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Breaking Bad: Season 5 Premiere

By Jim Rohner · July 18, 2012

"Pride cometh before the fall."

After Walt (Bryan Cranston) usurped Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) so dramatically last season, there's no doubt that the man who declared "I AM the danger" will now have no roadblocks on the way to unadulterated hubris.  But while Breaking Bad season five will undoubtedly follow Walt's ascent to the top, the intro of "Live Free or Die" implies that it'll come accompanied by foreboding.

Walt, looking more homeless than usual with a full head of hair and facial hair, sits alone at a Denny's counter on his 52nd birthday. Handing the waitress a New Hampshire driver's license identifying him as Mr. Lambert, he excuses himself to the bathroom where an exchange of money and brief dialogue with a salt of the earth gentleman (Jim Beaver) takes place in which Walt finds himself the owner of a set of car keys. Stifling a cough, Walt pops a pill, leaves a $100 tip for his waitress and exits Denny’s, where he finds the new car and the object of Walt's purchase: a machine gun. How the hell could the man who so remorselessly and mathematically eliminated his only remaining competition have devolved to the point of a disheveled man making shady arms deals in a Denny’s bathroom? Similarly to what we saw with the pink teddy bear in season two, I'm sure the answer will unfold slowly and unpleasantly. 

But first, flashback to the pride. 

In the aftermath of Fring's (literally) explosive death, Walt returns home to clean up the evidence: chemicals, wiring, electrical tape and, of course, the Lily of the Valley.  Settling down for a drink, he greets Skyler (Anna Gunn) and Walt Jr. (RJ Mitte) as they return home from protective exile at Hank's (Dean Norris). "Did you hear about Mr. Fring?" Walt Jr. asks. "He knows," Skyler responds heavily. Having to play dumb, it's fascinating to see the internalizations on Walt's face as his son relays to his seemingly oblivious father about how Gus had apparently been some kind of huge drug dealer, how Hank had been sniffing around for a while, and how he'll subsequently be declared a hero. Will Walt's pride, either deliberately or inadvertently, allow for another man to receive the credit for his actions? 

His private conversation with Skyler doesn't play out much better. "I am relieved," she responds after his questioning her feelings on his survival. "And scared." 

"Scared of what?"

"Of you."

The dialogue is a bit too on the nose and Anna Gunn doesn't play fear nearly as well as she plays indignation or concern, but it does set up a humorous little moment in which Walt toasts to himself in the bedroom mirror. 

And now, the fall. Specifically, security cameras. Gus, much to the chagrin of Walt, kept security cameras trained on everyone. It's the realization of this that sparks the congregation of Walt, Jesse (Aaron Paul), and Mike (Jonathan Banks)—a rather terse and unpleasant reunion that takes place in the middle of the desert shortly after Mike is informed of his former employer's fate. Take a moment to reflect on this efficient scene and you'll realize two very significant actions that'll carry the tension of this season: Jesse jumping in the way of Mike pointing his gun at Walt and Mike giving pause because of it. 

Fring's laptop is seized before the cooks and the crook can get to it and two plans are devised: Mike thinks it best to get the hell out of Dodge while Walt proposes introducing a "device" into the police station. The resulting argument is a bit too self-aware for a Breaking Bad episode, with its far too convenient framing and less than eloquent back-and-forth taking the focus off of Jesse, who we all know is going to precociously suggest the winning alternative. 

That alternative? A magnet. A magnet so huge that it'll be able to destroy the laptop from outside the police department's evidence room.  The kind of magnet you find on a crane in Old Joe’s (Larry Hankin) junkyard. Strap 21 car batteries to a giant magnet, toss that baby in the back of a box truck and the boys have got themselves a plan. While the argument trying to devise the plan may not have been the show's finest hour, the banter before the experiment is indicative of the show's finer moments (Miller Time. Anyone?).  Also, "YEEAAH, bitch!! Magnets!"

Parked in the box truck outside the walls of the APD evidence room, Walt flips on the magnet and slowly, but surely, it takes effect. With one arrogant twist to full power, everything metallic in the evidence room goes flying and the truck tips over. Despite the hasty actions of the APD, the truck is empty by the time they get outside and Walt, Jesse, and Mike are on their way to safety. 

Walt assures the skeptical Mike that there was no traceable evidence left behind and the magnet was strong enough to have accomplished its goal. 

"And I'm supposed to take that on faith?  Huh?  Why?  How do we know?"

"Because I say so."

And with that comment, the Walter White we used to know is gone. In the past, Walt has always exuded confidence, but there was always a filter, always the indication that something, be it recognition of a higher authority or the last remnants of a moral obligation, giving him pause and leaving us to believe there was something stronger and more sinister beneath the surface.  That…something has now burst through the surface apprehension and manifested itself into a man who is thoroughly convinced that his word is THE word. 

Pride cometh…

It's not just the comment alone, but the inflection in his voice—that upward-ending tone that implies open endedness and superiority—that makes it chilling. It’s an iciness that is matched only by the episode's closing comment —a sanitary embrace between a husband and wife, capped off with an unsolicited and likely unwanted "I forgive you" from the former to the latter after he's learned about the $622,000 of his money that was spent on keeping quiet the man who had slept with his wife. 

But what about that routing number? You know, the one that the police found behind Fring's picture frame after video footage was destroyed? What about the purchase of a machine gun in a Denny's parking lot?

…before the fall.