After Ozymandias: Breaking Bad Heading For Terrifying End
Before last week’s episode of Breaking Bad, creator Vince Gilligan said that Ozymandias was his favorite episode of the series. Well, now we can see why.
[BE WARNED, SPOILERS LIE AHEAD]
Ozymandias, which gets its title from a Percy Bysshe Shelley poem about the fall of empires, brings Walter White to his lowest level of the series. He’s lost his family. He’s lost his home. He’s lost most of his money and right now he’s on a road trip with the fixer to a destination unknown.
But will Walt be back?
At the start of this season we saw a disheveled Walt buy an AR-15 on his 52nd birthday. We don’t know who those bullets are meant for yet but most fingers are pointing in the direction of Uncle Jack and his gang of white supremacists.
Uncle Jack killed Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank Schrader, stole Walt’s money, and is currently forcing Walt’s former partner to cook meth. At the moment, it looks like Walt is going to turn his back on the situation and head off on a long vacation into anonymity but we know that something is going to bring him back.
Theory #1: Uncle Jack kills Walt’s family.
Are you ready for Breaking Bad’s red wedding? Uncle Jack took Jesse hostage because Todd said that Pinkman may have some valuable information. Pinkman has been working with the DEA and Uncle Jack wants to know what the agency knows. Well, Hank kept the case closely guarded so there are only a few people who know Walter White’s secrets and most of those people are living at Walt’s house. Did Jesse tell the gang about the DVD? Will they head to the White residence to destroy any copies, as well as anybody who stands in their way?
Hearing that Skylar, Walt Jr., Baby Holly and Marie get murdered would definitely give Walt the motivation to seek revenge. The one thing that may put a bullet in this theory is that a few weeks passes between Ozymandias and the time Walt buys the gun. (He has a full head of hair again.)
Theory #2: Greed
Jesse Pinkman was able to lure Walter White into the desert because of his greed. Walt speeds to the secret location without a second thought because his money is in jeopardy and when he gets there he realizes that it’s all over. He’s been caught. How could it get any worse? Well, it can get a lot worse.
Walt was temporarily blinded by his greed but Breaking Bad fans know that Mr. White’s top priority has always been family. As Jack is about to pull the trigger and kill Hank, Walt pleads with him and offers to give Jack $80 million to spare Hank. Jack declines the offer, kills Hank, and then takes Walt’s money.
Is Walt really going to let Uncle Jack just take $70 million from him? Walt knows that he’s defeated at the moment but he isn’t going to let Jack get away with taking his hard earned cash. Especially since it cost him his family. Walter White is going to go have some eggs, buy a machine gun, and then come back and get what’s his.
Theory #3: Chivalry
Walter White and Jesse Pinkman have had their differences over the last five seasons but there’s a part of me that wants to see them ride off into the sunset together at the end of the series. That, of course, isn’t going to happen but it is possible that Walt’s guilt gets the best of him.
Walt gave Jesse to Uncle Jack. He told him that he watched Jane die. And he told Uncle Jack about Brock and Andrea. When Jesse was walking through the meth lab in chains he sees a picture of Brock pinned up to a post. Walt left Jesse for dead in Ozymandias but Pinkman’s story line is far from over.
We don’t know what happens after Ozymandias but we do know that the Breaking Bad empire is still in free fall. Walter White has lost his home, his family, his wife, his son, his partner, his money, his brother-in-law and he is currently on the run toward anonymity. Something is going to bring Walt back with a machine gun and a hankering for vengeance but we’ll have to wait until next week to find out what that something is.
Here’s a preview from next week’s episode.
