“Please can you just tell the truth?”
Walt's Heisenberg routine isn't working any more Not on
his wife, not on his son and certainly not on his ex partner in crime
Jesse, who ended the last episode filling his house with gasoline.
Series creator Vince Gillagan once said
that Walt's ability to lie was his “superpower”, but it's clear
that manipulation is no longer an option to everybody except the man
himself. Even Skyler, who opened the season as the petrified mother
scared for her family's safety has become cold, calculating, almost
Lady Macbeth like, as she asks from a expensive hotel bed: “We've
come this far, for us. What's one more?”
The show's unpredictability hasn't
faltered yet and 'Rabid Dog' is no exception, as we roll towards the
conclusion of one of televisions greatest epics.
Despite finding the White family home
not ablaze in the curtain-raising scenes, the pulse-rate never drops
below nerve shredding as we discover Jesse has joined Hank in an all
consuming quest to stop Walt.
It's really a remarkable achievement
that the continuous evolution of characters that we see on Breaking
Bad never becomes tired or unbelievable. Despite seeming a million
miles away from screaming “bitch” at Hank through the door of
their broken down RV, the seeds of Jesse's bleary eyed alignment with
his former enemy have been there from the start. Walt may not realise
it, but poisoning Brock has made Jesse more reckless and perhaps
more dangerous than any former adversary.
But he is right to say that Jesse
“isn't just some rabid dog”: he is far more intelligent and
talented than that. This much was proven in season opener 'Live Free
Or Die', where Jesse's ingenious plan (“yeah bitch, magnets!”)
saved the day.
At the end of the most recent episode,
we discover there's a new plan in the works after Pinkman bails on
the DA sting. Will underestimating Jesse once again be Walt's
unravelling? His call for a hit suggests he may finally be realising
what he's up against.
This episode isn't an action heavy one.
No trains are robbed, no faces are blown off. Instead the tension
fizzles away in the background thanks to a brilliantly crafted script
and a series of superb performances. But we've come to expect that.
When the dust has settled on the show I
doubt 'Rabid Dog' will ever be mentioned among the shows finest, nor
should it be. Regardless, it's a compelling chapter where the pieces
of the end begin to fall into place: Skyler has accepted her fate as
a criminal, Hank has become ruthless and Jesse, well, Jesse has a
plan.
Words by Ben Gibson
