Fall 2014 - 3D
GOT
From Page 1D
but Jaime's sugary-sweet broth-
erly caretaking toward Tyrion
seemed insincere considering
his past transgressions. In the
finale, Cersei spited her father
Tywin by gleefully admitting to
the "twincest" affair, but the fol-
lowing passionate scene between
the siblings was viscerally unset-
tling. Hopefully, time heals the
injury to what used to be one of
the most unique relationships on
television.
Tyrion's heartbreaking jour-
ney from circling the outskirts
of Lannister approval to being
imprisoned was one of the best
threads of the season, but his rag-
ing murder spree in this episode
was unnerving. Tyrion ruthlessly
choked Shae, a kind prostitute
and the supposed love of his life,
with a necklace. Though Shae
was a relatively minor charac-
ter, her confidence with Tyrion
was refreshing and his tender-
ness toward her always sweet.
Interesting
risks.
Between the loss of Shae and
Jon Snow's spunky lover Ygritte,
"Game of Thrones" may actually
run out of unconventional and
interesting female characters
before thebook materialruns dry.
Tywin's death was no surprise,
but since he was the instigator of
so much of the Lannister conflict,
I worrythat the show mighthave
offed a crucial catalyst just to add
to the body count.
The fourth season of "Game of
Thrones" took interesting risks,
but with mixed results. Every
episode was punctuated by stun-
ningly directed action sequences
and buckets of carnage, but cheap
gasps don't always make for
groundbreaking television. The
best parts of the season - Arya
and The Hound's fraught friend-
ship, Tyrion's struggle to prove
his innocence, Dany learning
that there's more to being a true
Khaleesi than some cool CGI
dragons - used minimal shock
tactics. "Game of Thrones" may
sit atop the Iron Throne of pres-
tige television for now, but to
remain the nonpareil that it is,
"Thrones" has to step up its game.
TV REVIEW
All 'Bad' things must end
"Say my name"
The TV
phenomenom
concludes in
spectacular fashion
By KAYLA UPADHYAYA
ManagingArts Editor
OCT. 3, 2013 - It should go
without saying that the follow-
ing discussion of the "Breaking
Bad" finale
will contain A
information
as to what Breaking Bad
happened in
the "Breaking Series Finale
Bad" finale, AMC
but people
tend to be
particularly sensitive about spoil-
ing with this show, so this is your
very fair, explicit spoiler warning.
"All bad things must come to
an end," declared the AMC pro-
mos for "Breaking Bad" 's "Feli-
na." And for the first time in a
while, we got a series finale that
really did feel like the end. After
two weeks of episodes packed
with tension and horror, "Feli-
na" plays out much more quietly,
replacing the breakneck speed
and instability that defines the
whole series with an almost
dreamlike fluidity.
In the opening scene, Walter
White (Bryan Cranston) - stuck
in a stolen car covered in snow
as red-and-blues swirl around
him in blind pursuit - calls,
earnestly and for the first time,
upon a higher power to take him
home. Keys magically fall into
his lap, and everything that fol-
lows in the extended episode has
a fantastical, unreal haze cover-
ing it that so starkly contrasts
the slashing realness of all that
precedes it.
Walt haunts scenes perfect-
ly framed by Vince Gilligan's
directorial hand. Todd (Jesse
Plemons) and Lydia (Laura Fra-
ser) don't notice him sitting just
feet away in their usual meet-
ing place. After Marie (Betsy
Brandt) calls Skyler (Anna
Gunn) to warn her Walt's back
in towel and probably coming for
her, the camera shifts to reveal
he's already there, hovering. In
a perfect example of how "Bad"
uses sound mixing and other
techniques to set tone, evoke
emotion and even provide narra-
tive to an extent no other show
has accomplished, Walt lurks
in the shadows of Elliot and
Gretchen's (Adam Godley and
Jessica Hecht) home, the silence
and shadows more threatening
than Elliot's tiny knife could
ever confront.
It's a marked change of pace
from the rest of the whiplash-
inducing final season, and the
mostly unsettling series reaches
a surprisingly settled conclu-
sion.
"Felina" 's standout moment
comes not from its most violent
outbursts, but from a quiet con-
fession from Walt to Skyler. "I
did it for me," he cuts her off as
she tells him to stop giving her
bullshit about doing it for the
family. "I was good at it. And I
was really ... I was alive." Most
of us knew Walt's motivations
were never about others (except
for the contingency of the few-
but-loud Team Walt soldiers
insisting he was a Family Man
who lost his way, a victim of
uncontrollable circumstances -
they're, hopefully, eating their
words and then some). But to
hear Heisenberg himself spell it
out and show his true baby-blue
colors - in what's possibly the
only moment of pure honesty
from the character since sea-
son one - satisfies more than
anything else in "Felina." Gunn
(who gives off some serious Car-
mela Soprano vibes with her
physicality - worn but resolved
- in the scene) proves just how
worthy she is of the little golden
statue she won a week earlier,
capturing Skyler's surprise in a
single look.
"Breaking Bad" has always
been immensely punitive, and
while not a religious show, it
often possesses an Old Testa-
ment view of consequences and
justice. "Felina" doles out justice
with machine gun robots and
Stevia packets. Walt built the
legend of Heisenberg on mate-
rial wealth, but as he learns in
"Ozymandias," "Granite State"
and "Felina," money can be
stolen and empires can crum-
ble. With almost everything
stripped away from him, Walt
sets out on a direct path toward
justice, driven by the one thing
he has left, the one thing that
reignites Heisenberg mode:
his pride. Walt's determined
path in "Felina" is not wholly
redemptive, but there is defi-
nitely a sense that what's sup-
posed to happen, well, happens.
Lydia dies at the hands of the
the Chekhovian ricin. The neo-
Nazis get what they deserve in a
Tarantino-esque shootout that
allows for one last Heisenberg-
helmed tech trick. The most tit-
for-tat deliberation comes when
Jesse (Aaron Paul) kills Todd
in a grotesque scene that mir-
rors Walt's strangling of Krazy 8
back in season one.
This season in particular has
been so devastating, so pain-
ful for the characters we care
about: Hank and Marie meet
truly tragic endings, and both
halves of the season overflow
with blood and tears (two of the
periodic symbols that make up
the anagram "Fe-li-na": Iron.
Lithium. Sodium. Blood. Meth.
Tears. Gilligan is a genius/bas-
tard.). The amount of time I've
spent worrying about Jesse
Pinkman over the past five years
baffles even me. I know he's not
a real person and that even if
he were a real person our lives
would almost certainly never
intersect, and yet Jesse's fate
has always been a top concern
of mine. He's "Bad" 's foremost
tragic character for most of the
series, but he finds freedom at
last in "Felina." Jesse's defining
character moment - when he
shoots Gale at the end of season
three - sneaks back in an eerily
similar scene, but this time his
gun points at Walt. The wound-
ed Heisenberg tells him to pull
the trigger, but Jesse's done tak-
ing kill orders from the man,
done beinghis puppet.
Perhaps because of how
accustomed I became to Gilligan
- and every last actor on this
damn show - tearingrelentless-
ly at my heartstrings, I feel oddly
uneasy about how neatly "Bad"
wraps up. It's not a happy end-
ing by any means. It's not even a
just one. Inaperfect, just world,
Hank would live and bring
down the bad guys (or, Marie
would exact revenge herself ...
and then find peace, but mostly
I just wanted Marie to poison
everyone). Brock would have
a mother. Walter Jr. would get
unlimited breakfast food for life.
In a just world, Walt wouldn't
have had the final say or the
power to write his own fate. His
belief that the world owes him
something just because of who
he is, the belief that he's truly
peerless in terms of his intel-
ligence and power, informs all
of his actions. The writers don't
necessarily sympathize with
Walt in the final chapter, but
they do grant him thatsame con-
trol he used to hurt others time
and time again. "Felina" isn't
Walt's apology or his quest for
grace; it's just acceptance. He's
a ghost from the start. Despite
his cancer, Walt always fancied
himself a god, able to outsmart
his enemies at every turn. Or,
more accurately, thinking he can
outsmart them: The show's best
moments are when he under-
estimates those in his way and
overvalues his own abilities -
the most extreme case being
when he thinks he can spare
Hank's life in "Ozymandias."
In "Felina," Walt still has his
noxious pride, but that blinding
sense of immortality evaporates.
Now that we have all of
"Breaking Bad" 's pieces in
front of us, it's easier to point to
the series's highlights. "Phoe-
nix" haunts me to this day.
"Fly" unfolds like a poem, and
proved the series could shine
even when the intensity wasn't
turned up to explosive levels.
"Ozymandias" will go down as
one of the best hours of televi-
sion in our lifetime. "Breaking
Bad" has several cornerstone
episodes, but "Felina" isn't one
of them. It's satisfying, that's for
sure. And it's one of the better
series finales I've seen. But the
same reason it works so well is
the reason I walked away from
the end of "Breaking Bad" a
little disenchanted. For a series
about the moral complexity of
humans, the conclusion is strik-
ingly well defined. Walt receives
a death sentence in the pilot,
and so in the end, he dies. It's a
strangely beautiful (and poetic)
end for a man who embodied
so many ugly things. But that's
what "Breaking Bad" has always
been: a beautiful show about the
wicked. It's full of darkness and
evil, all set against a colorful
backdrop of sunny-bright Albu-
querque. It made me care about
junkies, drug dealers, shoplift-
ers and assholes. I already miss
it, but I also know we'll be talk-
ing about it for years to come.
In that way, I guess Heisen-
berg got what he wanted after
all: an indelible legacy.
HEALTH, BEAUTY, &'FASHION
I AYLA & CO
European and American Clothing,
Shoes & Accessories for Women
323 S. Main St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734.665.7788
a..v. myTAm..w.-uu1.
TWITTER: @BARRECODE-A2
FACEBOOK: THE BARRE CODE ANN ARBOR
GO TO WWW.THEBARRECOOECOM TO FN) NTRAL & NORTH CAMPUS LOCATONS
IF 77