In just under two weeks Breaking Bad will be back on our screens. With Season 4 having wrapped up nearly a year ago, fans are hungry to learn what’s in store for Walter White, the high school chemistry teacher turned meth cooker come drug kingpin. If two weeks seems like a long way off, you’re in luck. AMC have released a small scene from the first episode of the fifth season and we have it here for your viewing pleasure.
The scene we get pretty much confirms that Season 5 will take place one day, if not a couple of hours, after the Season 4 finale. Vince Gilligan has been terrific throughout the whole of Breaking Bad to tell a complete story with very little ellipsis. The jump from the end of Season 1 to the start of Season 2 was a matter of seconds and I really like that way of storytelling. There’s no “6 months later” or anything like that. This show deals with the immediate effects because as any seasoned viewer of Breaking Bad will know, every event has its own immediate after effects and I think it is a really admirable and quite unique trait.
What we get here is the classic domestic scene we’ve come to expect in Breaking Bad. It is a family discussion, where there are underlying tensions that have a neat little bits of subtext laced underneath. The conversation SPOILERS AHEADÂ deals with the death of Gus Fring, with Walter Jr. expressing to his father the shock of learning that Fring was Albuquerque’s senior meth overlord and that Hank was investigating him all along.
Of course, Walt knows this and in Cranston’s face you can see the slights touch of the overwhelming satisfaction of what he has just done. He is responsible for Fring’s death but also his family’s safety, he is happy but the sense of victory is lingering throughout Walt, even Skyler’s typical frostiness doesn’t seem to initially bother him.
The trailer for Season 5 of Breaking Bad pretty much confirmed that Walt’s ascension (or descent) into becoming a full blown super villain will be the arc of his character for the closing 16 episodes of the series. But I can imagine his cancer will make a big impact this season too and the relationships in his family will begin to fray even further.
My anticipation is reaching breaking point and I cannot wait much longer.
Breaking Bad Season 5 premieres on July 15th on AMC. Check out the clip below.