Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Adam BernsteinCast: Bryan Cranston (Walter), Anna Gunn (Skyler), Aaron Paul (Jesse), Dean Norris (Hank Schrader), RJ Mitte (Walter, Jr.), Betsy Brandt (Marie Schrader), Anna Felix (Sales Girl), Carmen Serano (Carmen), Jessica Hecht (Walt's Assistant), Daniel Serrano (Meth Drug Dealer), Max Arciniega (Krazy-8), Julia Minesci (Meth Whore) & Steven Michael Quezada (Gomez)
You've got to love a drama that opens with two gas-masked men scrubbing blood and guts off a floor, before tipping buckets of melted human remains down a toilet. Welcome to the disintegrating life of terminally ill Walter White (Bryan Cranston)..."... And The Bag's In The Water" focuses on Walter and Krazy-8 (Max Arciniega), the remaining hoodlum Walter and Jesse (Aaron Paul) must deal with, who's currently secured by his neck to a basement pillar using a bicycle lock. Having literally disposed of Krazy-8's accomplice after an attempt to dissolve his body went wrong, Jesse leaves Walter behind to keep up his end of the bargain with Krazy-8. Again, Walter is conflicted about murdering someone just to save his own skin, and the episode primarily focuses on him grappling with his own sense of morality. For someone so close to death himself, the last thing Walters wants is to become a cold-blooded killer so close to the "finishing line"...
I hope my opinion doesn't lose its lustre with repetition every week, but Bryan Cranston is truly marvellous in Breaking Bad. It's the best performance on the box right now, and easy to see why he won an Emmy award recently. Vince Gilligan's script eventually becomes a two-hander between Cranston and Arciniega, with Walter trying to make an emotional connection with Krazy-8 so he can justify sparing his life. But can Krazy-8 be trusted not to go the cops if Walter lets him go? Or is Walter just a soft touch who will regret failing to take drastic steps to secure the junkie's silence? This debate fuels the episode, particularly in a bravura 10-minute scene between Cranston and Arciniega, culminating in one of the most tense and gripping sequences on television this year.
Elsewhere, there's not too much going on, besides a darkly humorous scene with Walter's DEA brother-in-law Hank (Dean Norris) taking Walter Jr (RJ Mitte) to a grimy part of town to see the drug addicts living in their slums. It's supposed to be a scare tactic, as Hank incorrectly believes his nephew is being tempted into a bad lifestyle at school. Norris is excellent here, and his heart-to-heart with Mitte is a strong fusion of comedy and drama that proves Breaking Bad isn't totally reliant on Cranston's grandstanding.
Simply put, the whole episode was character-driven and totally compelling. Breaking Bad is one of the few shows that can spread a relatively thin storyline over 43-minutes, yet ensure your total concentration through performance and dialogue. The "Pilot" utilized a complex and exciting story of various strands, but subsequent episodes have had the confidence to pull back and provide riveting drama on a smaller scale.
It's a tricky thing to do, particularly for a series in its infancy, but I'm already engrossed and fascinated by how much further Walter might fall... and if he'll find redemption and peace before he shuffles off this mortal coil. Superb, must-watch television.
12 October 2008
FX, 10pm
