Breaking Bad Gliding Over All

Graham Craycraft
“It can be done exactly how I want it. The only question is: Are you the man to do it?”
I couldn’t make a blog post worth reading based on Breaking Bad as an entire show. So here is the best scene in the show, and one of the best scenes in all of television. The episode Gliding Over All is half way through the fifth season and contains the 2:00 minute prison murder scene set to Nat King Cole’s “Pick Yourself Up.” The 10 murders leave all Hank’s potential witnesses dead. After these 10 killings are committed in three prisons all within two minutes, Heisenberg’s underworld reputation is ensconced as one of the most deadly and formidable the area has ever seen. Pretty big deal when the Cartel and Drug Emperor Gustavo Fring have also reigned this area. But hey, maybe if you kill Jesse James, you do become Jesse James.
Walter White is on the top of the food chain for awhile at the time these murders are committed. But there is something more to Walt ordering these killings. They symbolize the growing strength of Heisenberg and the diminishing influence of counter force Walter White. Heisenberg stops at nothing to achieve his placement in the Drug World. Although giving up his power completely by the end of this episode, Walt can never take back what he’s done, but why would he want to? He is living satisfied with $80 million and knowing he was the best there’s ever been. Heisenberg lives on in Walter White’s body even after giving up everything he once loved about the business. Not until Hank is about to be murdered does Walter White emerge again. Heisenberg is the ultimate ghost. Killing 10 people in three different locations at pretty much the same time is the work of someone not in this world. But this scene is not just an impressive feat by White, it is also a beautifully captured scene by Gilligan.
The juxtaposition between the crisp uplifting song and the grisly prison murders is stunning. At each line and verse a body is dropped, stabbed, or burned. Walt’s watch ticks away while he stands in the clean comfort of his home. Gilligan decides to show ever murder with all the fear and emotion the show is known for. Some bodies are left dripping dead, but the others see it coming and their fear is all too real. The contrast between the fear in the eyes of the inmates and the calm in Walter White’s demeanor is smugly stoic. Walt has been through his hardships and now he reaps the sinful rewards as Heisenberg.

https://youtu.be/NYcOl33-mI0

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