‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Say My Name’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

We like to believe that when our world is falling down around us, that our luck has run out or that perhaps we crossed a line from a karma perspective and we are now paying the piper for our sour actions and well, it makes sense as to why we think this way. Because it helps us to rationalize and deal with a truth that we simply don’t want to face. In that, everything came crashing down because of poor choices that we made. The kind that we either shouldn’t have made in the first place or should have given greater care to. But we made them, and we thought so little of them and their fragility that we simply let it be without a care in the world. That is until the foundation of that choice crumbled and put us in the tough situation we never ever wanted to be surrounded by.
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If anything, this unfortunate life lesson is top of mind today, because it was one that Mike Ehrmantraut was forced to learn in the next episode of Breaking Bad. But before he was forced to ponder upon its teachings in ‘Say My Name’, Mike made more unfortunate choices that further destabilized the foundation of his life. For shortly after Heisenberg closed a deal to get Mike his money, Mike went all out in getting out of the business. Even going so far as to purge every last shred of evidence that could ever tie him to the business. All because he knew that the DEA would try and prove his involvement in the Fring Drug Empire and when they couldn’t… Mike simply assumed he would be free and clear of any trouble going forward.

In fact, he was so secure in that possibility, that he had his lawyer lackey, Dan, resume payments to the nine guys still on the payroll. Payments that were small enough that no suspicion would ever be raised. Making it really appear as though Mike had planned for everything in this instance and well, that’s when the foundation of his world began to crumble. Because Mike didn’t plan for a DEA Agent that felt their pride was bruised over being stonewalled to push harder, nor did he account for the weakness of his lawyer and that brought about pure disaster. For Hank had Agent Gomez trail good ol’ Dan and once he was caught in the act, the prospect of going to jail for a long time… motivated him to sing like a bird and just like that, Mike was no longer an innocent everyday citizen. He was a wanted man and, on the run, and he was so afraid of being caught, he actually left his granddaughter behind at the park. 

Now... that alone should have been enough to hammer home the theme of this story, since Mike’s assumptions about his crew were woefully incorrect, and his lack of careful planning regarding a worse case scenario backfired, but there was one more domino waiting to fall. One named Walter White. For he knew that without the payments coming in, the old crew would sing and that motivated him to confront Mike before he left town, to get the names of the crew… so they could be dealt with and well, that brought forth one last assumption/mistake from Mike. For he was so done with this mess and so believed that Walter would never cross the ultimate line with him, that he let his guard down, and a took bullet a from Heisenberg for disobeying. Bringing about the end of Mike’s journey and leaving Walter with incredible regret.

For Lydia also knew the names… and he could have easily retrieved them from her. But the bad blood between these two men and a need to be on top, led to an unfortunate end. One that could have been avoided with cooler heads and better care on Mike’s part to have contingencies in place. But alas, a touch of invincibility and neglect in his mind brought his world crashing down and it ended his life and most important of all… it informed the audience that this story is only going to get uglier from here. For there is no coming back from this kind of act and this level of ruthlessness, regardless of how much regret that was expressed, and now that Heisenberg is unleashed… darkness and sorrow await. Until next time.  

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Mike Ehrmantraut in his final moments.