Breaking Bad re-watch: Season 5, Episode 4: "Fifty-One"

I’m not sure I liked Skyler’s (Anna Gunn) suicide attempt in the swimming pool as a story device. I know it’s meant to convey her sense of guilt and hopelessness, but the way it’s done seems almost soap opera melodramatic (I’ve heard it suggested that it wasn’t a true attempt but an act to call for help, which might be a little more believable). But I loved the plot turn it resulted in. It seemed for a while like Skyler was becoming just a passive, accepting career criminal’s wife, like Carmella Soprano. Opting to go in the opposite direction, to create a rift between her and Walt (Bryan Cranston,) made for more compelling drama and way, way more affecting character turns.

The scene between Walt and Skyler after her fateful dip—where she admits that she’s waiting for his cancer to come back—is brutal. No, Walt never lays his hands on her (though the anticipation that he might as he gets angrier makes the scene very tense), but every sentence between the two hits like an uppercut. Gunn is especially strong here, presenting Skyler as moral person who’s knowingly defeated, compromised, and out of options, but still willing to fight Walt and keep the kids away any way she can, even if it kills her. She's crossed several lines but firmly stops before she sinks to where she can't get out, unlike her husband who just kept going deeper. Walt, on the other hand, is clearly only fighting because someone is trying to take something from him.

You can chalk up Walt buying himself and Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) new cars to ego or money getting the better of him. I actually did on my first viewing, but this time, I didn’t see it that way. Rather, I think Walt knew that his attempts to reach Skyler weren’t working, so this was his way of getting his son on his side. Telling Marie (Betsy Brandt) of Skyler’s affair last episode, making her look like the bad guy, was his way to win over Marie and Hank (Dean Norris).

Maybe he still loves his family deep down, but Walt’s scheme to force his way back into their lives seems more about winning, about beating someone who’s standing in his way. Doesn’t matter that that someone his wife, and that it’s making his children into sort of commodities. His Machiavellian ways remind me of a certain chicken restaurateur.

Skyler's a little underutilized this season, just moping around in fear and guilt before this episode and giving Walt disdainful looks afterward. But this is one of Gunn’s best single episodes on the show, and maybe the most emotionally intense moment of the Walter-Skyler dynamic.