otfgoon wrote:
What makes you say that Klaus? Thought it was good but nothing that sets it apart.
(spoilers obviously for those who haven't seen the episode yet)
I think it returned to what got me hooked on the series in the first place: character development as opposed to plot advancement. I like where Jesse and Mike are going. I really like Mike's character. Jonathan Banks is one hell of an actor. The show benefits massively from the fact that he's gotten an increasingly bigger role.
Most of all I like that Walt is back experiencing a family relationship that keeps pushing him towards the edge though. Cooking meth has been the one thing that makes him feel like a man. At the beginning of the show it was his dark secret that threatened his family life. Now that it's out in the open and they're trying to incorporate it into their lives it's starting to destroy Walter instead. The way Skyler emasculated him in the last episode when they had the talk about Gale was superb, just like his reaction to her suggestion that he was just a poor henchman involved in something way above his head. Same thing happened later on at the car wash when he was advised about how to be a successful business man. You felt he really wanted to pull a gun on the guy.
The scene where Walter takes the first dollar the owner of the car wash ever earned and uses it to buy a coke from a vending machine was great too.
This season initially felt like they were rushing through important plot points, but the last two or three episodes have been excellent.
