In comparison to the masterpiece of an episode preceding this one, every positive thing I have to say about "Granite State" seems like an exaggeration, but I won't take "Ozymandias" as a threshold and instead focus on the multiple features that make the penultimate of all Breaking Bad episodes a brilliant one, just not the all-time best.
Regardless of where I start, every last scene or even shot of "Granite State" is heart-wrenching to watch and thereby continues the pall of tragedy and lack of any form of humour that is clouding the series since "Ozymandias", although this time, this is done through subtlety and (mostly) mental distress, conjuring up a reaction in me that was close to the shock I felt whilst watching the aforementioned episodic predecessor. Both major characters are imprisoned at the moment, albeit with a significant comfort distinction between these two forms of confinement, and both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul step up to Emmy- worthy performances as they illustrate their characters' desperate situations in tremendously affecting, nearly wordless acting.
Yet the misery doesn't end there and writer/director Peter Gould makes sure that the supporting cast gets its share as well, further decreasing the cheer and increasing emotionally powerful scenes (one shot of Marie gazing into space and one of her vandalised house are all it takes to showcase that her life as well is at an absolute nadir) in an episode that really leaves you depressed as the end credits roll. As the Breaking Bad theme song is played in full length for the one and only time on the series and a paper swan on the bar felt like a Prison Break reference to me (though nobody else seemed to have interpreted it this way), "Granite State" has reached its ending and makes audiences ready for the final episode not with a cliffhanger of "To'hajiilee" or "Gliding Over All" proportions, but with what is the darkest outlook possible.
