Rambling TV: Why I can no longer get behind Maggie Jordan + Breaking Bad recap

Sorry Maggie Jordan, I'm done.

 

Maggie Jordan is easily the most hated character in The Newsroom. There's more criticism towards her than there was with season one Don. I was never on that bandwagon. Sure, Maggie is a complete spaz. She makes several minor mistakes at work, and acts completely unprofessional on top of it. The writers attempted to humanize her a bit in season one when they discussed her panic attacks, which led to a very sweet moment between her and Jim. This season, Maggie gets dumped by Don, gets shunned by her friend Lisa, and instead of being there like she expected him to be, Jim bails and starts dating someone else. Aside from her break up, Maggie also has two colossal fuck ups this season. What happened in Africa, and leaving the room during the Genoa story. She cuts her hair and dyes it red. (I still think the timeline of her cutting her hair is a little stupid. Hopefully the next episode will touch up on exactly what triggered it. I'm assuming she finally translates what those cattle robbers were saying. Showing the scene of her and Jim in the control room, then her cutting her hair at home was so interesting, and there's been no follow up.) This experience, I had hoped would mature Maggie a bit. Make her focus a little more on the job and to start acting like an adult. Apparently not, because last night's episode was right back into her un-professionalism.

 

Please tell me how Maggie keeps her job at ACN when she goes up to a guest and openly bashes her senior producer in front of them? To start a conversation with "Hi, I hate Jim too" at work kind of baffles me. I'd lose my job in an instant if I did something like that. I know Maggie's not the only person at ACN that does unprofessional things, but she does it the most frequently and also in the most immature ways. Earlier in the season, Jim tells Maggie she acts unpleasant, and at first I was like "Jim, stop being a dick, she's went through a lot." but now I totally see it. She's completely irritable with everyone there.

 

I wanted Jim and Maggie to get together. I still do, in a way. I don't want to hate Maggie, but now I feel like I'm all out of reasons to defend her. It's like all her character growth was squashed by her going back to acting like a 16 year old girl. This made me sad in an otherwise hilarious episode.

 

Of course, I should clarify that this has nothing to do with Alison Pill, the actress. She's quite brilliant, as always.

 

 

This is the first place we cooked, like ever.

 

Oh Breaking Bad, the things you do to my blood pressure.

 

We start out at Todd's lab, where he still isn't quite getting the cook right. Lydia is not impressed. Todd says he'll try harder, but then he gets the call from Walt to put a hit on Jesse. He discusses it with Todd's uncle. He won't do it himself because Jesse is like family, and he wants it to be quick and painless. (aww) Todd's uncle doesn't want the money, he wants Walt to cook with Todd one last time to get it right. Walt reluctantly agrees. It's kind of amusing how even when planning to kill Jesse, Walt still tries to protect him as much as possible. Even though Walt's been stringing Jesse along like a puppet, you can't deny the fact that Walt truly does love him.

 

Hank devises a plan to get some information out of Huell, the one person who might know where Walt hid his money. It was Jesse who told Hank that the only clue he would leave behind is his money. Hank throws a brain on the floor that he got from the supermarket and takes a picture of Jesse laying next to it. He shows this to Huell, after telling him that Walt killed Jesse and Saul rolled over on Huell. Of course we know that Huell has no idea where it is, but he does say that he had to clean the van after Walt was done. They know he buried the money.

 

Saul brings his car to the White's car wash to get it cleaned. Cue an awesome scene where star struck Junior is talking to Saul, only for Walt to come in holding adorable baby Holly to catch Saul's eye. He tells him he can't find Huell, and that Walt shouldn't underestimate Jesse. "He's not as dumb as you think."

 

That line will come back to haunt Walt as he receives a picture message of a barrel full of money in the dirt, then a call from Jesse. He taunts Walt and tells him he's going to burn it all. Walt freaks out and instantly drives like a bat out of hell to his burial place. But Jesse isn't there, it's a set up, and Walt realized it too late. He calls Todd's uncle and gives him the coordinates to his location, but when Hank pulls up, he calls it off.

 

Walt eventually surrenders to Hank. Hank gloats about the picture being of his barbecue pit (where they had all of their family dinners) and that he knew Walt would be too pissed off to notice the dirt didn't match. Jesse points out that this is the first place they cooked. I guess Walt's pretty sentimental? Walt calls him a coward, and Jesse spits in his face. They lunge at each other, but are broken up. Hank puts Walt in his car, and phones Marie to tell her that he got him. After he hangs up, Todd and his Klan friends show up. Hank screams for them to stop, but the inevitable shoot out begins. OF COURSE we have to wait until next week to see who lives.

 

God, the entire time Hank was on the phone with Marie, I expected him to get shot in the head. Right after Marie said "I love you" I braced myself for it. Obviously because of the flash forward, we know Walt lives. I'm assuming that the gun we see Walt buying in the flash forward, is for him to kill Todd and the Klan members. They must kill Gomez, Hank, and Jesse, right? Aaron Paul says the hardest scene for him to shoot hasn't happened on TV yet. So I'm assuming Walt and Jesse have some sort of heart to heart moment here soon. Maybe as Jesse's dying? I don't want Jesse to die. I really don't. What I found strange about this whole set up, even thought Walt has done awful, awful things, I still occasionally find myself rooting for him. I didn't want him to get caught here. I wanted him and Jesse to talk it out. I guess I'm really protective over the Walt/Jesse bromance.

 

Side note on Boardwalk Empire: That scene of Richard Harrow going home better not indicate that we won't see him again for the rest of the season. I will be SO pissed.

 

Side note on my Game of Thrones withdrawals: Can Richard Madden just walk into my living room and say this to me?