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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/breaking-bad-writer-rabid-dog-618853
>'Breaking Bad' Writer on 'Rabid Dog': 'Walt Has Corrupted Everyone'
7:00 PM PDT 9/1/2013 by Aaron Couch
Sam Catlin tells THR it's "ironic" the show's key characters all have "murder on their minds, except for Walt."
(Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sunday's episode of Breaking Bad, "Rabid Dog.")
For the first time in a long while, Walt (Bryan Cranston) isnt' the most ruthless character on Breaking Bad. In Sunday's episode, he rebuffs both Saul's (Bob Odenkirk) and Skyler's (Anna Gunn) proposals to kill Jesse (Aaron Paul).
Longtime Breaking Bad writer Sam Catlin says that comes down to Walt having a soft spot for Jesse -- and also bringing out the worst in those around him.
"Walt is the only one who – for once – is sort of tapping the brakes. Jesse is out to get Walt. Skyler is now ready to cross the line into murder. Hank is stepping over the line and basically saying 'If Jesse dies, f--k it. Who cares.' Even Marie is talking about fantasies of killing Walt," Catlin tells The Hollywood Reporter. "Walt's sort of brought out the worst in everyone, while he is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube for himself and saying 'there's got to be a way we can get out of this without getting violent.' But it's sort of too late, because he's corrupted everyone."
Catlin, who penned "Rabid Dog" and made his directorial debut with the episode, calls it "one of the hardest episodes to break in the history of the show," because of what they did with the timeline -- allowing us to see the parallel paths of Walt as well as Hank and Jesse.
"From the cliffhanger of (the previous episode), it's so clear the house is going to get burned down," Catlin says. "So when we don't do that, we sort of wanted to make the audience wait for an explanation. 'How the hell is that house still standing?' We thought it was a fun challenge in terms of storytelling to make the audience wait for their answers."
Find the rest of THR's conversation with Catlin below, where he delves deeper in what motivates the characters in the latest episode.
THR: We've been waiting for Jesse and Hank to team up and we finally got to see it. What were some of the challenges of writing that relationship between these two guys?
SC: It was something we were always excited about doing at some point. They'd had very parallel existences on our show, so it was fun to put them in the same room together. They're both in extremis in their lives right now, so there wasn't a lot of opportunity for comedy. What Hank wants from Jesse is very complicated and a little bit corrupt, and what Jesse wants is also pretty polluted. It was a challenge sorting out what one wanted from the other. But it's always great to have those two actors in the same room.
THR: You played around with the timeline in this episode, and we got to see the gasoline in the house scene at two different points. How'd you decide to do that?
SC: This was one of the hardest episodes to break in the history of the show. I don't think anyone would disagree with me. This one and the one before it. A lot of it was this sort of time element that we were playing with. We wanted to hide Jesse from the audience and see how long we could do that. Hopefully there would be some tension in not knowing where he is. From the cliffhanger of (the previous episode), it's so clear the house is going to get burned down. So when we don't do that, we sort of wanted to make the audience wait for an explanation. "How the hell is that house still standing?" We thought it was a fun challenge in terms of storytelling to make the audience wait for their answers.
THR: Did you have any hopes of what conclusions people might jump to?
SC: What we were hoping for is people were like "Jesus, we have no f--ing idea." Walt has sort of an explanation, which is "he's erratic. He's flown off the handle, he's on drugs, he's lost his nerve" – that seems as credible as anything else. Although I don't think we're entirely convinced. So hopefully it's a mystery.
THR: Walt Jr. and Skyler aren't taking Walt's lies anymore. Is this the end of Walt being able to lie to his family?
SC: Walt went a while there without lying to Skyler. He'd done so much lying in the first two seasons that we sort of wanted to take a sabbatical. He goes to the well one time too many with Skyler. As great and expert a liar as Walt is, she's a pretty good bullshit detector at this point. She knows his tell. In terms of junior, he's still lying to junior. Junior's under all sorts of misconceptions about why his father might have fainted. There's very little real estate left for lying. From here on out it's pretty much about surviving.
THR: Jesse has been a pawn of Walt's, and was a pawn of Hank in this episode. Now it seems he's stepping out on his own.
SC: Jesse has been manipulated over the seasons. One of the ironies of the episode is Hank's sort of correct in his analysis of the Walt-Jesse manipulation, and that Jesse's a soft spot for Walt. Jesse may not believe it, and in fact he doesn't. Ultimately if Jesse had just listened to Hank's advice, things would have been very different. In a way, Walt is a blind spot to Jesse as well. He can't see that Walt cares for him.
THR: Skyler is ready to kill Jesse before Walt is. Was that much of a discussion in the writer's room, that you'd make Skyler be willing to do this ahead of Walt?
SC: That was a discussion we had in terms of structure of the episode. Again, it'd be ironic if everyone had murder on their minds, except for Walt. Walt is the only one who – for once – is sort of tapping the brakes. Jesse is out to get Walt. Skyler is now ready to cross the line into murder. Hank is stepping over the line and basically saying "If Jesse dies, f--k it. Who cares." Even Marie is talking about fantasies of killing Walt. Walt's sort of brought out the worst in everyone, while he is trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube for himself and saying "there's got to be a way we can get out of this without getting violent." But it's sort of too late, because he's corrupted everyone.
THR: Which scene was the most fun to write?
SC: The most fun scene to write was Walt and Skyler in the hotel room. It was fun to see Walt try to explain to Skyler why Jesse wasn't a threat, and then to push Skyler into that dark place. That was fun, easing her even deeper into the shadows.
THR: What was the most difficult scene to get right?
SC: It may have been the Hank and Jesse stuff with the interviews. There was just a lot to navigate there in terms of their two points of views. But the episode itself, it was a very hard episode to break. But once we did, once we came up with a structure, it was pretty easy to write overall.
THR: How was being a first-time director?
SC: I was terrified to do it. A lot of sleepless nights leading up to it. But when it started, it was great. It was a perfect first-time experience for me. I know the show, I know the crew. And the crew and the actors know their jobs so well. It basically comes down to being prepared and having an informed opinion on what all these experts are bringing you. Saying "yes, no, yes, no." The crew and the actors made it a very enjoyable experience.
http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/breaking-bad-sam-catlin-interview-rabid-dog.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thr%2Fvulture+%28The+Hollywood+Reporter+-+Vulture+Inbound%29
>Breaking Bad Writer Sam Catlin on Walt's Achilles' Heel and the Importance of Tighty-Whities
By Denise Martin
Not to ruin your Labor Day weekend, Breaking Bad fans, but we’re half-way through the final eight episodes. Sad but true. And stressful! Read no further if you haven’t watched Sunday’s episode, “Rabid Dog,” because things went down. Like, down down. Jesse’s on the warpath, having realized that Walt poisoned Brock, and both Saul and Skyler (Skyler!) think he needs be taken down Old Yeller-style. Would Walt really kill Jesse? Hank made the convincing case that, murder and child poisoning aside, Walt legitimately cares for the kid. But now that he’s declared himself a threat? Again, stressful! Vulture caught up with Sam Catlin, who wrote and directed the episode, to get his take on Walt’s evolving attitude toward Jesse and how bad things have gotten for Skyler.
V: As Hank told Jesse, you could argue that Walt’s always had Jesse’s best intentions at heart, even when he’s hurt him. In this episode, it’s very clear that Walt really does care for Jesse insofar as he doesn’t want to kill him. Has that always been apparent to the writers?
SC: I think that Jesse is an Achilles' heel for Walt. Heisenberg, pure Heisenberg, would have had Jesse killed a long time ago. He’s erratic, he’s emotional, he’s not entirely reliable. But for whatever reason, Walt has an affection for Jesse. He’s acted against his own best business interests time and again in order to protect the person who has become sort of a second son. It’s funny, in the beginning, they were such a fun odd couple that we really worked hard to not make them be too cutesy-cutesy together. We never saw them as friends. Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy, nothing like that. We really wanted to keep the tension between them. But over the years, the connection between the actors, just in terms of their experiences, were so profound it just made sense to us that Walt against all his other instincts would be very protective of Jesse. Or rather, he’s grown to be very protective of Jesse. It’s probably something Walt wouldn’t even be able to admit to himself because they really have nothing in common (laughs).
V: He’s confronted by it here. He’s angry with Saul and Skyler for suggesting they get rid of Jesse.
SC: Well, there’s been a series of lines that Walt has crossed along the way, and I think Jesse may be one of the last. Walt has sold little bits of his soul piece by piece, and I think he’s holding on tight to the Jesse part because that may be one of the last pieces he has.
V: But by the end of the episode, it seems he believes Jesse is dangerous. Safe to assume he’s come around on the Old Yeller solution?
SC: Well, he’s calling the Nazis, right? It’s a pretty short list of things you need from Nazis.
V: Skyler’s both defeated and determined to protect her family, and like Walt, she is finding herself crossing new lines. I feel terrible for her!
SC: I completely sympathize. I mean, Walt has destroyed her and she knows it. The writers talk a lot about, and particularly in this season, the fallacy of sunk costs, where gamblers go to the table and they lose and they lose and they lose and the only hope they have for getting their money back is betting more. That sick feeling is what she’s going through there. She’s completely damned to hell as far as she’s concerned. So at this point, when she says, “What’s one more?” it’s just a testament to how broken the whole experience has left her.
V: Walt tears up when Skyler tells him to deal with Jesse. Is that more about the idea that he might have to kill Jesse, or the realization that he’s turned his wife into someone who’d suggest murder?
SC: He’s very emotional about it. I guess you’d have to ask Bryan Cranston that, but to me that moment is about him thinking I can’t kill the kid. I can’t. He’s one of the last things to protect.
V: Does he understand how far Skyler has fallen?
SC: Yes, absolutely. Especially as this season progresses, his sense of the toll this has all taken on his wife, it will all land on him.
V: Anna Gunn recently wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times about the double standard to which some fans hold Skyler. I suspect some will go berserk after what she says to Walt.
SC: We try not to think too much outside our creative responsibilities. We can’t really control how people respond to the character. I think Anna enjoyed playing the scene. I think she liked going to that other place and we felt like it was organic to the story. How the audience reacts, it’s really kind of out of our hands. If we think too much about how it’s gonna land, it can become inhibiting.
V: Right. And after that scene in the hotel room, Hank reminds us all that Jesse is a murderer. Skyler gets dumped on, but Jesse has actually killed someone.
SC: It’s a very good point. That’s something we felt we really needed to hit home because Jesse, the way Aaron plays him, he’s so pathetic and accessible, but this is a kid who in the real world would go to prison for the rest of his life. I don’t really know what to say about the negative feedback for Skyler. I totally feel for her. I feel for her as a mother and as someone who is losing her family, and I gotta believe there’s a sizeable group of our fans too, perhaps a less vocal group, who sympathize with her as well.
V: We’ve got yet another scene of Walt in his tighty-whities. Is there some mandate to make that happen at least a few times a season?
SC: No, no, no (laughs). No. We just play to our strengths. No, really, the tighty whiteys are to me the last of Walter White. There is something to it. Behind the legendary Heisenberg, the badassness, the hat, he is still a guy in his underwear. So it does kind of bring us back to the original Walter White. There are still threads of him left.
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