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

Aaaaand right then, Junior comes out of his room to get a soda. Hank and Marie hope he didn’t hear them, but of course, he did. Oops.

JESSE’S HOUSE

Mike and Walt are arguing, while Jesse sits on the couch, absorbed in the straw from his iced tea. He’s sucking a little tea into the straw, then letting it drip back out.

But Mike and Walt’s argument is this: Walt wants to do the heist. But not only does Mike think the heist is folly, he also wants to discontinue using methylamine and return to the old-school method: rounding up some skid row types and hiring them to buy cold pills from drug stores.

Neither method is ideal. Walt’s method will result in innocent men dying. Mike’s will result in fewer raw materials, a reduced output, a lower-quality product, and the meth they make won’t be blue, which is their trademark. The third option, which is to put the operation on hold until they find a new methylamine supplier, is off the table because they have to keep making money to pay off Mike’s old associates.

And then Jesse speaks up. He has an inspiration. What if…just what if…they could rob the train WITH NOBODY KNOWING IT WILL BE ROBBED?

Prediction: Dirtbike Boy will stumble upon their heist…and they’ll adopt him! And totally not kill a kid.

Also, do you realize Jesse’s inspiration is basically “I drink your milkshake”? Pretty clever, Jesse!

ACT THREE

THE DESERT

Walt, Mike, and Jesse are standing by some train tracks intersecting the road in the desert. They’re here to prepare for the train heist. Walt’s got the Heisenberg hat on. They determine the direction the train is going to be coming from and start walking towards it. Jesse has a distance measuring wheel to measure off how far they are from the road.

When they get to “814” (meters?), they stop. There’s a small bridge over a ravine. This spot will be perfect to set up.

THE DESERT—LATER

Near the bridge, Walt and Jesse supervise a backhoe operator who is digging a hole in the desert ground. Walt is in contact with Mike via walkie-talkie…Mike’s some distance away keeping an eye on the train tracks ahead, to warn them of oncoming trains.

The backhoe finishes digging. The operator then puts two huge plastic drums into the ground and begins covering them up. By the time the drums are covered, Todd the pest control guy arrives with a liquid-freight truck.

Todd attaches a hose to one of the buried tanks and starts pouring water into it. At this point, emboldened, he asks Walt and Jesse what’s going on. And they tell him…and us…thanks Todd. I was confused.

The plan is as follows. One of Mike’s guys will park a dump truck on the bridge and pretend to have engine trouble, which will cause the train to stop. (I’m guessing they measured the distance because they needed to know how long it takes a train to stop once it hits the brakes).

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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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