Breaking Bad Recap: Sunny Skies and Meth

Recaps

By Saint Clare of Assisi | Monday, July 30, 2012 | 8:41 pm | 10 Comments
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Posted in: Breaking Bad, Featured, Recaps

Saul relents and lets Mike into the office.

Even though Mike is the one invited into this business arrangement, he immediately takes charge and lays out the ground rules. Walt and Jesse handle the chemistry, Mike handles the business. No overlaps, no stepping on toes. Walt smiles and agrees. Now it’s time to go out and scout the locations Saul’s scrounged up to be the front for the new superlab.

But before Saul and Walt leave, Saul takes Walt aside and asks him how he can let Mike push him around like that. Walt just smiles again. This is how he wanted it, with Mike controlling the business. Besides, Walt is confident he can handle Mike.

Holy shit, Mike is next to die. Called it right here.

BOX FACTORY

The first possible location is a box factory. Saul probably likes that episode of the Simpsons where Bart goes on the class trip to the box factory. “Oh, no. The boxes aren’t completed here. They’re actually shipped to Flint, Michigan to be folded.” 

Saul lays out the details on why it’s a good fit: it’s got a lot of machines running and causing a racket, which gives them cover; there are only 16 box factory employees and all of them are illegal, meaning they’ll look the other way; lots of power needed to run the machines, with plenty left over for the cook; and finally, the owner of the box factory is on the level.

Walt looks nostalgic for a moment. He recalls working at a box factory for a summer when he was in high school. He recognizes the machines used to corrugate the paper into the boxes. The machines emit salt and steam.

Which, chemistry tells us, would interfere with the product. Even Jesse is able to point this out, which tells us how far he’s come in his journey to become a professional. On to the next location.

TORTILLA FACTORY

Next, a tortilla factory! Hooray! In addition to the myriad pluses—isolated location, noisy machines, no humidity—Walt, Jesse, and Mike would get free tortillas!

But no. Walt points out that any food-manufacturing facility is subject to unannounced government inspections. On their way out, Jesse grabs a tortilla hot off the presser.

LAZER BASE

Remember this place? Lazer Base!

End of Season 3, Saul tried to get Walt to buy the laser tag place to be the front for his money-laundering before Walt settled on buying the car wash out from under Bogdan. Saul’s spoken with Danny, the owner of the laser tag place, and Danny has agreed to set aside some space behind the skee ball machines.

Walt and Jesse’s response: hell no. They don’t even give an explanation. I love it.

EXTERMINATOR’S

This is Saul’s last option and it’s the least appealing. The owner is amenable, but aside from that, it’s small, has no ventilation, is right on a main road, is located a quarter mile from a police station, and there are big rolling doors that open onto the street.

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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.

10 Comments

  1. 1
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 12:10 am

    Great recap! I especially loved the Ed Wood reference, that part is hilarious.

    I do not believe Andrea is out of Jesse’s life. The poisoning will come back to haunt Walt. It has long been my belief that this series is leading up to a confrontation between him and Jesse.

    Speaking of Walt – do you remember the WW reference Gabe (was that his name-the chemist-in-training) had in his notebook that Walt convinced his b-i-l was about Walt Whitman? I clearly have a terrible memory for seasons gone by, but it makes me wonder if Leaves of Grass isn’t some kind of symbol or even secret book full of info, formulas or emergency money. Or I am getting way too deep here!

    I believe Walt’s genius was revealed when he manipulated Jesse into breaking up with his gf,he knew exactly how to pull the strings on Jesse’s emotions and good intentions and it was scary how smart it was and how perfectly it worked.

    And yes, that Scarface scene was major foreshadowing. His son had clearly seen the movie before and they were having “family fun” but Skylar seeing it form the outside in, it was eerie. Especially when Walt said, “doesn’t everyone die in this?”. Dun dun dunnnnn!

  2. 2
    annie anniedawg25
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 8:18 am

    Great recap! There’s so many things that can go wrong this season, it’s nerve-racking trying to watch it sometimes.
    I like the sneaky-ness of the fumigation tent also very ballsy! Of course it does have it’s logistical problems, like dealing with the workers of the company, and nosey neighbors and home owners. I mean, right away the large equipment they used raised concerns with the homeowner dude….why couldnt they wait until he left to haul in all that equipment? Also, I am assuming the fumigation process will take double the normal time (cook for a few days first, THEN fumigate) so wouldnt that raise some flags too?

    Walt is becoming more and more like Scarface, it’s crazy. Very aggressive, manipulating, scheming, and money hungry. That reminds me…is money REALLY an important factor for him anymore? I mean at first he needed it for medical bills, but at this point he’s gotta be in the clear money wise. At this point, I think Walt is addicted to the business and power….hell, he even gets off on the power he has over his own wife. Yikes!

    I think he’s gonna off Mike at some point (or try to). Mike is the only link between Gus and Walt, so he’s a liability….plus Walt’s going to become more pissed about that “Legacy Pay”.

  3. 3
    MrsMiaWallace MrsMiaWallace
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 9:05 am

    @anniedawg: Seems to me that Walt is ALWAYS in the red. He’s been paying his bills and Hank’s all this time, then his wife paid off the $600k IRS bill for Ted I think.

    So he didn’t even have enough to put in for the startup or pay for the magnet from the season premiere – both times Jesse ponied up. Jessie is the one sitting on a mountain of money with nothing he wants or needs to spend it on. That’s why he didn’t care if they took all the legacy costs out of his pocket.

  4. 4
    BlueCanary
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 9:24 am

    I don’t trust a single thing that comes out of Walt’s mouth anymore. Every word the last couple episodes has been designed to manipulate, and he’s just become completely, stone-cold diabolical. I suspect he brought up Jesse’s obligation to tell Andrea because he knew Jesse wouldn’t, and he’s trying to isolate Jesse in the long run. I have a feeling the Brock thing is going to come back and bite his ass, though. As for Skylar, he knows she’s scared to death of him, and he’s using it to manipulate their situation as much as he can.

    I barely see any sign of the old Walt anymore. He’s almost all Heisenberg at this point.

  5. 5
    sweetblondie
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 10:18 am

    Prediction: Jesse will somehow find out all that Walt is responsible for, and he’ll burn eveything and everyone down by end of season (genius in traning?).

    Also, I love the character arcs of both Walt and Jesse…Jesse was the “bad” kid..and Walt was the upstanding teacher/family man…now they’ve crossed over and their situations are almost completely reversed. Great friggin show…!

  6. 6
    sheesh sheesh
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 10:42 am

    I thought that when Walt was staring at the kid and the kid stared back Walt was trying to “relive” (maybe not the best word) through empathy what the kid went through when he was poisoned.
    I didn’t like the look he gave the kid, it was ugly.

    I am just starting to watch this so forgive me for asking.

    Was Walt’s sociopathy latent ?

  7. 7
    cosmonala
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 11:04 am

    Cat piss tortillas, followed by Jesse grabbing a hot tortilla, and their names are “yes, sir” and “no, sir”, followed by the looks Jesse and Walt give each other may have been my favorite moments this week.

    There are so many ways this can go to the crapper for our favorite meth manufacturers, but getting to know HOW is so exciting!

  8. 8
    BlueCanary
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 11:09 am

    @sweetblondie, I agree–no way will Jesse stay in the dark forever. That’s going to be what breaks their relationship, no doubt about it.

    @sheesh, if you haven’t watched from the beginning of the series (please do yourself the favor and watch!), you missed a great character transition. It does seem like the sociopath was always just beneath the surface, but it’s such a gradual emergence. Bryan Cranston is stunning in that respect. And honestly, the more I watch, the more we’re theorizing in my living room that “Walt” was the cover persona, and he’s really just been psycho all along. When he was sitting there looking at Brock, I remember thinking that I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he just reached out and slapped him or something, because at this point, I’m almost not surprised by anything. The writing and the performances on this show have been so well-executed that even the most extreme behavior doesn’t seem out of place, because they’ve done such a good job of leading up to it.

  9. 9
    annie anniedawg25
    Posted July 31, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    @miawallace—-DUH you’re right, lol! Already twice this season Walt has borrowed large amounts of money from Jessie for the “business”.

    My prediction for the end of the season / show is Walt is going down in (meth) flames. But who’s gonna do it, and how is the exciting question. He’s making tons of enemies and good ol’ Hank is just a few steps behind him.

    @bluecanary…..awesome point about Walt’s sociopathic side just waiting to emerge all these years. I see him as mad genius “Unabomber” type in a super boring and mundane life as a husband, father, and under-appreciated high school chemistry teacher…..seemed like even before he became Heisenburg’ed out, he was about to snap at any second. Now that I think of it, I dont think I can even recall one good thing Walt has done for anyone.
    Also, excellent point of the slow development of his madness by the writers, it was so subtle….

  10. 10
    timgunnssister timgunnssister
    Posted August 1, 2012 at 8:46 am

    Remember Walt’s fugue state and the ‘Missing’ flyers Skyler made?

    Well, in my opinion, Walt’s still missing. He’s all Heisenberg now.

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