For all he’s done, Walt’s (Bryan Cranston) gotten off relatively easily thus far, not getting caught by the law or killed by criminal rivals despite a few close calls. Things were arguably even looking up, between the cash he got for his load of meth, his cancer going into remission, and he and Skyler (Anna Gunn) seemingly back on good terms. But in this episode, Walt gets his just deserts. No, he doesn’t get caught or killed; that’d be too easy. Instead, punishment is mostly inflicted on his soul, while he’s still got one.
Like how he turned the charity website his son (RJ Mitte) created into a channel to launder his drug money. While his family is inspired by what they believe is other peoples’ charity, Walt has to live with the knowledge that it’s all a lie. It’s a little funny how he gets more and more irritated with each ding of the site’s counter, but he can’t outwardly express his stewing emotions without hurting his family and blowing his cover. Cathartic, too, that he brought this on himself.
Then there’s the big reveal of where the burnt teddy bear and other debris in this season's pre-credits scenes came from: a midair collision between two planes, caused by air traffic controller Donald Margolis (John de Lancie) drifting off on the job after his daughter Jane’s (Krysten Ritter) death. If Walt had only stopped her from asphyxiating last episode, this might have been avoided. It’s not just Walt’s family punishing Walt for his deeds, but the whole universe, it seems.
There’s no satisfaction in this, though, both because of the magnitude of the tragedy, but also because of de Lancie’s performance. It was clear last episode he’d tried everything to help his daughter get clean. This time, the stone-faced, burnt-out devastation on his face when he sees his daughter being taken away in a body bag is powerful; he’s a man too exhausted from his efforts to even mourn. When the airline disaster happened the first time I watched it, I was too stunned to really think about it because it came almost out of nowhere. Knowing it was coming this time made it more heartbreaking for Margolis. Not only did he fail to save his daughter, but his state of mind after his failure may have killed hundreds more.
Walt doesn’t get off with just guilt, though. At the end of the episode, Skyler leaves him, having found out he’s been lying (though not finding out the whole truth yet) due to an anesthesia-induced slip of the tongue before his surgery (the second cell phone conversation comes back to bite him). He ostensibly entered the drug business to provide for his family, but now that catalyst is gone.
This season began looking like it would be a crime caper, but it actually turned into more of a character study. Partially a study of Jesse, Skyler, and Hank (Dean Norris), as well, but mainly of Walt, as he took steps from morally dubious but well-intentioned to clearly on the side of bad. He’ll become even worse as Heisenberg takes over more and more, but right now he still has at least some of a conscience, and the weight of the events of this episode on that conscience is more burdensome than if he’d just gotten busted or killed. This season’s a bit slow at times, something I’d forgotten after the super compelling third and fourth seasons, but the payoff is just brilliant.
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