Breaking Bad Shakespeare Predictions

We all know what happens tonight. That’s right, tonight, after a way to long summer, we can finally find out what’s up with Neverland and Peter Pan in Once Upon a Time! Finally! I’m sure you, like me, have been waiting all summer to find out what’s going to happen when Rumplestilskin, Snow White, Prince Charming, and the rest of the gang are going to do once they get there on board Captain Hook’s magic ship.

(While I enjoy that show, I really can’t believe that was a sentence that I was able to type because it really is going to happen outside of Disney Fan Fiction.)

Oh, and we’ll get to see the end of Breaking Bad, one of the finest sagas to ever grace our television screens, stages, big screen, or puppet theaters. I guess there’s that, too.

A lot of critics, bloggers, writers, and bookies are making predictions to how it is going to end. Back when the season started, I made a few predictions on how it should end, based on it’s legacy as a Shakespearean Tragedy. Well, now that we are here, and I have a lot more accurate picture of what’s going on (and everything that’s blowing me away, like a bomb attached to an old man’s wheelchair.) I wanted to offer up my own predictions as to what was going to happen tonight on the final episode of Breaking Bad. We’ll either commend how right I was, or laugh at how off the mark I was. Either way, it’s going to be fun.

Here’s the obligatory note that there will be spoilers for the last few episodes of Breaking Bad. If you’re not caught up what are you doing reading this blog? If you’re caught up, keep reading. Also, as a quick side note, if you can’t watch it tonight and can’t help but going on Social Media, don’t whine about being spoiled. It’s a great show. Watch it live. If you have to wait, don’t ruin the discussion for the rest of America.

Anyway, here’s the breakdown of what I think is going to happen.

Holly and Walt Jr.: I think they’re going to be relative non-entities for the final episode. Holly’s job was to get us all to support Walt in the first few episodes of the series (he’s got a baby! Of course he needs to cook meth to make millions for her!) and Walt’s job was pretty much done last week by giving the defeating blow to Walter White, pretty much killing him. Of course, Shakespearean Analysis gives us the evidence that if Walt eats a bullet, Walt Jr. Is the one who is going to pull the trigger.

(Quick sidenote: If Walter White doesn’t die but is left homeless, I’d like to see a flash forward where older Holly is walking down the street and walk past him dead in an alley, not paying attention to him.)

Marie: She’s a wildcard. I’d like to think that she’ll be left alone to go mourn the death of her husband. I’d also like to think that Walt is going to sneak her a few bucks, or at least the location of where her hubby’s been buried by murderous Nazis (but not before AMC helpfully bleeped out the “F-Word” he said.) But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if Marie’s involvement is little, only to remind us that she’s a victim of Heisenberg.  They made a point last week to let us know that Skyler is living in a tiny apartment... not with her sister. 

Saul Goodman: He’s done. His story was done last week, in true Shakespearean Fool Fashion... give one last bit of somber, good advice before vanishing. Just happy he wasn’t killed. (The spinoff is a prequel. He wasn’t safe from the Grim Reaper.) Maybe he’ll appear in a montage of reactions to whatever happens to Walt.

Skyler: Sadly, I think Skyler is dead. Even though at the end she turned on Walt, she’s complicit enough, and slowly sliding down... if this was truly Shakespeare, she’d have killed herself already. Maybe a suicide is down the line. But this is something that would really raise the stakes. She also fully betrayed Walt... helped to turn him in. Towards the end, I didn’t mind Skyler as much... I think people tended to forget that the first few seasons (when she was horrible... and yes, she was horrible) she was a prop. She was a prop to remind us that Walter had a family, and a kind of overbearing wife. (Her first line was about the credit card.) Then later, when he got diagnosed, she made it his diagnosis. I think she needs to continue being that reminder that what Walt did was bad, and that she still helped him... at one point talking about killing Jesse. I just think she has to die, either by her own hand, Nazis (hopefully not yelling any swear words first) or maybe even by her sister.

Jesse: You’ll note that I’m going in a certain order. Also, that I didn’t talk about Todd and his Nazi buddies. Yeah, Todd is dead at Jesse’s hand. Todd died last week when he killed Jesse’s former girlfriend/love interest. Jesse’s going to kill him, and probably go out in a blaze of glory. Maybe by blowing up the meth lab, with Lydia in it? Maybe blowing it up after Walt comes in to get his revenge? Jesse, to me, is the biggest wildcard that this show has... literally anything can happen. He can live and go straight... his arc complete from low-life drug user to reformed man (maybe teaching chemistry?) or he could die, sacrificing himself for the greater good.

Walter White: Let’s get this out of the way right way: Walter White is dead. He’s dead. He died in that bar, last week, when he realized his ENTIRE LEGACY is gone. He did his last charitable act... trying to turn himself in to safe his wife, then he died. Heisenberg got up from the bar. Heisenberg was at that Denny’s in the first episode of Season 5. Heisenberg said hello to Carol. Heisenberg is going on a rampage to take out the Nazi’s, get his money back, save his family (possibly not Jesse) and end this all on his terms. 

Sadly, we know that Heisenberg is dead at the end of this show. Either by losing it all, dying in an alley (as I mentioned) or by his own hand. And that’s where we’re going. I wouldn’t be surprised if Heisenberg survives the shootout with Nazis. Survives whatever the show gives us. And one of the final scenes is him taking that Ricin. (or possibly Jesse giving him the Ricin... either way, the Ricin is for Heisenberg.) The final scene may be a flashback to a happier time, maybe bringing back Hank for a final look at a family cookout. 

Either way, we’ll be breaking down what happens tomorrow, on an all new Bad Shakespeare. Maybe we’ll cover a little Peter Pan. Who knows.

Breaking Bad Shakespeare: Lady Macbething as an Art Form

Once again, a note: We’ll be talking about some of the more recent developments on Breaking Bad. If you haven’t watched them when they aired, downloaded legally or illegally, read the recaps, or hired Bryan Cranston to be the scariest clown at your birthday party, then I’m assuming you don’t care if you’re spoiled. And if you care that you’re spoiled at this point, then please look up the word “apathy” in the dictionary. 

Today, I’m going to do a little something for the ladies. Hello, ladies...

At this point in the show, both Skyler and Marie are being drawn more and more into the world of Walt aka Heisenberg, and Hank aka.... Jesse puncher. And as we do, the term, “Lady Macbeth” gets thrown around a LOT. Like, all the time. Skyler is all Lady Macbeth because she’s all like “what’s one more person?” in the killing of Jesse Pinkman, and Marie is like Lady Macbeth because she’s like “So are you going to sacrifice him” about being Jesse Pinkman... (You know, at this point the last scene should just be Pinkman dancing on all of their graves.)

I don’t really think that means what people think it means. (Yay. Princess Bride references. Tune in next week when I work in Miracle Max.)

William Shakespeare... you mind if I call him Billy? Billy really enjoyed writing his characters, but he wasn’t really known for writing “strong female characters.” Ophelia kills herself pretty much because of Hamlet. Desdemona lets herself be strangled. Viola, who’s often held up as “look, here’s a strong female character because she takes charge!” is almost found out because she falls in love with the guy she’s “helping.” So many times, when someone wants a strong female character, they throw Lady Macbeth into the mix, and say, “hey... she’s pretty strong!” And she is. She’s also pretty take charge. 

Macbeth is set back when Regicide was pretty illegal, and not just what Archie wanted to do in many issues of his comic. To even discuss it usually got you a pretty hot date with Madam Guillotine. So, it’s important to note that the entire scene where Macbeth comes home and talks about his crazy day of meeting witches and being told that he’s going to be in charge of the throne he was talking about eventually, when the king died. Lady Macbeth talked him into it, just barely. Then later, when she’s all like, “frame his guards!” and Macbeth is all like, “no” she’s the one who walks into the room, then frames the guards. 

Then she promptly kills herself out of guilt. Suicide... it’s what Shakespearean women had for dinner, apparently.

Regardless, let’s go back to my point, rather than a paragraph I framed around making a pun about Reggie and regicide. Skyler and Marie aren’t really Lady Macbeths so much as they’re just fighting on their respective sides of the law. Even when they have the tense/wonderfully framed scene around the table side guacamole, Marie dedicates most of her hatred towards Walt, not her sister. 

The issue continues to be that the women, while stronger than they were at the start of the series when they basically were props to get Hank and Walt to have an active relationship, then to have Walt have something to do, but they still aren’t doers. 

Skyler probably comes the closest to Lady Macbething the whole thing up. She does take an active role in the money laundrying scheme with her magical accountant skillz. She has a few plots of her own, like getting her kids out of the house, but most of her killing is relegated to wanting to kill Jesse Pinkman. (Damn... it really sucks to be Jesse Pinkman this season.) Most of her plotting has been to get Walt AWAY from the Meth, AWAY from the dangerous life... 

I know that Skyler actress Anna Gunn recently wrote an op-ed to the New York Times that talked about the reasons everyone seems to hate Skyler. One of the more interesting points is that she thinks it has to do with the fact that “she’s Walt’s equal.” Here’s the thing: She’s not, really. That’s not to say she’s not smart, she’s not capable... she was the one cooking the books, not Walt. I think when making this argument people tend to forget just how manipulative and.... quite frankly how evil Walt is. Skyler’s whole point has been getting herself out of the predicament that Walt got her in, and while she’s shown some signs of manipulation (the earliest being those annoying scenes where she made Walt’s cancer all about herself) she hasn’t quite gone to that level. Even this week, when she wanted to kill Jesse, she wasn’t willing to go the whole way... she couldn’t even say, “kill him” just hint at it.

Skyler and Marie are certainly an interesting pair. I’m going to be interested to see where this goes next... well, I’ll just hit up some random speculation. What will really be interesting is to see what is going to happen once Walt and Hank are removed from the situation, either by Uncle Jack or... let’s just say other means. (My prediction: Walt is kidnapped and forced to cook for Uncle Jack, Hank is probably kidnapped as well and used as bait. This will take us to the time jump we’ve seen at the start of Season 5.) Right now they are women defined as their relationship to their husbands. Which while similar to Lady Macbeth, it was pretty evident that she wasn’t defined by her husband so much as she was trying to lead him to a fancier life. Right now they're not so much Lady Macbeths as something else entirely.

Of course, for all the speculation of who Walt is going to kill, let's just say that this world as a Shakespearean Tragedy isn't as kind to it's women. 

Breaking Bad Shakespeare Friday: Skyler White

    Last week, we looked at Saul Goodman and the comic fool aspect of Breaking Bad and how that pushes the show into the realm of “True Shakespearean Masterpiece.” This week, we’re going to look at a character that seems more problematic: Skyler White, Walter’s wife.

    If you type in “Skyler White” into Google, you will see a series of prompts. One of the prompts is “Skyler White Hate.” There are forums, essays and other things dedicated to how much they hate this woman, who is initially ignorant of Walter’s crimes. (I use ignorant here to indicate that she didn’t know. Not that I think she’s stupid.) At first, this was one of the reasons that I mentioned that yes, I was having a problem with the show: I hated her. But Breaking Bad is truly like a fine Shakespearean play: If you try judging the show on it’s first act, then you may not be around to see the final act where you can appreciate the hints dropped in the first act.
   
    Skyler’s “job” in the first season is a prop, let’s face it. Her pregnancy, her existence is so we as the audience can get behind a guy doing something pretty terrible. I mean, Meth has never been portrayed as “glamourous” or “harmless” in any media. So, Skyler is pretty much around to show us, “hey, Walt is just trying to provide for his family the best way he knows how.” Shakespeare loved to do this to us. Hey, Macbeth is just acting on some knowledge of some witches. Hey, Lear is dying, so he has a pass for acting a little goofy. Hamlet’s father died, he’s just trying to get through his grief. Iago just thinks that he deserves Othello’s spot. Those are things introduced in Act 1.

    However, as things continue, we get to see what Skyler is like. I was annoyed that she seemed to take Walt’s diagnosis so personally. She wanted him to go into (expensive) treatment. Which he ignored as long as possible, then gave in. But what I wasn’t seeing was the hints as to why Walt would dive so quickly into the drug world. Skyler is controlling. Not in the “stereotypical bitchy TV wife” way. (Excuse the language, but if we’re talking meth and this show, well, sometimes there’s no way around it.) No, she’s subtle. When she figures out that Walt isn’t telling her everything, she is passive aggressive to the max. (There’s no other way to state that.) Then she starts cheating on him, pretty much while Walt knows everything. (She makes sure he knows.) Then she figures out he’s dealing drugs. She kicks him out, asks for a divorce, which prompts him to try to quit, and get in line, despite the fact that at this point he’s a local drug legend. When he eventually goes right back to it, she uses her super book-keeping skills to help launder the money... on her terms. Stealing him away from Saul Goodman’s ideas. She comes up with the script that allows him to announce to his family that they have all of this money. She decides that they’re going to buy the car wash where Walt worked and was treated badly.

    The car wash. To me the car wash is where we finally meet Skyler White as a character. As mentioned she buys it to “launder money”. But it’s a symbol. It’s a symbol of a time when Walt couldn’t afford anything. It’s where Walt first collapses before his diagnosis. It’s where we see Walt being treated horribly. And now she owns it, (Well, they own it but she’s the one in charge of it.) and acquired it through devious means.

    I could go on, but I think you get my point. I know eventually she is doing this because she says she’s “afraid” of Walt, but she’s not. She’s always been in control. She’s probably one of the most complex characters in the entire series because she is, and there’s no other way to avoid saying it any longer... but she’s this show’s Lady Macbeth. She’s behind the scenes. Her hands are only a little dirty. But she laid every seed possible for Walt to start being who he is in the series today.

    “I’m going to protect this family from the man who’s trying to protect this family.”