Review: Breaking Bad: Season 5, Episode 9 - Blood Money

Spoilers Spoilers Spoilers!

Hello Walter...

He’s back! It’s back! Everyone can rejoice over the return of Breaking Bad. With a brand new episode entitled Blood Money, we return right where Vince Gilligan and co left off. Easing any fears of dilapidating quality, it’s a return oozing with enigma, intensity and sheer finesse. 

Synoptically speaking the episode begins with a rather scruffy looking Walter White, a Walt from the future who first appeared on our screens in the opening of season five quite some time ago. He doesn't look his best it must be said, and given his neighbors reaction at the sight of him, there is an implication that something terrible must have happened. This enigmatic notion is further emphasised as Walt wonders around his old house. Vandalised, derelict and now serving as a skate park for teenage boys, the house is completely ruined. After retrieving a ricin cigarette, Walt looks into a cracked mirror – not quite Walt, not quite Heisenberg – who is this man? 

Cut back to the present day and we join Hank after he has finally discovered the answer to his own question of a similar nature. Who is Heisenberg? Well some pretty incriminating evidence found in Walt's bathroom points toward the very man himself. With this shocking revelation it is no wonder Hank makes a convenient excuse to leave the White residence and promptly have a freak out mid-journey home.  Post-anxiety attack however, he delves into some serious investigative work – how did Walt operate as Heisenberg under his nose this whole time? Of course, the answer lies in Walt’s characterisation this episode. Paternal duties, cancer struggles, and concerns over running a successful car wash – they are all exemplifying features of his harmless exterior, eclipsing any Heisenberg tendencies. Tendencies that are a latent presence nowadays, especially in his relationship with Skyler that appears to be in far greater matrimonial territory. 

Although latent is the key word here, as the man who once famously delivered the ‘I am the one who knocks speech’, makes a fleeting appearance every now and again. He prevents a guilt-ridden, dazed and confused Jesse from giving away his money, whilst assuring his innocence over the disappearance of Mike. He assertively dismisses Lydia when she appears at the car wash, fearing for her life. He even handles yet another panicked telephone call from Saul. Yet, Heisenberg’s greatest re-appearance this week arrives in an intense confrontation between Walt and Hank, comprising the end of this episode. 

Upon noticing the disappearance of the Leaves of Grass book, Walt is suddenly suspicious that someone may be on to him. Whilst checking the underneath of his car, he comes across a planted tracking device – the same one Hank had used in a previous investigative mission, in which Walt went for a ride-along. The next day, he visits Hank and both at first indulge in false pretenses. Just when you think their meeting is about to come to an end however, Walt questions Hank over the tracking device. Soon enough, the garage door closes and the room descends into darkness. This is it – the moment of confrontation we have all been waiting for, and boy does it deliver. In an incredibly intense sequence by all accounts, Hank punches Walt in an outburst of rage – revealing he knows everything. Walt, slightly shocked by this confrontation, at first tries the sympathy approach. He denies allegations and delivers quite the speech, exclaiming if Hank were to prove such a thing, cancer would reach him before any form of criminal justice. To that, Hank responds with the order that Walt's children move out of his house. In a gloriously understated yet hardened response, Heisenberg surfaces, threatening Hank to ‘tread lightly’. The war is most definitely on. 

This will undoubtedly become a repeated sentiment over the next few weeks but this return of Breaking Bad has once again proven how brilliant the show is. Technically, Blood Money is superb as ever, and performances, as always, are stellar. However the pacing and narrativisation are where this episode truly shines. Gilligan and co perfectly balance timely progression with unrelenting intensity. The aftermath of Hank’s discovery comprises the majority of this episode, pacing itself. However whereas some writers would have perhaps spun this out for another episode or so, bam – all of a sudden, the garage door is instead slammed shut and a confrontation is imminent. One packing quite the punch at that. The result is a viewing experience brimming with such intensity that this choice in pace and progression is a sure fire message to us spectators – prepare yourselves, because treading lightly is something that the show's creators are most definitely not doing.

What were your thoughts on the return of Breaking Bad? Post a comment!