Minicap: Breaking Bad

None of that “multiple storylines” bullshit THIS week. They only got one and it’s more than enough.

Last week, the doomsday scenario finally happened when Gus decided it was time to kill Hank, threatening to kill Walt’s entire family if Walt tried to interfere. In response, Walt tried to smuggle the wife and kids out of Albuquerque, while Saul anonymously tipped off the DEA that Hank was in danger. But Walt didn’t have enough money to pay the fixer, so now he’s going with Plan B: he’s putting Skyler, Junior, and Holly into the DEA’s protective custody along with Hank and Marie, but he’s not going himself. As corrupt as he’s become, Walt still can’t bear to have his loved ones suffer the consequences for his own terrible life decisions. And so, he holes up his house, alone, to wait for Gus’s hitmen to arrive.

In the anonymous tip to the DEA, Walt had Saul tell indicate that it was the Mexican cartel and not Gus who was after Hank. That didn’t work; Hank surmises that Gus is behind it no matter what the anonymous tipster said, and he convinces Steve Gomez to finally look into Gus’s operations at the laundry center. Gomez reluctantly goes through with it, and his search turns up nothing. Gus, as always, is adept at covering his tracks.

Gus even finds a way to use Gomez’s visit to his advantage. Jesse is all that’s keeping him from finally getting rid of Walt. Jesse isn’t happy that Gomez showed up at the laundry facility, so Gus tells him Walt is the one who called the DEA all, underscoring once again how dangerous Walt really is to their operation.

Jesse still doesn’t budge, but he needs to do something to call things down. He tries calling Walt but only gets the answering machine. Then he sees that he’s got a bunch of voicemail messages from Saul, imploring him to come by the office. There, Saul is in the middle of leaving town. Jesse complains about Walt trying to disrupt everything, but Saul’s heard differently: Walt didn’t call the DEA on Gus down. Gus threatened Walt’s entire family, so Walt was only trying to protect them. Jesse realizes Gus is playing him.

It looks like Jesse’s feelings on Walt are starting to shift once again, but then he gets a phone call from Andrea. Brock is sick. Jesse races to the hospital and learns that Brock has something resembling the flu, and steadily getting worse. He goes outside for a smoke and, to his horror, notices the ricin cigarette is missing.

Jesse quickly tells Andrea that Brock might be poisoned, but he doesn’t stick around. Instead he pays Walt a visit. Walt’s barricaded himself inside the house and he’s so keyed up that the moment he sees Jesse he starts raving about how Gus is coming to kill him. Jesse’s eerily silent. He finds Walt’s .38 on the couch, picks it up, and aims it at him. He thinks Walt is the one who poisoned Brock. By his reasoning, Walt knew he was a dead man and wanted to rip Jesse’s heart out before checking out. Anything for Jesse to avoid facing the possibility he might have accidentally killed the kid himself.

Walt is flabbergasted. He barely even knows who Brock is. But Walt too is in a frenzied state of mind, so his conspiracy theory generator fires up, too. Maybe GUS poisoned Brock. Yeah, that’s it! Gus knew Jesse would blame Walt for Brock’s death. That would permanently turn Jesse against Walt and give Gus the opening to get of Walt once and for all. Walt cackles at the genius of it. Then he pulls the gun in Jesse’s hand down to his own forehead and dares him to pull the trigger.

Jesse can’t do it. He doesn’t really think Walt poisoned Brock. But still doesn’t think his own neglect is responsible, so he willingly shifts the blame over to Gus. He vows to kill the boss, and Walt volunteers to help out.

Back at the hospital Jesse tries to check on Brock but Andrea doesn’t want him anywhere near them, knowing he’s somehow involved because he knew about the ricin. Jesse spends the night in the hospital waiting room, where Tyrus finds him the next morning. Tyrus orders him to get to work, but Jesse refuses. If Gus wants him back in the lab, he’ll have to come to the hospital and tell him himself.

Which turns out to be a ploy. While this is going on Walt is hard at work cooking up some kind of bomb and rigging a detonator for it. Jesse texts him to let him know that Gus will be coming to the hospital soon. The trap is set.

That afternoon Gus confronts Jesse for not coming in to work—he doesn’t even give sick days when kids are on their deathbeds. Jesse still refuses to leave the hospital, so Gus offers to get Brock whatever medical care he needs. Only Brock isn’t sick, Jesse tells Gus, he’s been poisoned. Gus senses something isn’t right. (Has he figured out that Walt and Jesse have been plotting to murder him this entire season? Is this all it took?!) He changes his tune. Jesse can have all the time off he needs. Uh oh.

Outside, Walt waits on a rooftop with a pair of binoculars. He watches Gus and his men come out of the hospital and walk towards their vehicle, which he has rigged to explode while they were inside. But once again Gus seems to sense something. Walt watches in horror as Gus scans the skyline for something suspicious. He doesn’t spot Walt exactly, but he has to know Walt is watching him. And Gus turns and leads his men away.

My heart was in my throat for about 42 of the 44 minutes on this one. Full recap Tuesday.