Breaking Bad - Episode Three.

Season three opens up with Walter and Jessie cleaning up the mess they made with the dead body and the acid. As they are cleaning, Walter gets a flashback with him and another women talking about chemistry, trying to figure out a problem and Walter makes a comment and says, “there has got to e more to a human being than that.” Walter seems to be getting close to this women, but then they show him snap back and them cleaning the mess again. This episode continues with the man in the basement who we find out is name is, Domingo. Walter and Domingo have conversations that may seem to make it harder for Walter to kill him. At one point, Walter gets upset at Jessie for giving Domingo all the information he knew about Walter but Walter continues to make sandwiches to him. 

This episode also shows that Skyler’s sister seems to be stealing from a women’s shoe department, while caller her husband telling him she thinks Walter Jr is smoking pot and asks him to scare him with a drive to the bad part of town where all the junkie’s hang out. So, hank takes him and finds a women who is on the pipe, asks her questions about how she got there (trying to get her to say she started off with the gateway drug; pot). It doesn’t seem to scare Walter Jr at all. As the women goes back to her hotel room, we find Jessie there, afraid they were looking for him. 

As Walter still struggles with the killing he has to face, we see him writing the pros and cons of killing Domingo. We find a list of reasons why he shouldn’t kill him, and one thing on the side to kill him, that is to keep his family safe. After this he takes a sandwich down to Domingo on a glass plate and as he walks down the stairs to the basement, he passes out and the glass shatters. When he wakes up, he confesses to Domingo that he has lung cancer, Domingo being the only one Walter has ever told. They talk and Walter decides he will let him go because he knows Domingo is another human being who deserves to live, as long as he promises not to hurt his family. When he goes upstairs to get they key, he realized that a piece of the plate was missing, that upsets him, so he goes downstairs and chokes Domingo. As he is killing him, he is crying and apologizing to Domingo. 

The next day we see Jessie go back home, Domingo is gone and so is Walter, the RV is empty and then we find out the DEA found the cook sight that they started out at. They find the head gear, and the car with the meth that Walter had made. We then see Walter sitting in his car on a bridge as he is having another flashback with the same women. He drives home and it ends with Walter telling Skyler that there is something he has to tell her. 

One of the themes I notices in this episode, that extends from episode two, has a lot to do with the value of life. The theme in episode three seems to be the focus on the soul. As we saw with the flashback, there was a comment that Walter made and he said, “there has got to be more to a human being than this.” This flashback that he had is the beginning of the episode and this is what is in his mind throughout the episode. We find Walter writing the pros and cons to killing Domingo. We see a numerous amount of reason why he shouldn’t, one of them being because he has a soul. As Walter gets to know Domingo, he gets to know him for who he is and not what he is known for. This makes Walter decided to let him go,until he realizes that he had the glass. At the end, the same flashback comes back to Walter after killing Domingo. This time Walter says, something’s missing...what about the soul?” 

Even as this episode displays a non christian based meaning, they still understand the meaning of the soul and how important it is for us as human beings to have the right to live. As Christians, we know the importance of the soul and we know that it was God himself that created us. The soul is the center of who we are, what we were created to live by. It is our souls that connect us with God and with one another; Christian or not. How can we not see that we were designed for relationship with one another and with God. Walter couldn't help but feel a connection to domingo, no matter what the situation was. There is importance to our souls connecting because that is when we build community with each other. That is when God works through us; when we can reach other people. "There has got to be more to a human being than this." 

Breaking Bad:Episode Two.

The second episode of Breaking Bad continues with Walter and Jessie getting the RV out of the ditch and deciding that they want to be done before every really starting cooking meth. Once they decide this, they realize that one of the guy in the back is still alive. They take him back to Jessie’s house where they keep him in the RV, where they expect him to die shortly but he doesn’t. Jessie calls Walter to inform him that this guy isn’t dying and Skyler become suspicious of what Walter has been hiding, so she does a little investigating and finds out who Jessie is. Later, Walter goes to the house to decide what to do with the body and with the guy that is still alive but as he is driving to Jessie’s house, he sees the guy walking in the street; he had escaped the RV, but Walter takes him back and put him in the basement of the house. They both decide that they need to kill the guy in the basement and get rid of the body in the basement by dissolving him in acid. They decide that Walter will kill the man in the basement, where he tries to work himself up to doing it, but ends up giving the man food, water, and a bucket to use the bathroom instead, and Jessie will talk care of the body. Walter instructs him to buy a specific container that wont dissolve when the acid touches it, but he doesn’t listen and when Walter isn’t there, he puts matters into his own hands, but while bringing the body from outside to the inside, Skyler shows up at his house because Walter told her that Jessie was just a guy he bought weed from. She tells him not to sell him any more weed and when she leaves, he goes back to taking the body back inside and does the job in the bathtub where it dissolves the whole bathtub bottom and breaks through the 2nd story where all the remains of the body fall to the first floor. 

One of the themes that stood out the most was life. The significance of life is first shown when Walter is faced with the fact that he has to end the life of someone he doesn't know, just to save himself and those around him from harm. The thought about doing what he has to do is really getting to him and consumes his thinking. When it comes times for him to actually do it, he is finding all sorts of ways to end this mans life; where nothing seems to settle well with him. It seems as though he wants him to feel as little pain as possible and wants something easy. He eventually looks at a plastic bag but never gets around to doing it. The man eventually wakes up and instead of killing him, Walter gives him water, food, and even a bucket to use the bathroom. It is interesting how he is supposed to kill this man but ends up preserving his life till he "works himself" up to killing him. Later, when Skyler and Walter are at the doctor, they finally find out that they are having a baby girl. Walter becomes excited, expressing that he hoped it was a girl, but then something unsettling comes to him and its noticeable that he is reminded of the life that he is supposed to take, while at the same time, he is bringing this little girl into the world. 

The biblical stand point of this is that we are created with value. Although man can take the life of a person, we as Christians know that we are secure in the fact that our soul will not be put to death. Matthew 10:28 says "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." This is why we are to be missional. We are required to go out into the world and preach the good news because there is a world where people are suffering and their souls are not yet right with God. 

Breaking Bad. Season One:Episode One

Season 1 Episode 1 of Breaking Bad is about a man named Walter White who is a high school chemistry teacher, a cashier at a carwash, a father to a son a soon to be daughter, and a husband. In this episode, Walter is just turning 50 years old and has people over for his birthday when his brother in law, Hank, who is in the D.E.A, shows himself on the news doing a drug bust. Walter seems a bit surprised on how much money you can get from it and at that point, it is noticeable that the idea of getting in the business is planted in Walter’s mind. From time to time in the beginning of the episode, you notice Walter coughing a lot and eventually he collapses at work and soon discovers that he has lung cancer but doesn’t tell his family. At this point, he goes along with his brother in law on a drug bust. When he is on this drug bust, he notices a former student, Jessie, coming out of the house next door, trying to escape the DEA because he is a part of the meth lab that was busted next door. Later, Walter finds Jessie at his home and convinces him to become partners since Jessie’s was caught and put in jail. Jessie doesn’t seem fond of the idea to become partners and rejects the offer but Walter threatens to turn him into the DEA if he didn’t. Jessie, having no choice, decides to become partners with Walter. 

Being the chemistry teacher at the high school, Walter steals supplies they are going to need to make the lab from the school’s science department. Once they have their supplies, they decide to make the meth lab in an RV so they can go into secluded areas to cook meth without being caught. When they find a good spot, Walter cooks some of the best meth that Jessie had every seen. Jessie’s decides to go to his old partners cousin to try to sell him the meth that was just cooked and discovered his partner who was caught, just got out of jail. They want to know where the meth came from and Jessie leads them to Walter where drama goes down and while Walter is trying to show them how to make it, he makes a toxic gas that makes them pass out in the RV, after threatening them. Walter doesn’t know what to do so he drives off and ends up crashing on the side of the road where he is sure everything is over when he hears the cops coming. He films himself saying goodbye to his family and even tries to kill himself. Eventually, fire trucks come around the corner, pass Walter, and go to the fire that was started by one of the dealers. They soon realize they are off the hook and they leave. 

One of the themes I noticed was the taste of power that is happening in this episode. Walter seemed to be a calm and gentle guy in the beginning of the episode, before everything happened. Once he finds out he has cancer and gets involved with the meth lab, there is a change in his personality and his attitude. He seems to be a family man but is under the whip with his wife. She seems to be unappreciative of him and expects him to do everything she says. There was a scene at his birthday party where he holds his brother in laws gun, and feels how heavy it is. At that point, I think aside from having the idea of getting in the drug business, holding the gun was a foreshadow of the power Walter will hold. 

There are so many issues in here that show the needs of this generation. No matter who we are or what he do, there is always something in us that wants power. There may be different aspects of it; such as money, but ultimately, even money can represent power to a lot of people. People will go to extreme lengths to get what they want in life to make them feel something. There is obviously a deeper need that is there. People are constantly trying to fill a void in their life with worldly things and until it is known that there is only one thing to fill the void, no matter what that void is longing for, their lives will only continue to go in all sort of directions. How do we show Jesus in these situations? How do we explain that Jesus is the ultimate provider? I doubt the first thing they want to hear is how Jesus can save them, but instead loving them in their brokenness.