'Breaking Bad,' Season 5, Episode 11, 'Confessions': review

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whats with the episode numbering? the title says episode 11 and the description talks about “the final 8 episodes”

Brian and Trent appear to be running the same malware.

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I guess AMC realise eight episodes is a pretty stingy excuse for a season, so they figured they could pretend it’s not the case by adopting the ridiculous posture that it’s possible for a season to span two years; more than an entire year.

According to AMC, in 2012 you had the first half of season five, and this year we have the second half…

I’m annoyed the torrent uploaders went along with it instead of denoting ‘S05E09’ as S06E01.

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Another callback to season 1: the most potentially damning part of Walt’s confession is the implication that Hank took meth money to treat a serious injury that insurance wouldn’t cover. This brings us full circle to the original healthcare situation that “forced” Walt into becoming Heisenberg.

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I literally burst out laughing when I saw the place where the four family members had the tense dinner was Gardunos. That’s the cheesiest place, sharing a parking lot with the mall, I’ve only been there once with my nerdiest old friend’s parents. As a native Albuquerqueian gone for almost half my life now, I get all kinds of special joy watching this show :wink:

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‘Breaking Bad’, as dark as it gets, really is at times one of the funniest shows I’ve ever watched.

Best line of the hour; “What’s this country come to?”

Throughout Marie’s rants and bouts of indignation and condemnation of her sister and Walt, nobody has reminded her that it was her little shoplifting hobby that almost got Skyler arrested. Hank also had to use a little leverage to clean up that situation, so his hands aren’t perfectly clean, either.

When it comes to crime, Marie had her career long before Walt started his.

I think at this point, the real issue is who is going to end up with all the money. Since bad things are going to happen to Walt no matter how it plays out, and he is the only one who knows the significance of the numbers on the lottery ticket at this point.

I wouldn’t put it past Saul to have Huell to put a tracking device in one of the barrels since we know he is more than willing to do more than just bodyguard and intimidation work for Saul. Pickpocket and possible accessory to poisoning., as two examples. Heuell probably got to take a little off the top for himself when loading the barrels as compensation, and even Walt’s “mostly here” response to Saul’s question about it being “all there” shows even he knows about the short count.

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I look forward to these recaps every week. I have a nit to pick however.

The article states, “since Walt was capable of letting a child die after the train robbery”

Did Walt let the child die any more than Jesse? If I recall correctly, neither Walt nor Jesse had any control over Todd’s actions. The only question after that milk was spilled was what to do with Todd (i.e. kill him or let him live). Walt chose to let him live.

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A little detail that Todd left out of his description of The Great Train Robbery…

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Yeah, I don’t think Todd was shooting his mouth off there; he probably figured it was only fair to share the provenance of the methylamine his uncle and co. were taking possession of…

It’s hard to know if he’s writing off having to kill the kid as ‘went without a hitch’ because he’s ashamed and hoping it won’t be relevant, or if he really is as cold as he is polite, and just figured it’d spoil the anecdote.

Help me out here, please. I know Jessie suspected Walt used the ricin on the little kid, but once the doctor determined it was actually lily of the valley that made the kid sick, why would Jessie now think it was the ricin again? I don’t really follow that line of logic, I guess.

It also has to do with production numbers. All of this season (what we saw before and what we are getting now) was ALL produced as Season 5.

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I initially thought the same thing. Jessie is hyper-aware of Walt’s machinations at this point. The only real explanation I can think of is that we are expected to believe Jessie realized the ricin snatch was part of Walt’s ongoing manipulations. The ricin situation was a bit of a low point in Walt’s manipulation of Jessie and Walt employed his usual tactics (tactics of which Jessie is now all too aware).

These “leaps” I don’t find troubling. I’m more troubled when writers feel they need to spell everything out.

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In the first season, Jesse chided Walt about doing his drug deals in the middle of a desert rather than a taco place.

I guess Walt, sort of, finally took his advice, although he still does his drug deals in the desert.

Jesse’s not the brightest bulb, and he’s on the verge of a total breakdown, but he knows something is horribly wrong and is trying to get to it; makes a nice contrast to Hank. Their flaws are complementary, which made the interrogation scene interesting. They’d actually do pretty well if they teamed up against Walt, but of course that’s never going to happen.

Basically, it’s an unreliable narrator.

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My read on this was that when Jesse was squeezing past Huell on his way out of the office, Huell pickpocketed the dope from him (which Saul admitted to first), and then Jesse realized the LAST time Huell got all handsy with him was also the time when he “lost” the ricin cigarette. And Jesse was already suspicious about that in the first place, and Walt just happened to help him find it, and click click click it all fell into place. Still a bit of a leap, but that’s what they’re hoping we’ll believe.

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My nitpick about this review - “after a terse and delightfully awkward dinner” - they didn’t even have dinner. :slight_smile:

Jesse realized Huell was a pickpocket. When Jesse fetched his cigarettes, he remembered the last time he lost a cigarette. That time, he thought he had accidentally poisoned Brock at first. Even after he realized the ricin wasn’t responsible, he was desperate to find that cigarette. And who helped him find it?

Walt.

At that moment, it all crystallized for Jesse. I don’t think he was really sure until Saul started giving it up.

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