In this week’s Breaking Bad recap, Matt Zoller Seitz pondered the “believability” of the characters’ descent into their figurative holes. “That’s one of the many things I love about this show: All the characters behave in internally consistent ways, even when they’re doing objectively preposterous things, or showing you sides you might not have previously imagined they had. You believe them.” Here’s what you all thought of “Buried.”
You discussed the role of female characters …
“Surprised not to see any mention of Lydia in your post. But then, not. Her character is, in my opinion, one of the sloppier and more disappointing things about the last slate of episodes from this writing team. She feels like a deus ex machina every time she hits the screen. Which is one thing. But to add insult to injury, she’s a bimbo. A hard core bimbo but a bimbo. When I see a ‘strong’ female character who’s hobbled with weaknesses, high heel shoes and other nervous girly tics, I get pissed off. It’s lazy writing, it’s insulting to intelligent viewers and it demonstrates a disrespect for women in the real world. As has been said by many a feminist commenter about many a movie or TV show, there’s a difference between “strong” women characters and “strong” male characters. Why did the writers have to give us a strong female boss but put her in $1000 Louboutins and have her hobbling around the desert like an idiot bimbo? A boss of this caliber has other things to worry about besides vanity footwear. And would never let herself be mocked by Todd’s crew! You don’t get where she is by acting like that. Not only in the crime world but in the corporate world.” –ksra
“It was great to see Marie/Betsy Brandt unleashed last night. She’s had moments in the past but nothing quite like last night. That scene in the coffee shop between Hank and Skyler was an all-timer as well.” –Ducard
“If the shows love of parallelisms holds, it’s Lydia who brings down the besieged Walt, with Jesse unintentionally aiding this process. My suspicion is that the flash-forward is Walt’s last (and futile) stand against the new ‘king’ – who is in fact a queen, namely Lydia. The show will end with her at the top of the heap (with a possible allusion to some future downfall on her part). The resolution won’t be one in the strict sense of the term. It will mirror, rather, the end of a Greek tragedy. The Greeks understood human nature as fixed. Hence events proceed in a cyclical fashion (Jesse doing circles in the playground seem to hint at this); there is no notion of progress or evolution. Hence a reset position seems to be what we’re in store for.” –ed68
“Skyler made an error that could come back to haunt her, and Walt. When she was being questioned hard by Marie — interrogated, really — and Marie asked about Walt’s complicity in the contract against Hank, she really should have denied that strenuously, blaming the cartel, even mentioning that Hank got a warning call, rather than saying ‘I’m sorry’ finally after not speaking. I know that Skyler thinks that Walt did have something to do with it (earlier, Skyler made up the gambling story to get money for Hank’s rehab because she thought that Walt was somehow responsible). But she should have used some sense of self-preservation, as well as a lack of factual knowledge, to get out of that.” –alesh
“Skyler is not as fast or devious as Heisenberg … that she didn’t admit anything to either Hank or Marie is pretty impressive, considering the state she was in.” –elblipo
… and debated imagery and symbolism.
“How about the remote control car in front of Hank’s driveway? Clearly it’s there to represent something, particularly when Walt pulls out and backs up right to the little car and they both speed off in opposite directions. Metaphor for how Walt actually has no control over his life and is at the will of others operating the controls?” –NYC15
“The overhead shot of Jessie spinning on the playground equipment, when accompanied by the audio, suggested a clock ticking down. Not necessarily a time bomb but who knows? Walt could go out in either a whimper or a bang. I’ll be looking for more clock imagery in the next episodes.” –smaknstein
“I see some people have some doubts that given how many horrible things he’s done, Walt wouldn’t consider ‘sending Hank to Belize’ … but consider this. Walt refuses point blank to consider killing Hank, and even reacts in disgust towards the very suggestion. He seems to think he could never even consider it, let alone DO it. That’s fine… When Jane went out Jimi Hendrix style, do you remember the look of shock and horror that came over Walt’s face when he realized what he’d just allowed to happen? He couldn’t believe what he’d just done. He had the same look of panic and immediate regret right after he shot Mike and the car drove off and crashed. Utter disbelief at how far he’d just gone, at the line he’d just crossed. I often think that Walt is almost as clueless as others as to who he really is, and what he’s capable of. Walt’s surprised us before, and if he gets put in a me-or-Hank or Hank-or-my-family situation, I bet he could surprise himself. Walt wouldn’t kill Hank, but Heisenberg would.” –Hendoism
“Is there any news on the light beige-light blue-light pink colors that Walt and Marie have been wearing? They look cleaned up and almost angelic.” –Bloshka
“I’m sure someone else has already said this, but it occurred to me that the last two digits in the coordinates for the money are 52 — the same numbers Walt spelled in bacon in the season premiere’s flash-forward. He seemed to be spelling his age at the time, but I wonder if he was surreptitiously delivering the final coordinate of his dark fortune to Skyler somehow?” –robertjpeterson
You praised Aaron Paul, and speculated about what will happen to Jesse …
“It says a lot about Aaron Paul’s acting ability that he was able to convey so much emotion in an episode where he literally said nothing at all.” –A_Full_Measures_Salud
“I’m trying to figure out what kind of charges Jesse faces being found with millions of dollars in unexplained cash. He has no way out now other than turning evidence on Walt or whomever else, right? It’s almost like Jesse’s malaise was a product of subconsciously wanting to get arrested as the only way to help make amends for all the wrong he’s done. I’m guessing he will spill all the beans to Hank, help Hank fill in a lot of the blanks, and since nobody knows he’s been taken in, will be put back on the street to get more evidence to put Walt away for good.” –vinegarstrokes
… and made more predictions about how your favorite series will end.
“If anything it sounds like the show is setting things up for Walt to be brought up on every charge we can think of only to walk out of the courtroom with the case dismissed due to illegal police work in obtaining ALL the evidence and potential testimony from Skyler. Who knows what kind of illegal tactics Hank will resort to in obtaining whatever info he gets from Jessie, which should be a slam dunk for him. Should that happen, Walt walk away with charges dismissed, we can expect Hank to go crazy and shoot him dead (with Skylar attempting to save him by jumping in front of Walt, but only to have Hank kill them both with one bullet LOL)” –JohnnyMorales
One thing’s for sure: You’re all serious about the show. Very serious.
“Several hundred of viewers in Fairfield, Conn lost their cable vision during this past Sunday BB. In an emergency like this they could only think of one thing. They called 911, police were not amused. It came back at 11:30 for them to see an encore performances. Those folks are dedicated bad addicts!!!” –February6
