Walter builds commonality on the basis of Krazy-8’s divulgences, telling his captive that he bought his son’s crib at the family’s furniture store, infusing a current of innocence into what, at its core, is a vicious encounter. His anecdote connects the two through their parallel relations as father or son, in a conversation in which the theme of family is woven throughout. Walter hands Krazy-8 another can of beer and the two sit in what appears to be or, at any rate, mimics comfortable familiarity. Walter is trying to prove that he is not a threat, even as he threatens Krazy-8, in order to convince Krazy-8 to view Walter in similar terms.
Krazy-8’s next comment signals a pivotal turning point in their emotional engagement, his apparent acceptance of Walter’s desired arrangement. Krazy-8 asks Walter if Jesse or Walter’s family know he has cancer. Walter acknowledges that Krazy-8 is the only person in whom he has confided because it’s not a conversation he is ready to have with his family. This is a crucial moment in their encounter because it signals that Krazy-8 understands Walter and what he is going through. He recognizes what Walter is experiencing emotionally and how important his admission of illness has been. This is a moment in which Krazy-8 extends awareness and empathy by acknowledging what Walter is unable to speak, an act of recognition that does much to constitute the scene’s strange tone of intimacy. Krazy-8 further affirms his empathic understanding by recognizing that Walter is cooking meth in order to take care of his family after his death. Krazy-8 thus validates that which Walter most wants acknowledged or, perhaps, to himself believe: that his illegal activities, up to and including murder, are undertaken out of his deep love for and commitment to his family and that, therefore, his actions are justified and his motives acceptable in terms of this perceived greater good. It is at this point that Walter decides not to kill Krazy-8. More accurately, the two reach the decision together. Walter returns to the kitchen to retrieve the key for the U-lock so that he can let Krazy-8 go. His eye is drawn to the pieces of broken plate in the garbage. He hastily begins reassembling the pieces, discovering that a large shard is missing. Krazy-8 had managed to reach it and conceal it while Walter was passed out.
Walter returns to the basement and grips the U-lock. But instead of unlocking it, he pulls it as tightly as he can against the concrete column, choking Krazy-8 to death. This is a prolonged act that requires his full strength, as Krazy-8 desperately tries to resist. Walter has fulfilled the act of “cold-blooded murder” that Krazy-8 predicted.
For Walter, their interaction has been about desperation: he has asked Krazy-8, almost pleaded with him, for another way out. But, for Walter, the encounter has also been about trust. He must come to believe, or be convinced, that he can trust Krazy-8, as unreasonable a proposition as that may sound. On Krazy-8’s part, also acting out of desperation to save his own life, he must convey honesty and sincerity in order to assure Walter that he is neither lying to nor manipulating his warder. This is why his frankness and defiance in refusing to promise he will not go after Walter is effective.
However, all of these emotional transactions, negotiated and exchanged, are undermined by the piece of broken shard in Krazy-8’s pocket. The fragment of broken plate becomes the marker of his broken word, extinguishing Walter’s unreasonable but heartfelt desire to trust Krazy-8. Ultimately, it is the breaking of trust—not the threat to Walter or his family—that, in contrast to his previous days of lethargy and procrastination, imbues him with the angry energy required to kill Krazy-8.
The set piece between Walter and Krazy-8 is action as transaction, constructed from moves and counter-moves: a strategic maneuver deployed, its effects sized-up, a corresponding response awaited, then delivered. Theirs is an ongoing series of thrusts and parries, all in terms of emotional, not physical, action. Their engagement takes shape as a negotiation, an exchange that moves forward, building to an inevitable but not initially predetermined outcome. This is the freedom or agency described by Foucault in the ability to either exert or resist power in ongoing transactions of social mobility.
And ultimately, it is Walter’s encounter with Krazy-8 that enables him to go home and entrust his wife with the news of his illness—if not of his drug-related, violent activities. The man Walter kills is the first person in whom he confides, making it possible to admit his own impending mortality to others, to his wife, and perhaps to himself. Although Walter’s and Krazy-8’s relations end in a brutal act of murder, the impact of their startling sequence together rests not solely in that final event but in the process taken to arrive at that point and in the unveiling of Walter’s motivations as he comes to believe that he must commit such an act. Their encounter stands as emblematic of the development of Walter’s character over the entire course of Breaking Bad, in which suspense and fascination are engendered by Walter’s process of determining what actions to take and the feelings, more than the reasons, he uses to justify his choices. The impact of the series does not derive solely from the audaciousness of Walter’s actions but, also, through the emotional process by which he comes to believe he must commit those acts and how he justifies them to himself and others. The physical action of the series’ opening two episodes serves to establish the emotional payoff of “…And the Bag’s in the River,” located in the drama, strategy, desperation and, ultimately, poignancy of the lengthy encounter between Walter and Krazy-8 that, in turn, renders the finale to their time together all the more ruthless.
RELATIONS OF POWER
The relationship between Walter and Krazy-8 in the third episode is based on a disequilibrium or asymmetry of power, in Foucault’s terms, because Krazy-8 is held captive in the basement while Walter is charged with ending his life. In contrast, Walter’s relationship with his wife, Skyler, over the course of his increasing involvement in drugs and her increasing awareness of his involvement, more closely resembles the way Foucault defines relations of power in purer form.
For instance, Walter’s dealings with Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) are dominantly situated within the framework of coercive power through Gus’ very overt threats of violence or death to Walter’s person or to members of his family. In turn, these threats demand the response of similar acts of coercive power: physical actions such as executing Gale (David Costabile), Walter’s former lab assistant and, ultimately, killing Gus (although it is worth noting that in both instances Walter finds someone else to commit the actual act of murder).
In contrast, relations of power based in emotional strategies dominate Walter’s relationship with Jesse. The two draw the line at engaging in coercive power—acts of physical harm beyond the fist fights they have with each other—nor will they allow others to do so, on occasion each having committed murder to rescue or protect his partner. However, emotional strategies of power between the two are fair game and, to Walter’s mind, do not have to be played fairly.[4]
None of this is to suggest that emotions are absent from coercive acts of power. Between Walter and Gus pride, anger, frustration, and the desire to prove oneself superior all figure as motivations in their engagement. And certainly, coercive power enacted through physical deeds clearly is possible in domestic relations, for instance, through physical abuse, economic deprivation, and so on. In the case of Walter and Skyler, however, these do not predominate. Instead, acts between them principally are committed for their emotional value and impact.
4
This indicates that emotional strategies come equipped with their own rules and procedures regarding what are acceptable versus abusive means to an end. Thus, when Walter poisons Brock (Ian Posada), the young son of Jesse’s girlfriend, in order to get Jesse to agree with him on a certain course of action, Walter is understood to have gone too far. Yet, for most of the series Walter draws the line at directly endangering Jesse’s life by, for instance, poisoning him in order to coerce agreement.