Monday, June 24, 2019

_____'s transformation after Season 4

Everyone says that Walt is far less likable on a rewatch. But I wasn't finding that to be the case at all for me. If anything, I noticed more details this time that made Walt all the more sympathetic and, if not justified, at least rational in his actions.

But then I got to Season 5. All of a sudden, it's like I'm watching a completely different person! But thanks to all the fantastic character development Walt's had over the past 4 seasons, it's totally believable that he would become as ruthless as Gus was right after killing him.

Still, the level of sociopathy that Walt is displaying right now is terrifying. I just finished the third episode (Hazard Pay), and Walt does multiple things that seem like reincarnations of past Breaking Bad villains:

– When Skyler is recovering from her mental breakdown, rather than check up on her, Walt just heads to the kitchen, grabs an apple, and takes a big, satisfying bite out of it. This is what one of the cartel twins did while the other one murdered a police officer.

– His manipulation of Jesse is just as subtle and unemotional as Gus's. At the end of the episode, when Jesse reveals that he's broken up with Andrea (which Walt manipulated him into doing), Walt doesn't even react to the news – he just immediately moves on the next order of business, which is killing Mike.

It is so obvious that Walt is the villain now that I can't believe I didn't see it the first time. The main story of these past few episodes (maybe even the past few seasons) is that Walt is destroying the lives of all the people he supposedly cares about. And the main question seems to be whether he's such a megalomaniac that he doesn't even notice this (his interactions with Skyler seem to imply this), or he does notice it, but doesn't care because subconsciously he already knows that he's doing this all for himself. I'm curious to hear which of these you guys think it is.

My view of Walt has changed so much that Season 5 feels almost like a completely new season this time. I can't wait to finish it and see how this impacts my views on the final episodes and the series as a whole.



Submitted June 25, 2019 at 01:09AM by dmcarefuldriver http://bit.ly/2ZTlmmf

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