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Red giant misfire serial1/25/2024 ![]() ![]() ![]() Combo was a drug dealer, as was Tomas (and Tomas killed Combo, to boot). But even those deaths could eventually be moved beyond. They make drugs, but they do not kill people, and when people have died – even if they were in some way tied to the drug game like Combo, Andrea’s little brother Tomas, Gale or even Jane – it hasn’t been quickly forgotten, but has given Walt pause, and emotionally devastated Jesse. They’ve tried to rationalize their work, to separate themselves from the end user of their product (and when Jesse couldn’t, in an episode like “Peekaboo,” he at least made himself feel better by knowing the cops and social services are about to take the kid out of that environment). Walt and Jesse tried for a very long time to avoid killing anyone who wasn’t a direct threat to them like Tuco look at the hoops they jumped through in “Better Call Saul” just to keep from murdering Badger, when that’s the obvious play for any traditional drug crew. And at this late stage of the series, that’s the point.įor a series with a reasonably high body count, “Breaking Bad” has always treated murder very seriously. Cue Jesse, Walt and Todd gleefully celebrating, with Jesse only seconds away from letting off another “YEAH, SCIENCE!” Cue tense but not dread-filled heist sequence, including the return of Bill Burr as Saul’s occasional errand boy Kuby. Cue gorgeous, Western-tinged cinematography (including Walt in his Heisenberg hat looking every bit the cowboy villain as he stands on the train tracks). Once again, Walt and Jesse (and now Mike) are faced with an impossible problem – at least an impossible one if they wanted to avoid killing the two engineers – and once again, they figure out a way to solve it through brainpower. Though there’s some tension early on as the guys debate what to do with/to Lydia, and the usual frostiness between Walt and Skyler, the overwhelming emotion I felt throughout this one was giddiness.Įven more than the season premiere, this was a good old-fashioned caper story – a train robbery, for goodness’ sake, on a show that’s always had some Western roots – and in my running diary of the episode, I kept noting that longtime “Breaking Bad” writer George Mastras must have felt like a kid in a candy store (or a train store) when he got this as his first directing assignment ever. Similarly, Todd’s act at the end completely changes everything we think about “Dead Freight,” which to that point is practically a “Breaking Bad” romp. That’s as tragic and horrifying as the “Breaking Bad” creative team intended. ![]() It’s all fun and games when Lance is running around the country killing rapists, aliens, plumbing contractors, etc., and quite another when he’s gunning down some kid on a dirtbike who had the terrible fortune to be looking for spiders to add to his collection in the absolute wrong place and time. ![]() It’s who he kills, and the circumstance under which he does it. It’s not just that for once, Plemons plays another character who actually does kill someone. And one of the unexpected joys of my TV fan life of the last five years has been telling many, many, many jokes about Landry as a serial killer, Landry on a 12-state murder spree, Jesse Plemons killing someone no matter what new role he’s been signed to play.Īfter the final scene of “Dead Freight,” I think I have to retire that joke. Over the years, I have steadfastly insisted that anyone watching “Friday Night Lights” for the first time is better off suffering through the show’s giant misfire of a second season than skipping it, not only because of a handful of strong individual moments, but because if they don’t watch it, then they don’t get to make jokes about Landry Clarke killing people. “The point is, no one, other than us, can ever know that this robbery went down. A review of tonight’s “Breaking Bad” coming up just as soon as my niece’s first words are “ASAC”… ![]()
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