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