Dean Norris
AMC
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his DEA brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) are now officially engaged in a pissing contest. Mars – the animal energy that thrives on winning and defeating opponents – rules.
Last night’s broadcast of “Blood Money,” the first of the show’s final eight episodes, picked up with Hank’s leaving the White family’s bathroom, where he had found the copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, inscribed by Gale to the other WW. Hank, stunned that Walt is Heisenberg, feigns illness and rushes home to compare Gale’s penmanship in the book against those in evidence samples. It’s a match.
Although keeping the information under wraps might serve his investigation better, Hank, who’s seething and volatile (Mars) after learning the truth about Walt, doesn’t keep this reveal to himself. After slugging (Mars) Walt, Hank confronts him about his true identity and heinous deeds.
Walt responds by telling Hank that, because his cancer has returned (information he seemingly hasn’t yet shared with his family), he probably won’t live long enough to see the inside of a jail cell. And, more threateningly (Mars), if Hank doesn’t know who Walt truly is by now, Hank should “tread lightly.”
Although “Breaking Bad” has extensively explored the impersonal archetypes of Neptunian deceit and Plutonian death, evil and the underworld, the show, from its inception, has also addressed more personal Martial activities, such as aggression, beatings, shootings and murder.
And sex.
“Blood Money” is something of a companion piece to the series’ pilot, in which Walt, having been newly diagnosed with lung cancer and with nothing left to lose, sheds his asexual high-school-chemistry-teacher persona when he goes to bed and stuns his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) with his sexual vigor, prompting her to say, both inquisitively and pleasurably, “Walt, is that you?”
Correspondingly, in the episode which aired last night, Hank called for cartons of Heisenberg evidence to be brought to his garage, and began animatedly sorting images and documents like a man who has rediscovered a previously hibernating sexual potency (Mars). Suddenly in possession of a lusty (Mars) call to action – not surprisingly, Mars rules work and going after what you want – Hank is revivified, as was Walt at the end of the pilot. Impassioned action is sexy, and Hank demonstrates he can wear it well.
As the series winds towards its ending, both Walt and Hank have their respective Aries-fueled energies to tend to. Walt has “retired” from Heisenberg matters and is now involved, with Skyler, at the car-wash, a money-laundering front which suggests a tamer enterprise, on the surface. Hank, on the other hand, seems to be embracing, for the first time and with great gusto, his own Aries-inspired pursuits, which will no doubt provoke viewer cheers and support.
The wardrobe-color scheme is also relevant. During his confrontation with Walt, Hank wears a deep-scarlet-colored shirt – one of the blood-colored colors ruled by Mars that’s also tied to the “blood money” which Walt’s meth-making expertise has helped generate in a steady stream from the time he started cooking. Walt, on the other hand, wears a white shirt and a light ivory-hued jacket– colors associated with the Moon and which, in certain cultures, are associated with death. White is also the color of the lily of the valley flower that Walt used to poison Brock.
The showdown – metaphoric pistols drawn in Martial fighting-spirit fashion – is here. Mars, which rules guns and is often explosive in its self-expression, does not like to tread lightly.
Astrology Television Rating: ♂ (Mars)
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