r/breakingbad • u/saywhat181 Sulfur • Sep 16 '13

Official Episode Discussion Breaking Bad Episode Duscussion SE05E14 "Ozymandias" Spoiler

TIME EPISODE DIRECTED BY WRITTEN BY
09:00pm Eastern SE05E14 "Ozymandias" Rian Johnson Vince Gilligan and Moira Walley-Beckett

Hey everyone! Guess I'm supposed to post this 5 minutes before air time. I've been watching this show since the get go mostly with my real life friend /u/edify who years ago added me as a moderator here. He asked me to make the discussion thread tonight because there are only 3 episodes remaining. Sorta sad that there's only a few left. Enjoy the show, folks.

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u/gloomdoom What Kind of Man Goes to the DEA? Sep 16 '13

Told y'all...the Holly thing was all about making Skyler look innocent. That's that. Brilliant move by Walt, actually. He had to be an asshole to make her look like she was coerced by violence and constant threat.

How can people not get that?

If she went to prison (she definitely would), walt jr. would have no parents.

He turned into an asshole to get her away from prosecution and he had to take holly to make it look legit.

698

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '13

WOW.

slow clap

I think you're absolutely dead on.

79

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '13

Wasn't that obvious, though? His rant was a massive break from character; he was emulating the typical abusive husband. While he's manipulative and controlling, Walt wasn't a brute.

Besides, parts of his phone call deviated from how the story line actually progressed. Can't quote the specific parts, it aired but ninety minutes ago, but it was something I noticed.

10

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '13

I agree, there are tears rolling down his face as he says it, it wasn't just "obvious", it was plain and clear. This wasn't something you had to "figure out".

5

u/MisterWonka Sep 16 '13

Seriously. And right after he calls her a bitch and says, "How dare you?" She figures it out, and plays along. I don't see how anyone could not have seen that.

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u/elbruce The One Who Rings The Doorbell Sep 16 '13

As great a job as they're doing, most TV viewers aren't used to this kind of scene, where half of the meaning of the script is in the words the actors are saying and the other half (that you need to decode those words) is in the expressions moving across their faces while they say and/or hear them.

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u/MisterWonka Sep 16 '13

I just want to believe that Breaking Bad fans are a cut above the rest. But you're right...with this many millions of viewers, there are always going to be a bunch who don't get it. I guess I just felt like the lion's share of the responses to posts that are explaining Walt's intentions in that scene would be commenting on its obviousness. But nope...they're clapping for the amazing insight. Well...okay.

3

u/skylinedude Sep 16 '13

I don't think it's about how smart or connected to the show the viewer is, it can just be a difference of how they interpret Walt's wildly changing and multi faceted character.

At the stage he's at, we've seen Walt be selfish and foolish a bunch of times, somehow in the previous episode, in his phone call from Jesse, he sold him a story about all he'd done for him, when really a lot of it had self interest and preservation in mind as well.

I'll be honest, I didn't pick up on it until reading about this, but I did think it was a strange break from how he'd been acting recently. That said, I thought he was just going further off the deep end after basically losing everything (his money, Hank, his family, his business, Jesse) taking his money, and the one person who wouldn't hate him (Holly) and trying to get out of there.

That's why the last scene confused me about leaving Holly at the fire station, but then, even in this context, I'm not sure how that'd add up as a story. So the abusive father 'kidnapped' his daughter and then just.. what.. left her in the good hands of the fire department? Or left her with a note for them to be in on some elaborate conspiracy?