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Q: I’ve seen different reactions to Walt’s phone call to Skyler. Some say it was all a ploy to save her from prosecution; others says that it was real and he was railing at her. Does the debate surprise you?
I personally feel like it wasn’t open to interpretation. I would hope that people got that it was an absolute ploy on Walt’s part. It is the family-man part of Walt playing the part of Heisenberg to exonerate Skyler. I was hoping that the process of the lie and the subterfuge would be clear and that viewers would be with Skyler in their understanding. When we first hear Walt, we think he’s gone full Heisenberg. It’s outrageous and horrible and abusive what he’s saying! But then we start to put the pieces together as Skyler does, and I was hoping people would sort of be traveling that journey with her.
- Moira Walley-Beckett
I had two angles on Skyler, and one of them was the side angle. I purposely turned that up to try and keep everybody in the room — the cops, Marie, Walt Jr. — present, and then I had a more intimate, straight-on camera for her. So much of her reaction to the call is about not just what she’s going through inside, but about how she plays it, how she plays along with the lie, or doesn’t. That was really important. Then Bryan’s side was a much different challenge. The complexity of it, playing one thing while feeling another, that’s always interesting to watch. The fact that the Heisenberg personality, which throughout so much of the show has liberated him to do these horrible things with impunity, has become this thing that he’s now imprisoned by. He has to put this persona on to do the thing that he never wanted to have to do, in order to save the family that he’s already lost.
- Rian Johnson
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Q: The most emotional and devastating moment for me was when Walt Jr. watched his parents fight. Was it technical to shoot?
As opposed to watching Bryan do one long take on the phone where you’re just swept up in the emotion, the fight was more of a technical endeavor, making sure it came across as violent while everyone was safe. I think it speaks more to the actors, the emotion that got all through that technical stuff.
- Rian Johnson
There was a lot of choreography. Both Bryan and Anna wanted to do everything themselves, and they worked it out with Rian. Rian, as he always does, had all his shots mapped out exactly how he wanted to see [them] and pieced together the violent moments of the fight. It’s really watching Bryan and Anna at the top of their craft and hitting their marks, not hurting each other, not getting so lost in the moment technically but still bringing the performance. It was just stunning. It was such a feat.
- Moira Walley-Beckett
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Q: There were a couple of reaction shots of Todd. In his own psychopathic way, does he feel bad about what happened to Hank? He looked a little less indifferent than usual.
Within his distinct lack of empathy, he does respect Mr. White, and he’s very much aware of the plight of Mr. White. And I think it just makes Todd kind of uncomfortable to see Mr. White cringing and weeping on the ground. It’s hard for Todd to assimilate that kind of information.
- Moira Walley-Beckett
It’s like seeing your teacher or your parent cry of something. There’s just something uncomfortable about it.
- Rian Johnson
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His very first lie. That’s one of the things we were going for. Not only to take us back to the beginning ‘cause we figured everybody–we wanted to see that. But it’s back in a time when Walt and Skyler’s marriage was amicable, was working. It was before all the chaos and this is the moment of Walt’s very first lie to Skyler.
- Hear the full story at 23:15
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That was all in the script. Moira really had specifically in her head the dumbest thing that–I remember you saying the dumbest thing I can think of, which is just he’s hitting a rock with a stick…and I remember, Aaron started doing more elaborate stuff that looked a little more fancy…and you’re like, “I think he should just be beating on a rock with a stick like an idiot”. Like, he looks too smart the way he’s beating on the rock with the stick, dumb it down.
- Hear the full story at 22:14
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The RV used in this flashback was actually the original RV that was used by Jesse and Walt when they first started cooking. The one destroyed in Season 3 Episode 6 “Sunset” was just a shell that actually wasn’t running
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(“ASAC” stands for Assistant Special Agent in Charge)
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This cold open flashback was the last scene filmed on the last day of filming for the series, April 3rd 2013.
It shows Walt, then Jesse, then the RV fading away from their original cook site, and is replace with the sound of gunfire until Uncle Jack’s cars and Hank’s trucks show up. Hammering home the point that everything is ending exactly where everything started.
