Breaking Bad Review: “Confessions” (Season 5 Episode 11)

No matter what happens next, it is an undeniable treat to finally have Aaron Paul back at the forefront of things. The entire ensemble has done series-best work this season (minus, perhaps, Bryan Cranston, whom I sense is just warming up), and considering Paul has, in my opinion, done the most impressive and viscerally effective work in previous years, it is nothing short of awe-inspiring to see him finally dig in to the kind of climactic material Dean Norris, Anna Gunn, and Betsy Brandt have all been playing the past two weeks. My initial reaction, from the first two episodes, was that Dean Norris should take home the Best Supporting Actor Emmy Paul has won twice in the past – time to spread the Breaking Bad awards love – but if Paul continues to get these kinds of showcase episodes over the next five weeks? A final win would be absolutely deserved. He is a tremendous actor.

So much so that I do not regret giving the majority of this review over to his material, even though different analysis of “Confessions” could easily focus just as heavily on Walt’s terrifyingly effective, eponymous message to Hank, or on that incredible, darkly comic 4-way restaurant stand-off between Walt, Hank, Skyler, and Marie, or on all the great moments Bob Odenkirk gets to play as Saul confronts a challenge he cannot talk his way out of. All that, and in the end, “Confessions” ultimately feels like the Season 5B equivalent of a ‘transitional’ episode, in which many things are set in motion to pay off further down the line.

But that is exactly what has been so great about this final season of Breaking Bad – no matter what happens, every moment we have gotten so far feels like an immensely earned culmination of everything that has come before. Even the set-up for future action, which is what much of “Confessions” is devoted to, plays as pay-off to past material, and builds on our investment in this story and in these characters. I have said it the past two weeks, but the sentiment bears repeating: With so many of its narrative- and character-based cards out on the table, this show has become even richer and more rewarding than it was before. I am as invested now as I ever have been, and we still have five whole episodes to go. If this is the level of quality we get in episode three, one wonders what soaring heights those final hours will ascend to.

Other Thoughts 

• This episode is the final one directed by Michael Slovis, the show’s Director of Photography and probably one of the four or five single most important people in establishing Breaking Bad’s TV legacy. He is the man responsible for the show’s sweeping, singularly cinematic look, and he is also an extremely talented director, as “Confessions” proves one last time. I already mentioned the staging of Jesse’s revelation, but look also at how he shoots Walt and Jesse’s exchange in the desert, or something less flashy (but equally tense and compelling) like Jesse in the interrogation room. Slovis has done great work for this series, and while he obviously contributed to the final episodes as the DP, this is a rather wonderful send-off to his directorial tenure.
• This week’s pre-credits sequence is a good one, even if it is mostly disconnected from the rest of the episode. It reminded me of a Coen Brothers film, with little to no actual plot momentum, but a whole lot of atmosphere and a strong sense of character. There are lots of little details worth picking apart here, like how Todd uses Walt and Jesse’s real names in recounting the train heist, rather than aliases (he could at least say Heisenberg, assuming that is the name his Neo-Nazi cousins know him by – I doubt Walt used his birth name in dealing with them last season), and how he conveniently omits the portion of the story in which he murders a little boy. Is Todd as unrepentantly violent as his family – and therefore assumes killing a kid is the same thing as pulling off the plan without a hitch – or does he feel guilty and wishes to shy away from it? Either way, this family is obviously dangerous, and they are headed back to Albuquerque just as Jesse is about to start his own war against Mr. White.
• Walt has a whole lot of despicable moments in this one, but to me, nothing tops him using his cancer diagnosis as a means to force Walter Jr. to stay away from Marie. What should have been a sad, heartfelt, meaningful moment between father and son was ultimately a hollow, cruel lie – and I cringe to think of how hard Walter Jr. is going to take all this when he inevitably finds out.
• Speaking of which, here’s a prediction: We know Jesse isn’t going to burn down the White family home, given that we have seen it in tact in the flash-forwards. Is it possible Walt Jr. gets there before his father, simultaneously stopping Jesse’s rampage – Jesse wouldn’t hurt a kid, even if that kid is related to the man he hates most in the world – and exposing himself to his father’s crimes?
• Notice how Walt’s confession video starts with the same lines as his confession from the first scene of the pilot, and how much Walt’s demeanor here – calm, cool, collected – contrasts his panicky state from that first episode.
• As expected, Hank never knew about the physical therapy money, and it is indeed the secret that ensnares him most. Walt’s smartest move in that video was to build every part of it around a different element of truth, and the money for Hank’s surgery could, in theory, serve as proof and evidence should Walt ever need to take this all the way to court. Hank is good and trapped for the time being.
• Hands up, whose mind immediately leapt to Voldemort awkwardly (and terrifyingly) hugging Draco Malfoy in the last Harry Potter movie when Walt went in to embrace Jesse?
• Some great dark humor throughout this episode, including the annoying waiter at the restaurant, and especially Walt’s thinly-veiled panic at the car wash as he scrambles to retrieve the gun from the soda machine as nonchalantly as possible.
• I briefly mentioned it before, but Dave Porter’s musical score – which is always great if understated – is stupendous throughout “Confessions,” and I very much hope we get a second soundtrack to include tracks from this episode and the rest of this final half-season (there has already been one excellent soundtrack, and it goes up to Episode 6 of last year’s episodes).

Follow author Jonathan Lack on Twitter @JonathanLack.