This week’s episode of Breaking Bad, ‘Bullet Points,’ was like a travel through roles and classic films from Apocalypse Now to My Bodyguard. In most respects it was on par with last week’s episode, but in others it was vastly superior.
Skyler’s becoming more and more the mother hen to Walter’s angst ridden teenager the more intricate their ruse becomes. The interplay of going over the rehearsed dialogue shows how their roles have now played out, and Walt Jr.’s reaction is classic kid. Forget the fact that your parents just came out and told you your father has a raging gambling addiction that is supposed to be a shameful thing for the family, because not only are you now stinking right, but you’re going to get a car!
Watching Walt and Hank go over all of the notes that the audience is painfully aware point directly to Walt is nerve wracking and hilarious. Walt Whitman? The writers are doing a really good job of relating previous episode information to the current storyline (gambling could pay for Hank’s bills) and setting up future twists and turns, but I think they’re overplaying the whole Hank-is-so-close-to-catching-Walter angle. Maybe pulling back from it for a couple of episodes and revisiting later on would add dramatic effect and keep the payoff as satisfying as it could be.
As strange as it may seem, I believe the whole bit of Walt one upping Hank when it comes to showing off mineral knowledge may come back to haunt him should Hank ever actually stumble on the truth behind W.W. This little hobby of his seems to be the only thing that really matters to him right now, and chipping away at that might not bode well for Mr. White.
With every new episode this season, Jesse is turning more and more into a meth addicted Col. Kurtz. Meth addicts partying non-stop in his house for God knows how many days? No biggie. Even more hardcore meth-heads along with possibly a few hobos rambling, wrecking, and raping all manner of stuff in his humble abode? Eh. Somebody getting tasked with buying countless pizzas and running off with $78,000? Think I’ll play some Mario. I’m starting to become afraid at the possibility of seeing what trigger is necessary to get a genuine emotion out of Jesse other than simplistic apathy. Who knows what exactly Mako from Highlander: The Series exactly has in store for her. He has a kind of Adam Baldwin to Jesse’s Chris Makepeace thing going, but without the awesome Army jacket.
‘Bullet Points’ is a solid Breaking Bad episode with the only real miscue being a slight lack of plot point progression and dramatic tension when it comes to Hank’s storyline.
– James Zappie
