Gliding Over All
"Gliding Over All" | |
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Breaking Bad episode | |
Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 8 |
Directed by | Michelle MacLaren |
Written by | Moira Walley-Beckett |
Featured music | "Pick Yourself Up" by Nat King Cole "Crystal Blue Persuasion" by Tommy James and the Shondells "Up the Junction" by Squeeze |
Cinematography by | Michael Slovis |
Editing by | Kelley Dixon |
Original air date | September 2, 2012 |
Running time | 47 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"Gliding Over All" is the eighth episode and mid-season finale of the fifth season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad, and the 54th overall episode of the series. Written by Moira Walley-Beckett and directed by Michelle MacLaren, it aired on AMC in the United States on September 2, 2012.
The episode is named after poem 271 in Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, a book that is featured prominently in the series.
The episode marks the final chronological appearance of Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, though he subsequently reprised the role in Better Call Saul and El Camino.
Plot
At Vamonos Pest,
Walt meets with
Walt asks Todd to meet with his uncle,
For the next few months, Walt's meth empire runs profitably and uninhibited, raking in millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Marie Schrader encourages Skyler White to reconcile with Walt. Later, Skyler brings him to an enormous pile of money she has been collecting and maintaining in a storage unit. After explaining to a stunned Walt that there is simply too much money to launder through their car wash, Skyler asks him how much money will be enough before she can have her former life with their children back. Later, Walt tells Skyler that he will quit. Walt visits Jesse and the two reminisce about the simpler days of cooking meth in the RV. Before he leaves, Walt leaves behind two bags. Fearing for his safety, Jesse unzips the bags slowly, only to find them filled with cash. Relieved, he disposes of a gun he had been concealing during the visit.
Production
This episode features several nods to earlier episodes, such as the fly at the beginning of the episode (referencing "
It was estimated that the pile of money measured 6 ft × 3 ft × 2 ft and that Skyler would have not needed a storage unit until she had upwards of $10 million.
"I asked prop master Mark Hansen, and he and his guys had tried, just for their own edification, to figure out how much that would be if it was roughly a half-and-half mix of twenties and fifties, and he guessed somewhere in the vicinity of eighty million dollars—eighty, eighty-five, ninety—that's a lotta dough. I don't know, we may have erred on the side of showmanship there instead of reality, I don't know if [Walt] could've made that much that quickly."
According to Peter Gould, the episode originally featured a scene where Walt is told by his doctor that his cancer is still in remission. However, the scene was cut so that Walt's current state would be left ambiguous.[5] This is the final episode to feature Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut, albeit deceased in the trunk of Walt’s car.
Reception
Ratings
"Gliding Over All" was watched by 2.78 million viewers and received a 1.3
Critical reception
TV Fanatic's Matt Richenthal gave it a 4.8 out of 5 star rating, stating: "'Gliding Over All' still managed to shock, taking Walt to a place I never imagined he'd be prior to the big reveal: contentment. Happiness. A sense of satisfaction over a job well done, an emperor who no longer needed an empire." Richenthal particularly liked the two montages showing the prison hits and the time-lapse.[7] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix called the episode "an absolutely gorgeous piece of work, in both the visual sense and the way it brought us to the next, final phase of Walter White's story."[8]
This episode was nominated for three
In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Gliding Over All" as the 13th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[10]
Notes
- ^ Seen in the episode "Bullet Points".
References
- ^ Amitin, Seth (September 3, 2012). "Breaking Bad: "Gliding Over All" Review". IGN. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
- ^ a b Neuman, Clayton (September 5, 2012). "Vince Gilligan Answers Fan Questions (Part I)". AMC. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2012.
- ^ "Answers to 13 Nagging Questions about the 'Breaking Bad' Storage Unit". SpareFoot. September 12, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2013.
- ^ Dixon, Kelley. "Breaking Bad Insider Podcast - Season 5". AMC. Archived from the original on October 6, 2013. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
- ^ Dixon, Kelley (30 September 2013). "Breaking Bad Insider 509" (Podcast). Breaking Bad Insider Podcast. Event occurs at 46:15–47:10. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
- ^ Bibel, Sara (September 5, 2012). "Sunday Cable Ratings: NASCAR Wins Night, 'Breaking Bad', 'Keeping Up With the Kardashians', 'Leverage', 'Hell on Wheels', 'Married to Jonas', & More". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on September 8, 2012. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
- ^ Richenthal, Matt (September 3, 2012). "Breaking Bad Review: Down the Toilet". TV Fanatic. Retrieved September 3, 2012.
- ^ Sepinwall, Alan (September 3, 2012). "Mid-season finale review: 'Breaking Bad' - 'Gliding Over All'". HitFix. Retrieved September 3, 2012.
- ^ "Breaking Bad". emmys.com. Retrieved September 17, 2013.
- ^ John Gonzalez (September 30, 2019). "The Ringer's Definitive 'Breaking Bad' Episodes Ranking". The Ringer.
External links
- "Gliding Over All" at the official Breaking Bad site
- "Gliding Over All" at IMDb