Keen fans of Breaking Bad may have read my previous article and asked themselves, why are we having a mid-season summary before the mid-season finale?
Well, that’s a very good point; and I will be completely honest with you. Having caught up with the first seven episodes of the Season I kind of forgot about the break until next year! Is that not, surely, two short seasons, especially if there is the best part of half a year between them? Or perhaps it is more enjoyable to have two shorter Seasons to look forward to in a year rather than a full longer one. I have noticed that South Park does this but it never really bothered me like it has with Breaking Bad, and I think that this is in the most part due to South Park having independent episodes for the most part.
The latest episode of Breaking Bad had a few highlights which I want to discuss. Firstly, the most hard-hitting both in terms of the story and to us the view is Walt’s expertly timed assassination of all the inmates who could help rat him out. This is just another example of Walt’s ability to manipulate those around him to bend to his will which is almost becoming nature to him.
We also see Walt extending the olive branch to Jessie and finally giving him the cut he deserves. We will have to see where this leads in the second half of the series as I find it unlikely that this key relationship has now been tied up. I predict another major altercation between Walt and Jessie but we will have to watch this space.
The last, and most important, point to cover is that in the closing moments of the episode, Hank re-finds Walt’s poetry book by Walt Whitman. You may remember that Hank and Walt have a discussion about the initials Hank has seen in relation to the case he’s working on. Hank plays up to Walt, tongue in cheek inferring that WW could stand for Walter White. Hank, always the good actor, retorts jokingly ‘You got me!’ and the two laugh it off. Well, this was a fair few Seasons ago and a LOT has happened since.
The end of the Mid-Season finale sees the camera panning out from Hanks face who seems to have finally worked things out, worked out the Walt is indeed the Heisenberg character which he has been chasing for so long; or at the very least has started the cogs turning in his mind.
So here we are fellow Geeks, half way through what is being billed as the final season and Breaking Bad off the air until 2013. We are used to rather bombastic endings in Breaking Bad but not so this one. Yes there certainly was violence with the prison stabbings but the final moments were fairly muted, but at the same time very exciting. Now that Hank probably suspects Walt, the second half of Season 5 has become very interesting indeed and I for one cannot wait for it to begin. Even if though I have to wait until next year!
Mark Brassington 
Such a brilliant series and series finale, cant wait to see how it will end. Been obsessed with this series for so long; can’t believe we have to wait a year until its back.