Walter White is a methamphetamine cook. We have known this for quite some time now, but to Skyler (Anna Gunn) this is news, and the realization that Skyler has is what sets up this entire season. Not only is Walt’s meth business messy with Jesse (Aaron Paul) being out of the picture at rehab, but now his family business is messy with Skyler dead set on a divorce, well, at least for a little bit, and that little bit is all Walt (Bryan Cranston) needed to weasel his way back into the family while continuing cooking meth because he might be the most stubborn man alive. With the realization I have made of the fact that this shows’ seasons act more as an overarching story than individual connected stories, I have decided to label this season as the climax. Everything that happens this season either had big lead ups or are big lead ups for the last two seasons. It really is a more prototypical, but fantastic climax that is coming off a great ending to its previous season.
Season 3 of Breaking Bad, continues right after Skyler kicked Walt out of their house and is ready to divorce him. Walt is less than agreeable to that, and makes his home life so much more difficult than it has to be. Meanwhile, Jesse starts rehab because of the death of Jane (Kristen Ritter). Between Jesse and Walt, this is not a happy season, and then you add on the growing tension that happens between Walt and Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), and Jesse and Hank (Dean Norris), and the result is a whirlwind of a season. After watching seasons 4 and 5, I feel like this season is the biggest setup season and has the most payoffs in the end. It is the most chaotic season, with a lot of plotlines going on, but I can’t say that they handled any of them badly. The only thing I didn’t like that they did was after the epic scene of Hank taking out the two cartel members, Hank became very hostile towards Marie (Besty Brandt). I don’t necessarily think it is out of character as he is a very proud man, who can’t walk anymore, but I just don’t know if it was the best choice for his character development.
Speaking of questionable character development, this season is probably Skyler’s biggest season and probably the biggest reason she gets so much hate. She is so flip-floppy this season it’s hard to know where she stands at certain points, but I think that is perfect. This is such an anomaly of a situation I don’t know a single person who would be 100% certain of any choice that they make. Obviously, the morally correct choice is to divorce Walter on the spot and stand firm that he is not allowed in your house. However, when the person you are opposing is Walter White, good luck keeping him from what he wants. When it comes to cunning and getting what he wants, there may be no one better than Walter White. Walt knows how to play the system, and with refusing to sign the divorce papers he not only keeps his relationship with Skyler in the air, but that also allows him to stay in the same house as her. So, Skyler tries the morally incorrect choice of sleeping with her boss, which in my opinion leads to the funniest one liner in the entire show, if you know you know. She does all of this to get rid of Walt, but then once Walt finally is ready to give up and sign the divorce papers, she starts thinking of the possibilities if they stay together. I don’t want to say Skyler is an immoral person like Walt, but she may just be as greedy as him, and that is what brings about a lot of her flip-floppiness. I know for a lot of people, especially people that are living on a high school teacher’s salary, would find it very hard to look at millions of dollars and say no, so I honestly don’t fault Skyler for really anything she does this season. I think that her position is so unpreparable for, that when she finds herself at this crossroads she chooses the husband that she still loves and the easier life that comes with being a millionaire. We also see a lot of her control freak tendencies shine in this season, just like the intervention in season one, where she says it’s an open space, but gets mad at Marie for voicing her own opinion, Skyler forces Walt and Saul to accept her proposition of the car wash being their money laundering front. Skyler has to be the one in control, no matter how much distress that causes her.
The most despicable season of Jesse Pinkman. If you were ever to convince me that Jesse is a villain, this season would be the crux of that argument. He accepts that he is the bad guy. He is the villain of everyone’s story and he really leans into that. He becomes dead set on suing Hank, which I don’t believe is just about Hank beating him up, but he wants to get back at Walt because this is the first time he really comes to terms with the fact that Mr. White does not care about him. Now I know Walter runs the dealers over that were going to kill Jesse, but Walt should care more about Jesse, then just not wanting him dead, especially considering everything they have been through together. However, that is a very hard realization and just like a drug addict, Jesse relapses and starts cooking with Mr. White again, which actually makes me more hopeful for Jesse’s future because taking 2 steps forward and 1 step back is normal in the process to recovery, or in Jesse’s case, the process of leaving Walter White. However, that is a more villainous act, especially when he starts trying to get people who are in rehab to start buying from him. This season we watch Jesse be at the lowest he has ever been, and after losing Jane it is so easy for Jesse to believe he is the villain. He blames himself for Jane’s death and therefore the deaths of every person in the planes that crashed.
Now for the man himself, this is a huge setup season for Walter White. I think we truly start to see the real Walter White, his greed and stubbornness are what really drive him. In my opinion, once he accepted the job with Gus and missed his daughter’s birth he was lost forever. I never thought he was going to be able to stop cooking, not only because I know there are more seasons, but also because if he wasn’t able to stop cooking for the birth of his daughter then there is no way he will be able to stop ever. And to no surprise to me, he continues cooking for Gus. Just like a climax, this is the turning point of Walt. Not only does he run over two men, but he practically forces Jesse’s hand into coming to Gale’s (David Costabile) apartment with a gun. We will find out if Jesse actually did it or not. With me having already written my reviews of seasons 4 and 5 that’s all I’m going to say about that topic, and all I’m going to say about Walter White because I feel that more or less this season is meant to tie in the events of season 2, while setting up the craziness that is season 4, so considering that I don’t have too much to say about Walt’s character that wouldn’t be considered spoilers for upcoming seasons, but I wrote a lot about him in those seasons’ reviews, so stay tuned.
A show is only as good as its villain. This season more or less starts off without a main villain. I would say the first villains are the cartel hitmen originally coming after Walt, but once they switch their focus to Hank they become less of a main villain, and then are killed by Hank halfway throughout the season, so they aren’t exactly the overarching villain of this season. That title is reserved for Gus Fring. He may appear as a friend in the beginning of the season, but we eventually see his connection to the cartel and how he is the person responsible for them switching their focus from Walt to Hank, which is very not cool, but it also gives us a chance to see how awesome Hank is, so I’ll take it I suppose. After that however, the season leads up to Walt making the realization that Gus can and will kill them once Gale is up to speed on cooking meth, and with this realization it sets off every single drastic decision Walt makes, like saving Jesse from the two drug dealers Jesse is about to square off with. Gus may not appear as the main villain this entire season, but he is constantly in the background like a puppet master pulling all the strings, and that is what makes him such a menacing villain, especially next season.
This whole season is exemplified by the greed of man. Walter might be the greediest man alive, other than maybe Saul (Bob Odenkirk), but I suppose if you get into the drug trade and you aren’t a user, then greed is the only other reason why you would get into this business. To any and all cops reading this, this is not an admission of me selling or producing drugs, but I can’t even fault Skyler or Walt for their greed, they are talking about more money than I will probably ever see in my life. As I have stated previously, probably too much, but I really like this realization, this is the climax of the show, especially the realization of Gus wanting to kill Walt and Jesse. Everything that happens in this show afterwards is set up because of the events of this season. To make it more clear that this season is the climax, I want to clarify what a climax is. The climax is where the big conflict happens, this being Walt realizing Gus wants to kill him and then having Jesse show up at Gale's apartment with a gun. The next season, season four, is the falling action, where everything that happens is a result of the actions of the climax. I’m not going to say what happens in season 4, obviously, but I will say that everything that happens is a result of what happens this season, which leads me to the realization of this season being the climax. It isn’t your prototypical climax, where a bunch of action happens, I would even argue season four has more action, but the realization that Gus will kill Walt and Jesse at the first opportunity is the biggest driving force of Walt’s behavior from now on. Before I finish, I just want to add on that episode 10 “Fly” is the best episode of the show, not in terms of plot, but just of the fact that it one really enforces the idea that Walt has OCD, and two is just so stupid it’s hilarious.
8.9/10☆
9.1/10😁
This season isn’t as good as its successors, but I would say for the average person it is more enjoyable because it is probably the funniest season since season 1, while also not being overly gory or intense. Spoilers for Breaking Bad Season 4’s enjoyability score, I put this season as .1 higher just because this season is a bit more light-hearted before we get into the darker parts of Breaking Bad, but I personally enjoyed season 4 the most, so that’s why they are pretty much equal.
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