Week 3 - blog post #1

                The events that occur in the Ozymandias episode of Breaking Bad mark a major turning point for Walter White and his family. In this episode, Hank (Walt’s brother-in-law) and his partner Gomez are killed in a shootout and its aftermath by Todd’s uncle and his gang. After relinquishing his money to the gang, Walt betrays Jesse’s hiding spot underneath the car and Todd suggests that they interrogate him to see what the DEA knows. Being extremely angry with Jesse for talking to his brother-in-law and leading him to his eventual death, Walt reveals that he was present when Jane Margolis was dying and did nothing to prevent it.

After a long journey home with just one of his buried barrels of money, Walt tries to get Skylar and Flynn to pack so they can get out of Albuquerque while they still can. Walter refuses to talk about what happened because he doesn’t wish to waste any more time, so Skylar assumes that he killed Hank in lieu of an explanation and refuses to go anywhere. The situation escalates with Skylar using a kitchen knife to defend herself and Flynn calling the police to report that Walt had attacked the two of them with a knife. Walt then leaves the house with Holly (his infant daughter) leaving Skylar and Flynn behind. When Walt calls his house a few hours later to speak with Skylar, he assumes (correctly) that the police are listening. He proceeds to yell at Skylar, saying that she never supported him in the meth business and that she didn’t understand that he was doing it for the family, which in effect, cleared her name and put full responsibility for the Heisenberg empire on Walt. The episode then ends with Walt leaving Holly in a fire station with Skylar’s contact information and calling Saul’s guy to get him a new identity.

                Through most of the episode, Walt’s actions lead me to believe that he is an anti-hero, especially when you look at his entire journey from when he first started cooking with Jesse. He allows his life to slowly spin out of control as he gets greedier and continues to expand his empire, culminating with his personal and professional lives colliding during the shootout in the desert. This leads to the eventual death of his brother-in-law, Hank and his partner Gomez. Walt then gets the large majority of his money stolen from him, and betrays Jesse, allowing him to be brutally interrogated by Todd. Walt then ultimately fails in his final “mission”, as his family refuses to accompany him to begin a new life. These events all draw allusions to the poem Ozymandias, by Percy Bysshe Shelley. In the poem, a traveler encounters a vast monument in pieces surrounded by vast deserts of nothing but sand. The inscription near the legs reads, “ My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Just like the king’s statue laid destroyed among the ruins of his once prominent empire, Walter White sees the fabric of his own empire become unwoven in front of his eyes, as his once-partner betrays him to the authorities and he loses his family.  

                Despite all of this, when Walt yells at Skylar over the phone and implicates himself as the sole individual responsible for the Heisenberg empire, he redeems himself somewhat and becomes a tragic hero, in a way. Obviously Walt has done some very evil things over the past five seasons (murder, for one). However, by taking full responsibility for everything, he gives his wife and kids a chance at a new life – even if he is eventually caught and does not have one himself. Even though he couldn’t support them financially with his earnings in the end, Walt allows his family to have a fresh start, in a way.