“Breaking Bad” aired its finale over three years ago. Isn’t that a strange thought? I remember watching it in the living room with my friends and roommates so vividly, gluing us all to the TV until the very end. I found the experience more harrowing and emotionally gratifying than any sports event I’ve ever witnessed, bar none. It was chilling, haunting, bleak. It was, of course, an emotional experience, and that’s only fitting because Vince Gilligan’s masterwork is a series based on heavy emotions — or, more specifically, reactions. It shaped its ongoing legacy, which continues to be found today, and not merely on the spin-off “Better Call Saul.” It resulted in a gripping and tremendously satisfying finale, which somehow lived up to the acclaimed drama’s staggering expectations. Yet, that’s not the program’s finest hour.
READ MORE: The 5 Best Episodes Of ‘Breaking Bad’
No, it’s the third-to-last episode, “Ozymandias,” that’s widely considered the very best Gilligan’s series has to offer. That’s a belief shared by YouTube editor Nerdwriter1. The very talented videographer breaks down why he considers this particular episode to be “Breaking Bad” at its very finest in his newest video essay, “Breaking Bad: An Episode Of Reactions.”
As the video title suggests, it’s the variety of reactions that makes “Ozymandias” one of the series’ best. Directed by Rian Johnson (“Looper,” next year’s “Star Wars: Episode VIII”) and written by veteran scribe Moira Walley-Beckett, who won an Emmy for this episode, “Ozymandias” can be justifiably be considered the real finale, with the remaining two episodes serving as an epilogue to what we’ve seen here. The cold opening returns us to actions in the pilot — if through some not-great younger make-up — and shows Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) and Walter White (Bryan Cranston) working on their first batch together. It lets us grasp how far these characters have come, and how their specific components and choices produced an explosive reaction onto their once-normal lives.
READ MORE: The 25 Best TV Shows Of 2016 So Far
And though things take a violent turn, it’s not a bloody affair. That’s because Gilligan, Johnson and Walley-Beckett focus more on reactions rather than actions, letting the gazes and faces tell us every haunting detail we need to know. Shots of characters crying and screaming take precedence over, say, Hank (Dean Norris) getting killed or Walter kidnapping baby Holly. But among the most ingenious aspects of “Ozymandias” is how it focuses on other characters’ reactions to Walt more than Walt himself, which tells us exactly what we must take away from our morally blackened protagonist. Walt’s blindness to his own tragedy inflicted onto others is what ultimately makes the actions he takes weigh with import. He’s a man who refuses to look into the mirror.
That’s where the episode’s namesake comes in, as both the poem and episode focus on the transition of power and the arrogance found within. But as Nerdwriter points out, the poem is about seeing through the eyes of others. Only through other characters and their reactions can we really see Walt’s fall from grace, and that’s what ultimately makes “Breaking Bad” such a phenomenally rich show, all the way to the end.
