Breaking Bad Recap: Pain Train

Recaps

By Saint Clare of Assisi | Tuesday, August 14, 2012 | 4:34 pm | 9 Comments
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Posted in: Breaking Bad, Featured, Recaps

It’s probably a combination of interest, sympathy, and information-gathering, because he doesn’t say much after Lydia tells him, he just nods and moves on to the “ocean of methylamine”.

 They bring Mike and Jesse back in so Lydia can tell them her plan, and here’s the crazy part. There is a train that brings 24,000 gallons of methylamine to Houston every Wednesday. Mike, Walt, and Jesse can rob it!

(Side note: this probably explains the cold open now. That kid on the dirt bike heard a train whistle. Uh-oh).

Yes, it’s train robbery. And now we get the standard “planning the heist” scene. Mike, Walt, and Jesse asks Lydia for all the particulars. First of all, as you might have guessed, trains are heavily guarded after 9/11. (And if you didn’t know that, Mike fills us in).

But no matter! Lydia knows a secret. When the train is traveling through New Mexico it travels through in a three-mile dead zone where there’s no alarms and no cell phone coverage. Homeland Security probably doesn’t like people knowing that, but Lydia knows it because it’s her job to secure methylamine for Madrigal.

So…maybe this could work. MAYBE. There are other things to consider. How will they know which train car has the methylamine in it? Easy. Lydia gets a cargo manifest every Tuesday night before the train takes off. She’ll forward it to them.

But another issue is, what about the train crew? There might not be cell reception, but they know the moment the train gets back into coverage, the crew is calling the cops. Mike knows the truth: they’ll have to kill the crew. Because there are only two kinds of heists: the ones you get away with, and the ones where you leave witnesses.

“Killing innocent bystanders? Nah, we crossed that bridge like two seasons ago, Lydia. Please, continue.”

So, we have a modern-day train robbery, to be carried out by non-professionals except for Mike, who is in his 60’s and still recovering from a gunshot wound. This won’t go badly AT ALL. Actually, I would like to go on record.

I also liked how during this scene Lydia still tried to get a higher percentage of the take, since she was providing them with this top secret information. Smart gal, that one.

HANK AND MARIE’S HOUSE

Hank and Marie sit in the living room. Hank plays with Holly. He’s a natural!

This is great news for Holly and Junior. They’ll have a place to stay when their mother commits a murder-suicide with their Pops!

Hilariously, Hank is trying to get Holly to learn to say his title, “ASAC”. Then, he and Marie talk about Junior, or as Hank calls him, “Emo McGee”. Since coming to his aunt and uncle’s house, Junior has been mopey and sullen and hasn’t come out of his room. Hank remarks that Walt and Skyler over-parent him too much.

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Saint Clare of Assisi attended Boston University and has written for The Onion.  He took his name from the patron saint of television, who was a virgin and saved a boy from a wolf one time.

9 Comments

  1. 1
    Some guy
    Posted August 14, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    Welcome back and hope u feel better. I thought this was one of the better shows this year. I forgot about kid until he showed up at the end . I was wondering how they were going to divide Jessie and Walt. I think this will be the start and Mike will go with Jessie. I can see Walt and Lydia getting together she is just as ruthless as he as long it doesn’t effect her kid.

    Great recap as always and catch way more things in the show that lets me watch again in new light.
    Thanks
    T

  2. 2
    Kammie
    Posted August 14, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    I did not see it coming when the boy showed up. Actually, I had forgotten about him, which is rookie mistake #1. It did make me think that Todd isn’t an undercover agent though, which I have heard a little chatter that possibly he was working for the DEA.

    This show has had me on the edge of my seat many times, and this was definitely one of those episodes! The writing, acting, everything is just so awesome I feel privileged to witness how it’s unfolding. Between Mad Men, The Walking Dead, and Breaking Bad, AMC is really getting my vote for best channel EVER!

  3. 3
    nativepeach
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 4:27 am

    After the cold open with the kid, I watched the rest of the episode anticipating his return. I knew when I saw the site of the train robbery that the kid would reappear there. That still didn’t prepare me for the end though. I had two physical reactions when Todd shot the kid, my stomach flipped, and my eyes teared up. I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction after knowing how brutal this show can be. Jesse isn’t going to take this well at all, and it very well may be what finally severs his loyalty to ‘Mr. White’ if Walt doesn’t measure his response very closely. Good shit!! I jones for it every week…

    Thanks for the awesome recaps, too. I always want to go back and rewatch after reading.

  4. 4
    mjhhawk
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 6:29 am

    I had forgotten about the kid by the time he pulled up at the end. I never it coming – I also thought Todd was a cop. It actually is just like the movie Heat (referenced by Hank earlier in the show), when they bring in a new guy for a job and he ends up killing an innocent.

    I personally think it was done because Gilligan wanted to remind everyone that these are all bad people. By now everyone has turned on Walt as evil, but most seem to have sympathy for Jesse and Mike. You literally forget that their business is selling life ruining meth. This was a brutal reminder that even if Jesse was horrified by the shooting, his actions have devastating collateral effects that ruin lives.

    All in all a great episode and recap (even with the prediction so good it needed a spoiler alert).

  5. 5
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 8:13 am

    Great recap!

    I too totally forgot about the kid. Congrats on putting it together so well! This was a great episode and I think you’re right about how it was set up with scant information, but the whole thing was just so… cool.

    I had the same reaction to Walt bugging Hank’s office. He didn’t bother to wipe prints, left a key logger in plain view and was caught holding Hank’s photo. Unless he plans to head back in there in a day or two, he is really risking a lot. I didn’t think of IT guy interfering but Hank doesn’t seem like someone who could fix his own PC!

    I already feel like the final showdown will be Walt v Jesse and I can totally see Walt pairing with Lydia to take out the 9 and Mike. How they get there will be interesting, and if I’m wrong of course that will be interesting too!

    I wonder what the final arc is for Walt and Skylar. I know he is turning megalomaniacal but before the show wraps (and I suspect Walt’s life), I would like to see a glimpse of the old Walt and Skylar for redemption purposes.

    @mjhhawk – you are dead on. This show is so good it is easy to forget what a terrible drug Meth is. Just have to think back to the two junkies ( and their poor kid ) who dropped the ATM… shudder

  6. 6
    sweetblondie
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    I’m crushing hard on Lydia…hope she becomes a regular. Now, back to reading…

  7. 7
    sweetblondie
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    Jesse is getting smarter (and wiser) by the week!

    My prediction stands…Jesse will find out the truth about everything, kill Walt and burn the whole operation down by end of series. And Skyler will be okay with the world.

    And I agree MsMiaWallace, I can totally see Walt and Lydia trying to forge a plan to kill the 9 too.

  8. 8
    SuburBint
    Posted August 15, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    It must be the mom in me, but when that kid pulled out the glass jar for the tarantula, all I could think of was how dangerous it is to ride a dirt bike with something that breaks in to several extremely sharp, stabby pieces in your jacket pocket.

  9. 9
    maryedith
    Posted August 16, 2012 at 8:41 pm

    I am still having trouble with the it’s-only-been-a-year business. Remember all the time spent here working out Walt’s finances? Maybe now we could construct a timeline? For some reason it’s Jesse’s stint in rehab, relapse, etc. that’s bothering me the most. Also the shifts in Hank and Marie’s relationship. I know it can all be explained, but it’s still hard for me!

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