murdered it also introduces a second possible antagonist to the story of his scene Gus both you and I know you don't even believe that Gus is cameras everywhere please listen to yourself no he is known everything all along where were you today in the lab and you don't think it's possible that Tyrus lifted the cigarette out of your locker come on here we have dialogue that directly interacts with the sources of tension that precede the scene remember how we established that that would lead Jessie to shoot Walt it hinged upon Jessie's certainty of the three events that came before this confrontation Walt's dialogue here calls the basis of certainty Jess he stands on into question by suggesting that Tyrus lifted the cigarette from Jessie Walt is creating the same uncertainty that Jessie did when he accused Huell of lifting the cigarette we as the audience saw both circumstances neither of which seemed consequential at the moment but the dialogue from both these characters creates uncertainty and tension about what actually happened keeping the audience as the least inform and participant you are the last piece of the puzzle you are everything that he's wanted you're his cook now you're the cook and you have proven that you can run a lab without me and now that Cook has reason to kill me this section of dialogue not only touches on past events but really is the culmination of an entire season of growing tension Jessie if you agree to replace me you will kill me last time you said I loved you in the berries and a barrel next condesa me it is built on the animosity that has mounted between Walt and Jesse throughout season four Walt dialogue goes beyond calling the events of Brock's hospitalization into uncertainty it basically states that all of Gus's interactions with Jesse and plans for Jesse have led him to murdering Walt it casts uncertainty and doubt onto the entire season allowing the tension to reach a crescendo and that is really where the scene draws all of its power from the show puts the pieces in place throughout various previous episodes for this tense scene to be possible truly great tension is the result of establishing events that the audience can be uncertain of where most shows would apply this method to a single episode Breaking Bad goes the extra mile and does it for a whole season think about it it's brilliant so go ahead if you think that I am capable of doing this that bullet in my head and kill me right now where you going I'm gonna find this son of a [ __ ] I'm gonna kill him and there is the peak of our climax in the resolution that follows Jesse now believes that Gus poisoned Brock because of how Walt risked his life for Jesse it was an act that established enough certainty in the situation for him to believe Walt's innocence a first time viewing audience might also be inclined to believe it especially since the episode was mostly told from Walt's perspective of being trapped inside his house of course we find out later that Walt was just pulling the biggest Bluff of his life but in the moment Jesse in the audience were the least informed participants and knew no better and that's actually where we'll stop I hope I was able to provide just a bit more insight in detail for a truly fantastic scene in a truly fantastic show if you guys have any suggestions for other scenes you want me to look at let me know in the comments oh and another thing you can do in the comments is ask me questions at some point in the future hopefully the very near future I will be doing an AMA video feel free to ask me anything it could be questions about writing to what I had for breakfast I don't care the more questions I get the more interesting the video will be so as always it was a pleasure and I will talk to you all again soon

Channel: Savage Books

Views: 42,935

Rating: 4.9565783 out of 5

Keywords: walter white, breaking bad, bryan cranston, vince gilligan, breaking bad ending, jesse pinkman, aaron paul, el camino, dialogue dive, savage books, how to write dialogue, video essay, el camino trailer

Id: gK1j0lRuEfo

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 25 2019