This, my friends, was one hell of an episode, offering up multiple moments which will almost certainly inspire me to say the same of future episodes. Arguably the best of those moments came when we were made privy to a sight which both yours truly and Bullz-Eye.com editor-in-chief Jamey Codding have been waiting to see since January…but we’ll get to that later.
First, it’s time to flash even farther back.
How completely surreal to have the episode start off with footage from the first episode of “Breaking Bad.” I can’t say as I ever really considered the origins of the R.V., except to figure that, since Walt hadn’t given Jesse a whole lot of money to buy it in the first place, it was simply as good as he could find. With the benefit of hindsight, however, it’s pretty damned easy to imagine that a dumb-ass like Jesse circa Season 1 would have a little trouble coping with a sudden cash influx like the one Walt handed him. Some of the shit Jesse was spouting during the scene was pretty hilarious, as was the bit where the gang re-entered the real world at daybreak with one of them puking in the VIP Parking space. It was particularly nice to see Combo resurrected, even if only for the duration of the pre-credits sequence: in addition to reconfirming just how tight Jesse and Combo used to be back in the day and revealing Combo’s crucial role in the fruition of the Walt ‘n’ Jesse partnership, it also showed that, all things considered, he was probably lucky to have lived as long as he did. (Best moment: when Jesse groans that he only has about $1400 left and Combo hopefully suggests, “Waffle House?”)
Oh, if you’re wondering about the song they played in the strip club, it’s by the Teddybears and it’s called “Rocket Scientist,” but as of this writing, it ain’t available on iTunes. Sorry ’bout that, but at least you can hear it again by clicking below:
“Breaking Bad” is one of the most tightly plotted series on television, but this week really had my head spinning as I attempted to figure out who was doing what and why they were doing it.
Skyler was so enamored of the floor of Ted’s bathroom – you can control its temperature! – that, for the first time, she didn’t dismiss his less-than-subtle suggestion to move in with him, but after listening to Marie vent about her relationship with Hank and how he’s dealing with his own near-death experience, suddenly the floor just isn’t as tempting as it used to be. Is it possible that she’s been overreacting about what Walt’s done? Letting him take care of his daughter was a remarkable olive branch, and it seemed like, yes, she was going to give him another chance…and I’m such an optimistic dope that I actually believed it was going to happen! (Even after all these years, my naivete still tends to sit front and center as often as not.) But, no, she can’t resist checking inside the duffel bag in Holly’s closet, and – voila! – all the good will and optimism disappears in a puff of baby powder.
Back to the divorce attorney she goes, but this time it’s because she suddenly finds herself armed with an arsenal of facts and no idea what to do about any of them. she knows Ted’s a great guy but that she’s seeing him for all the wrong reasons, she knows that she can never tell Walt Jr. the truth about his father, and yet she still finds herself clinging to Marie’s comments and the possibility that maybe Walt did do these things for the right reasons. (The comment about how her visits to Ted’s are the only time during the day when she doesn’t feel like she’s drowning made me sad.) And after this intense discussion, with her assurance that she didn’t marry a criminal, only to told, “Well, you’re married to one now,” she comes home to find that Walt’s given her what she wanted and signed the divorce papers.
Why did he do it?
Well, if *I* saw it coming, then you probably did, too, because I’m usually really bad at catching these things…but let’s start at the beginning of Walt’s saga this episode.
It all started in the aforementioned closet, where he was having his angry conversation with Jesse about the goings-on at the tail end of last week. Yep, Gus knew damned well what he was doing, and he clearly knew that Walt knew what he was doing, but it was pretty hilarious to watch Walt try to bluster his way through the conversation and assure him that he’d seen through his plan and that his pride was absolutely not clouding his judgment. (I don’t know about you, but I want a “Chemistry Must Be Respected” t-shirt.) Still, when Gus told him he wanted him to take a ride with him so that he could show him something, there was still enough curiosity left for him to follow along.
Now, back in January, when Jamey and I took Bryan Cranston up on his kind offer to visit Albuquerque and see Season 3 of “Breaking Bad” as it was in production, you may remember that I teased you guys about how we’d seen “a new set which was so completely mindblowing that, when we eventually can tell you about it, you’ll absolutely understand why we aren’t able to tell you about it right now. All I’ll say is that it left both Jamey and I with our jaws on the floor, not just because of what it means to the show, but also because it was such a gorgeous piece of construction.”
Well, kids, you finally saw tonight what we saw in January: the so-called “superlab.”
Seriously, how awesome is that shit? When we were there, the show’s unit production manager, Stewart Lyons, gave us a grand tour of the set and told us all about it.
“What you’re looking at is not a terribly different rendition of the industrial strength meth labs that are in South America. We get a lot of DEA cooperation for the show…a tremendous amount, mostly because it’s not a ‘wink, wink, nod, nod’ show. I mean, this is just an insanely horrible drug, and I don’t think that we pretend for a second that it’s anything except that. And the horrible effect that it has on people…? I mean, all of last season was about how, even if it doesn’t screw up your life, somebody else’s life is going to screw up and, well, that is going to result in an airplane coming down!
This is pretty much the way one of these labs would look in a complete cartel-controlled city where they didn’t have to worry about it. Much of what you see are actually pharmaceutical mixing tanks. This is the way they make meth. Real drugs versus illicit drugs. There’s always something in here that’s very vital that’s missing, so you can’t take a picture of this and come up with your own lab, and there’s stuff that’s completely fake as well. But this set was entirely fabricated here – we brought the pieces in from all over the country – and it took about a month to build. We have some really extraordinary people working on this show.”
Yeah, they do…but to leave reality behind and get back to the discussion of the episode at hand, was I the only person who was shocked that Walt said “no” at first? I really thought that the opportunity to respect the chemistry, as it were, would be too much for him to resist. But, y’know, if the reason they had him refuse at first was simply to give Gus a chance to offer up his speech, then I’m 100% behind that. “A man provides for his family, and he does it even when he is not appreciated, respected, or even loved.” Those are words to live by…and I’m not just talking about Walt, people.
But I digress.
Walt goes home, has an eerily normal family dinner, and after Walt Jr. excuses himself, there comes the moment I referred to earlier, with Skyler offering the olive branch by letting him take care of Holly when she starts to cry. The look of sheer bliss on his face was almost enough to make you cry, but when he realized that Skyler had left him alone with the baby, it was replaced by one of complete confusion. When I saw that, I knew that a moment of epiphany was on the horizon…and I was right: he’d realized that Walt Jr. and Holly were the ones he needed to support first and foremost and that he’d only be further betraying Skyler if he continued to make meth while still being married to her. The next time we see him, he’s in Saul’s office, giving Jesse a verbal smackdown, basically telling him to go fuck himself and only giving Saul slightly better treatment. (By the way, how funny were the money-laundering negotiations?) Poor Jesse. As the not overly sympathetic Saul told him, “It’s the way of the world, kid: you go with the winner.” And that’s one thing Jesse most certainly is not. I’m not rooting for the guy to relapse, but let’s just say that I wouldn’t be surprised if an O.D. was in his future.
That’s pretty much everything from this episode except for dirty ol’ Hank’s storyline. Yes, as someone mentioned in the comments last week, Hank is indeed trying his damnedest to avoid going to El Paso because he’s scared shitless of what happened the last time he was down Mexico way, but I still see the blue meth as being his white whale. If he doesn’t find it, then staying put really will have been for nothing, but at least this way he’ll have something to show for his having stuck around. As soon as he looked into the old folks’ motor home, I was immediately reminded of the classic “Futurama” line: “You’ve seen it! You can’t un-see it!” But, hey, the guy got what he deserved for overstepping his bounds. With that said, though, I’m sure it was still pretty rough to see his partner walk away with his job. The scene with Marie talking to Hank in the shower was pretty sad (as was her discussion with Skyler about the situation), but how could you not be at least a little giddy when he finally found himself on the track of the right RV?
Well, you know, right up until the point when you remember that it means that Jesse’s gonna be up shit creek reeeeeeeal damned soon.
