2.12 Phoenix

Summary and spoilers

Walt eventually gets to the hospital and holds his new baby girl well after she was born. Skyler is happy, yet she can’t help but express her disappointment that Walt was not there for the birth. Walt takes a while to notice that Skyler’s hospital chauffeur Ted is also in the room. Walt leaves to return home and get Skyler’s overnight bag (and his own). It is here that he begins to unload a huge bag of cash, and we learn in this manner that the drug deal must have gone down well.

Jesse emerges from his endless trip and finds that someone has taken all the meth – and he has no memory that it was Walt, and that he was the one who told Walt where it was stashed. Jesse calls Walt and breaks the news to him, but Walt is so disgusted that he simply says nothing and hangs up, leaving Jesse to still believe that the drugs are gone forever.

Jane meets her dad Donald at an AA meeting. Afterward, she once again denies that she is involved with that tenant living next door.

Walt is planning on getting a high-tech sonar alarm system to warn if anything like a baby falls into the pool. Hank and Marie offer to take care of it; Skyler says she is going back to work soon, and even Walt Jr. is going to get a job, all to help out with Walt’s upcoming surgery. Walt is silently frustrated that no knows he has an almost bottomless bag of cash stashed away. And it’s going to be difficult for him to use that money without coming up with a reason to have it in the first place. With no one else to share his riches with, he brings new daughter Holly to have a look while he is attending to one of her night feeds.

Jesse makes a rare visit to Walt’s school classroom, there to confront him about taking the drugs and leaving him to hang in the breeze. But Walt fires back; he’s disgusted with Jesse’s drug use, which caused him to miss the birth of his daughter. Jesse wants his 480 thousand dollar share of the drug deal, but Walt, believing that Jesse will kill himself with drugs, refuses to give it to him until Jesse submits to a urine drug test and is clean. Jesse refuses the test. When Walt says bad things about Jane, Jesse throws the pee glass at Walt and shatters it against the periodic table. The meeting ends in silence, as Jesse stalks out. This is by far the most tension ever seen between the pair; it feels almost like Jesse could kill Walt if given the chance and the right circumstances.

The difference in philosophies of Walt and Skyler are highlighted when Walt Jr. completes a website dedicated to his dad, and featuring a big ‘Donate’ button linked to a PayPal account. Walt immediately says that they can’t ask for money because that would be charity, a word he obviously finds distasteful. Skyler has no such problems with the word or the site, and begs Walt to let Walt Jr. leave it up.

Walt goes to Saul with his problem of having money and being unable to spend it. Saul’s plan is to use a hacker to funnel money in small bits through Walt Jr.’s website.

Jesse returns home and starts prepping another heroin/meth combo syringe. As he drops off, he tells Jane that Walt owes him 480 thousand dollars. Jane’s interest is highly piqued. Never trust a junkie.

When Jane doesn’t show up for her next AA meeting, Donald drives to her place and catches her leaving Jesse’s apartment. Inside, he finds Jesse passed out and a batch of needles on the bedside table. In a rage, he tries to throw Jesse out, but Jesse grabs a baseball bat and holds him at bay, stating that he’s a rent-paying tenant with rights, yo. Donald gets on the phone to the police to report drug use, but stops short when Jane promises to go back to rehab ‘tomorrow’. After Donald leaves, Jane plants the idea in Jesse’s head that if they had enough money, they could do whatever they wanted and not have to listen to anybody.

Jane takes the lead now, calling Walt and demanding Jesse’s share – immediately. When she doesn’t get it, she threatens to blackmail Walt and expose him to his school and family. Jesse has to decide who he is going to side with: his old partner, or his new one.

Walt mulls his options and decides to bring the money to Jesse. Jesse and Jane get inspired upon seeing it, deciding to flush their remaining drugs and get clean. But the sight of those needles changes their mind; they get high instead.

After dropping the money, Walt stops at a bar for a drink and, coincidentally ends up sitting next to Donald. Walt shares his troubles with Jesse, leaving names out and actually making it sound like Jesse is his nephew. Donald says you can never give up on family. Walt returns to Jesse’s place to talk. When no one answers, he breaks in easily and finds Jesse and Jane passed out in bed. He tries to wake Jesse and fails, and in the process, Jane rolls over on her back. When she begins to vomit and choke, Walt at first starts to help her, then hesitates, then leaves her like that to die, feeling that this is the best solution for his problems and for those of his ‘nephew’.

Comments

This is by far the most intense episode to date. Walt’s cold decision to let Jane die leaves us wondering just what factors were being weighed in his mind as he stood there and let it happen.

Memorable Moments

• Walt places Holly on her side, tucking a towel next to her to stop her from rolling onto her back. Later, Jane does the same for Jesse as he starts his meth/heroin trip

Breaking Bad Quotes

Skyler: Oh, Ted – Ted drove me here, thank God. I mean, this - this little bundle of joy of ours was practically on rails. I mean, halfway here I thought he was gonna have to pull over and deliver her himself. [laughs]
Walt: Wow! Well, I’m glad…it didn’t come to that.

"That’s right – Daddy did that. Daddy did that for you."
- Walt, showing Holly stacks of drug money

Walt: Like you dropped the ball? When have you EVER not dropped the ball, Jesse? Blasted out of your mind on whatever the hell that was – what was that? Heroin? Jesus!
Jesse: I was on my day off, man. What I do on my day off is -
Walt: Day off? We were on call, you junkie, on call for the biggest deal of our lives. And I just managed to pull it off by the skin of my teeth, no thanks to you. And YOU – made me miss the birth of my daughter. Son of a bitch.
Jesse: How much?
Walt: How much what?
Jesse: How much did you get for the deal?
Walt: 1.2 million.
Jesse: 600 thousand each.
Walt: 480 thousand. Saul’s cut is 20 percent.
Jesse: Alright, so where’s my money?
Walt: [laughs]
Jesse: What?
Walt: You are joking, right? If I gave you that money, you would be dead inside of a week.
Jesse: Yo, man, look I’m off the heroin. I didn’t even like it anyway, it made me sick. And the meth, you know, I can take it or leave it. I’m clean, Mr. White – for real.
Walt: [tosses glass to Jesse] Prove it. Pee in that.
Jesse: How gay are you, seriously?
Walt: Pee in it. They’re selling testing kits at the drugstores. If you are clean, I will give you every last dime. No, huh? Well, I guess until then, you’ll just have to depend on the kindness of strangers to get high. That and your little junkie girlfriend.

"New Zealand, that’s where they made Lord of the Rings. I say we just move there, yo, and, I mean, you can do your art. Right? Like, you can paint the local castles and shit, and I can be a bush pilot."
- Jesse to Jane

"Can’t give up on them. Never. What else is there?"
- Donald to Walt regarding family

2.11 Mandala

Summary and spoilers

Walt and Jesse and their gang of pushers have been enjoying a long run with good sales and no conflicts, but that has ended. A young boy kills Kombo (Jesse’s friend and foot soldier). This was the offshoot of trying to sell more and moving into new territory – plus the word on the street now is that everyone knows Jesse did not kill a man with an ATM.

Kombo’s death causes Skinny Pete to quit too, and Badger has already left town. This is bad news for Walt. He has just decided to have a lobectomy, an operation that, if successful, would rid his body of cancer. The cost will be close to 200 thousand dollars.

Walt and the depressed Jesse meet with Saul. Saul knows someone who knows someone who…knows someone who can move huge amounts of meth quickly and safely. Walt and Jesse have a meeting arranged in a fast food chicken place, but no one shows up. On a hunch, Walt returns and stays there most of the day, finally realizing that the man he is looking for works (and actually owns) the fast food place. Walt speaks to him – the man, Gus, has reservations centering around Jesse’s drug addiction, but he is somewhat swayed by Walt’s arguments concerning the quality and profitability of the product. Gus makes no commitment, but the meeting appears to be open-ended.

Jesse’s depression has escalated. He blames himself for Kombo’s death. Preparing to drown himself in bowls of smoky meth, he asks Jane, the recovering addict, to leave. She does not leave – she stays, and before long the apartment is a wreck and Jane and Jesse only leave to get more drugs. On one of Jane’s trips, she returns with heroin and syringes. For the first time in his life, Jesse tries a combination of heroin and ice injected, and appears to be having a non-stop orgasm.

Skyler has an ultrasound and all is well. Walt arrives late from his first drug meeting. Skyler has decided to have a c-section this time. She dashes off to get a cake and return to the office for Ted’s birthday party, where – at his request – she imitates Marilyn Monroe and sings a sultry, "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to him. Later, Skyler finds a huge discrepancy in the books. Ted has been hiding millions of dollars in revenue from the tax office. Skyler agrees to keep it a secret but says she cannot be a part of it. Yet the next day, Ted is pleased to see what she has returned to her desk. She is still torn and upset, and as she stares at her Benecke screensaver, she feels the first pang of labor. She rings Walt, and then SMS’s him, but Walt is involved in a different drama. Walt has just received word that he can move the whole 38 pounds of meth through Gus, but he must have it at a truck stop in an hour, or no deal – ever again. When Jesse does not answer the phone, Walt drives over at top speed, breaks in, shakes the location of the meth out of the comatose Jesse, bags it up, and rushes out, ignoring the messages from Skyler.

Comments

This feels like a season-ending cliffhanger, even though I know it isn’t. It’s such an intense, well-paced episode.

Hank and Marie do not make an appearance in this episode, nor does Walt Jr.

Memorable Moments

• Jesse floating above the bed in the throes of a heroin/ice trip

Breaking Bad Quotes

Skinny Pete: This game we playin’ – we don’t got the street cred to survive it. Back when everyone thought you killed Spooge, maybe we were doin’ okay, but that whole…thing to the head thing, the ATM?
Jesse: Yeah?
Skinny Pete: His junkie bitch copped to it - whole town knows it wasn’t you.

"Let’s start with some tough love, alright? Ready for this? Here goes: you two suck at peddling meth. Period."
- Saul

Jesse: One of my guys…a friend who worked for me…got murdered. It was my fault, I put him on that corner. I’m gonna smoke some crystal and …I just think you should go, being that you’re in a program and all.
Jane: You could come with me to a meeting?
Jesse: No. No meetings.

"Yeah, we’re, uh, we’re in the big time now."
- Jesse (underimpressed with the fast food meeting location)

Gus: I have to ask – why? Why him?
Walt: Because he does what I say. Because I can trust him.

"And you shoulda seen the coffin! It was like this shiny white pearlescent, like I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the exact same paint job on a Lexus, right? So we’re definitely talkin’ high end."
- Skinny Pete (describing Kombo’s funeral)

2.10 Over

Summary and spoilers

The episode opens: we look slightly into the future, as DEA agents in full protective gear remove evidence linked to Walt and Jesse’s meth crimes. Next to Walt’s exploded car are two body bags. Are our blowfish-confident protagonists about to die?

Skyler encourages and convinces Walt to take the week off from work until his radiation issues clear up. Walt waits until she leaves and then meets with Jesse to tell him the good news about his condition, and to say that they will not need to cook any more.

At a party to celebrate Walt’s remission, Skyler warmly thanks the absent Gretchen and Elliot for funding Walt’s treatments. The party turns ugly when Walt keeps pouring straight tequila for Walt Jr. When Hank steps in and takes the bottle, he is confronted by Walt, who will not back down. The tension ends when Walt Jr. starts throwing up in the pool.

Jesse and Jane are still very much an item, with Jesse making a huevos rancheros and able to dedicate a whole day to her, now that Walt has slowed down the business.

Walt calls Skyler at work to apologize, but she gets interrupted by Ted just before she hears his explanation, which was lame anyway. Skyler uses this moment to confide to Ted about Walt’s illness.

Walt has discovered that the water heater is leaking. He pays cash for a tankless unit at the hardware store, but has to pull back one of the bills when he sees it has spots of blood on it.

Jane and Jesse are enjoying a lovely afternoon in bed leafing through Jesse’s superhero drawings. When Jane’s dad arrives unannounced, Jane zips back into her apartment through the back door and – for her dad’s benefit - acts as if Jesse is a tenant and nothing more.

Walt installs his new on-demand heater. He tries to apologize to Walt Jr. about making him drink, but Walt Jr. is more impressed with his own drinking prowess, and brags that he kept up with Walt and Uncle Hank.

Jane pops into Jesse’s as if nothing has happened. Jesse asks for an explanation. Jane thinks what she has done was to protect Jesse. Jesse sees it as a slight. And it is, because while Jesse thought they had a relationship, Jane sees it as merely a fun fling.

Walt has found some dry rot where the old water heater was leaking. Bored by lack of activity, and with plenty of cash to spend, he loads up a huge trolley at the hardware store and starts in on a number of diverting projects. Now he’s under the house, removing huge sections of rotted wood.

Working late, Skyler breaks into tears and confides to Ted that the good news hasn’t made things feel any different. Ted has kind words and extends a hand of comfort, and they holds hands for a good long while.

Walt is going mad now, refusing to go to work until he alleviates all the rot; Jesse, thrown from the safety of his relationship, is smoking meth. He is saved by Jane, who slips an ‘Apology Girl’ superhero drawing under his door.

Working late again, Skyler watches Ted walk by to leave the office. She quickly scatters her pens across the floor. This attracts Ted back to pick them up.

At yet another trip to the hardware store, Walt sees a cart loaded with materials for meth cooking. He instructs the cart owner that the matches he is buying are the wrong type. The young guy flees with terror in his eyes. Walt goes about his business for awhile, until something clicks in his brain. Possessed, he walks with purpose out to the parking lot, straight to the two tough young punks who would be meth cookers. "Stay out of my territory!", he tells the tougher one, and this guy, despite his bulk, reads something in Walt’s body language that tells him to back away.

Comments

This is a fully engrossing episode – so much so, that 2/3 of the way through, I had forgotten that Walt and Jesse might be in those body bags at the end.

If Walt does go a bit mad, and lose his very pregnant wife to an affair, he kind of deserves it for all he has done. In any case, he is evolving into something very different. He tells Skyler that it was not he who did those acts at the party, yet it was the Walt that he has consistently been since learning of his illness.

It’s always great to see John De Lancie (a Star Trek alumni) getting some work.

Memorable Moments

• Frypan-cam (below-pan view of Jesse frying an egg)
• Walt’s steely warning to the other meth merchants

Breaking Bad Quotes

"It’s kind of funny. When I got my diagnosis – cancer – I said to myself, ‘Why me?’ And then, the other day, when I got the good news, I said the same thing."
- Walt

Jane: [sees Jesse is making breakfast] Wow!
Jesse: You weren’t supposed to wake up.
Jane: Ever?

Jane: And this guy? What’s his secret power?
Jesse: That’s, uh, Kanga-man.
Jane: Kanga-man. Half man, half kangaroo. And who’s this in his pouch?
Jesse: His sidekick Joey. He rides around in his pouch and, you know, fights crime.
Jane: So that makes Kanga-man a she. You know that, right? Only female kangaroos have pouches?
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, I know, but, you know, he’s definitely a dude. He’s a product of experimentation.
Jane: He’s kinda hot I guess…nice haunches.

Walt: But son, I owe you an apology most of all. I should have used better judgment all around. I mean, having you drink in the first place – it was not right, and for that I’m very sorry.
Walt Jr.: But I kept up, right? You and Uncle Hank – I drank three.

Skyler: There’s supposed to be a light at the end of the tunnel, but lately it just feels like -
Ted: More tunnel.

"Stay out of my territory!"
- Walt to the other meth cookers

2.09 4 Days Out

Summary and spoilers

Walt gets an ominous preview of his CAT scan that he wasn’t supposed to see by reading the reflection in a framed photo behind the technician’s monitor. The lumps and bumps convince prompts him to make more money fast, especially since Saul’s laundering fees are just about halving what he makes. There’s another reason: the barrel of methylamine has a use-by date that is fast approaching. It’s use it, or lose it and steal more, so even Jesse agrees to cook. But Jesse has to blow off his new girlfriend to do that.

Skyler drops Walt off at the airport, believing that he is going to visit his mother; meanwhile, Jesse is waiting outside the terminal to pick Walt up in to the mobile meth lab. In a remote desert location, they cook an amazing 1.2 million dollars of meth. But then things start going terribly wrong. First, Jesse leaves the keys in the ignition and drains the battery. They try to jump start it with a generator that catches on fire. Jesse douses the fire with the last of their water. Walt finally relents and lets Jesse call Skinny Pete to pick them up. After waiting some time, Jesse calls him again and discovers that Pete is on the wrong road just as the phone battery runs out – and the gas lantern is finished too.

Bleakness forces Walt to remember that the generator can be slowly hand-cranked to create electricity. For the better part of a hot day, the guys take turns cranking that generator. Exhaustion also brings clarity to Jesse, who realizes that Walt’s painful coughing indicates that they are not cooking because of methylamine’s use-by date, which is a fallacy. Jesse briefly gets the engine to start, but it soon dies again before they can move. Outside in the desert, Walt coughs up blood and faces up to his own death.

Jesse won’t let this happen, however; he is the fighter who berates and prompts Walt to come up with a scientific solution: a series of battery cells made from the graphite in the brake pads and assorted loose change. Walt’s device works and they drive out.

Walt also has good news about his scan; his tumors have been reduced by 80%. The blob he saw on the scan and his coughing are caused by a non-life-threatening reaction to the radiation and can be easily remedied. The family, gathered in the doctor’s office and seated in chairs arranged like a home theater, is thrilled by this good news, and they share tears of joy. Later, alone in the hospital bathroom, Walt punches the paper towel dispenser in frustration.

Comments

Hopefully I’m not missing something obvious here, but I assume Walt is frustrated and punching the towel dispenser because he had completely accepted and been at peace with his impending death, and had provided for his family…only to find out that the struggle was going to continue indefinitely.

Those who want to see more about Skyler (count me in) might be a bit disappointed that a couple of episodes ago, she was dressing up for work with her old colleague, and that plot area has been completely dropped in the last couple of episodes.

Breaking Bad Quotes

Jesse: Yo, you wanna go shopping, go do it yourself, alright, I got plans.
Walt: Smoking marihuana, eating Cheetos, and masturbating do not constitute plans in my book!

Walt: You brought a meth lab to the airport.
Jesse: What! You said we were in a hurry; I saved us a trip.

Jesse: What are we building?
Walt: You said it yourself.
Jesse: A robot?
Walt: A battery.