
How can you describe an episode like Ozymandias? It is one of the most complete and masterful episodes in TV history.

First, I want to talk about the episode title. Ozymandias is a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley which recounts the crumbling legacy of a king, a once proud king. This is  a parallel to Walt this episode, his pride, his ego has lead to this. In the first 10 minutes of this episode, we literally see him crying on the ground, certainly not a symbol of pride or king-like behaviour. It is a really good way of showing how power changes, it’s never eternal or absolute, it’s not a guarantee to anyone and can disappear at any time.

The opening of this episode is genuinely perfect. Starting with the pre intro scene, we see Walt and Jesse cooking in the desert for the first time. Walt then goes on to lie to Skyler for the first time about where he is, pretending he’s working at the car wash. This fits so well since this is the last we’ll ever see of Walt and Jesse on good terms. It’s a reminder of how power changes a person, the damage it causes. After this, we never see Walt and Jesse happy together, especially after Walt getting Jesse kidnapped by Jack’s gang. The script of the episode shows this best.

“This is not an apology — not even close — this is the consummate “fuck you”. These are Walt’s final words to Jesse and they cut deeper than any knife.”

Walt lying to Skyler for the first time also fits thematically since the whole of Ozymandias is the consequences of his actions. After everything he’s done, after trying so hard to “protect his family”, it’s all culminated into this, the death of his Brother in Law and the creation of an unrepairable rift in the family, it’s all over. These years of lies and deceit lead to this, the beginning of the end.

Moving on to after the intro, we instantly get some heartbreaking clarification. Steve Gomez is dead, lay on the desert ground, lifeless, the first life taken in this episode. We also see Hanks crawling for Gomez’s gun, but it’s not enough. Jack stops him from reaching it, and it’s at this point you truly realise the gravity of the situation. They are in the middle of the desert surrounded by a ruthless gang. Jack takes Hank’s badges, reads that he is part of the DEA, and is about to shoot him, until Walt screams out for Jack to stop.

It’s at this point that Walt truly takes in at least some of the reality he is facing. He begs for Hank’s life, saying that the DEA isn’t coming. Hank says otherwise. He knows that they aren’t, but he can’t stand to side with Walt. After all that he’s done, after the years he spent hiding it all from everyone, Hank can’t allow himself to side with him. He can tell that Walt wants him to live, but he knows that he won’t. Hank knows there isn’t a universe in which he makes it out alive, and begins to accept his fate, contrasting to Walt. 

Walt even goes as far to tell Jack about the $80 million buried in the desert. This is so uncharacteristic to Heisenberg, but not to Walt. Walter White was a good man, he was a humble high school chemistry teacher, he was a good father, but now he has changed. His new alias, Heisenberg really exemplifies this. It references a German physicist called Werner Heisenberg, known for his uncertainty principle. This is once again a parallel to Walt. The principle, as simply as possible, states that the position and momentum of an object cannot be measured simultaneously. When one property is known, others will still remain uncertain. Walt embodies this, as he found momentum in being a drug lord, his family life and roles were left uncertain. Another parallel between him and Werner Heisenberg is their immorality. Heisenberg has links to WW2 Germany and research by the axis powers, it’s this dark cloud, a stain on his legacy. The same can be said for Walt, Heisenberg representing his dark side, he changes when he becomes him, any clear morals have vanished. By this point in the series, this line between Walt and Heisenberg has completely been disintegrated, they are one and the same.
That’s why it is so shocking to see Walt like this, we see this glimpse of the early Walt, a man who cared for his family, while still making sure that we can’t feel sorry for him. This is his fault.

Walt is oblivious to the truth in this scene. Unlike Hank, Walt hasn’t understand that there is no saving Hank, and that his pleading is worthless. 

“You’re the smartest guy I ever met, and you’re too stupid to see. He made up his mind 10 minutes ago.”

With that, Jack kills Hank, without any dignity, not even allowing him to get his last words out. We get a wide shot of the desert before seeing Walt fall to his knees and then flat onto the ground.

This scene is so symbolic. The way he falls into the sand is once again inspired from Ozymandias, in which the statue of Ozymandias collapses, unable to be immortalised, unable to withstand the influence and power of time. Walt’s legacy is tarnished and now he is nothing, a husk of a man, laying in the sand, eyes full of tears.

After this, Jack and his gang use Kenny’s phone to locate the $80 million using the GPS. During all this, Walt is still laying silent and still in the dirt. He is unable to comprehend what is happening, all this work he’s done, all the money he’s made, is being torn away from him. After a round of celebration, Jack gives Walt one of the barrels, asking for Walt to agree that there is no hard feelings between them.

In an absolutely harrowing moment, Walt points out that Jack still owes him Jesse, who hasn’t been seen since the beginning of the shooting. Walt then proceeds to rat out Jesse, who is revealed to be hiding under Walt’s car. He is dragged out into the blinding desert sun, crying, about to die. He nods for Jack to kill Jesse, he is a man consumed by corruption and greed, manipulated by power, who has now decided himself as judge, jury and executioner. However, this is stopped by Todd, who points out that they don’t know what Jesse told the DEA, and that they should take him to the compound to torture the information out of him.
Walt accepts this outcome, his motive being very clear in the script.

“Walt gets it — understands that Jesse is being sentenced to die slowly after he’s been tortured to extract information. He nods — fine by him.”

We see his ruthlessness in this scene, and the horrible path he’s gone down. At the start of the show and in the early seasons, Walt would NEVER do this. At this point, Walt has become a puppet, controlled by his hunger for power, his extreme arrogance and his insatiable greed. He blames Jesse for it all, believing he deserves this horrific outcome. He is stone cold, going as far to admitting how he watched Jane die. Walt knows that Jesse doesn’t know this yet, but he doesn’t care. He wants for Jesse to suffer, it’s an extremely complex dynamic between two flawed individuals. 

Walt drives away with his barrel of money. He has still not come to terms with reality, shown in the script by saying how he is lost in his thoughts. His car then runs out of gas, due to the shootout prior in the episode. He rolls his barrel through the desert, one of the only things he has left, his last chance to escape from it all. As he makes his way through the desert, we see a pair of pants in the breeze. In an incredible Easter egg, it’s clear that they are Walt’s pants from the pilot episode. This once again shows how he has changed, this is the last thing he wore before it would all begin to change. It fits perfectly to happen right after Hank’s death, Walt has changed and this is just a reminder of what he used to be, it will never be the same. After this, Walt finds a small reservation and buys a man’s pickup truck to get out the desert, offering the man cash for it.

After an absolutely devastating sequence, we cut to the car wash. Marie arrives and asks to speak to Skyler in her office, telling  her that Hank had Walt in custody and is processing him with Gomez. For the viewers, this scene is just as painful since we can see hope in Marie, she thinks it will be all over soon. But it won’t. Walt’s legacy won’t be good, no matter what he does, whether he escapes or dies, a reminder of him will always be there. It’ll ruin the family, and how anyone views them. Skyler will be viewed as a potential criminal, someone who hid her husband’s crimes and Hank (if he had lived) would have more than likely been fired, having allowed his primary target to slip under the radar, right under his nose for so many years. Marie says that she and Hank will help her, under the condition that she destroy all the “confession” tapes that they made, and to tell Walter Jr everything. This will ultimately be the downfall of the family, in which Walter Jr will never forgive his mom or dad for their actions, a child without anyone good to look up to. 

In another frankly disturbing scene, we see Jesse in a holding cell. He is hurt, injured, a fragment of what he used to be. Todd brings him to the lab, where he is locked to a ceiling tether. Jesse is a lab rat, forced to cook, without freedom, a slave to a gang of murderers. He sees a picture of Brock and Andrea hung up. At this point, we can see how Walt’s actions have lead to consequences not only for him and his family, but for everyone. Andrea is now in danger, and this is after Walt was directly responsible for the death of over 100 people in a plane crash, his reach stretching far, causing carnage.

After this, we return to the car wash, where Walter Jr is informed of everything his father has done. Marie and Skyler try to make him accept it, but he can’t, saying that if it’s true, it means Skyler has been lying to him. It’s devestating for him to watch this world crumble around him, the man he admired and loved so much is now  being shown to him in a completely different light. He can’t believe it. He is inconsolable.

This review is in 2 parts, I’ve reached the character limit. Part 2later

Specials

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