This episode plays a lot with Walt’s reflection. There’s this moment when he is disgusted with himself, then later when his reflection is used for possible foreshadowing (it’s split, representing his shattered self and how fractured his life has now become), when he’s rolling his barrel up to the old Native American man’s house, and of course the last scene when he drives away to assumedly start his new life

The shot at this moment is perfect. It’s taken from an angle where you see Walt’s reflection in the car itself and the bullethole lines up perfectly with Walt’s forehead. Possible foreshadowing?

It also happens right as the “Director of Photography”’s name flashes across the screen…

And that reflection shot, we actually found that on the day. That was just the sort of thing where I wasn’t even planning that shot. I was gonna have him stand up and go straight to that window shot and then it was in the back of my head that–because originally Vince wanted, when he looked underneath the car he wanted to see the bullet on the undercarriage. We realized that just wasn’t possible and so I realized, well what if he gets up halfway and sees a bullet in the car and realizes that’s what must’ve happened. And then we just found that reflection and I’m like, oh cool, pan over and catch that reflection and so that was just kind of something that evolved.
- Rian Johnson

Here Walt still doesn’t realize that Hank is going to die. Or maybe he does, but doesn’t want to accept it. Jack asks Hank what he should do sarcastically to play with Hank’s emotions, but Hank doesn’t give in and stands strong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4eXWtLZey0

Each season AMC allows one bleeped out “Fuck” – if you want to hear these “fucks” watch on Netflix or DVD.

There are two exceptions though: 5B gets a second one when Jesse calls the Neo-Nazis “psycho fucks”, and 4 gets an extra when Huell calls Tedd “little motherfucker”.

The music playing during this scene is “Take My True Love By The Hand” by The Limeliters

“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert”

As Walt rolls his barrel of money through To'hajiilee, he passes the pair of pants that flew off the RV in the pilot.

This image of Walt rolling his barrel is reminiscent of the the Greek myth of Sisyphus – a king condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder up a hill, only to have it fall down each time. The fruitlessness of Sisyphus' effort mirrors Walt’s seemingly endless mission to secure a nest egg for his family.

The writers have also pointed out that the sight was reminiscent of a dung beetle pushing its ball of dung through the desert. Which implies that Walt’s $11 million is now just about worthless.

Season 5 Episode 8 – Gliding Over All

Season 5 Episode 14 – Ozymandias

Q: It was so crushing to see Hank and Gomez die. How did you feel about Gomez’s fate?

I was happy to make it to there. It’s really tough to be a Mexican on Breaking Bad. To be there from the pilot to that point was cool. And I went out with a gun in my hand. I didn’t get shot in the back. I didn’t get melted in acid. I didn’t get my throat slit. At least I was standing on my own two feet.

– Steven Michael Quezada

Q: What has the reaction to Gomie’s death been like?

I got so many texts in the morning and e-mails and Facebook messages [after last night’s episode]. Everyone was like, “My stomach hurts. Gomez should have never died.” People were really upset.

– Steven Michael Quezada

There are many parallels between Gus and Walt throughout this season. Here, the shot of Walt falling to the ground in agony is identical to the shot of Gus falling to the ground after Max Arciniega is shot.

Perhaps the implication is that Hank and Walt share a brotherly relationship (Hank is Walt’s brother-in-law) in the same way that Gus and Max did. Also this might hint at further Gus / Walt similarities to come: Walt, like Gus, both exacts revenge for his “brother”’s death and is subsequently killed.

However, director Rian Johnson claimed this parallelism is unintentional:

That was not intentional at all. When I saw that I was like, “Oh my God, that’s awesome.” No, this is just the one way to shoot a guy who’s down on the ground. It might very well have been intentional on the writer’s part. But for me I wasn’t referencing that shot at all

This shot is also Walt’s “Ozymandias Moment”:

That’s actually a rig that the effects guys came up with that his head goes down onto. When we were out scouting, I had that poem in my head and I just thought about the shattered visage and the sand and I looked down when we got out of the bus when we were scouting and the way the sand kind of cracked when I put my foot on it. I actually called the guys over and we took pictures of it and were like could we duplicate this when Walt goes down in the sand? And the effects guys made this rig, which it’s actually this plate that they buried into the ground there that has this pneumatic thing and it has these wood pieces cut out in it and then they layered dust over that and then when his head hit they triggered it so the pieces all jangled and the cracks were revealed and little puffs of dust came up.
-Rian Johnson

This episode is named after the 1818 poem Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem is about the decline of personal possessions and power in time.

It was thought to have been inspired by the Younger Memnon statue of Ramesses II

The promo for the season and this episode featured Bryan Cranston reciting the poem “Ozymandias” over scenes from this episode.

After over 50k votes, Ozymandias gains a 10/10 on IMDB, making it the highest rated episode of television of all time.

This episode brought in a good 6.37 million viewers