So our Breaking Bad discussions kind of died, but here is my attempt to resurrect it. The latest episode was crazy. Couple things potentially bothersome, and a couple things I thought were brilliant.

Let's start with the brilliant. The phone call Walk made to Skylar at the end was amazing. Firstly, it was possibly Cranston's best performance in the whole series. But on a story level, it first struck me that Walt was simply trying to make a clean break from his family. He knows it's over, and he doesn't want them trying to come after him or to find him. I don't think that's an incorrect interpretation, but there's more to it than that. A friend of mine brought up the point that Walt probably knew the police were in the room recording the conversation. Therefore, he was basically absolving Skylar of responsibility. He made it seem like he's been threatening her with violence, and that she has been a trapped prisoner of his sick crime spree. No prosecutor will indict her in that case. I think it was his last act of salvation for his family. It remains to be seen whether she will recognize this, but I think it was masterfully written.

The thing that bothered me was the way in which Hank died. We've been building for five years a rivalry that has heated so intensely, and then he is just killed by a new badguy without sentiment. It reminded me a lot of the scene where Llewellyn dies in No Country for Old Men, anticlimactic, off camera, no sentiment. I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt, since they've done a great job so far, but that struck me as poor storytelling. I'll reserve judgement for the last few episodes. This certainly makes it appear that the flashforwards with the giant gun and the ricin are for a showdown with Uncle Jack and not the DEA, however. That is odd, since we've only recently met uncle jack, and does anyone really care about him as a character yet?

The thing about the show that's so brilliant is that Hank and Walt are both simultaneously the hero and the villain. But now that's done, and I don't know how to react to it. Any ideas?