Breaking Bad Season 2 Episode 2

Barren desert, a jumping car, bullet holes and broken glass all introduce this episode of breaking bad. Tuco has taken Jesse and Walt captive and he has them held hostage at a house in the middle of the desert.  Both Jesse and Walt are in pure freak out mode not quite sure what to do about their predicament. While Jesse and Walt are missing Hank is pulling his resources at the police department trying to locate Walt, because Skyler is worried sick about her now missing husband.  Meanwhile in the desert Tuco is going on about how Gonzo has betrayed him and ratted him out to the police. However, what he does not realize is that Gonzo is dead and the police found his and the other man’s body in the junk yard.  Tuco is at his peak of psychosis and is taking it out on Walter and Jesse. Tuco wants to take Walter to Mexico and have him cook meth for him, however he wants to leave Jesse dead and not a part of the operation at all. Walter stands up for Jesse convincing Tuco that he will not go unless Jesse goes with him. While Tuco is busy in the kitchen; Walt and Jesse try to devise a plan to kill Tuco and escape. As they are about to put their plan into action Tuco’s infirm and mute Uncle gives them away saving Tuco’s life and landing Walter and Jesse in a sticky situation. This leads them to a fight with Tuco where Jesse shoots Tuco in the stomach. However, as they start to escape A car is coming down the road, thinking that it is Tuco’s cousins Jesse and Walter make a run for it. Tuco gains his strength and makes his way to the car only to find that Hank has shown up because he tracked Jesse’s car. Hank and Tuco get into a shoot out where Hank kills Tuco and Walter and Jesse make a run for it, Hank does not see them.

                This episode shows how deep Walter and Jesse are in this drug ring. There is no easy way out anymore and the money (for a viewer’s perspective) is no longer worth it. Their lives are at risk and so is Walter’s family. In this episode, it is Hank’s dedication to his family is shown. This is a side of Hank that has not been seen yet.  Walter is getting further away from whom he was and delving deeper into his “dark side”.

                The implications that I saw from this episode is how do we minister to people who do not know what right and wrong is. This is so alive in our culture; people believe that truth is relative and not absolute. I think one of the challenges that our generation faces is that that truth is not absolute but relative.

"Cause It's Illegal"

Aggression and dominance are beginning to invade to every facet of Walter's life. After his show of power and dominance over Tuco, he has now begun to like the taste of this sense of control, while in a life that he has no control over his body or home. It is in the realm of drugs that he feels powerful and in control, until this episode. Walt begins to take control and dominance over Skyler as they sit in a meeting at the school about the stolen lab equipment. Walter begins to touch Skyler in very sexual ways during the meeting and then after the meeting takes her to the car where they have sex a few spaces down from a police car. Skyler shocked at his stamina asks why that felt so good and Walt's response is "cause it's illegal". This line is a indicator to the change in Walter's character and is going to dictate the theme of the episode. On the other hand, Jesse, is still shaken up from being in the hospital and being beaten and the situation with crazy 8 and Emilio. To try and forget what has happened in his home he is trying to sell the house. In his fear of working with Tuco, Jesse threatens to leave and quit cooking and move out of state. Walter has to  convince Jesse to stay and help him, which is a switch in roles. Walter is now going to great lengths to continue cooking, even stealing from a chemical warehouse to continue cooking meth. While Walter is stealing chemical's Skyler is accused of stealing a tiara that was given to by her sister at a baby shower. This makes Skyler livid at her sister and her sister will not confess to stealing the tiara. While Walter and Jesse are cooking meth in Jesse's basement there is an open house where they have to evade the people that are in the house. When Walter gets home Skyler tells him about her sister and what happened to her and Walter tries to justify her theft and he tests the water to see how Skyler would react if he told her what he has been doing. The next day, Walter goes to sell the meth to Tuco and the violent nature of this man is shown when he beats one of his own.

A main theme in this episode is that Walter is becoming very comfortable in his criminal life. He is growing fond of it and beginning to justify his very illegal actions. This is important because it gives insight into who Walter is becoming. Walter is becoming a control fiend and cannot get enough of it after his experience with Tuco. He likes how he feels when is living out his criminal life because it gives him some sense of power and control. This double life brings him fulfillment and purpose. He still somewhat thinks and believes that he is doing this for his family but the more he acts out the more it seems he is doing this for the high that it gives him. Walter is not using the drugs but it still gives him a high that he is no longer trying to resist. 

This episode says a lot to me about our cultures hunger for control. Our culture so values control and being in control of our lives and how we act and live. This is very countercultural for Christianity because we are called to give up control and surrender to God. This is something that is vital to realize about our culture as we minister the Gospel because some aspects of our faith are not outwardly appealing to our culture. We have to model the Gospel more than speak it in our culture because it is in our actions that we speak the loudest.

Breaking Bad Episode 6

A dirty, destroyed RV, chemistry supplies, and two men assessing the mess. Those two men are Walt and Jesse! Walter has returned to cook with Jesse and now puts some boundaries on what their relationship is going to look like from here on out. Walt is to be the silent partner who cooks and Jesse the salesman who pushes the dope. "No more bloodshed" says Walt as he makes his final condition.   Sirens, explosions, destruction, men who would normally be staring harshly look timid, and a bald man talking strong steps away from the mess. This is how "Crazy Handful of Nothing" begins. This intro reeks of foreshadowing and a shift in who the characters are.

Right after the intro it goes to Walter teaching his class about rapid chemical changes and explosions (this also is nothing sort of foreshadowing). As Walter is teaching he begins to feel ill and have to run to the restroom to throw up. After he is sick the janitor Hugo is kind to him and cleans up the mess. As Walter continues the Chemotherapy he continues to lie to Skyler about almost everything.

As Waler is cooking Meth he begins to get ill and has to have Jesse finish cooking the batch and Jesse finds out that he has cancer. The attention is then given to Jesse selling the Meth to a cornucopia of different people to upbeat music. The music is pretty ironic considering the given circumstances.

However, things are not all upbeat and happy, Walter's Brother-n-law begins looking into the mask found in the desert, this leads him to Walter's school and later on in the episode the janitor Hugo is arrested for stealing the mask.

When Walter finds out the the meth is being so scarcely sold he tells Jesse to be creative and find someone to buy the meth wholesale. This leads Jesse to a man named Tuco, this man ends up stealing the meth Jesse brings to him and puts Jesse in the Hospital.

Walter finds out that Jesse is in the Hospital and something snaps when he sees how badly Jesse was beaten up. He goes tho Tuco and makes demands on Tuco. When Tuco does not respond well he sets an explosion in his office, this causes Tuco to fear Walt and cave into his demands. Walter is the man from the beginning who is walking away from the scene. With a new look his attitude has changed, his character is about to explode and so is the show!

This episode begs the question what does it take for someone to snap and for Walter, it is more blood shed. The significance of this episode is massive, we see Walter undergo a huge transformation and he is beginning to change into a man to be feared instead of a timid school teacher. He is a full blown meth cooker. He knows what he wants, how much he should get for his product and how business should be ran. This is huge for the show he is evolving.

This carries a huge impact on ministry. What does it take for people to explode? How does the church handle those situations, how do we bring restoration. I think we have to get down and dirty. When I say this, I mean that we need to allow ourselves to be like Jesus, to go to the people who are hurting and in dirty places, we need to (by the Holy Spirit) see past the  facade and go deeper with people. We need to meet people where they are  at and not wait for them to come to us!

Grey Matter- Breaking Bad

Grey Matter is an interesting title for this episode of Breaking Bad, it not only reflects the company that Walt was apart of bringing into existence but the issue of what is going on in the secret life that Walt has seemingly walked away from. In this episode, both Jesse and Walter are trying to live life without cooking Meth together. It seems to be difficult for both of them to pick up the pieces after the mass chaos that they have experienced together. Jesse tries to find a "real job" (only to go back to cooking with a new partner) and Walter tries to go on living out the rest of his life with his family. Both seem to be completely unsatisfied with life the way that it has become. For Jesse, he has seen what it is like to do well and to produce a good product and won't settle for less, however his new partner does not share the same attitude. This conflict leads to Jesse leaving his new found partner in the desert. Walter is just trying to decide how to live his life with cancer and deal with his family. In the end, the stress of choosing to do treatment leads alter back to Jesse and cooking Meth despite an easier way to pay for the treatment. In this episode, that Walter enjoys cooking Meth and this is what he wants.

The most important moment for me in this episode is the very end when Walter decides to start cooking Meth with Jesse again. This has huge implications for Walter's character. He has turned from the timid chemistry teacher who just needs to survive to make money for his family. This shows the audience that Walter missed cooking meth. He missed being in control, powerful, successful, and wealthy. His desire for success comes out when he goes to his college friend's birthday party. He wants what he has so badly and his pride keeps him from accepting the gift that his friend offers him. There is a shift from the beginning of the season to know and it will be interesting to see how this develops in the next episodes.

The implications of this in ministry are how do we deal with this dichotomy of wanting to have a loving and stable home but still be in control. How do the implications of this episode change the way I see ministry? I think that in all honesty, it shows me the importance of being able to get down into the dirty places to meet with people. We have to get away from the clean places and the safe places to meet people where they really are!

Breaking Bad Episode 4

In this episode of Breaking Bad Walter and his family begin to deal with the fact that Walter has lung cancer. Skyler, Walter's wife, is devestated by the fact that Walter has lung. She is willing to try anything to help him get better. Skyler has her sister set Walter up with the best oncology doctor that she knows of. Walter is hesitant to go through the treatment that the doctor recommends due to the cost and the side-effects that is cause by chemotherapy and radiation. Jesse on the other hand, is becoming very paanoid becuase of the meth and decides to go to his parents house. While at his parents house he reconnects with his parents and his younger brother. This is a very different side of Jesse that we see as he is with his parents and looks through his old stuff from his childhood. Toward the end of the episode Jesse shows up at Walter's house to give him the rest of the money that he made off of selling the rest of the meth. Walter kicks him out of the house and tells him never come back. Jesse procedes to go home where the maid found a blunt in his room, and his parent s kick him out. As he is standing outside of his parent's house waiting for a cab his little brother comes out and thanks Jesse for not telling his parents that it was his blunt.  At the end of the episode Walter runs into a man who was rude to him at the credit union and sticks the window washer in the hood of the car and it blows up as Walter drives off.

In this episode, the focus is primary on the families of both Walter and Jesse. The audience begins to see a new side to Jesse due to his family. Jesse didn't come from a "broken home", he comes from a home where his parents are still married and seem to make an effort to be engaged in their children's lives. They have given Jesse multiple chance to change and he has not done so but they still allow him to stay with them. Jesse as manners as you can see as he sets the table for his mom before dinner is served. This kind of family situation makes me wonder how he got to where he is. What happened in his life to make him into who he is now. What events caused him to be with way and what kind of people influenced him. Does the way that he turned out suggest that his parents were not as involved as they seem? This episode is a commentary on the family structure and indivdiuals who are probably not fitting into the family structure the way that others are.

Family is so important and it is valuable to put time and effort into them, to figure out the issues that are found within even the most seemingly healthy family systems. This also raises the question of how does the church help those woh are disenfranchised from their families. What is our role and how do we create a family system with in the church?

Breaking Bad Episode 3

This episode of Breaking Bad begins where the second episode left off. Walker and Jesse are in a predicament with the acid soaked remains of Emilio on the floor and Crazy 8 in the basement locked up waiting for death. In this Episode Walter is really dealing with the weight of life and if he can bring himself to kill Crazy 8. During this episode we see Walter growing more aggressive however, the cancer limits his aggressions. Walter struggles with this weight of killing crazy 8 by himself (because Jesse ran off to escape his problems with sex and drugs). During this time he tries to carry on a human conversation with Crazy 8 trying to find any reason not to kill him and when he decides to let him go comes to the awful realization that Crazy 8 intends to kill Walter as soon as he is let go. This drives Walter to strangling Crazy 8 with the bike lock and going home.

This episode is full of commentary on human life. Walter at the beginning flashes back to a younger him breaking down the human chemically and stating that "there must be more to a human than this". This is profound in the episode as Walter struggles with killing Crazy 8. Walter also tries to  find any humanity and bond with Crazy 8 only to find that the man intends to kill him. This drives Walter to believe that there isn't more to human life and kills Crazy 8. The progression of Walter's character is that he is straying further away from who he once used to be.

The question of this episode is what is there to humanity? What is there that makes a human up? re we all just chemistry or is there a soul that is involved? This is vital to our culture and ministry to our generation. This is a question that our generation struggles with and we can help bring clarity to that question with God and the gospel.

Breaking Bad Ep. 2

This week on Breaking Bad, Walter and his "associate" Pinkerman have to figure out what they are going to do with the body of Emilio and the partially deceased "Cray Eights". In this Episode, Walter is faced with a new kind of low... he is now a murderer. Not only is Walter a murderer but he has to figure out what he is going to do with a half dead man. This begins the even further, moral digression that is happening. Walter cannot bring himself to murder Crazy Eight and turns to smoking pot to avoid his problems.  Not only is Walter in a state of conflict with what he is doing and his morals but now his wife, Skyler is beginning to get suspicious of his odd behavior. She goes on the hunt to figure out what is going on with her husband, by finding Pinkerman and confronting him about selling Walter weed, while he is trying to dispose of Emilio's body. Pinkerman deals with Skyler and then moves the body into the bathtub in his home to soak the body in acid to dispose of it. This ends up proving even further that Pinkerman does not know what he is doing because the acid soaks through the tub causing the acid to  erode the  tub and cause the bloody remains of the body to fall to the first floor of the house.

In this episode Walter is now turning to drugs to handle his problems. He can't trust his partner and he can't tell anyone else so he turns to pot to cope with the pain of not only his cancer but to remove himself with the gravity of he situation he has found himself in. He is desperate, uncomfortable, and has no idea how to handle this situation. He is becoming a different person, slowly changing to the culture he has thrown himself into however he still feels guilty. He tries to be kind to Crazy Eight and cannot bring himself to murder him. Walter is removing himself from reality to deal with the pain.

Many times I believe that people find themselves in the a position similar to Walter's. They feel forced into bad situations to survive and need a way to escape the terrible truth of what their lives are becoming. They see no way out, so they run to something that will make them feel better for a moment.  In ministry we are going to deal with this repeatedly whether it is with others or ourselves. We all want a quick fix but that isn't the business that Jesus deals in. He is our savior and the one who restores and brings about life through transformation. As a person who desires to minister to people, we have to be willing to understand what got them to this point, because it doesn't just happen. We also need to be willing to walk with them in their pain and help show them a God that they can turn too.