‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Más’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

For the most part, crime dramas follow a very tight formula and structure. One that sees the tension and the stakes raise at a brisk pace so that the audience is engaged in the downfall of the villain and while that is indeed a powerful way to tell a story about the nature of crime, it does get a little stale from time to time. Which is why stories that buck that cliché are worth celebrating regardless of their age, simply because they chose to try something different and that’s precisely why Breaking Bad still deserves our praise. Because every single episode series of this series did its best to offer something new in regard to the crime drama and the next episode in this grand tragedy is no exception to that unspoken rule. Because ‘Más’ is a story that should have been filled with tension and gravity and dread since we all knew it would end with Walter White returning to his role as Heisenberg.

But instead, this was a story filled to the brim with heartbreaking and emotional moments. The kind that focused heavily upon how difficult it is to see important partnerships fall to pieces, especially when we firmly believed that said partner was going to see a particular project or concept to the bitter or wonderful end. And it accomplished these explorations by having a bevy of partnerships in this series fall to pieces in the ugliest manner possible, such Hank and Gomey’s. Because with Hank opting to stick around to solve the Heisenberg case, Gomey felt the time had come to take an opportunity for advancement in El Paso. Which is a move that quite frankly, rattled Hank badly. Because Gomey has always been his sounding board and losing that, left him, in a lost and vulnerable place. One that outright showed once again how small Hank can become when he’s not surrounded by his safety net and this also showed us how much he was hurt by the fact that his best bud did this without talking to him first. 

Which oddly enough, brought about a secondary theme to this particular tale. Specifically how poor communication can also create the dissolution of partnerships. For the lack of communication between Gomey and Hank is partly what led to their unspoken rift at the end of their respective journeys in this tale, for had they spoken to one another about it… perhaps things would have gone smoother and they weren’t the only ones that saw a lack of locution lead to trouble. Because this is a story that saw Skyler and Walter’s partnership as husband and wife come to an end. Something that has been telegraphed for some time, but the reality of it hit Skyler harder than expected. Mainly because Marie pointed out that Skyler more or less shut herself off from Walt and his emotions. Forcing him to deal with this brush with death and the changes in perspective that sent his way... alone, and that was quite the poignant moment to throw out there, since Marie is right. There has been zero communication between Walter and Marie and the end result is a dissolution of marriage. 

But truly, Walt and Jesse's parting of the ways was the most difficult one to watch in this tale. Because they finally reached an understanding in season two. In that, they worked well together and could indeed accomplish anything they put their minds to, and they genuinely became great friends that seemed committed to see this business through to the end. But Walt's decision to waffle again and leave Jesse holding the bag and Jesse's decision to strike out on his own, ended up offending and hurting both men to their core and that of course, motivated them to strike out at one another whenever possible. Which is partly why Walt got back into the business, to teach Jesse a lesson and to remind him of his place and of the opportunity ahead of him if he walked away now and didn’t follow in Walt’s footsteps. Making the end of this partnership perhaps more akin to tough love than anything else. A lesson it would seem Jesse hasn’t quite taken to heart just yet.

In the end however, this really was quite the engrossing and fascinating story. One that truly allowed for the characters to process the journey thus far and to a lesser extent what lies ahead, and this really was brilliant for certain. Because you just don’t see crime dramas offer this kind of depth when it comes to their characters. Nor do they offer up this kind of realism since a lot of what happened here has real world application since we’ve been in positions similar to what some of the characters went through here and all of these elements truly reinforce the fact that it is the characters that sell this story through and through. Because we care about their experiences and their successes and failures and there is still part of us that wants to see Walt walk away and live a normal life and well, sadly that is no longer possible. For he genuinely wants to leave this earth with his family set up for generations and with that incredible new lab awaiting him, he should be able to bring his wishes to fruition, no problem. Regardless of the consequences. Until next time.  

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