I can’t believe Hank Schrader is gonna be shitting on the bowl for a whole year before we get started again. I understand that the networks want a series like this to go on forever, and writers of a series like this want to wrap things up before it drags on too long. I get that 2 mini seasons of 8 episodes is pretty much the only compromise that works for everyone. But Christ I feel like we just started and I gotta wait a whole goddam year before we conclude this saga. I feel like I just was writing about the premiere a minute ago. My heart just stopped racing from the train heist. My palms just stopped sweating from the scene with Mike. My boner that Lydia and her weird jittery neurotic robot voice strangely gives me just started to come down. And now we’re done until next summer?? I might not even live until July 2013.

Click after the jump to read and discuss the mid-season finale. Spoiler alert obviously.

Do you hate Walt yet? Do you really hate him? I know I say I do. I was Team Mike. I hate his arrogance. I hate his weird tough guy routine one minute and his “I’m-the-victim” the next. And now, at this stage in the game, he’s killed like 20 people. For God’s sake he hired neo-Nazi skin heads to murder 9 people in 2 minutes this week. But I still truly don’t hate him. If I’m being honest with myself I still don’t actually despise him. And I don’t think I’m alone either. I think thats the most impressive part of Breaking Bad. It always has been but more so now than ever – Gilligan and company basically brainwash everyone into thinking he’s doing the right thing. Kind of symbolic on how everyone in the drug world operates though. Always making excuses and rationalizing no matter how bad things get. The actors and the viewer are basically doing the same thing.

The prison murder montage was fucking tremendous. Breaking Bad has always done an amazing job with those musical montages – whether its them cooking meth or counting money or the 3 month distribution operation or whatever it may be – but I thought the prison montage might have been the best. It was straight up horrific. People being stabbed to death, burned to death, and beat to death all in a matter of 2 minutes with Sinatra casually playing. The music choices always confuse the shit out of me, if I’m being honest. I don’t ever take the time to really decipher what the symbolism of each song might be. But whenever its rampant drug use or murder juxtaposed against old classics or showtunes or any other sort of weird music, I think it comes off looking so genius and unique.

I think the final 8 episodes are gonna be the Hank Schrader show. The same way Mike was always a pretty cool character but season 4 and 5 he became a legend, I think we’re gonna see a lot out of Dean Norris. The cat and mouse between him and Walter is gonna be epic. Ordinarily I would say having a whole series like this boil down to a cop vs. drug dealer battle is kind of lame. But I have full faith that the way Hank pursues Walt – and how we inevitably end up with Walter and a machine gun in a New Hampshire car on his 52nd birthday – is gonna be absolutely classic.

PS – Cannot STAND the way Jesse has just faded out to become a huge pussy. Hoping for a huge comeback involving him killing the shit out of Todd and acting like a boss once more.

PPS – Funny how little Walter’s battle with cancer means these days. The whole reason this started and the reason this show existed was because of cancer and now its just a quick afterthought in the middle of the episode. Walt was once defined by his cancer now it means very very little.