||SPOILERS|| A pivotal episode for many reasons, but mainly because Jesse (Aaron Paul) convinced Walter (Bryan Cranston) that there's a "third way" to go about shifting their meth: become Tuco-style drug lords. Jesse seemed to find real energy and chutzpah immediately after taking the initiative; paying for his stolen RV meth-lab (and agreeing with Clovis to let him stash it in his junkyard after-hours), getting a cool new house to rent from a sexy neighbour he fancies, then signing up his deadbeats friends to be his drug dealers and get Walt's product out on the street. After all, there's a gap in the market now that Tuco's off the scene...
Walt and Skyler (Anna Gunn) are still on prickly terms, too. Walt discovers a package of cigarettes his wife flushed down the toilet, blocking it, and tackles her about risking the health of their unborn baby. But his attempt to take the moral high ground just gets thrown back in his face, with Skyler claiming she perhaps only smoked them while in a "fugue state". So far, it feels like only the truth will get their marriage back on-track, so perhaps Walt has to admit to something entirely false, but shocking enough to convince Skyler it's the truth?"Breakage" was also very interesting from Hank's (Dean Norris) point of view. The teaser shows his memento of Tuco's "grills" encased in a plastic cube being retrieved from a dirty river by two men, but the episode goes some way to alleviating our fears. Hank gets a promotion from his boss, which means he'll be splitting his time between El Paso and Albuquerque as part of the Tri-State Border Interdiction Task Force, which he takes a great news. However, maybe Hank has his own problems he's keeping a secret from his loved-ones (in true Walt style), as he seems to have heart palpitations while in an elevator on his way to celebrate with friends.
Hank takes the next day off work, to his wife Marie's (Betsy Brandt) annoyance, to bottle homemade brew in his garage "man cave" – apparently to recover from whatever ailment he has. Or maybe he's just not as tough as he thinks he is (particularly after the Tuco shootout), but can't admit to anyone that his brush with death has shaken him, and really needs some counseling. He's a slave to the Alpha Male persona he puts on to everyone around him, really. As I've said before, Norris' work sometimes gets overshadowed by Cranston, but he's doing some great work.
I also loved a little comment Walt made to Hank during a barbecue, about where criminals like Tuco come from. Hank can't really answer, but equates them to cockroaches to be stomped on. Of course, some of them are probably just normal people like Walt, driven to crime thanks to extreme circumstances. Indeed, maybe even Tuco started off being relatively sane and likeable, and possibly only got involved in drugs to pay for his Uncle Tio's treatments? That would mean he had more in common with Walter than we thought.
Later, Jesse hands Walter his 50/50 split of their recent takings, a cool $15,000. Walter notes that it should really be $16,000, but Jesse reveals that one of his friends was robbed last night. The resulting loss of $1,000 is known as "breakage" in the trade, but Walt isn't happy about such slip-ups – noting that Tuco never had breakage because people were too afraid to steal from him. Walter arrives at Jesse's new house later to give him a handgun, telling him "I want you to handle it", which feels like the first step towards Walter becoming the very thing he despises: a bullying, zero-tolerance drug lord. Just another cockroach ready to scuttle out from under the fridge... but will he get stomped?Overall, "Breakage" felt like an important turning point for the season, with Jesse and Walter repositioning themselves and deciding to take some serious steps into the criminal underworld. Walt is still fuelled by the desire to pay for his expensive medical bills and provide for his family, but he's blind to the fact he may not even have a family by the time this is over. Not only that, but there are glimmers of hope that Walt's cancer could be in remission (well, perhaps), so it will be fascinating to see if Walt keeps his meth-cooking up if the cancer is beaten. There's always a chance it could come back, but do you think he'd actually opt to keeping cooking because he has a sense of power he otherwise doesn't have as a humble chemistry teacher?
5 April 2009
AMC, 10pm
Writer: Moira Walley
Director: Johan Renck
Cast: Bryan Cranston (Walter), Aaron Paul (Jesse), Anna Gunn (Skyler), RJ Mitte (Walter Jr), Dean Norris (Hank), Betsy Brandt (Marie), Krysten Ritter (Jane Margolis), Michael Shamus Wiles (DEA Chief), Steven Michael Quezada (Steven Gomez), Charles Baker (Skinny Pete), Matt L. Jones (Badger) & David House (Dr. Delcavoli)
