It is no twist of chance that Breaking Bad will have five seasons, the fifth one elongated to span two years instead of one. For six seasons wouldn’t be very Shakespearean. Act three had Jesse’s climax which was his murder of Gale, Walt’s fungible replacement in that only one can survive. Jesse pulls the trigger with such reluctance. He is so teary eyed and discomposed that it is he we feel sorry for, not Gale. At this point, we celebrate Gale’s death as it means Walt may live. Walt is still the tragic hero whose cancerous outgrowth is eclipsed only by a disheveled socioeconomic status and paraplegic son.
This all changes by act 4, the hero’s downfall. He succeeds to eliminate Gus from the equation but he devolves and is dehumanized until the last scene when he is revealed to have poisoned the child of Jesse’s love interest. The fourth season ends with a full cast of unlikeable characters, none of whom the viewer can feel the least bit sorry for (with perhaps the exception of Jesse). This is certainly not a feel-good TV series. It is a dark comedy that reveals the worst in everyone. It is overwhelmingly defeatist.
Walt’s dehumanization is continued into the first two episodes of the fifth and final season as Walt’s ego is further developed. In the third installment (Sunday, July the 29th), Walt orchestrates Jesse’s breakup with his girlfriend, using the departed Gale so remorselessly as leverage. But for the poor viewers who see the deadly spiral Breaking Bad characters have become, they will be happy to see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Jesse, who is best described as Walt’s antithesis was stupid when Walt was smart and now the two have their roles reversed. It was Jesse who thought of using magnets to erase Gus’s incriminating computer and it was Jesse who offered to pay for Mike’s “legacy payments” (to keep imprisoned past-associates’ mouths shut). Walt, who is uncomfortable letting Jesse take the higher moral ground, capitulates and offers to pay his share too. The things he will do to console himself (another nice one was when he has a soliloquy to an unspeaking Skylar about how family is an end that justifies the means).
And while Walt’s finishing speech about how pawns overreach might be construed to be directed at Mike, I am convinced it is actually directed at Jesse. For while Mike and Walt are really quite similar – they just don’t see it yet – Jesse is really an angel born into poor circumstances.
