Ozymandias (Breaking Bad)

Ozymandias is the 14th episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad and the 60th episode overall.

Plot
With Hank's plan to apprehend Walt going awry with the arrival of the Brotherhood, Walt witnesses something truly horrifying that sends him on the run. Jesse is allowed to live, but for a fate worse than death, becoming the Brotherhood's slave. Meanwhile, Marie, still believing Walt to be in custody, tries to convince Skylar to tell Walt, jr. the truth about his father before it's too late.

Why it Rocks

 * 1) Even though the remaining major events of the series would chronologically happen about a year later within the show, this one does a great job setting up the stage for it all and having a lot change within the narrative as a payoff for sticking with the series for so long. Walt's world and seemingly-perfect plan quite literally fall apart in this episode, though it's ironically because of his allies rather than his enemies, which is an interesting twist.
 * 2) Excellent direction by Rian Johnson, who directed other episodes of the series, was fresh off writing and directing Looper, and who would later direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Knives Out.
 * 3) Many themes are explored throughout the episode that become more important through the rest of the series and even lead to some analysis by colleges. These themes include how the titular poem Ozymandias depicts how a proud and arrogant king loses all his power, like what happens to Walt, and how Walt may still have the possibility of redemption, as shown by how he still does what is considered "the right thing" at plenty of points in the episode and in his phone call to Skylar, which has encouraged further analysis. Another bit of symbolism that's ever present throughout the series includes how the desert is pretty much unchanged despite the horrible events that take place.
 * 4) The death of Hank is an iconic moment in the series, one that many fans find to be a high point as well, and Dean Norris kills it in his final performance. What makes it so iconic is how Walt tries to bribe Jack into sparing him, but Hank isn't interested at all, and chooses not to beg and go out as a DEA rather than a coward, saying the iconic line "My name is ASAC Schrader, and you can go fuck yourself."
 * 5) Loads of iconic lines in television from this one episode like Hank's final words to Walt "You're the smartest guy I ever met...but you're too stupid to see...he made up his mind 10 minutes ago." And Walter's final insult to Jesse "I watched Jane die. I was there. I watched her overdose and choke to death. I could have saved her. But I didn't."
 * 6) It's satisfying to see Walter finally get some comeuppance for what he did throughout the series, losing the faith of his family and his image as a smart, law abiding citizen, and become the wanted criminal we all knew he would become eventually when everything starts crumbling.
 * 7) Skylar, Marie, and Walt, jr. finally all get some character development as Marie shows she's stronger willed than one would assume, Skylar shows she has the strength to leave Walt and take care of their children on her own, and we finally get to see Walt, jr's. reaction to the truth, which is highly realistic and how he loses faith in his father, who he previously called his hero, and becomes a stronger character as a result.
 * 8) Walter does some good things throughout the episode, as shown by how he kidnaps Holly, but quickly decides to return her to Skylar after she calls out "mama" (which, amazingly, is a moment that wasn't in the script, the child simply saw her mother behind Bryan Cranston and started calling out to her, which Cranston went along with in the context of the story), and in his phone call taking all the credit for creating his empire and getting all the money as well as the murder of Hank, possibly to bring suspicion away from Skylar and bring it all on him.
 * 9) Plenty of symbolism to earlier parts of the series, like a flashback in the beginning of Walt and Jesse's first time cooking in the RV, which is juxtaposed with a creative dissolve to the horrifying moments in the present and Walt's collapse as a person, as well as a moment where he pushes his remaining barrel of cash through the desert and comes across the pair of pants he lost in the beginning of the series, now dirty and crusty.
 * 10) We finally get some payoff for the new-identity contact that has been mentioned constantly throughout as he's finally used this time by Walt, as opposed to him not being able to afford him in season 4 and Jesse dipping out at the last second a few episodes earlier.
 * 11) A satisfying end to the episode where Walter gives Holly away to some firemen to return home while leaving his family so they don't suffer the ramifications of his actions any further and getting in the car with the new-identity contact to leave his previous life forever.

Reception
Ozymandias received universal critical acclaim and is widely considered the best episode in the series and one of the absolute greatest episodes in TV history. It has often been praised for the pay-off to the buildup of the rest of the series as well as the deeply emotional impact of the episode itself, despite making it hard to watch. Bryan Cranston and Anna Gunn both received Primetime Emmys for their performances in the episode with writer Moira Walley-Beckett receiving the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series as well. As of May 2022, the episode holds a perfect 10 out of 10 stars on IMDb from 160,000 ratings, having had only a brief interruption in said rating between January 2021 to March 2022, becoming one of the few pieces of media to hold such a score on the website.

Trivia

 * 1) Creator Vince Gilligan convinced the network to delay having the cast and crew credits in the show until a third of a way into the episode to have the emotional impact of the opening parts unaffected.
 * 2) The opening flashback of the episode was, in fact, the last scene shot for the series.
 * 3) Guillermo Del Toro desperately wanted to direct the episode, but it never fell through.