AMC’s Breaking Bad
Season 2, Episode 10: “Over”
Directed by Phil Abraham
Written by Moira Walley-Beckett

* For a review of the previous episode, “4 Days Out” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Mandala” – click here

Again, the foreboding pink teddy bear missing an eye floats in the pool. This time around, again in black-and-white aside from Mr. Ted, we start to understand more of what’s going on. Some kind of catastrophic event has occurred. Someone in a Hazmat suit. The baggies labelled, collected near the pool. Out on the street there are cracked windshields – in fact, it is the White family vehicle. Right in front of their house, something terrible has gone down.
And out front? Two bodies. Shit.
The anticipation is killing me, even if I’ve seen this series a couple times over.

Walter White (Bryan Cranston) is gradually having to come to terms with the fact he will likely live, instead of succumbing to lung cancer. Everybody around him is overjoyed, yet it’s not so easy to turn around from the brink of death that way. Nevertheless, Skyler (Anna Gunn) and Junior (RJ Mitte) feel like having a party on the weekend. In celebration of Walt’s new found lease on life. “You‘ve got a lot to celebrate, don‘t you think?” Skyler quips. She puts her husband on bed rest then leaves him be for the day. He won’t have to have his soul crushed teaching high school today!
Instead he goes to meet Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) at a little restaurant out of the way. They chat about life and how things are looking up for Mr. White. For his part, Walter says he’s out of the business. So it seems.
Over at Casa chez White, everybody is partying. Lots of margaritas, finger foods, Walt sort of sulking to himself and giving an awkward speech for everyone. Still, everybody has a great time. But what starts to come out is Walt consistently feeling as if he’s not the man, that he isn’t taking care of his own business, on his own terms. When he truly is getting things done, just illegally. Skyler mentions Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz being the benefactors of his treatment, and this just bites at poor Walt. Though I shouldn’t say poor Walt. Because later on, as he and Hank (Dean Norris) sit talking, drinking, he ends up going a little too far and getting Junior drunk off his ass on tequila. This winds up with the kid puking into the family pool. Not a nice scene at a party. Also, it brings out a primitive caveman battle of wits between Hank and Walt after the former is talking all about the cartel shit with Tortuga, talking tough as he does. It’s the fact Hank tries to take over fatherly duties that irks Walt and prompts him to act like a downright savage beast. Nobody’s impressed to say the least.

Jesse tries to make huevos rancheros for Jane (Krysten Ritter) in the morning like a sweetheart. It isn’t the greatest, but he really tried. They plan on spending the whole day together. Y’know, because he has a day of from being a meth cook and distributor.
Meanwhile, Walt has one hell of a headache and hangover. As well as the fact he made a complete asshole of himself in front of everyone at his house, and pissed off his wife hugely. Saddest is that Junior feels as if he had to keep up with his father. That makes Walt feel low, like it should. He did a shitty thing. Personally, I’m an alcoholic – recovering, sober now almost 6 years as of this writing – and I’ve never once let being drunk excuse my shit behaviour. So Walt deserves to feel terribly after treating his son as some sort of macho bargaining chip in a war with his brother-in-law. Petty.
So what he does to go about changing the situation, as well as to help himself feel like a man, is try to fix the hot water tank in his house. Plus the infesting rot he’s so concerned with apparently. At the store a poignant moment happens: Walt is paying in cash, obviously, and finds one of his bills with a bloody fingerprint on it. Classy, Walt. All class.

Jane and Jesse get much closer now, as she looks through his drawings. He used to do some serious doodling. Superheroes and such, like KangaMan, Rewindo, and other awesome creations. Too bad he never kept drawing. Could’ve had a career in comics, instead of being a meth dealer, and drug addict. Out of nowhere, Jane hears a knock at her door. It is in fact her father, owner of the property, Donald Margolis (John de Lancie). Jesse is taken aback when she acts professionally with him instead of like a boyfriend in front of her dad. He feels incredibly slighted actually. Later, she comes back and he isn’t thrilled that she acts like it was nothing. She totally disregards his feelings, so Jesse leaves.

Jesse: “I‘m talking about us”
Jane: “Us?”
Jesse: “Yeah. You and me.”
Jane: “Who‘s you and me?”

Walt is driving everybody a little nuts with his renovations. Mostly Skyler, whose unimpressed demeanour with his drunken performance doesn’t seem to be washing off too quick. Anyways, Walt has rot to deal with – “fruiting bodies” and rampaging fungus. He’s really just projecting onto the house. Trying to find something to make him feel useful again after getting out of the meth business. Now that he’s not cooking, all that time is filled with dead air. Space he can’t handle.
The first inkling of trouble with Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins) comes when Skyler starts asking about a particular account. However, he brushes it off. Then she starts crying, bringing her personal life right into the office for Ted to see. This is definitely not good. For anybody. Bringing Ted in closer won’t help his massive, obvious crush on her. Doesn’t help that she later starts to egg it on purposefully by knocking things over for him to pick up and so on.
Rejected, Jesse crawls back into the pipe. He sits in his living room and smokes meth trying to forget about the pain he’s experiencing. I feel terribly for Jesse, out of all the characters in the show. He was never a great dude, but the life he’s led into now through business with Walt is excruciating. But Jane apologizes at least, via drawing. So that’s something in his dismal existence.

My favourite sequence in any episode of this series comes at the end here. Walt goes out late to a hardware shop. There he notices someone picking up… familiar supplies. He tries giving the young tweaker advice, but the dude runs off. Then Walt, new found bad ass, takes it into his hands to warn a man outside waiting for the tweaker: “Stay out of my territory.” It is one of the single most powerful moments of the entire series. He says fuck the renovations. Now, he’s back in Heisenberg business. When he says those words to the man, an obviously bigger and scarier guy, we finally see the dangerous confidence inside Walt clear as day. Never before is it more plain and palpable. Gives me goosebumps each time I see it. Just amazing, chilling, heavy at once. Add to that a great song called “DLZ” by TV on the Radio, a fantastic group of musicians; it has the perfect feel for this specific moment and those lines.

This episode builds up so much. The next one is titled “Mandala” and gets things energized even more heading towards the end of Season 2.