Thursday, September 29, 2011

"Flawless Episodes" - Day 3

So, Sunday night's episode of Breaking Bad wasn't the first episode of the series to blow my mind.  I could do at least two weeks' worth of write-ups on "flawless" episodes from that series alone.  Off the top of my head, there's "Grilled," "Peekaboo," "ABQ,""Sunset," "One Minute," "Half Measures" and "Full Measure" -  and those are just from seasons two and three.  Add in the pilot episode and Walter's first turn as Heisenberg from season one, and the past few episodes of season four, and it becomes apparent that there's just no other show on television right now that matches the quality of Vince Gilligan's experiment in transforming Mr. Chips into Scarface.

3. Breaking Bad - Season Three - "Fly"

The episode I'm "officially" including on this list, though, is from the back half of season three.  Breaking Bad had done it's share of bottle episodes but in season three's "Fly," the "bottle" that contained the episode was a pressure cooker.  Most shows justify these types of episodes with a plot device that keeps the characters in a single location.  Even Breaking Bad's previous bottle episodes were driven by somewhat external forces - the marathon desert meth cook in "4 Days Out," for example, was instigated by Walt's realization that he doesn't yet have enough money and by Jesse accidentally draining the RV's battery.

"Fly," on the other hand, is completely character-driven.  Walt is just starting to sense that he's lost control of his new situation, that he is perhaps in over his head, and Walt is not a guy who can handle a lack of control.  The consequences of his actions on his life outside the superlab - on his wife and kids, on Hank, on Jane and Jesse - are catching up to him, and Walt, rather than dealing with this mess he's created, focuses all of his frustration, fear and anger on killing a rogue fly that is threatening the cleanliness of his lab.  Jesse, of course, is flabbergasted and annoyed by Walt's OCD-like need to kill this fly, and rightly recognizes that Walt's prioritization of catching this fly over cooking meth is going to put them in a bad situation with Gus.  Jesse slips some sleeping pills in Walt's coffee, and as the pills work their magic we're confronted with one of the most tense scenes I've ever seen on television.

Walt, drugged but still slightly conscious, is spotting Jesse as Jesse balances on a ladder on top of a rolling cart to swat at the fly on the light fixture above.  While Jesse teeters precariously above, Walt begins an emotional, half-awake speech about how he already lived past the perfect moment in his life to die, and then ponders the supposed randomness of the universe by revealing that he met Jane's father on the night that Jane passed away:
Walter: Think of the odds. Once I tried to calculate them, but they're astronomical. I mean, think of the odds of me going in and sitting down that night, in that bar, next to that man.
Jesse: What'd you talk about?
Walter: Water on mars. Family.
Jesse: What about family?
Walter: I told him that I had a daughter and he told me he had one, too. And he said, "Never give up on family." And I didn't. I took his advice. My God, the universe is random, it's chaos. It's subatomic particles and endless pings, collision - that's what science teaches us. What does this say? What is it telling us that the very night that this man's daughter dies, it's me who is having a drink with him? I mean, how could that be random?
Jesse is understandably confused as to why Walt is so emotional about his random interaction with Jane's father on the night of her death.  We, the viewers, know.  It's impossible not to hold your breath as Walt comes so, so close to revealing a betrayal so severe that, well, I don't even know.  If Jesse knew, he'd probably either kill Walt, or just shut down completely.  But the moment passes, the fly is killed, Jesse proceeds to finish the cook on his own while Walt sleeps in the break room.  The episode ends with Walt back in his apartment, lying awake in his bed, another fly taunting him.  Killing one fly is not going to solve Walt's problems.  It's more like a riveting one-act play than an episode of television - in fact, I'm pretty sure there's not even any score over the entire episode -  and I've never seen anything like it before or since.

Oh, and the entire opening sequence plays out sans dialogue like a twisted Buster Keaton movie:


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