3.04 Green Light

Summary and spoilers

Jesse stops to gas up the mobile meth lab and finds himself short of cash and cards. He seduces the girl behind the counter, convincing her to trade petrol for some crystal meth. Whatever has happened in Jesse’s mind has seemingly tipped him over the edge, back into a place where he is truly evil and self-centered – or perhaps he never really left that place.

We find out about the deteriorating state of Walt and Skyler’s relationship by listening to audio surveillance tapes grabbed by Mike, Saul’s private eye. We join Walt as he reaches Ted’s office for a confrontation. When Ted will not open his office door, he tries to throw a huge plant/pot combination through Ted’s glass window – and fails. After he is kicked out by security, Walt spies a back door. As he heads toward it, Mike intercepts him, dumps him in the back of his car, and takes him to see Saul.

Saul wants Walt to channel that energy into cooking meth. Walt wants to know how Saul knew about Skyler and where he would be. Saul admits to bugging his house. When Saul makes an untoward description of Skyler’s dalliance, Walt attacks him, and then fires him. Saul instructs Mike to remove the bugging equipment from Walt’s house.

Mike follows Walt home and does remove the bugs. Mike also mentioned vaguely that perhaps it was good to have someone watching his back. He says this because someone has drawn a threatening symbol near the curb in front of the White house. Walt doesn’t even see it and has no idea what Mike means (and no idea that Mike basically already saved his life once), but I have the feeling he is going to find out soon.

Now Walt, like Jesse, has also gone off the deep end. He sits in his class, drinking coffee and gazing at the desk in a semi-hypnotic trance. When Principal Carmen talks to him about this in her office, he seems uninterested and nonchalant, then strokes her hair and tries to kiss her.

Marie drops Hank at the airport for his El Paso flight. Hank spends some time trying to last minute convince her that this is a stepping stone career move that will get him a DC job – that is something she wants. Marie knows what happened last time, and her mentioning of it to Hank immediately visually stresses him out. Just after Marie leaves, Hank receives a call that some blue meth has been found. He leaves the airport to talk to the person who was holding.

Walter appears to be cleaning out his desk at school, carrying a cardboard box to his car, when Jesse shows up. This would seem to be the opportune time for Jesse to try to interest Walt in cooking again, since Walt is now on ‘indefinite sabbatical’. But Walt is still not interested in cooking. What is of interest, however, is that when Jesse proudly shows Walt the batch of blue meth he cooked using Walt recipe, Walt reacts almost violently, claiming, basically, that his recipe was stolen and that he deserves the bigger cut of whatever profits are made. Walt also refuses to set up a meeting between Jesse and Gus. Jesse says he’ll do it directly, and they part in anger. Plus, Jesse drives off with Walt’s box of office memorabilia on his car. It falls off soon after, breaking the breakables.

Skyler is ostracized at the office, but that doesn’t stop her from continuing her torrid affair with Ted. Ted would like to know what went wrong with she and Walt, but of course Skyler tells him she is not comfortable talking about that.

Hank and Gomez interview Russell, who painfully remembers, briefly, the name of the person from whom he bought the meth. Only thing is – all he remembers is there was a ‘muh’ sound. Hank takes this tiny bad of blue meth as a sign that Heisenberg is cooking again. Gomez questions this belief and wonders aloud why Hank is turning down El Paso for such a flimsy lead. Hank reacts badly, confronting Gomez and treating him like an adversary rather than a friend. Fear will make a man destroy his friendships.

Jesse goes to Saul, dumps the blue bag on his desk, and asks for the contact to be made with Gus.

Mike brings Walt’s medical records to Gus. They show the good news about Walt’s physical health, but Mike tells the bad news about Walt’s mental health. Mike also tells Gus that the Snake Brothers left a symbol on the street outside Walt’s house. Gus tells Mike not to tell Saul about this. Mike tells Gus that Jesse is selling. Gus is not interested in dealing with junkies, but when he hears that Walt and Jesse have split, he tells Mike to do the deal. Perhaps he is hoping that this will make Walt jealous/envious and motivate him to cook. Gus makes the deal, but only gives half the agreed money to Jesse.

On his own, Hank investigates each lead on his list. His interrogation of the gas station clerk gets him the information that the white guy with blue eyes that traded the meth to her drove an RV. The non-working security camera is a dead end, but the ATM facing toward the pumps, taking photos, may provide a picture of the RV.

Back at the tense White house, Walt Jr. tries to play Kissinger to Mom Begin and Dad Sadat.

Called before the Chief, Hank makes lame excuses about missing calls. He has been able to trace the possible motor home. With only 29 of them registered in the state, Hank wants to start knocking on doors. But the Chief tells him he must go to El Paso immediately or officially turn down the assignment (with the obvious career ramifications that would carry). Hank refuses and is left to continue on the Heisenberg case – with his career severely compromised.

As Walt drives, the radio shares the news that Donald Margolis is in hospital for a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Walt stops at a green light, his mood dour. He is somewhat cheered when a bag of money (his half of the Jesse/Gus drug deal) is tossed through his window.

Comments

There’s no denying that the acting and, to some extent, the writing, is still at the same high levels this season. But seasoned television critics are always sniffing around for the first faint sightings of the jumping shark. There’s just a whiff of shark scent in the air this season, driven by the notion that the character’s arcs have now gone as far as they are going to go, and they are now going through some of the same paces again. Jesse uses, cooks, rehabs, and cooks again. Walt is just getting crazier and more aggressive. Hank went to El Paso, went mad, came back, got it together, and is now returning to El Paso. Skyler’s arc is still traveling, but she is not awarded much air time. There is still a good chance that the shark may simply poke its nose above the water’s surface and disappear into the depths, but it may also be ready to jump. I could be wrong. I was wrong about Lost – its shark was halfway airborne early in season 5 before it sank to the bottom, probably never to be seen again.

Breaking Bad Quotes

"Walter, sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have someone watching your back."
- Mike