Tuesday, April 28, 2009

2.08 Better Call Saul


Summary and spoilers

In an episode that could have been titled, “We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Badger”, Badger is arrested while selling meth to an undercover cop. It’s coincidental or convenient that the bench he is arrested near is adorned with an ad for flamboyant but effective criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. Saul takes the case and the money for his services are paid up front via money order made out to a separate company for tax purposes.

Hank is rattled by his experiences down south, but a visit and pep talk from Walt gets him back into the office, even though he is having to fight hard to control his stress levels. His first task is for he and Gomez to question Badger, the street dealer caught with Heisenberg’s blue meth.

Walt visits Saul to make payment and finds out that Badger has been visited by the DEA. Badger’s blue meth has been traced back to the mysterious Heisenberg. Saul is happy to share what he feels is good news ᾦquot; that Badger will walk if he tells the DEA about his supplier. But Walt is less happy; in a show of cold self-preservation, he offers Saul an additional 10 grand to ‘throw’ the case. Saul refuses; desperate, Walt and Jesse don those pom-pom ski masks and abduct Saul. At gunpoint, they demand that he continue to represent Badger, while at the same time promising not to let Badger give any information to the DEA. Walt’s coughing alerts Saul to the fact that he was in the office earlier. Soon, Walt and Jesse have both taken their masks off and agreed to work with Saul to solve their problems.

Saul has a plan; he will facilitate a paid professional jail term server that Badger can finger. The cost: 80 grand. Walt and Jesse have no alternative, and no other way to keep Badger out of jail.

Badger makes the drop and implicates the stooge. It all goes down perfectly, but Hank’s reaction after the bust reveals that he’s not convinced they captured the right guy. You can almost feel that he is close to linking Walt in this scenario.

Jesse’s hand-holding with Jane ended with love-making on sleeping bags on the bare floor. Afterward, Jane reveals she is a recovering druggie and has been clean for 18 months. Later, after the events of the day, Jesse returns to his apartment to find that a king-sized mattress has been delivered. Jane drops by; Jesse flips the mattress onto the floor, and he and Jane crash down onto it, squirming together and creating that special noise that only plastic covered material can make.

Saul’s PI has discovered Walt in his classroom at school. Saul visits Walt there, not to shake him down, but rather to offer his services as silent partner to help Walt to make ᾦquot; and keep ᾦquot; more money.

Comments

Walt notices that Skyler seems a little too dressed up for her end-of-quarter Saturday overtime work at Beneke. We only get to see Skyler heading off to work; we’ll have to wait until the next episode to find out what happened there.

Memorable Moments

  • The shonky TV ad for Saul's legal services

Breaking Bad Quotes

Hank: Honey, I’m home!
Gomez: Got more lives than a damn cat.
Hank: Now if only I could learn to lick myself.

Jesse: Badger’s gonna spill?
Walt: Like the Exxon Valdez.

“So if you want to make more money and keep the money that you make…better call Saul!”
- Saul to Walt

Thursday, April 23, 2009

2.07 Negro Y Azul

Summary and spoilers

Jesse is burying himself in bongs, avoiding contact with everyone (including Walt) and trying to forget the disturbing ATM death he just witnessed. Walt comes for a visit and, as usual, berates Jesse for being a lazy druggie. But when he hears the details of what happened, he backs off and takes over Jesse’s role as liaison with Badger and the other foot soldiers. Badger and Skinny Pete want to know if the street rumors are true: did Jesse really crush a guy’s head under an ATM? Walt neither confirms nor denies, at once seeing the value in letting these rumors fly. Back at Jesse’s place, Walt pumps Jesse up with stories about how he is now feared as a blowfish no one wants to cross. Walt encourages Jesse to expand the operation. Suitably inspired, Jesse fires up his troops to get more sub-dealers.

Maybe Jesse and Walt would think twice about this if they knew what we happening to Hank. In El Paso, Hank is seemingly the only guy in the department who doesn’t speak Spanish. He’s also not used to the way his co-detectives treat their local snitch Tortuga (The Tortoise) with such respect. On his first stakeout, things go terribly wrong: in the desert, Tortuga’s has been severed and attached to a real tortoise that is wandering around with ‘Welcome DEA’ painted on its shell. Seeing this, Hank has another of his panic attacks and stumbles back to the vehicle while the rest of the guys laugh at him and gather around the tortoise. Then the tortoise explodes, killing agents and scattering appendages; Hank is spared because he had moved away.

We’ve watched as Skyler has become extremely restless regarding her relationship with Walt. She’s now actively looking to get a job, partly because the bank account is dropping, but perhaps for other reasons as well. She applies for a data entry position at Beneke, a place where she worked before. Using speed of foot, she slips past a protective secretary and talks directly to the top ranking dude at Benke: Ted, a man whom she knows from her last stint there. Ted is also happy to see her, and offers her old job back. She takes it. Marie is appalled; years ago, Ted had groped Skyler at an office Christmas party while drunk. Skyler assures her that it was a one-off and Ted had apologized profusely. Besides, he’s married with two kids. It’s only after Skyler starts her first day of work that she learns that Ted is now divorced. Although both remain professional so far, there’s obviously some chemistry and vulnerability from both sides.

Jesse returns home with his new wall-mounted wide screen TV (stuck on Channel Search). He confides to Jane that his real name is Jesse Pinkman, not Jesse Jackson, then invites her in to watch. Sitting in lawn furniture, watching the bland search screen, Jane tentatively reaches over to hold Jesse’s hand.

Comments

Like the frank, depressing muses that followed Bravely Bold Sir Robin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the episode opens with three black-clothed Mexicans strumming matching guitars and singing in Spanish (with subtitles) about a gringo called Heisenberg who is the new king of the drug trade in New Mexico, and how the drug cartels are about to express their unhappiness about this by killing him. Walt stands in the background, his body turned away from the strummers, looking out over the desert.

There’s an element of self-referential incredulousness between Jesse and Walt about the outrageousness of the ATM head-crushing script. Likewise, the way Walt and Jesse play both sides of Walt’s motivational blowfish speech momentarily ranks these two actors as one of the top comic teams. I hope they get a chance to do an encore.

Memorable Moments

  • The surprise tortoise
  • Walt’s hilarious motivational blowfish speech, and Jesse’s hilarious reactions to it

Breaking Bad Quotes

Walt: Look, I’m his father, alright?
Jane: You’re Mr. Jackson?
Walt: [pauses] Yes…that’s me.

Jesse: I didn’t say I killed him.
Walt: Tell me what happened!
Jesse: The dude’s wife crushed his head with an ATM machine.
Walt: Crushed his -
Jesse: Crushed his head with an ATM machine, right in front of me.

Walt: What have you heard?
Badger: Did Jesse really, uh, I mean, uh, did he really…squash that dude’s head with an ATM machine?
Walt: Who’s saying that?
Skinny Pete: Hell, man, it’s all over town! Everybody’s like, "Whoa, snap!" Usually I gotta chase dudes down for their money, but today, everybody’s paying up!
Other dealer: True that. Serious.
Badger: But like…he really did it?
Walt: [pauses] You didn’t hear that from me.

Walt: The game has changed. The word is out. And you are a killer.
Jesse: What are you talking about?
Walt: Apparently it’s all over town. Somebody crossed you; you got angry. You crushed their skull with an ATM machine.
Jesse: That’s not how it happened -
Walt: Who cares? Just as long as it’s our competitors who believe it and not the police.
Jesse: Oh, my -
Walt: No, don’t you see how great this is? Look, you, you are - Jesse, look at me. You…are a blowfish.
Jesse: What?
Walt: A blowfish – think about it. Small in stature, not swift, not cunning. Easy prey for predators, but the blowfish has a secret weapon, doesn’t he, doesn’t he? What does the blowfish do, Jesse? What does the blowfish do?
Jesse: I don’t even know what -
Walt: The blowfish puffs up, okay – the blowfish – puffs himself up four, five times larger than normal! And why? Why does he do that? So that it MAKES him intimidating, that’s why. Intimidating! So that the other, scarier fish are scared off. And that’s you – you are a blowfish. But you see it’s just all an illusion. It’s noting but air. Now…who messes with the blowfish, Jesse?
Jesse: Nobody.
Walt: You’re damn right.
Jesse: I’m a blowfish.
Walt: You are a blowfish. Say it again.
Jesse: I’m a blowfish.
Walt: Say it like you mean it.
Jesse: I’m a blowFISH!

Skyler: Speaking of riding desks…I got myself a job today.
Marie: You did not…as big as you are.

Walt Jr.: Mom got a job.
Walt: A job – why?
Skyler: Do I need to get out the checkbook and show you?
Walt: No…you think it’s a good idea in your condition?
Skyler: No, no, the doctor said I can work practically up until I go into labor. It’s just an office job; I’m just sitting on my butt.
Walt: Where?
Skyler: Beneke. I’m back working in the accounting department.
Walt: Skyler! What about the welding fumes? Isn’t that why you had to quit in the first place?
Skyler: Um, they’ve gone green since then. They have some kind of green…welding…or something. I didn’t smell anything while I was in there.

Monday, April 13, 2009

2.06 Peekaboo


Summary and spoilers

Jesse is following up Walt’s directive to ‘take care of it’: ‘it’ being the two junkies who stole an ounce from Skinny Pete at knife point. Jesse loads up his gun, smokes some meth to bolster his courage, and enters their graffiti-scrawled house. Whereas the outside of the house is run-down, the inside is shocking. Apart from being kept in a state of darkness preferred by junkies, there is stuff everywhere – ashtrays filled with cigarette butts, piles of scattered rubbish on the floor, half-empty bottles, and a feeling that, obviously, all the occupants care about is where they are going to get their next hit. All this would be depressing enough if the drug couple were the only occupants, but that isn’t the case; a skinny, dirty, cute little boy, no more than three, emerges from a back bedroom, turns on the television, and starts watching the Home Shopping Network while his spare hand loosely fiddles with the duct tape that is holding the lounge together. Jesse, sitting on the other end of the lounge and basically ignored by the boy, is shocked and saddened. When Jesse attempts to change the channel to a program more suitable for kids, he discovers there is only that one working channel. The boy quietly says, "I’m hungry," so Jesse makes the boy something to eat. When the couple returns, Jesse puts the boy back in his bed and tells him to stay there. He bashes the Mr. Spooch and holds he and the woman at gunpoint, demanding his ounce of meth and his money back. After many denials, they each pull some drugs out of their anal hiding places, although most of the meth is already gone – lost, or so they say. But Mr. Spooch has a better plan – he’s stolen an ATM in what he said was a victimless crime (although we see that the store clerk was killed during the robbery). Spooch moves the ATM inside the house and proceeds to bash at it for hours with a mallet, which has no effect. Distracted and tired, Jesse plays peekaboo with the boy, and is knocked out by the mom.

When Jesse comes to, he no longer has his gun. Spooch is now underneath the propped-up ATM, trying to drill through the supposed weak point. His lady wants some more meth, but he says she lost her share. When he calls her a skank one too many times, she pushes the ATM back, crushing his skull. She then removes the remaining meth from his pocket and collapses on the lounge, happy and out of it. Jesse examines the ATM; the door pops open and money pours out He pockets the money, calls 911 and leaves the phone off the hook, then takes the boy from the bedroom, telling him to cover his eyes (and saving him from seeing the dead man). He leaves the boy outside on the steps of the house, wrapped in a blanket, as the sirens draw nearer.

Walt is back teaching at school, under the watchful eye of Principal Carmen. The story Walt chooses to tell is focused around the element Carbon, and Tracy Hall, the man who invented the process for making synthetic diamonds. Walt says Hall was working for General Electric and made countless millions of dollars for the company. His reward? A ten dollar savings bond. Carmen watches as Walt gets a little emotional and dramatic at this point in the story, but it’s no surprise: this is Walt’s story with Gretchen and Elliot’s company, Gray Matter, except he didn’t even get the savings bond.

Speaking of Gray Matter, Gretchen calls, checking on Walt, and gets Skyler on the phone. When Skyler profusely thanks her for providing the money for Walt’s treatment, Gretchen doesn’t let on that she has not done so, and instead accepts an invitation to come around for a visit. The visit with Skyler is pleasant, but when Walt comes home, Gretchen suddenly has to leave. Walt walks her to her car, asking her not to tell anyone the secret, but Gretchen does not respond.

Later, Walt and Gretchen meet at a restaurant to discuss the matter. Walt apologizes for dragging Gretchen and Elliot into his lie, but for Gretchen, this is not enough. She wants to know why Walt did it and where the money is coming from. Walt says this is none of her business, that all she is owed is an apology. The anger from each of them stems from the past – when Walt ran out on Gretchen, and Gretchen and Elliot screwed Walt by using his research to make millions for their company. The meeting ends in anger, with nothing resolved. Later, at home, Skyler says that Gretchen called to say that she and Elliot will no longer be paying for Walt’s treatment. Walt partially admits to having met with Gretchen that afternoon (he says it was Gretchen and Elliot) and immediately involves them in another lie, telling Skyler that the reason they stopped paying is that Gray Matter is sliding down and they are broke. Skyler at first seems completely accepting of this reasoning, but then wonders aloud why Gretchen is still driving a Bentley.

Comments

Series creator Vince Gilligan co-write this sometimes achingly sad episode. The attention to detail in the meticulous squalor of the house of the two junkies is depressing enough, but, cleverly, we don’t know there is a child under their care until we’ve had a good long look at how sad their lives are. Immediately, their self-destruction moves from ‘pathetic’ to something approaching ‘evil’.

Memorable Moments

  • Beetle-cam and fridge-cam

Breaking Bad Quotes

Walt: You know who might have done it?
Walt Jr.: I have no idea.
Walt: Well, here’s what I think: you I.D. him, and then together, you and I put a bag over their heads. We tie ‘em up, drive ‘em way out into the desert, strip ‘em naked, then bury them up to their necks in a huge mound of fire ants. Saw it in an old western. You with me?
Walt Jr.: Scorpions?
Walt: Scorpions are good! Yeah!.

Jesse: What the hell kind of mother are you?
Meth mom: Huh?
Jesse: How ‘bout you feed the kid a decent meal every now and then, huh? Give him a bath. Put some baby powder on him. Get him some decent TV to watch; I mean, what is that shit? Are you serious?
Meth mom: You give me one hit, and I’ll be any kind of mother that you want.

Gretchen: How can you say that to me? You walked away; you abandoned me – Elliot.
Walt: You rich girl – just adding to your millions.
Gretchen: I don’t even know what to say to you. I don’t even know where to begin. I feel so sorry for you, Walt.
Walt: Fuck you.

"Ain’t a skank."
- Meth mom (repeated line)

"You have a good rest of your life, kid."
- Jesse to little boy

Thursday, April 9, 2009

2.05 Breakage


Summary and spoilers

Walt and Skyler’s relationship is still in a severely damaged state. Trust is gone and will not be restored until Walt tells all; this would, of course, cause other, perhaps even more serious issues. So instead, Walt goes to his chemo treatment alone, and when he tries to speak to Skyler about Walt Jr.’s whereabouts, tensions erupt and an argument ensues. Walt confronts Skyler about the empty cigarette pack he found in the toilet. Skyler admits to smoking a few cigarettes but says she tossed the rest. Walt is still, ironically, appalled, but Skyler says it isn’t a big deal.

Walt and Jesse’s relationship is changing as well. Jesse is no longer playing the role of the subservient student partner. He blames Walt and his greed/impatience for the situations with Tuco, and, not wanting a repeat, insists that the division of labor be made clear: Walt does the cooking, and Jesse does the selling. Jesse gets a new rental house, and a new (used) car, and settles his accounts with his brother in law. He lines up his druggie friends as resellers and keeps the operation clean: no drugs at his house; all anonymous drops, etc. Jesse is earning 6 grand a day, but still Walt is not satisfied. When he hears that Skinny Pete was held up by junkies and robbed of an ounce, he gives Jesse his gun back and says he wants him to ‘take care of it’.

Hank’s work at ‘apprehending’ Tuco has earned him a promotion to head a tri-state task force that will see him divide his time between Albuquerque and El Paso. Marie is not pleased with this; she sees El Paso as an armpit, not a city, and views it as a dangerous location on the Mexican border, where drug lords regularly deposit the heads of their enemies. Hank appears rapt on the outside, but he is suffering from nerves and at one point seems close to having a stroke/heart attack. He has gotten jumpy as well; one night, gunshots in his house have him stalking his garage with a gun and breathing heavily, but it’s only his home brew bottles exploding.

At a family barbecue, Skyler has had enough of Marie’s small talk and demands an apology. Perhaps Skyler sensed that Marie’s vulnerability in the face of Hank’s promotion to El Paso instead of Marie’s favored Washington D.C. was a good time to try to get a more favorable response. After the usual series of denials, Marie breaks down and sobs a sincere "I’m sorry".

In the opening scene, two fully-clothed men swim across a muddy river. When they reach the opposite bank, one of them finds Tuco’s bridge. This does not bode well for Hank; how did this happen? The real story is not nearly as bad as this would indicate; we find out much later that Hank tossed the bridge out into the muddy river, perhaps as a gesture of humility (in an effort to change his luck).

Comments

The theme of this episode is ‘relationships’: Walt/Skyler, Walt/Jesse, Hank/Marie, and Skyler/Marie. Each relationship is growing or dieing at different rates. Skyler and Marie have restored theirs; Walt and Jesse have stabilized; Walt and Skyler are spiralling downward; and Hank and Marie could go either way.

Memorable Moments

  • The ‘toilet-cam’ shot as Walt uses a plunger to find Skyler’s discarded cigarette pack

Breaking Bad Quotes

Walt: [looking at invoice] I thought we discussed cash discount.
Woman at reception: Absolutely. It’s included.

"Dude, I got nowhere else to go. This is it. And I got no game, alright! I just need a chance. [pause] Look, my folks, they kicked me out, I’m a disappointment, apparently – I don’t meet their expectations, again, so, you know, now I’m person non gratis or whatever, but you know what? I’m a good person and I work hard. I’ll pay you every month, and I’ll pay you on time. I will not mess this up, okay, I swear."
- Jesse

Marie: So…let me get this straight. You call in sick the day after receiving a long-awaited, career-boosting promotion so you can play Oktoberfest in your man-cave. I don’t get it; really, I don’t.
Hank: Babe, relax.
Marie: Please don’t tell me to relax. You know I hate that. Dave said I should express that.

Walt: I don’t vote for this plan. I’m not comfortable bringing unknown entities into our operation.
Jesse: Yeah? Well you don’t get to vote.
Walt: I beg your pardon? This is a partnership, remember?
Jesse: I remem – oh, I remember. Yeah, you cook; I sell. That was the division of labor when we started all this. And that’s exactly how we should have kept it! ‘Cause I sure as hell didn’t find myself locked in a trunk or on my knees with a gun to my head before your greedy old ass came along, alright!
Walt: Alright, I will admit to a bit of a learning curve.

Skyler: Shh. Apologize.
Marie: What?
Skyler: I will not listen to one more word until you apologize.
Marie: For -
Skyler: You know perfectly well, Marie.
Marie: Obviously I don’t -
Skyler: Clear lies – to me – the shoplifting – all of it – I mean, did you really think it was all just neatly gonna go away?
Marie: Well, if you hadn’t tried to return it -
Skyler: Apologize! Now or never, I mean it, or it will never be the same!
Marie: [whispered] Why are you punishing me?
Skyler: If you don’t respect me enough to apologize, to tell me the truth [pause] I need my sister back.
Marie: [pause] [crying] I’m sorry! I’m sorry!

"You asked me what I want you to do. [puts gun on counter] I want you to handle it."
- Walt to Jesse

Monday, April 6, 2009

2.04 Down


Summary and spoilers

In the 1930s, the Hollywood movie industry self-imposed a strict censorship ‘Code’ as a way of avoiding outside censorship. Among many other rules, the Hollywood Code insisted that if a movie character did something immoral or against the law, that they would be punished for that transgression. This episode of Breaking Bad sees a revised version of the Code being applied to Walt and Jesse. They've done some bad things, and now its time for them to receive their punishment.

Jesse’s punishment is multi-staged and severe. His parents made an unannounced visit to his aunt’s house while he was out, and saw his meth lab in the basement. They instigate swift eviction proceedings; Jesse must be out in three days. Jesse calls Walt, trying to get half of the remaining money, but Walt is not interested in helping him and feels the remaining money is not to be shared. Jesse turns to his other friends, but they are either unwilling or unable to help. Things keep spiraling down; Jesse’s motorbike is stolen. With nowhere to turn, he breaks into the gated yard where his brother-in-law is keeping the RV, but he falls into a chemical toilet en route. Undetected, he gets in the RV and crashes on the floor, wearing a gas mask to cope with the residual meth chemicals and his own stench. In the morning, Jesse brother-in-law kicks him out at gunpoint, planning to sell the RV and the equipment inside. Jesse breaks back in and steals the RV.

Walt’s punishment is more subtle but in some ways even more severe. Walt has made it clear to Jesse that they cannot cook until Walt has mended bridges at home. He thinks he can accomplish this by doing thoughtful things like making breakfast and finding writing courses for Skyler. Walt continues to come up with supposedly logical reasons why Skyler thought she heard a second cell phone ring that fateful bath night. Skyler sees through Walt’s lies completely and begins her own campaign of escape and mental pressure, leaving the house unannounced and for long periods of time, while refusing to tell Walt where she is going. Eventually, Walt asks to speak to Skyler. He begins with another vague apology, but this time it isn’t enough. Skyler’s anger and frustration explode, and she demands to know what is going on. But Walt cannot tell her, and again feigns innocence. Skyler sees through it easily, and again she leaves.

As Skyler drives away, Walt is appalled to see that the RV is parked outside the house. Walt knocks on the RV door, enters, and confronts Jesse. There is a shouted argument as Jesse again demands the money and Walt berates him mercilessly, calling him a drug addict and idiot. Jesse finally snaps, and a vicious and brief fight ensues, with Jesse ending up on top, choking Walt and ready to beat him. Jesse suddenly rolls off. The two reach a truce and enter Walt’s house. Walt gives Jesse about half the money and then offers to make him breakfast.

In the end, we learn (although Walt does not) that Skyler really isn’t doing much on her outings – just staying away and perhaps smoking the occasional cigarette.

Comments

Do not take it on face value that Walt offering to make breakfast for Jesse means that his attitude toward him has changed. Remember, Walt also made lovely sandwiches for Krazy 8, and even cut the crusts off the bread, right up until the time he killed him.

This episode was directed byJohn Dahl, whose impressive credits include the films Red Rock West (1992) and Rounders (1998), and numerous episodes of television shows, including Battlestar Galactica, Californication, and Dexter.

Nits

It certainly was lucky for Jesse that the keys were in the RV, making it easy to steal. This is stretching credibility just a little.

Memorable Moments

  • Skyler’s long period of quiet non-confrontation, culminating in her explosion of anger and frustration

Breaking Bad Quotes

Jesse’s Mom: You have two sets of keys, and the padlock to the garage. Leave them on the kitchen counter when you leave.
Jesse: No, mom, mom, mom! Where am I supposed to go?
Jesse’s Mom: I don’t know, sweetheart, but please: turn your life around.
Jesse: Yeah, yeah, this is gonna help big time with that. Bitch!

Walt Jr.: Morning.
Walt: Oh, yeah…morning.
Walt Jr.: Where – where did mom go?
Walt: Out.

Skyler: Okay, so talk, Walt! Shut up and say something that isn’t complete bullshit! You want to know what you have to do? You have to tell me what’s really going on, right now - today. No more excuses. No more apologies. No more of these obvious, desperate breakfasts! You don’t want to lose contact with me, Walt? Good. Then tell me…now!
Walt: Tell you what?

Jesse: Yo, I’m really sorry, okay?
Walt: What is wrong with you? Why are you blue?

Sunday, April 5, 2009

2.03 Bit by a Dead Bee


Summary and spoilers

Walt and Jesse bury the gun that was used to shoot Tuco. They walk out across the desert and, eventually, reach a road. They split up by design, with Walt accepting a ride in a pickup truck, while Jesse staying behind to get home some other way. Walt turns up naked in a convenience store, again by design; when he is rescued, the story he tells is that he has no memory of what happened the last two days. The story backfires a bit when his doctors show grave concern and insist that he stay in hospital indefinitely for psychiatric observation. Walt cuts his stay short by confiding the truth – that he remembers everything that happened – to his psychologist in their first session. His memories, however, are of simply walking and hitchhiking, and do not involve shooting any drug dealers. His honesty is safe with the psychologist, who is bound by the rules of doctor/patient confidentiality, and it means Walt can leave the hospital after one more night.

While in the hospital, Walt finds out more about Hank’s shootout with Tuco. Walt is worried that Hank is getting closer and closer to knowing something about him. Truly, Hank is inching nearer to Walt’s trail. Toward the end of the episode, Hank muses on the connection between Krazy 8’s death, where a very pure meth was found, Tuco, where a very pure meth made with P2P was found, and the video of the ‘two stooges’ breaking into a warehouse to steal a barrel of P2P.

Hank is about to be crowned a hero by his peers for killing Tuco, but first he does have to face some hard question from his superiors about why he was there in the first place. He has all the right answers. His co-workers throw him a party with a cake and a special gift: Tuco’s diamond bridge. Later, Hank shows this gift to Walt, and Walt is almost sick on the spot.

Jesse and Badger wait for the cops to stop poking around the outside of his house, then get in quickly to move the meth lab equipment back into the RV, which is then towed away by Badger’s cousin.

Jesse and his girlfriend Wendy are busted by Hank and a DEA squad, dobbed in by Badger (as per Jesse’s instructions). Jesse is interrogated by Hank and Gomez. Jesse says he was in the hotel room partying for three days, and had no idea his car was stolen. Hank thinks Jesse knows who killed Tuco. Jesse’s girlfriend Wendy is also questioned, but she sticks to her story. Jesse believes he will be released until he hears a familiar bell sound from the hallway: Hank and Gomez have brought in Senior Salamanco, the wheelchair-bound elderly man that was there with Tuco. But Salamanco abides by the code that states that latino gangs should never help the FEDs, and refuses to admit that Jesse was at the house.

After a debrief from Jesse, Walt freaks about the stashed cash at his house. He sneaks out of the hotel and into his own house and moves the cash from the diaper box back into the wall vent.

Walt is happy to be back home, but Skyler seems ill at ease with the events of the past two days. She questions Walt about whether he has two cell phones, and accepts his answer that he has only one – but she seems almost resigned to the fact that he is still hiding much from her.

Comments

If you’re looking for a moral upside to this series, you can latch onto the fact that Walt and Jesse have now killed three drug dealers further up the chain than themselves.

Breaking Bad is fond of using ‘reverse perspective’ camera angles (for example, in the premiere episode, when Walt is drying money in the dryer, we see the view from inside the dryer looking out). Here, we get ‘shovel cam’: a ground-up perspective as Walt and Jesse scratch out a desert grave for their gun.

Quotable Quotes

"I mean, he was naked, naked in a supermarket. It wasn’t Whole Foods, was it?"
- Marie

"I think you know who Tuco Salamanco was. I think your car was there ‘cause you were there. Tuco had a bullet in him when I got there, and I think you know somethin’ about that too."
- Hank to Jesse

Walt: Look, doctor, I feel fine, really. If this is truly necessary, can’t I continue as an outpatient?
Psychologist: Walt, a fugue state is a very serious event. What if you were to disassociate when you were driving? What if you were to get into a situation where you could be shot by the police?

Psychologist: Why run away? What did you feel you had to run from?
Walt: Doctor, my wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we didn’t intend. My fifteen year old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make 43,700 dollars per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable, and within eighteen months, I will be dead. And you ask why I ran?

Jesse: You still want to cook – seriously?
Walt: What’s changed, Jesse?

"Uh…say, honey, uh…I was just thinking about going out to 7-11. Do you…need anything? Big gulp? Slim Jim?"
- Walt, naked again

Thursday, April 2, 2009

2.02 Grilled


Summary and spoilers

Skyler fears that Walt may have committed suicide; he disappeared from the house, obviously distraught, and there is no sign of foul play. Hank pulls himself away from the manhunt for Tuco to manhunt for Walt. Also called in is a detective friend of Hank’s; he comes to the house and interviews Skyler. He’s very thorough, but Skyler is impatient with being asked for clues when she was kind of hoping that the detectives would find the clues.

Tuco has taken Walt and Jesse to a small, isolated house in the desert, where an old, catatonic, wheelchair-ridden man named Hector lives. Hector is related to Tuco in some way, and Tuco alternates between taking care of the man and screaming at him. Walt and Jesse are badgered, and Jesse’s life is threatened, but Tuco still sees some value in them (especially Walt). Tuco’s plan is to take them as virtual prisoners to Mexico, where they can cook all day and all night. They have no choice but to go along with this. Tuco says his cousins will be there by sunset to smuggle them in a truck; he prepares some food to give them strength for the long journey.

Tuco is on the run; his place of business was raided by the DEA. Tuco has assumed that Gonzo (the big guy who got crushed underneath the car stack) was the snitch; he doesn’t know that Gonzo is dead. When a news story about Gonzo’s death plays on TV, Walt changes the channel. Hector, who isn’t as out of it as he appears, notices this. He also notices when Walt spikes Tuco’s burrito with the poison meth. Hector, who can only ring a bell to communicate, saves Tuco’s life by demanding the burrito. Tuco thinks this is because it is larger. When Hector gets the burrito, he summons all his minimal strength to fling it off the table, eliciting a vicious response from Tuco.

Walt Jr. prints ‘missing’ posters on the home printer, unaware that just below the desk is a diaper box with wads of cash and a gun. Skyler and Marie have formed a truce; they distribute the posters as fast as Walt Jr. can print them.

Tuco has finally started to ‘listen’ to Hector. He interrogates him, and through a series of yes and no bell noises, realizes Hector believes that Hank and Walt are lieing. Tuco goes mad, dragging Jesse outside and beginning the process of beating him to death. Walt stops this carnage temporarily with the only weapon he has available: shock. He admits to Tuco that he and Jesse had tried to poison him. Tuco loses concentration for a moment; Jesse smashes him with a rock, and in the ensuing fight, Jesse grabs Tuco’s gun and shoots him in the chest. They then dump him in a hole to let him bleed to death. Walt and Jesse prepare to make their escape, but the keys are not in Jesse’s car, and there’s another problem; another car is approaching. They slink away to hide and watch, assuming this car contains Tuco’s cousins, but it’s Hank; looking for clues about Walt, he has tracked Jesse’s car to this location. Walt and

Hank arrives, expecting to find Jesse, but instead, he ends up in a machine gunfight with Tuco. Hank avoids numerous bullets and kills Tuco with one well-placed shot, while Walt and Jesse watch in disbelief, cowering, then take off and run, still undetected, through the desert.

Comments

Hank may be a wanker in the world of social skills, but he’s a very good cop. Despite being outgunned by an automatic-weapon-wielding drug-dealer, he still manages to win the shootout. And he’s poised throughout.

What was the small device that Hank quickly found and removed from the wheel well of Hank’s car? Should we assume it was a tracking device planted earlier by Hank? And that brings up an interesting theory that I can’t believe I had ignored. Let’s go back to episode one of the series. Hank raids a meth lab and Jesse escapes out a second floor window. Jesse is implicated as the snitch. Now Tuco has been raided. Is Jesse still the snitch? Has Jesse been feeding information to Hank? And has Jesse also implicated Walt?

Nits

Jesse has been kicked around plenty during the course of the series, but his quick recovery after being pounded and tossed around like a rag doll by Tuco is nothing short of miraculous. He should be quite groggy at this point, with a serious concussion, but he just jumps up and gets in the car.

Memorable Moments

  • Tuco and the motor on the lo-rider both die in the desert, side by side, at about the same moment
  • As Hank stands above the dead body of Tuco, he hears Hector’s bell chime three times

Quotable Quotes

"So…study the face, study the file, get a big old raging hard-on at the idea of catching this piece of shit! Oh – my apologies to the HR Department. ‘Grow tumescent with anticipation’."
- Hank

Detective: Anything else you can think of?
Skyler: Anything else…um, I called the credit card providers, and there’s no report of any, um, recent activity. I checked with every hospital within 50 miles, every police station, every morgue. So, no, I really don’t, I don’t have anything else. I was actually hoping that you had something else, being that you’re the expert. [pause] I’m – I’m sorry.

Walt: No, no no NO no – I need him, Tuco. I need him very, very badly. He’s my partner. And if he doesn’t go, I don’t go.
Tuco: I’ll tell you this: my cousins are driving up here right now to smuggle us back down – they’re gonna be here by sunset, and you’re gonna be on that truck, or you’re gonna be DEAD! [turns to Jesse] And you – you’d better hope they’ve got room in the trunk.

Walt: How was I supposed to know you were chauffeuring Tuco to my doorstep?
Jesse: Well, at least he wants you alive.