Summary and spoilers
We already knew that Tortuga the drug mule was punished for squealing by having his head planted onto a namesake tortoise and exploded as a bomb, but for those of you who just had to know how his head got from being on his neck to being on that exploding tortoise, you get to find out in the opening scene. Just who did the deed (by ‘deed’, I mean hacking Tortuga’s head off while he was still alive)? Well, no other than the two Snake-Boot boys, of course – just in case you felt their moral compass was still possibly tilted into a gray area.
Walt is back at his house, retrieving the pizza he threw onto the garage. Gus’s private dick lets him know that Walt is blissfully unaware that he crossed paths with death.
Skyler returns home appalled to see Walt’s car in the driveway, and even more appalled to see Walt peering at her from inside the house. Walt claims that he has returned home because it is his house too. Walt calls Skyler’s bluff, basically daring her to turn him in, in order to get him out of the house. Skyler does call and asks for an officer to remove Walt from the house. When Walt Jr. comes home and is wildly happy to see his dad, things get a little more tricky for Skyler; she already looks like the bad person. Skyler is about to find out that without a legal separation or a restraining order, Walt cannot be barred from his own house. It’s difficult (and quite amusing) to watch her build her case that Walt is a bad presence in the house while, in the background, he is rushing to soothe the crying baby. The only way she can get rid of him is to implicate him as a meth manufacturer – and she’s not willing to go that far.
After the police leave, I loved the way Skyler gently takes the baby away from Walt, wishes him a cold ‘Welcome home’, and then walks down the hallway and enters her bedroom, closing and locking the door behind her. That door will stay locked, blocking access to the toilet and forcing Walt to pee in the kitchen sink.
Saul visits Jesse in his new, unfurnished house. Saul is there for only one reason – to prompt Jesse to call Walt and convince him to cook again. Saul promises to bankroll Jesse if he succeeds. Jesse promises to do so, but seems uninterested in that or anything else. After Saul leaves, Jesse does dial the phone, but the number he calls appears to be one he has been calling over and over and that he will continue to call over and over – it’s the message on Jane’s answering machine. He calls all day and all night until, finally, it is disconnected, and he has lost that final strand that connected to her. With nowhere to turn, Jesse finds himself back in the desert, in the meth lab camper, preparing to cook.
Hank receives word that he is going back to El Paso. Outwardly, he appears psyched, but he gives away a couple of telltale clues that he is actually very worried to return to this place that broke him last time. The truth is, Hank is seriously shaken by having to return to El Paso. He goes psycho on a couple of small-time drug dealers in a shady bar, but for what reason? Is he trying to get suspended? His partner covers up his discretion as only cops can do, but he knows that Hank had left his gun in the car before going back inside.
Gus is visited by the Salamanca cartel. They are there to advise him that they must avenge the death of Tuco by killing Walt. In fact, the Snake brothers are nephews of Tuco. Gus treads the line between agreeing with their need for revenge, but also insisting that he complete his business with Walt first before they do so. The cartel boss cannot guarantee that the Snakes will grant Gus or Walt any time.
Skyler tells her story to her lawyer. Like the police, her lawyer is also trying to get Skyler to tell the whole story – to explain what she suspects or knows that Walt has done. Promised confidentiality, she tells the lawyer that Walt is a meth manufacturer. The lawyer advises her to let her tell the police what Skyler just told her, and to get a restraining order. But Skyler refuses – she doesn’t want Walt Jr. to know his father is a criminal.
The following morning, Skyler hides in her locked bedroom until she hears Walt leave; she then emerges with the baby. But Walt has tricked her. He is still there, and he’s left the open big bag of money in the hallway. He again tries to explain that everything he did, he did for his family. He asks her to accept the money that he earned, even though he earned it doing things that he regrets. He gives her until the end of the day to decide what to do. Skyler’s reaction is to interrupt her normal mundane work day to spontaneously seduce Ted.
Comments
I know little about the intricate structure of relationships, but Skyler’s seduction of Ted is probably one step toward her acceptance of what Walt did. I don’t believe it helps her attempt to take the moral high road in the relationship. However, we know that her original instincts were correct. If she wants to protect her family, she should be getting a restraining order against Walt, because when the Snake brothers come looking for him, it would be best that he is living far away from her – collateral damage doesn’t seem to worry those guys.
Breaking Bad Quotes
Skyler: They’re connecting me. Right hand to God, I will tell them.
Walt: Do what you have to do, Skyler. This family is everything to me. Without it, I have nothing to lose.
Skyler: My husband makes meth – methamphetamine.
Lawyer: Your husband’s a drug dealer.
Skyler: A manufacturer, technically – they, um, they call them ‘cooks’ – I looked it up on the Internet.
"I fucked Ted."
- Skyler to Walt
No comments:
Post a Comment