Breaking Bad Review/Recap- “Confessions”

Chandler Kilgore-Parshall ’16/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
Explosive. Just explosive. Breaking Bad’s latest episode has propelled the show into a new and volatile level. It was callous, emotional and violent, and I loved all of it. “Confessions” surpassed the past two episodes in quality so far, as it progressed both the story and character development.
Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) remains in the confinements of an interrogation room, with Hank (Dean Norris) trying to pry information on Walt. The young Jesse believes that talking to the law is snitching. And being a snitch is worse than death itself. However, Jesse’s faith has wavered but just can’t bring himself to reveal the truth. Meanwhile, Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) bail Jesse out but they plan to make Jesse disappear… by giving him an exit strategy. Offering a new identity and life, Walt tries to push his young protégé away and get another obstacle out of his path. And Jesse’s tired of his manipulation and tries to cut his strings from the puppet master. After all of their time together; as student and teacher, as equals; this bittersweet farewell showed so much emotion between Walt and Jesse. But was this tearful goodbye authentic?

Jesse’s feelings come to a boiling point in the last ten minutes when he discovers that his former teacher betrayed him in a big way. Last season, Walt poisoned young Brock, who’s basically like a son to Jesse, to set up Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) for it and convince Jesse to kill the former drug kingpin. But he realizes that it was Walt. After beating up Saul who knew all along, Jesse breaks into the White home with begins to douse the house with gasoline. Sounds like someone is on the warpath now. All of Walt’s devious deeds are coming back to haunt him now. He’s basically fighting against two unpredictable fronts: his brother-in-law and his old student.
On a side note, we got our first piece to the puzzle in discovering how the future flash-forward scenes happened. In episode nine, Walt’s house looked like crap and in no living condition for anybody. So did Jesse set the house ablaze? And what action will Walt take against Jesse?

And finally, the Walt-Hank chess match continues to heat up. Hank and Marie continue their attempts at taking Walt and Skyler’s children away from them. However, good ol’ Walter White corners his brother-in-law with an ingenious “confession tape,” that basically incriminates Hank as the drug lord, placing the DEA agent under suspicion. Basically it’s a threat that if Hank doesn’t back off, Walt will unleash his wrath upon him. From the confrontation in the garage (Episode 9) to the awkward dinner at the Spanish restaurant, Walt and Hank have been at each other’s throats and now the stakes have gotten even higher for both of them.
Bryan Cranston did a tremendous job acting as this patsy who was manipulated, threatened and abused.  Despite the past five years that we’ve watched Walt descend into a sociopathic criminal, the acting on the confession video almost made you believe his fictitious alibi. Someone give him an Emmy already! Also, the directing and editing of that one scene was exceptional.  It didn’t focused merely on the “confession,” but its close-ups on Walt’s eyes and mouth, allowed us to be in Hank’s shoes as he tries to find facial quirk or eye twitch that gives Walt away. One of the episode’s best moments that was completely jarring and came out of left field.

“Confessions” is the epitome of Breaking Bad. From the sharp writing, acting, the build-ups and red herrings, the show is accelerating to the finish line. We’re almost at the season’s halfway point and everything’s getting more exhilarating and treacherous. We’re not only getting a full picture to the ongoing plot in the present, but also things are becoming clearer in how Walt’s future became grimmer and desolate. Five episodes left and we at Emtertainment Monthly are dying to see what happens net.