Part 2 Saying goodbye to the bad guy: Heisenberg the modern day Tony Montana

With episode 14 behind us we all saw Hanks final moments and realized how important of a character he was. I completely have a “you never know what you had until it’s gone” moment. As Walt screamed that he’s family and then collapsed to the floor upon watching Hank’s final breath.  We saw just another detachment from his human side as he realized Jesse was under his car and told him another painful secret as he was being carried to his presumed death. As the Nazis decide to spare Jesse my prediction from Part 1 still stands.

All secrets are out and with his now imprisoned environment Jesse can now sober up, think clearly, and realize finally that the only way to walk away from evil is not to consume drugs to numb it or join forces with the righteous. We knew Jesse did not care about living anymore if the hit had gone through you would have seen a relieved look in his eyes. The last scene with him beaten down mentally and physically barely able to walk towards a picture of Andrea and Brock knowing that this was a threat that if he did not cooperate it wasn’t his life they would take but the lives of people he walked away from in order to save them.

 

by Joelle Jones

Walter White’s spiral into evil all stems from control, the more you lose the crazier you become in a perception that this is the method to gain it all back. In Scarface we saw that once Tony lost control of his sister, best friend, and his empire suffered. When he decided to take control back by not killing mother and her kids we saw his desperate attempt to gain all the control back with rage and fury.  The monster that is created by the loss of control appeared as Walter send Jesse to his death and the rage that his wife was done being controlled by him and was ready to die for it.

His final words to his wife in this episode “unfinished business to take care of” leads on his need of control. This need supersedes his family’s safety or him even getting on that van and never being seen again. He could take his remaining $10 million and just escape this world but to him it’s no longer about winning his family back but to gain control till the very end.  The Nazis seem to be his final target as they defied Heisenberg by killing Hank, stealing his millions, and giving him a consolation price out of the kindness of their hearts.

 So will the end of this now incredibly rich and powerful Nazis come at the hands of a small vial of Ricin, a giant machine gun, and a pissed off chemistry teacher? Then when discovering Jesse is alive will we see the final human emotion as Jesse takes advantage of this and ends Walt’s life?

Part 1 Saying goodbye to the bad guy: Heisenberg the modern day Tony Montana

As we approach the end of the final season of Breaking Bad it really makes me think about the history of how I felt when I rooted for the bad guy to win, but realized that for the story to end we needed him to not have a happy ending. I spend all week trying to search out which show or movie first made me feel this way. I found that my first experience was Scarface. This film by far really had the recipe where our main character having a tough down and out life now faced with a hunger to have the things he felt he deserves. Walter White worked that way because of his streak of bad luck, crappy jobs, and stale marriage all of which culminated and basically broke him when he was diagnosed with cancer.

The big difference between the two is that we never saw what broke Tony because it would have made it a lengthy movie. But the TV shows lets us have a peek into what turned Walter into the villain we see today. So why are we cheering for the bad guy? If we step back he has poisoned children, set bombs in nursing home, and ordered brutal hits. Blood is on his hands and yet most of us watched season after season hoping he would not get caught and his luck to not run out.

I just watched episode 13 as Walter made the incredible hard decision to order a hit on Jesse and the episode ended as a melee of bullets barrage Hank and his partner and Jesse’s future looks bleak. Jesse is to Walter as Tony was to Manny. His partner, his friend, the one person that he was with from the beginning when they were nothing. This relationship tests why I think we cheer for the bad guy. We have already been okay with the murder, drugs and the constant lawbreaking but what makes us want them to never get caught is that small sliver of a connection to love. The same connection we saw in Michael Corleone towards Fredo as he made the tough decision to kill him in the Godfather. As we saw in Tony when he felt betrayed and killed Manny. Now we look at Walter and his connection to Jesse is so strong that as his world is crumbling and everyone around him is in his ear pleading to “take care” of Jesse he fights it till the very end. But what makes Breaking Bad different from Scarface or The Godfather is my prediction that not only does Walter need to die at the end but it won’t be by the hand of some neo-nazi criminal or a Czech hit squad but by the very own human connection he has outside of his family.

I know for many of us Jesse is a mess, and yeah I agree Jesse was broken when Walt first approached him about meth. But Walt slowly took him under his wing, rebuilt Jesse in an image of how he envisioned a relationship with his own son. He acted like an overprotective dad on steroids as he did anything and everything to keep Jesse out of harm’s way. But not for one moment realized that this person he was rebuilding had a foundation of a broken boy. He never wanted to murder or hurt anyone and sought the comfort of a stable relationship because he desperately wanted to be normal. Walt gave him everything he never wanted when he offered Jesse so much money he wouldn’t know what to do with it. This chemistry (pun intended) is the reason why Jesse is the only possible deserving person to end Heisenberg’s reign of terror.

We saw this show as Walter White breaking bad and turning into Heisenberg. But never realized that Jesse was breaking good as he was fighting and doing anything to just get out of this evil environment he was in. The final point when Jesse can finally have a normal life will be when he ends Walters.

Miami Heat 2013 Champions – Lebron James Played Like The Champion He Is

My thoughts of Lebron James and his performance

Another basketball season wrapped up yesterday with the Miami Heat winning back to back years. I have been a basketball fan since I started watching basketball in college. I immediately became involved in every aspect of the sport and regretted not watching it since I was a kid. The one thing I do miss is hearing how people just sat back and watched the magnificent career of Michael Jordan. Watching NBA TV classic game or YouTube highlight reels to me is probably 1% in compared to watching him play live. This morning I realized that I get to be in that type of position now. When I started watching it was during the Kobe/Duncan era and then this young kid from Akron that was revered at the chosen one came in and has delivered. I am not comparing Michael Jordan to Lebron James, I realize that there is no way that James can do the things the MJ did and will never have the same competitive attitude that made Jordan such a phenomenon. But I do get to watch him from his first season to hopefully his last and say “I was there” that I got to watch him in person Game 7 of the ECF in 2012 and that he has made me a huge fan of the game.

With the success of the Miami Heat I can tell many GMs are changing how they try to build their teams, same goes for some coaches that try to build not just a great basketball team but a basketball team that can beat the Heat. We saw the NY Knicks think they came up with the answer for the Heat but had tunnel vision and didn’t realize the powerhouse the Indiana Pacers are. Yes I stand here to make the prediction that if the Pacers keep all their starters next year and make a few upgrades to their roster they may be the kryptonite to the super team in Miami. At this point in time Miami can only get worse, it sounds harsh but if you look at every member that contributed to this championship is on the back-end of their prime. Mike Millers back is ready to go, Ray Allen will retire now with his amazing resume, and Wade has issues that are either his knees or he has put his skills on cruise control till light is shed on how poorly he is playing.

With the 2013 NBA season wrapped up I look back and see two things. One is the amazingly talented veterans that are finishing their careers strong like “Papa” Duncan and Kobe “Vino” Bryant. I grew up watching them and thank them for showing me what basketball was all about. Those two teams created a window of dominance that even Lebron by himself could not peek out of. Once he joined the Heat we saw this window closing for the Kobe/Duncan era. But is it Lebrons era now? I personally would like it to be, he is transcending and the way he plays is beyond anything you see now. I think he can do it and probably will but not with the current roster of the Heat. Big upgrades and rebuilding need to come and as a Lebron fan I can say that Pat Riley is the man to put it together (no other man can take you to the promise land like Pat Riley)

The #1 sports topic that even the president talks about

Yes, this will be a blog about Lebron and i know how much the media and pretty much everyone that remotely thinks about sports talks about. I wanted to start by saying that the way the playoffs ended for the cavs was just sad.
I mean at least teams that got swept gave it their all. I personally think that right now the best player in the game is Kobe period I dont care how much people want to talk about his injuries or his team, he is without a doubt a player you want on your team especially in the last minutes of the game. Now back to this free agency talk, I know people everywhere are making their predictions and this isnt that, im just saying what I want to see. I really want to just stir it up, lets make things interesting next year. I want Lebron to go with the Knicks along with either Stoudemire or Bosh oh and also with his pick of coach so hmm either John Calipari, Phil Jackson, or why not Pat Riley. Also, Wade to Chicago just because Miami has failed to build a team around him and he has both Noah and Rose as perfect young up and coming players that can help him forget about the Cavs.

Future Posts:

Underated player – J.R Smith

Falcons – The rebuild

Starting a blog

So i decided to start a blog and I started to think about what to make it about. When listing what are are my likes it was either sports or dogs so i decided to go with sports. To get things out of the way I have to state I am a Denver Nuggets and Atlanta Falcons fan so I am biased about them and also I am not a fan of the dolphins, donovan mcnabb, and i kinda find soccer and baseball kinda boring. I know nothing about hockey or baseball so this blog will be more about football and basketball.