Walter becomes obsessed with swatting a fly that has found its way inside Gus’ lab.

Breaking Bad wasn’t always a cultural juggernaut. While the show received critical acclaim from the very start, its viewing figures were rather modest, rarely surpassing two million in the earliest seasons. The series was also expensive to make, with the already high budget of $3 million per episode regularly being exceeded by the production team. This made AMC hesitant to renew the show for a fourth season. This episode is in many ways a response to that hesitancy – a story primarily set in one location with two characters in order to cut costs to the bare minimum.

The role of director for this “bottle episode” was given to an aspiring filmmaker who at the time was most famous for Brick, a neo-noir movie that focused on drug dealers and addiction.1I wonder why this film caught the attention of Vince and the rest of the crew! He had first been approached by Vince Gilligan in 2008 but was unable to oblige due to a scheduling conflict. Two years later, he was asked again and jumped at the opportunity. That man’s name: Rian Johnson.

While Johnson created an episode that is beautiful to look at, the initial reaction from fans was decidedly mixed. Some denounced it as filler while others saw it as a bold break from the show’s established formula. I must confess to being in the former category when I first watched this – I understood that the fly was a metaphor for Walt’s need to be in control, but that wasn’t enough to hold my attention. That was two years ago though – has my opinion softened now that I am doing a review for Bad Nauseam?

Well, I still think that the first half of the story is pretty unengaging, because the focus is on the mechanics of swatting a fly. Johnson says that he took inspiration from the movie MouseHunt and while that film has a lot of inventive and eye-catching sequences, they cannot be easily replicated when an animal behaves in a realistic way.2Johnson shared this information on the Breaking Bad Insider Podcast. There isn’t much point revisiting them – they were recorded before podcasting exploded in popularity and as such they lack structure and detail. The fly as metaphor also isn’t as meaningful as the writers think it is – it is basically a rehash of the scene in I See You (Series 3, Episode 8) where Marie is hyper-focusing on cutlery because she is worried that Hank is about to die. Of course, having a character obsess over something insignificant is an old writing trope, but it is the subtext that makes it interesting.

That said, I will give the script credit for highlighting an aspect of toxic masculinity that the show hasn’t discussed before: a refusal to practice self-care. Walt stays awake all night chasing the fly and when Jesse (very reasonably) suggests that he go upstairs and rest before trying again, Walt responds by doubling-down and locking Jesse out of the lab. Ignoring pain and discomfort because you don’t want to feel weak is a common patriarchal trait and I like that this behaviour is framed as self-defeating.

Nevertheless, the episode only really becomes interesting to me after Jesse drugs Walter and the latter finally becomes emotionally vulnerable. Walt declares that “I’ve lived too long” and instead of just reminding us that he doesn’t feel in control of his own life anymore, the writers do something a little different. Walt starts worrying about his own legacy, briefly lamenting the unhappy memories he will leave Skyler before focusing on something that clearly bothers him much more – his role in Jane’s death.

The writers tease us with the possibility that Walter might tell Jesse the truth (in much the same way Skyler found out about the second cell phone) but that’s not the most significant part of this monologue for me. I think that Walt regrets Jane’s death but above all else, he regrets hurting Jesse, his surrogate son.3Note how Walt’s gaze lingers on Jesse when he says that he decided to “never give up on family.” This is reinforced in the next scene when he warns Jesse that if he is stealing methamphetamine from the lab, he won’t be able to protect him from Gus’ wrath. Jesse is part of his legacy now, and how he will remember Walt after he is gone is very important to him.

Unfortunately, even though I like the concluding monologue, this is never going to be one of my favourite episodes of Breaking Bad. I appreciate that they tried something different, but that just isn’t enough for me. I am hopeful though that the renewed focus on Walt and Jesse’s relationship will allow the writers to recapture some of the magic that they seem to have lost in Season 3.

Odds and Ends

• We get a POV shot of Jesse from the scrubbing brush he is using to clean lab equipment. I’ve neglected to mention it before now but Breaking Bad likes to put cameras in unusual places – perhaps the strangest was back in Over (Series 2, Episode 10) where we were looking up at Jesse from underneath a frying pan.
• A lot of the comedy this season has been hit and miss but this episode was surprisingly funny. Walt and Jesse have some great antagonistic banter and I loved Jesse reaching down to pick up a sack of sodium hydroxide and Walt suddenly appearing on the other side of the mixing tank – it’s like something out of Halloween!
• Jesse talks about how his aunt suffered from auditory hallucinations and while his intention is to ask Walter if he is still of sound mind, this anecdote also reminds us of how compassionate Jesse is.4This is why I think it was out-of-character for Jesse to try to sell drugs to the other members of his support group in the last episode. He cared for his aunt while she was dying of cancer, not something that men traditionally do. Perhaps Jesse puts up with Walt because he feels pity for him, or maybe he is trying to recreate the relationship he had with his late aunt?

Please use spoiler tags in the comments, as some Avocadians are watching Breaking Bad for the first time