Line in the Sand

[SPOILERS ALL OVER FOR "BURIED"]

Not committed to doing this for each episode but fuck it... here's just a mess of thoughts about the latest episode.

Another packed episode of the final run of Breaking Bad before it gets sent to Belize.

Love how they actually followed the cold open with a continuation of the HANK v HEISENBERG garage stand-off because everyone was making jokes this week about how tense it was at the end but that Walt would have to disrupt that tension by getting out of that garage somehow. And while it was appropriately awkward, I still think all their movements -- from the garage door opening to the garage door closing again -- formed a perfect little silent stand-off ballet.

That scene between Skyler and Marie was epic. Marie is sooo much more interesting now that she knows everything. (It's like a friend who's finally caught up with all the episodes of Breaking Bad so you can actually have a conversation with her about it.) I had an early sense that she would end up feeling betrayed when she did the math and realized how much her sister's been lying to her all this time. Did not expect her to flip out bitch-slappin' the way she did! And of course her klepto ways kick in and she tries to steal Skyler's baby! And then Skyler's all like, "Bitch, you AIN'T takin' my baby!"

"Buried" is an episode of (almost) everyone finally getting on the same page and choosing their loyalty. Hank and Marie in the car, both looking in the same direction for the first time as they're both determined to see Walt nailed to the wall. Skyler chooses to support Walt, which warmed my heart. It's personal to me but I like scenes where wives don't run off on their husbands. It's real escapist entertainment. Walt and Skyler versus Hank and Marie. I know who I'm rooting for.

Jesse has NO LINES in this episode. Jesse -- like Skyler before him -- has entered his own fugue state. The ending to this episode doesn't have the visceral punch of the season opener. It offers the opposite: a tease versus a full impact. Seeing how this was an episode about forces aligning, I'm a little nervous at the idea/inference that Jesse is going to "break good". I want to see Heisenberg fight Hank. The idea of Heisenberg fighting Jesse is a little more heartbreaking.

Speaking of heartbreaking, Lydia swooped in late in the episode and stole my heart. Arguably a little too convenient that they left her all alone in the meth lab to meet their deaths -- even the cooks walked out! -- but I'm willing to let it slide. This was the first time you really get to see her in Power mode. We've seen her meek and anxious and making breathless arguments for her life, but here we see her as Kingpin. And then immediately, the hilarious juxtaposition of her being too meek and delicate to physically face the aftermath of the massacre she just ordered. Be still my heart.