Ozymandias (Breaking Bad)

"Ozymandias (Breaking Bad)"

"Ozymandias" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, and the 60th overall episode of the series. Written by Moira Walley-Beckett and directed by Rian Johnson, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on September 15, 2013. Upon airing, the episode received universal praise from critics, and has since been called one of the greatest episodes of television ever broadcast.

Plot

A flashback to when Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) first cooked methamphetamine in To'hajiilee shows Walt calling a pregnant Skyler (Anna Gunn) and making up an excuse for why he will come home late. Skyler suggests the name Holly for their baby, which Walt finds agreeable.

At present in To'hajiilee, in the aftermath of the shootout, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) is wounded with a bullet in his leg, Steven Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) has been killed, and Jack's (Michael Bowen) gang is left unscathed. Jack orders some men to search for Jesse and prepares to kill Hank after cornering him. Walt grovels to Jack to spare his brother-in-law, offering Jack his entire eighty million dollar fortune buried near them and asking Hank to swear that he will not pursue what has just happened for his own safety. Hank refuses to beg for his life and confirms that he is a DEA agent, expressing astonishment at the fact that the intelligent Walter cannot see that Jack made up his mind ten minutes ago. Hank tells Jack to do what he has to do, and Jack immediately shoots him in the head as Walt collapses to the ground in total despair.

Jack's team uses Walt's coordinates to locate and unearth the seven buried barrels of money, loading six into their trucks but leaving one for Walt on Jack's orders. They bury Hank and Gomez in the freshly dug hole. Walt spots Jesse's hiding place and betrays him to the men, reminding Jack that the hit on Jesse was never carried out. Jesse is dragged out screaming and is almost killed, but Todd (Jesse Plemons) suggests that they first interrogate him to find out what information he supplied to the DEA. Walt spitefully reveals to Jesse his presence during Jane's death before Jack's gang takes Jesse away. At Todd's headquarters, a beaten and frightened Jesse is detained in a cell. Todd escorts him in chains to a meth lab, where he is tethered. Jesse notices a photograph of Andrea and Brock as Todd instructs him to begin cooking.

Due to a bullet having punctured his fuel tank, Walt quickly runs out of gas while driving home. Abandoning his car, Walt rolls the money barrel through the desert until arriving at a house and buying the owner's truck. Meanwhile, at the car wash, Marie (Betsy Brandt) informs Skyler (Anna Gunn) that Walt has been arrested by Hank and is in custody. With Walt now apparently caught, Marie offers to support her sister and their family, but demands that Skyler give up all copies of the false confession video implicating Hank and for Walter Jr. be told the truth. Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) is left in disbelief at the entire story when told by Skyler and Marie, calling both of them crazy. Shortly after, during the car ride back to their home, Walter Jr. tells Skyler that she is just as bad as Walter if she has known about what has been happening.

Reaching home, Walt hurriedly begins packing as Skyler and Walter Jr. arrive and orders them to do the same. Walt promises to explain everything later, but Skyler assumes that he has killed Hank when Walt cannot answer to Hank's whereabouts. Skyler grabs a kitchen knife and orders Walt to leave their home, but when he refuses and approaches her, she lunges at him and cuts his hand. In the ensuing fight, Walter Jr. pulls Walt off Skyler and calls the police, claiming that Walt attacked her with a knife and has perhaps already killed somebody. Walt kidnaps Holly and leaves in the truck, while a distressed Skyler tries running after him. Later, when alone with his daughter, Walt talks about getting Holly a new car seat. Holly tearfully utters her first known word, 'mama,' several times, saddening Walt.

The police soon arrive at the White household, as does Marie. They tap into the Whites' home phone and try tracing it when Walt eventually calls. After Skyler tells him that she is alone, Walt berates her, accusing her of never supporting his criminal activities and having himself worked alone in building up the wealth for their family. Skyler is at first confused but soon recognises that Walt knows the phone is tapped and that he is trying to clear her of her involvement in his business. When Skyler apologizes and inquires about Hank's whereabouts, Walt suppresses his weeping and announces that she will never see Hank again, to Marie's horror. When Skyler pleads with him to come home and bring Holly back, Walt tells her that he still has things left to do. He destroys his phone and leaves Holly at a nearby fire station with their home address written on a note. The next morning, Walt sits on the side of the highway where Jesse previously waited for Saul's new-identity contact. A red van pulls up and Walt packs in his bags and his single barrel of money, then rides off to his new identity.

Production

The episode was written by Moira Walley-Beckett and directed by Rian Johnson. Walley-Beckett requested to work with Johnson because of their positive experiences together working on the third season episode "Fly."

It aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on September 15, 2013. The song used in the episode is "Take My True Love by the Hand" by The Limeliters, which is a version of a popular folk song called "Times Are Gettin' Hard, Boys".

The episode title references the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which recounts the crumbling legacy of a once-proud king. At the end of the fifth episode of Talking Bad, Vince Gilligan emphasized the line: "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" in reference to Walt and his fallen empire. Bryan Cranston recites the entire poem in a 2013 trailer for the series.

This episode marks the final appearance of Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) and Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada). On Talking Bad, Norris said that Hank's death was shot in just one take. Hank was originally supposed to die at the end of the previous episode, but it was moved to "Ozymandias" for better pacing.

The opening flashback scene was the last scene to be shot for the entire series. The crew waited to film the episode to allow for Cranston's hair to grow more realistically. Despite being filmed months after the rest of the episode, Johnson was able to return to direct the scene.

When Walt holds Holly in a changing room, after kidnapping her from his home, she looks at him and says, "Mama", repeatedly. Producer Moira Walley-Beckett, who wrote the episode, said during an interview with NBC News that it was unscripted, but Cranston went along and the production team decided it was a moment of "movie magic".

Reception

The episode was watched by 6.37 million viewers on its original broadcast, which increased in over a million viewers from the previous episode.

It received universal critical acclaim and was described by several publications as the series' best episode. Critics praised almost every aspect including the acting by the cast, directing by Rian Johnson, and writing by Moira Walley-Beckett. Tom Mendelson of The Independent speculated that the episode may be the best television episode ever written, also noting the fact that within less than three days, it had received a perfect 10 score from over 12,000 reviewers on IMDb (it has since achieved over 38,000 votes, maintaining a perfect 10 score). Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a perfect 10 out of 10 score and called it the "most gut-wrenching, twisted, horrific, and well-planned" episode of the series thus far and described it as "a capitalization on all of the built-up pieces that add up to a puzzle." Amitin additionally lauded the episode's directing and acting, stating that he could "taste" the episode's "cruelty and bitter tears". In Amitin's later review of Season 5B as a whole, he referred to the episode as "maybe the best episode of TV [he's] ever seen." James Poniewozik of Time magazine noted the significance of both phone conversations between Walt and Skyler, marking the beginning and the end of his journey, respectively. Kevin Yeoman of Screenrant saw the final phone conversation as an act designed to clear Skyler's name and kill off Walt's current identity, with the new one being Mr. Lambert (as seen in the flashforwards in "Live Free or Die" and "Blood Money"). Yeoman also noted that the fact that most of the harsh violent scenarios occurred off-screen did not deduct from the cinematic intensity. Maureen Ryan of Huffington Post stated that the episode was indescribable and "the hardest episode of TV [she] ever watched", describing it as "mind-bendingly, soul-churningly devastating" and "sickening". Tim Surette of TV.com called the episode "terrific and awful to watch; a powerful piece of television that transcended fiction". He also compared the sight of Walt rolling the money barrel in the desert to a dung beetle. Nick Harley of Den of Geek stated that the episode was "the single greatest hour of television" he had ever seen.

On the Breaking Bad Insider podcast, Vince Gilligan revealed that he considers the episode to be the best of the series. Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter agreed with Gilligan, and noted that several events that the show had been building up to in past episodes finally came to fruition. On his blog, George R. R. Martin, the creator of the book series A Song of Ice and Fire (which was adapted to the critically acclaimed TV series Game of Thrones), called both the series and the episode "amazing" and noted that "Walter White is a bigger monster than anyone in Westeros", which Martin also said has influenced him to make an even worse character in future books to "fix this". Drusilla Moorhouse, an online contributor to The Today Show's website, remarked how "nothing could compare to Walt's cruelty" when he revealed to Jesse the truth about his involvement in Jane's death, and described the episode as the destruction of Walt's family; however, she also noted Walt's selflessness when he "rewrote the history of [Skyler's] complicity" by making the phone call, and when he placed Holly in a fire truck to be safely returned home.

External links

• "Ozymandias" at the official Breaking Bad site
• "Ozymandias" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode