I’m a big fan of the show “Breaking Bad”, Sunday nights on the AMC network at 10:00 PM. Every week I get to watch how a person, Walt, is put into extraordinary situations and manages to come out intact….or perhaps not? Walt is dying of lung cancer. For the first time in his life he sees an opportunity to break through all self-inflicted restrictions and inhibitions to find a purpose. He turns to making meth with Jesse, a former student of his. Together they form an uneasy but otherwise mutual respected bond as the two of them make and distribute the drug. Since Walt is a chemistry teacher who’s knowledge goes far beyond the high school level, his skills make the drug the best on the street.

Cut to the purpose of this blog entry : The lead character Walt (portrayed by Bryan Cranston)  and the mythical hero Odysseus . Throughout the series Walt becomes his alter-ego, Heisenberg, the name which the drug community knows as the one baking the powerful meth. In last week’s episode, “Over” , Walt learns that his cancer is in remission for now. This good news doesn’t fit with Walt so well because he now sees that everything up until now with the meth, murder, double life, is not needed anymore. The whole point of getting into meth making was to make as much money possible for his family when eventually he would pass on. He tells Jesse that he plans on selling off the remaining amount they made in a 4 day marathon previously but afterwards he is finished.

Throughout the episode we see that Walt does not do well with the back-to-suburban-existentialism that he once was in. Like a restless Odysseus who yearns to get back “into the throws of adventure” Walt eventually allows his Heisenberg side to warn a potential rival to “stay out of my territory” to the sound of a great song by TV on the Radio, “DLZ.”

One of the fascinating things about the show is how Walt transforms from a meek individual to having a Mr. Hyde / Heisenberg side which is not as easy to suppress as in previous episodes. Will Walt be taken over by this alter ego or will he manage to get out of it?

Song lyrics :
Congratulations on the mess you made of things;
On trying to reconstruct the air and all that brings.
And oxidation is the compromise you own
But this is beginning to feel like the dog wants her bones
saved

You force your fire then you falsify your deeds
Your methods dot the disconnect from all your creeds
And fortune strives to fill the vacuum that it feeds
But this is beginning to feel like the dog’s lost her lead

This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
This is beginning to feel like it’s curling up slowly
and finding a throat to choke

This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
Barely controlled locomotive consuming the picture
and blowing the crows, the smoke

This is beginning to feel like the long
winded blues of the never
Static eplosion devoted to crushing the broken
and shoving their souls to ghost

Eternalised. Objectified.
You set your sights so high.
But this is beginning to feel like
the bolt busted loose from the lever

Never you mind
Death professor
Your structure’s fine
My dust is better
Your victim flies so high
All to catch a bird’s eye view of who’s next

Never you mind
Death professor.
Love is life,
My love is better.
Eyes could be the diamonds
Confused with who’s next

Never you mind
Death professor.
Your shocks are fine,
My struts are better.
Your fiction flies so high,
Y’all could use a doctor
Who’s sick, who’s next?

Never you mind
Death professor.
Electrified, my love is better
It’s crystallized, so’m I.
All could be the diamond
Fused with who’s next

This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.

This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.

This is beginning to feel
like the dawn of the luz of forever.

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