‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Buyout’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Over the course of the past couple of years, our journey through the grand tragedy that is Breaking Bad has taught us a great deal about what motivates people to take part in dark acts. For instance, we’ve come to learn that when a good person is out of options and desperate to escape a certain situation… they’ll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Which includes committing crimes as Walter did, in his moment of true darkness and despair. Not to mention, that when riches untold are involved, people will continue down that ugly path to enjoy the financial security they’ve always wanted. But what the show hasn’t done yet… is show us an important moment that we’ve all been patiently and eagerly awaiting since we met Walter White in the ‘Pilot’ episode.

In that, we’ve yet to see the EXACT moment that Walter leaves behind his humanity to truly become the Drug Kingpin that is Heisenberg. Sure, he’s flirted with it, and done some horrible things in the process and made some hard decisions to lead him toward that final transformation. But he’s continued to try and keep his family around him in a manner that provides normalcy. Speaking to a man not yet ready to commit to pure evil. But after five seasons of toying around with Heisenberg's origin story, the next episode completed that all-important journey and allowed for us to bear witness to the death of Walter White and the birth of Heisenberg, and ‘Buyout’ accomplished that particular feat, through the worst possible way to allow for a villain to be born… through ego and apathy.

For shortly after that poor kid from the desert was placed in a tub and melted down to hide evidence, and after the trio decided to let Todd live, to keep suspicion down, Jesse was privy to a horrifying moment. Wherein a news report on that missing kid, had zero impact upon Walter emotionally. In fact, he was so unaffected by the way emotion overtook Jesse and the weight of what happened, that he actually whistled while he worked. Making it clear that in that moment, it was over. Walter was gone and all that remained was a ruthless drug kingpin that was drunk with power over defeating his arch enemy and well… that response and the reality that this was heading into territory they weren’t comfortable with, motivated Jesse and Mike to decide to walk away from the business and get what they could right now. All by offering up the methylamine to a competitor, so they could all be filthy rich and walk away with consciences mostly intact.

But taking the time to pass that offer along to Walt, turned out to be nothing more than a waste of time. For Walt revealed to Jesse and to us, that he was done with being marginalized and viewed as a failure or an everyman. This was his chance to be somebody, to be whole again and there was nothing that would stop him. Not kind words, not his wife and not Mike for that matter either. Since Mister Ehrmantraut tied Walter to a radiator, when Walter did his best to sour the deal by taking the methylamine, and that also proved to be a fruitless endeavor. Since Walter was able to science his way out of it and hide the goods… leading to a tense showdown between Mike and the newly formed Heisenberg. One where Heisenberg offered up a counteroffer to the deal.

Which is a hell of a cliffhanger to end this episode upon, one that delivered one of the biggest and most sobering moments in the series. Because that was a hell of an origin story for a villain. One that rivals even the greats of the comic book world and the legends of noir. Courtesy of the fact that there was no pomp and circumstance or gimmicks surrounding the moment. Just the chilling realization that Walter was gone, and that only Heisenberg remained… and now that the transformation is complete, the real pain of the tragedy can get underway. For a man that only cares about the money and the business and his pride, will stop at nothing to maintain those things and woe to those that attempt to challenge him and his quest to be made whole at last. Until next time.

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