But the best and richest part of “Granite State” – the material that really kicks this episode up into the highest gear, in my estimation – is that involving Walter White. In my review of “Ozymandias,” I explained how Walt was essentially broken by the sight of Hank’s death; forced to finally see the ultimate product of his wicked ways, he started lashing out in every direction possible, and after having his family definitively reject him, he fled in bitter, angry defeat. Given all of that, and the fact that the episode ended with him heading off to change his identity, I assumed “Granite State” would pick up in the future, during the same period as the flashforwards, without needing to show all the interceding material. Not necessarily because I felt there weren’t stories to tell – the non-Walt parts of “Granite” clearly demonstrate that there are – but because I thought Walt had arrived at the emotional place he needed to be at for what happens in those flash-forwards.
And what is so, so great about “Granite State” is that even as it organically builds its story out of Walt’s arc in the last few episodes, it utterly inverts our expectations by putting Walt on an entirely new introspective journey, one where he becomes something we scarcely recognize, and then heads back to Albuquerque with motivations we could have never seen coming, yet are absolutely, unequivocally perfect for the overall arc of this show.
He starts the hour off angry and raging, intent on doing something to get revenge on Uncle Jack and his crew, and to reclaim the money for his family, before Saul – in a scene that reminds us this man is, corrupt though he may be, a damn smart lawyer – talks him out of it, explaining how no matter what he does now, he cannot help his family from afar. Ironically, the best piece of legal advice Saul ever gives Walter White is to just turn himself in; he only has a few months left anyway, because of the cancer, and spending his last days behind bars would be a small price to pay to get his family off the hook, now and forever. It would be a truly selfless action – giving himself up so his family could find some measure of peace.
But that isn’t Walter White, and his decision to reject Saul’s advice is the first hint we have that “Granite State” is going to call back to the history of the series in more ways than one. Walter White has always claimed he committed his crimes in the name of his family, but there was always a selfish aspect to his misdeeds. Even back in the pilot, when Walt really was at his most selfless, the idea of cooking meth was just as much an escape from his boring, constrictive life as it was a means of providing for his family; the key speech he makes in that episode isn’t the video confession to his family, but the “I am awake” monologue to Jesse, about how cooking meth is a means to regain control over his quickly fading existence. His motivations were not evil at the outset, but neither were they truly charitable – he wanted to help his family, but he also wanted to feel significant, even if feeling significant meant breaking the law. Over time, that desire for ‘greatness’ overtook the stock he put in family, to the point where building an empire was everything to him. At a certain point, there was no denying it – Walter White was in this for himself, and anything he did to or for his family, good or bad, was just collateral damage. Turning himself in would not track with the Walter White we know, because there is nothing he personally would gain out of it – the knowledge that his family would be protected isn’t enough, and has never been enough, to satisfy him. He needs to feel fulfilled. And a slow, disgraced death in jail will not quench his sense of self-importance.
So Walter White runs, all the way to New Hampshire, and secludes himself in a cabin in the snowy woods, away from all technology or communication, for reasons even he does not particularly understand. All he achieves by being in that cabin is physical ‘safety,’ for whatever that is worth so near the end of his life, and it certainly does nothing to help his family. Walt’s immediate instinct is to get back out on the road, to form a plan and maybe get all that money where he feels it belongs, but standing at that gate, in the middle of the cold, snowy, woods, he cannot go through with it. “Tomorrow…tomorrow,” he chants to himself.
And in that moment, Walter White is revealed for what he truly is: A coward. A pathetic, lonely, despicable coward, one who would rather sit in the seclusion of his isolated little cabin, away from prying eyes or the threat of danger, than do anything, anything at all, to help the family he claims he loves. He waits there for months, his hair and beard growing out, pasting newspaper clippings about his family and his crimes to the wall, paying exorbitant amounts of money to Robert Forster just so he can get a little bit of company. At one point, he is even made to look like a common junkie, no better than the people he pedaled meth to, as he clenches his fist and tries to put the IV needle in his arm to no avail. This is Walter White at both his lowest and his truest self – a man who talks big, who claims to live for other people, but ultimately, when push comes to shove, cannot do anything that fails to serve his own interests.
Continue reading on the next page…