Breaking Bad : Kafkaesque

A slow and simmering episode, with an explosive moment halfway through. Kafkaesque charts the path of Hank's recovery in the hospital, with his family around him. After the doctor informs them that Hank need physical therapy, Marie is anxious for him to start as soon as possible to increase the possibility of him walking again. the problem is, she can't afford more than what her insurance provides, and she doesn't think that's enough.

Skyler confronts Walt and asks him if they're safe. Walt hesitates before answering "Yes.". Then Skyler softens and asks Walt if he would be safe. This time Walt answers "Absolutely.", but with no real conviction in his voice. As she walks away fron him, Walt stares into the mirror before making up his mind to find out if what he said to Skyler was true.

Meanwhile, Jesse, who works out that Gus is making $96 million from their meth but only paying them $3 million, gets annoyed that Walt doesn't seem to care about it. In fact, Walt's giving Gus more meth than he's supposed to. He meets up with Saul, who teaches him how to launder his profits from the drug deal (by owning a manicure/.massage parlour) , but being the idiot he is, Jesse refuses to listen. Instead, Jesse contacts Badger and Skinny P, suggesting that they start selling again. He gets both of them into his therapy group, where they help him promote the blue meth to the rest of their group members. Later, when Jesse weighs their weekly products, he deducts a little from the total amount, planning to sell it himself.

Walt arranges a meeting with Gus at his trailer home, and we find out how smart Walt actually is. He works out everything, from who was sent to kill Hank to why they did it and that Gus was the person who warned Hank before the hit took place. Gus' expression darkens until Walt finally asks about the circumstances after his three-month tenure. Gus smiles, offering $15 million to Walt, each year.

On his way back, Walt becomes reckless, increasing the speed of his car, and closes his eyes. His car swerves to the other side of the road, almost resulting in a collision with a truck, but Walt pulls out just in time to avoid death. His car rolls to the side of the road, where he stops for a moment before continuing his drive home.

There are many theories suggesting why Walt would suddenly do such a thing. Here are two of mine.

First theory : I think he's afraid of Gus sending people who're after him after his family instead, like to Hank. So for that particular moment, he figures that with him dead, his family will be safe because no one will be after him anymore. Skyler did ask if they were safe, and Walt hesitated before answering. He gave his true answer when he was driving alone recklessly. Walt wanted to sacrifice himself for his family's safety.

Second theory : Walt wants to get out of the business after his three months is complete, but he knows very well Gus won't let him. With the offer of $15mil, he sees how much Gus wants him and he knows it won't be easy getting out. So he thought the only way was to kill himself, to break's Gus's monopoly over him and his family.

 

There's a third theory, from some fellow fans on Facebook  It's that Walt wants God to help him decide the rest of his life because he obviously can't. He knows cooking meth is wrong but it's also something that enables him to showcase his real skills for the first time. Without the meth, he would return to his life as a lowly, unrespected, overqualified high school teacher. Therefore, in his car, Walt decides to leave the decision to fate.

All three make sense, when backed with their respective reasons. The first is entirely selfless, but the other two are not so. If he's still Walt, I think it would be the first, but now that he's also Heisenberg, it might be the other two.

Back at the hospital, Skyler finally decieds to use Walt's money to help Marie, who is at wit's end and thinking of going to the press for donations, like what Walter Jr. did. Skyler crafts an elaborate lie about how Walt creates a system of counting cards and won all the money at gambling dens and casinos all over the country. She does it s convincingly that Marie fell for it, and Walt watches in surprise at Skyler's lying capabilities. She tells him that she "learned from the best", him.

In the end, Skyler reveals her true feelings towards Walt. She blames him for what happened to Hank and wants him to right a small part of his wrongs by giving Marie the money he made form cooking meth. So, this episode made apparent that Skyler is still confused about Walt. On one hand, she loves him, as shown when she asks him if he would be safe, but on the other, she struck him mercilessly by blaming Hank's attack on him. So how does she feel, actually? Even when Ted turns up at her doorstep, she treats him coldly and refuses to let him tell Marie about their relationship. Her conflicting feelings will definitely lead somewhere, but we don't know where yet.

Jesse continues being an idiot, by thinking that he could cheat Walt and take some the meth to sell himself. If Gus finds out, Jesse will be in big trouble, but I seriously lost any sympathy for his character long ago. At his age, he should know how to be responsible for himself, but all he can think of is money. His greed will destroy him, soon.