Breaking Bad: Before the Cock Crows…

COLD OPEN

Once again, we open the week inside a refrigerated Los Pollos truck. Like a couple episodes ago, the truck’s full of buckets of Los Pollos batter, and hidden inside those are the meth supply. But this time, instead of Mike protecting the cargo, there are two guards armed with assault rifles.

And like last time, the truck stops. The guards hear the driver get out and argue with someone, and then a single gunshot rings out. That’s two dead drivers now.

If I’m a truck driver, no way do you get me to drive the Los Pollos route. Fine, call my union rep. I don’t even care.

The guards ready their guns—this time they have M16’s. They wait for the truck doors to open. But this time they don’t open. Instead, they hear a drill from the front of the cab. Outside, the assassins are hooking the exhaust up to the cab. They seal the doors of the cab and pump fumes in, then throw a rock onto the gas pedal to increase the fumes. Clearly they’ve come prepared.

The assassins grab a cooler out of the cab and eat the snacks the driver brought while they wait for the guards to die. Cold blooded, man.

The guards start to panic, bang against the doors, one shoots a bunch of holes in the doors. The guys run over and try to suck fresh air from outside. But it’s not enough, and they expire.

Later the guys are dead. They check the batter for one with a black-light on it. Then they find it and walk away. Only one bucket has meth in it.

Now, I’m no drug lord, but if you just wanted to steal some top-shelf crystal meth, something tells me you try to cover your tracks. That way the cops and the guys you’re stealing from can’t find you. Instead of that, these guys are going to leave the truck with the giant Los Pollos logo on it right there on the side of the road. With two dead bodies in it. Next to their M16’s. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a simple robbery. Someone’s trying to bring the heat down on Gus.

So the assassins walk back to the car. One of them spots the truck driver’s lunch cooler on the hood and tosses it away. Littering.

ACT ONE

THE WHITES’ HOUSE

Skyler is listening to the answering machine message from Walt again, over and over. On the computer screen is the article about Gale. She’s been doing some detective work.

Listening to the answering machine message? I wonder if she has some doubts about Walt’s sincerity.

Did he say that “I love you” crap just to get in her pants? Wait, sorry, I’m confusing this with a King of Queens episode

She brings him a cup of coffee in bed. Pretty good sign, right? The loving wife? Well…maybe.

Walt’s eyes open. He sounds hungover, and he’s apparently still in his clothes. He greets her good morning and she corrects him. Afternoon.

Skyler sits down on the edge of the bed, facing away from Walt and looking upset. He slowly wakes up, starts trying to laugh off the night before, when he blabbed about Heisenberg and likely set Hank back on the right track. She cuts right to the chase. She asks Walt if he knew Gale. He claims he can’t focus on anything right now, but she won’t let him off the hook. Trying way too hard, Walt asks her good-naturedly what it was he said last night. As if he doesn’t remember.

Skyler doesn’t clue him in, and instead asks him if Walt’s current employers are the people who killed Gale. He says it’s not.

So it’s some other outfit. She asks if these unknown assassins might come after Walt next. Walt doesn’t think so.

Let’s stop for a second because The Lie is as complicated as ever right here. Little does Skyler know, the “unknown assassins” who killed Gale were actually just Jesse, who carried out the hit on Walt’s orders. So Walt knows the people who killed Gale won’t be killing himself, because HE killed Gale. So technically, this isn’t a lie.

But at the same time, he’s been extremely worried that Gus or someone else will eventually bump him off. So it really is a lie. I think. I have no idea any more.

Moving on. Skyler says she thinks she knows what really happened last night—why Walt you told Hank that the man he was looking for might still be out there, that it might not be Boetticher. She was up all night wondering why he would say that. Piecing it all together, she remembers Walt’s black eye earlier in the season, and the business deals he hasn’t wanted to talk about, and finally, the answering machine message he left her the other day.

Walt stops her. He doesn’t want to talk about this with her ever. They have to keep his illicit dealings separate from their relationship. She can’t know what he actually does. As he puts it, there has to be a firewall. Church & state.

But Skyler pushes ahead. She thinks Walt’s answering machine message could be his way of saying he regrets what’s happened between them, but more likely it just means Walt is scared. Was the message some kind of goodbye? A cry for help? Does some part of Walt want Hank to catch him?

That’s what it said in Oprah’s book club. (Notice: I don’t know enough about Oprah’s book club to make a more specific reference in this joke).

Sarcastically, Walt agrees. That’s exactly why he did it. Way to go, Skyler! Dr. Joyce Brothers!

But she insists. What she’s about to say she’s said before, and she doesn’t say it lightly: if Walt is in danger, they need to go to the police.

Walt snarls. He isn’t in any danger danger. That’ll never happen.

Skyler reminds Walt that he isn’t a hardened criminal, that he’s in way over his head. She reminds him where he came from—he’s a cancer-stricken schoolteacher, desperate for money.

That slight is enough to get Walt to stop deflecting. It’s time he tells Skyler just how much she underestimated him. It starts with the money. She doesn’t know exactly how much he makes a month in the business, but if he told her, she wouldn’t even believe him. Gus’s operation is literally big enough to be listed on NASDAQ. And it’s all Walt.

So what does that mean? Walt isn’t afraid of anything. He isn’t in danger, he is danger. A guy answers a knock at the door and gets shot? That isn’t Walt. Walt’s the one doing the knocking.

Quite a different tone than you’ve had in the last few episodes, Mr. Pee-Your-Pants-Just-Because-You-Saw-A-Guy-Get-His-Throat-Cut

Skyler looks fucking spooked.

Walt leaves her to think about that and goes into the shower. He takes a long time, soaking under the stream. When he comes out, he looks like he’s calmed down. He starts to apologize, but then notices Skyler is gone. Her car isn’t in the driveway.

THE CAR WASH

That night, Bogdan greets Walt at the car wash. They’re going to transfer ownership officially. Bogdan tells Walt he hopes the Whites won’t show up with any more demands, since they’ve been so difficult already, but Walt reassures him they’re all on the same page.

They make their way into the office, where Bogdan gives him all the files. Looks pretty simple. And then Bogdan poses a question. Does Walt think he’s ready to be the boss? Walt smirks, patronizingly, and tells Bogdan he is. Probably thinking, “This is just a stupid-ass front business and also I’ve killed five people. Your eyebrows suck.”

Bogdan starts giving Walt some not-so-friendly advice. To be the boss is hard work. Walt did work pretty hard under Bogdan. But the real secret is to be tough.

So Walt’s being lectured by the two-bit car wash owner. Earlier today Skyler called him a chemistry teacher in over his head. Let’s see how he reacts to this. Is Walt really so petty that he’ll destroy Bogdan just to have the biggest dick in the room?

Walt glares at Bogdan, and Bogdan backs off. Bogdan admits, Walt’s probably tough enough. And if not, he says, Walt can always call Skyler.

Ohhhhh, snap!

Out in the cashier’s section, Bogdan and Walt look over the last few details. They pause over the cash register. Bogdan chuckles at how the drawer always sticks. But Walt has to take it as-is, right? A small joke.

Bogdan pulls out the keys to the building. Never thought he’d be doing this, but he hands them over to Walt.

Bogdan notices a small cardboard display stand on the counter is a little askew, and he nudges it into place, his last act to impose order before he leaves for good. He turns his back, and Walt moves the display back to being askew. Uh-oh.

Bogdan goes over to the wall, where there’s hanging a small picture frame with a dollar bill inside. It’s the first dollar Bogdan ever made. He takes it down. Almost forgot!

But Walt stops him. As-is, right?

Including the mothefucking single dollar in a cheap frame that has no value beyond sentimental. Bogdan hands it over, resignedly, and walks away.

Alone, Walt smashes the glass frame on the counter and takes the dollar out. He walks over to the soda machine and buys a Coke with it.

ACT TWO

A DINER

Mike and Jesse are sharing a late-night meal—Mike’s eating some sloppy-looking shepherd’s pie-type dish, while Jesse’s only drinking a cup of coffee. As Jesse stirs some sugar into his coffee, Mike notices Jesse’s hand twitching and asks if he’s OK. Jesse claims he is, but admits he’s going through some withdrawal from not using. Mike pushes the food across the table. Jesse needs to eat something. He takes a bite, gingerly.

Mike’s phone vibrates. He listens to information on a job being given to him, but we can’t hear it and he hangs up. He has to go. Jesse asks if Mike needs any help, and Mike declines, leaving him there.

WALT AND SKYLER’S

Walt and Junior are having a silent breakfast without Mom. It’s tense. Apparently, Skyler has called Junior to see if everything’s OK, and to tell him not to worry. Just general loving stuff, but Walt wants to hear Junior tell him about it one more time. There’s no timeframe for when she’s coming home.

Junior then tries to ascertain what’s going on with his parents. He assumes Skyler’s just mad at Walt about his “gambling addiction”. To Junior, that’s totally unfair. Gambling addiction is a disease and she has no right to even be angry about it.

Walt could let himself off the hook and poison Junior against Skyler right here, but instead, Walt accepts the blame for the situation. He made choices, and the predicament is his fault. I guess that’s so Walt’s not a complete and total monster.

IN WALT’S CAR

A short bit later, Walt is driving Junior to school, again in tense silence. Junior asks Walt if all this means Walt won’t be moving in after all, and Walt admits it does.

But Walt has an idea.

A CAR DEALERSHIP

Hey, if Walt disappoints Junior as a father, at least he can win him over as a provider! Junior’s always wanted a car and it looks like now’s the time.

Thankfully, (for me, because Junior’s one of the few remaining characters I still root for on this show), Junior sees right through his Dad’s ploy and tells Walt he knows he’s being bought off. But he doesn’t mind so much. He just wants to be bought off properly. He indicates a billboard. For a Dodge Charger.

Not you too, Junior! Why is everyone horrible?

WALT AND SKYLER’S

And Junior pulls into the driveway, satisfied.

OUTSIDE THE SUPERLAB

Jesse leans against his car, having a smoke and trying to suppress the shakes from his withdrawal. Walt pulls up and gets out of his car and looks surprised to see Jesse. He gives Jesse some shit for being so absent lately, but then pulls Jesse aside so they can talk out of earshot. Walt wants an update on what Jesse’s been up to.

Walt asks whether Jesse’s been Mike’s “bodyguard”, like Jesse described things last week. Walt sounds incredulous, and Jesse still doesn’t like it. No, Jesse isn’t Mike’s bodyguard, he says, he guards him.

Walt questions the logic of that premise. Why would Gus and Mike select Jesse—a withdrawal-stricken dude with no fighting experience—over, say, Tyrus. Or anybody else? Mockingly, Walt asks Jesse if he’s a former Navy SEAL or something and just never told him about it.

Jesse gets really pissed, but Walt backpedals a little and suggests he’s only trying to make Jesse see things clearly. But Jesse’s become too blinded by the paternal-ish love to listen. He offers his own interpretation of events: Mike and Gus wanted Jesse to be clean, so Mike was assigned to babysit. So maybe it started out as a b.s. assignment. But then Jesse saved Mike’s ass from being robbed and possibly killed. In Jesse’s eyes, that means he’s proven himself to Mike, and that’s why he’s got this new assignment.

Walt doesn’t buy it. He starts spitballing…and with hilarious accuracy…surmises that Gus and Mike are setting Jesse up to drive a wedge between him and Walt.

Doesn’t it seem like a mighty big coincidence that on the first night of Jesse’s duty Mike got robbed? And by Jesse’s telling, the robbers gave up pretty easily.

I guess that’s the problem with taking on a conspiracy—even if you’re 100% correct, you still sound like a conspiracy theorist.

Maybe it’s way easier to pull off a conspiracy than I thought it was. Even if someone figures out what I’m doing, nobody would believe him because he would sound fucking nuts

And of course, even though Walt happens to be 100% correct, Jesse doesn’t listen.

To Jesse, all this just sounds like Walt’s trying to undermine him and keep him subservient and loyal. Jesse’s always resented Walt’s authority, even going back to high school, and this is just another instance of Walt trying to assert it.

Jesse’s had enough. He turns and walks into the superlab. Walt follows him, and as he walks inside he notices yet another security camera above the doorway.

IN THE LAB

Later, when it’s time to clean up for the day, Walt and Jesse get a phone call. Jesse is needed topside for an errand, leaving Walt to clean the entire lab himself. An outrage! As Jesse leaves, Walt throws down his boots in frustration.

Moments later Walt’s in his street clothes, storming out of the lab. But he’s not on his way to confront whoever called Jesse away. No, instead, he approaches three of the women who work in the topside laundry, the superlab’s legitimate-looking front business. Working through the language barrier, Walt asks them to help him clean up. But when they realize where he wants them to go, i.e. down into the lab, they stop dead in their tracks. They have been forbidden to go anywhere near that place.

Walt begs. No dice. He pulls out his wallet and hand them each fifty bucks. They consider it. One of them cracks. And they’re in.

Great. Walt’s going to get three random people killed now.

And down in the lab, Walt doesn’t even help them! They’re in full protective gear, scrubbing the place down, while he sits on his ass and sips a cup of Gale’s coffee. Walt looks up at the camera and raises his mug to Gus in mock salute.

ACT THREE

SKYLER’S CAR

Some indeterminate amount of time later, Skyler’s driving out in the desert with Baby Holly strapped in the back seat.

The music they put on this section sounds like it’s from that “Pure Moods” CD they used to advertise on Nickelodeon in the 90’s.

This next part is quite a bit silly. Skyler pulls into the parking lot at…the Four Corners national park, i.e. that place where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico converge. Because she’s at a metaphorical crossroads, you see. In her life!

She has come here to make an Important Decision. We know this because she flips a coin in the air. She’s just too indecisive! The coin lands. Heads. Not sure what that means, since we don’t know exactly what she’s choosing between. Staying with Walt or fleeing, maybe?

Also it lands on Colorado. So it’s heads or tails, AND Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah?

“So if it’s heads, I stay with Walt. Tails, I leave. And if it’s heads and lands in Colorado, I’ll stay, but I won’t sleep with him. If it’s tails, and lands in New Mexico, I’m moving in with Hank and Marie. If it’s heads and lands in Utah, I’m starting a jewelry business. If it’s tails and Arizona, I’m going to finally figure out if I’m a lesbian. And if it’s…um…tails, and lands on a boundary between two states, I’m starting a prog rock band called Sky and the Family Stone”

Whatever that means, it’s not the result she wanted. She flips again. Again, it lands in Colorado, heads-up. She slides it down to New Mexico. Meaning…oh, who the hell knows?

THE WORST NEIGHBORHOOD IN ALBUQUERQUE

Mike and Jesse pull up. They’re in some run-down neighborhood or other. Jesse asks Mike why.

Exasperated, Mike tells Jesse the deal…they’re going to sit here and watch one of the houses. Inside, Mike’s learned, are some guys with three pounds of their blue meth, which they stole—probably this involves the three assassins from the cold open somehow. Mike and Jesse are going to wait until one of the guys comes outside, then take that guy aside, ask him some questions, and get their product back.

Jesse wants to know why they don’t just bust the door down and interrogate them now, and Mike points out that, um, they’re on the meth, and meth-heads are unpredictable. That’s the way this job goes, Mike tells him. Ninety percent is just waiting.

But luckily, Mike’s brought some sandwiches. He offers one to Jesse. Pimento loaf! Yum.

Jesse doesn’t like that plan and decides to go with his own. He jumps out of the car and, before Mike can stop him, is on the porch of the house. He bangs on the storm door. A tweaked-out junkie named Tucker answers. Behind him another dude screams over and over for him to shut the door, because they’re not supposed to even open it. Jesse tells the guy that he’s come to buy, and that his name is “Diesel”. (Hilarious). But Tucker won’t give in.  Jesse trudges back to the car.

Mike doesn’t need to ask how it went since he saw everything. All he says, wryly, is “I guess we’ll go with Plan A, then.”

Jesse’s hasn’t had enough. He demands Mike open the trunk. Why? Because, as Jesse tells Mike, while Mike may know how to be a PI, Jesse knows meth-heads.

Mike obliges. Jesse gets out and grabs the shovel out of the trunk. He slings it over his shoulder and re-approaches the house.

Look at this. They attached a camera to the shovel and made Aaron Paul carry it. What the fuck?

Strangely, Jesse stops in the yard, picks a spot, and starts digging. Eventually, Tucker comes out and approaches. He asks Jesse what the hell he’s doing, more curious than anything.

Jesse replies, simply, that he’s digging a hole. And that Tucker already knows why. And Tucker apparently does. Jesse asks Tucker to take over for him, and incredibly, Tucker obliges.

Jesse leaves Tucker to his digging and enters the house. He slowly opens the storm door. The other guy, who was yelling Tucker’s name earlier, yells out for Tucker again. Jesse gingerly steps over all the crap everywhere. The place is a total shithole.

Finally, Jesse finds the source of the voice. A shirtless, wild-eyed, scabby asshole with a pump-action shotgun. He freaks out when he sees Jesse.

Jesse just says he wants to buy some product, but the guys points the shotgun at Jesse’s face. Nothing Jesse says can calm the guy down.

The back door opens. The guy turns to see who it is. Jesse quickly grabs a bottle and smashes it against the guy’s head, downing him. Jesse picks up the shotgun.

Mike is who was at the back door. Jesse catches his breath, realizing how badly that went, even though he survived. Mike walks past him and discovers the lid from a Los Pollos bucket. There’s your link right there. On it is scrawled a message, in Spanish: “Estas listo para platicar”. Or, “Are you ready to talk?”

Thanks, high school Spanish! (OK, fine…Google Translate)

Outside, Tucker continues to dig. He’s got about a three-foot hole now.

ACT FOUR

AT THE LAB

Walt and the three women emerge from the lab to leave for the day. He pays them each their second fifty, as promised, and awkwardly tries to make small talk with them while they walk out—he asks them if they live nearby, and one of the women sardonically asks him why he wants to know. Walt’s a dork.

But then Tyrus stops them. The women are to come with him. Walt protests. Where are they going? Tyrus says he’s putting them on a bus to Honduras. We know what that means…at best they’re being deported. At worst they’re headed for a shallow grave. Walt tries to beg on their behalf…that it’s not their fault, that Gus should blame him, not them, and Tyrus replies that Gus does blame him. This is Walt’s punishment.

THE DINER, FROM EARLIER

Mike and Jesse eat another late dinner together. This time they both have food.

Someone enters, and Mike sees that it’s Gus. He asks Jesse to leave for a moment so they can talk. Jesse and Gus pass each other, and Gus, politely, tells Jesse they’ll only be a moment, shrewdly doling out his niceness to keep Jesse on the hook.

Jesse goes outside and Mike debriefs Gus on what happened—the crew that hit the truck at the top of the episode is who gave the product to Tucker and the guy with the shotgun. Those two were just nobodies who were merely holding onto the product until someone from Gus’s organization showed up—Mike knows this from the message on the bucket lid.

So, is Gus ready to talk? Mike prods the boundaries a little bit and offers some advice—he wants to hire ten or fifteen good operatives and hit the enemy where they live. But Gus wants to keep things quiet for now, and tells Mike to set up a meeting with this new outfit, whoever they are.

Otherwise, Gus asks Mike how Jesse did today. The show cuts to Jesse waiting outside, anxiously, so we don’t know Mike’s response—did Mike praise Jesse for getting the job done, or throw him under the bus for recklessly endangering the mission? Gus gets up to leave and we don’t find out. (My guess is the latter…I don’t think Mike’s dumb enough to lie to Gus, ever).

Outside, Gus buttons up his coat and gives Jesse a little praise—after tonight’s debriefing, he’s learned that Jesse can handle himself.

Gus is ready to leave it at that, but Jesse stops him. He wants to know…why did Gus pick him out for this work?

Gus doesn’t blink. Because he likes to believe he sees things in people, he tells Jesse. Which, really, isn’t far from the truth—it’s just that he sees their weaknesses, not their strengths.

THE WHITES’ HOUSE

Skyler pulls into the driveway that night. She sees the Charger in the driveway but doesn’t have the time or energy to process it.

Inside, Walt and Junior are eating a takeout dinner. Skyler comes in. Junior jumps out of his chair and, rather than focus on the fact that his mother has been gone for at least a day, starts talking about the car.

Or, rather, justifying it. The car might look awesome, but it really is safe, and it gets good gas mileage, he tells her.

Skyler gives him permission to take it around the block a couple times. On his way out, Junior finally remembers to tell her it’s good to have her home. She looks devastated.

Walt sees Junior out the door, and Skyler begins picking up the trash from his and Junior’s dinner.

Time to talk. Skyler would rather not. Walt needs to explain his actions when they had their confrontation, but she interrupts and asks for the carwash keys, derailing him.

He hands them over and apologizes for what he said the other day. He just wants her to understand one thing, a thing he’s said over and over and over—everything he’s done has been to protect the family. And right now, they all are truly safe. (Eh, what’s one more lie?)

But once again, like we saw earlier, Skyler focuses on the practical. What the hell was Walt thinking, buying Junior a fucking Dodge Charger? That flies in the face of everything in their cover story. The car goes back tomorrow.

Walt protests, that doing it will crush Junior, and that he bought the kid the car because he wanted to do something nice for his son. (But that sounds pretty flimsy, and Skyler seems to know immediately why Walt really bought it).

Walt’s worried about returning the car, but for another reason. He knows Junior will blame her for it. Skyler knows that too. But she accepts that responsibility. As she puts it, someone has to protect the family from the man protecting the family.

Change “family” to “country” and that would’ve been a good campaign slogan for John Kerry

THE END

-I really dug the two beats this week involving Walt’s pettiness. Twice Walt’s put in a situation where he perceives he’s insulted, and both times he just can’t let it go—first when Bogdan questions Walt’s temerity, and second when Gus takes way Jesse so that Walt has to clean the lab alone. Walt can get away with exacting revenge on poor old Bogdan, but with Gus, not so much.

Somehow Walt didn’t seem to think it would play out that way. Did he really expect Gus not to hit back hard? And did you notice how it didn’t seem to affect Walt at ALL? No big deal, Walt. It’s not like you ruined three people’s lives or anything).

And this is all a bit hypocritical, isn’t it? A couple weeks ago, Walt rails against the lack of professionalism in the underworld, yet here he is letting things get personal twice in one week.

The point is: Walt’s not a very good person.

-There was a story on This American Life this week that brought Gus to mind. It was about  this Brazilian guy who was the super of a run-down New York City apartment building back in the 80′s. He used to brag to his tenants about how he used to be a badass government assassin. Nobody believed him…until they found out he wasn’t really lying. The dude was literally on a death squad back in Brazil and tortured people for a living.

Other than the bragging part, doesn’t that sound a lot like Gus…we know Gus is Chilean and probably has a really twisted backstory, so I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he really did work for Pinochet.

-No Hank or Marie this week? Thank god. I was getting tired of them. But not too much. I just needed a vacation.

-Similar to Walt’s three displays of pettiness, Jesse’s conversation with Walt is what motivated him to prove in a big way just how valuable he is to Mike, which is why he threw caution to the wind and moved in on those meth-heads, when he could have easily been killed. I do know one thing…Jesse is a moron

-Even though I just made fun of it in the recap, I do think Skyler’s coin toss makes logical sense…she was only interested in where the coin landed on the map, not whether it landed heads or tails. And where it landed on the map would determine whether she would leave New Mexico or stay.

-I totally whiffed last week on the reason why Walt called Skyler, which was that he thought he could very well die–he WAS on the way to confront Gus, after all. So: I am sorry. I blame jet lag. Can I blame jet lag?

-When Skyler fled the house…why did she only take Holly and not Junior? What the hell does that mean?

-Honestly, when Walt wouldn’t let Bogdan keep the dollar, that was the funniest thing ever.

Thanks for reading, y’all! I’m always really excited to see the stuff you come up with in the comments, so by all means, speak up!

Meth,

SCOA