‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Dead Freight’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One particular aspect of the iconic series, Breaking Bad, that is utterly fascinating, is the purity that Walter White and Jesse Pinkman tried to exhibit over the course of the series. Which is a statement that might raise eyebrows since these men are meth dealers that have killed in the name of money and the business, but let’s ponder on this further for a second. Because this duo always made a point, of keeping the ugly stuff within the realm of the ugly world they work within. For they were mostly against innocents being harmed, save for the tough call made in the season four finale to put them at risk, and they did their best to put down people they thought were truly immoral. Making them patron saints of the meth scene of sorts and that’s important to note today… because after years of pushing to keep their business noble, everything changed for these two men in a blink of an eye.

For ‘Dead Freight’ featured a horrifying moment, one that shattered that purity and will forever change the course of how they do business and what’s devastating, is that such a twist came about… out of nobility. For when we catch up with Walter in this tale, he was doing everything within his power to quietly restart his business in a manner that would keep him one step ahead of his brother. Even going so far as to visit Hank in his new digs to plant listening devices and internet monitoring devices and well… that paid off in spades. Because the truth about whether or not Lydia planted the trackers on the barrels needed to be revealed, and the listening device helped to prove she was as innocent as she claimed, saving Lydia’s life and giving her a chance to redeem herself when it came to her failure to get the crew methylamine. 

Granted, her attempt at redemption was not without its reservations. Since she figured out a place where the trio could in fact, just steal all the methylamine they needed by pulling it from the source, a train car filled to the brim with it. Which likely meant people would have to die in the process, violating the code that Walter and Jesse put in place regarding innocents. But some quick thinking on Jesse’s part once again, posed the possibility that this heist could go off without a hitch and with no lives lost… provided some stealth came into play. Which in turn, motivated the crew to scout the location early, so they could figure out how to bury tubs beneath the sand and a compressor, that would help them drain what they needed and refill the tank with water so no one would be the wiser that they were robbed and well… on the day of the heist, this plan appeared to work no problem.

For a distraction on the road, stopped the train dead in its tracks and while the engineers worked to remove said distraction, a ‘broken down’ dump truck, the heist was on. And with Todd’s help, they were getting what they needed. The only issue that came up, was a good Samaritan who moved the truck off the road and offered the driver a ride into town to make a call for repair. Making it a race against time to pull the last of the methylamine out of the container. But they managed to pull it off and just like that, their luck held, the cold held, and business was about to get back underway. That is until… the unfortunate moment we made mention of a little bit ago came into play. For in the closing moments of this tale, a young kid who was dirt biking about, saw what happened and rather than just let the kid walk or talk to him about keeping quiet… Todd decided to handle this a different way.

In that, he pulled out a gun and blasted the kid on the spot, stunning both Jesse and Walter and thus, breaking the code and changing everything. For now, the group has been party to the murder of an innocent, a child no less. But while we wait to see exactly what comes out of such a shocking move on Todd's part, we can in fact, relish in the wonder of an incredible tale. Because this one really appeared to be on track to just show us the genesis of the Heisenberg Empire and just like that… it surprised us and took us into a dark place we never expected this story to go and truly, it will be fascinating to see what kind of heat comes out of this disaster. Because the death of a child is no small thing, and it may bring the Empire down before it even had the chance to begin and thrive. Until next time.  

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