Minicap: Breaking Bad

OK, I admit, I just watched Week Four of BrBa, so it’s still really fresh in my mind, but I’ve also barely had time to digest it. My first reaction though was, my god, what an episode!

The week starts with Mike. He’s sitting inside a refrigerated Dos Pollos truck—Gus smuggles the meth out of the Superlab by hiding it inside buckets of fried chicken batter, and surrounding Mike are shelves and shelves of these buckets. The truck comes to a stop, and outside, Mike hears the driver get into an argument with a couple unknown individuals. Shots are fired. Mike ducks for cover, and soon, machine guns bullets are flying. The unknown murderers empty two clips each into the truck. Mike manages to stay out of harm’s way, and when they open the doors, he wastes them both. But not totally unscathed—one of their bullets caught the tip of his right ear.

After the opening sequence, it’s Skyler in bed at three a.m., not sleeping. She’s had an idea. She writes down “gambling addiction” on a legal pad, and later, she and Walt attend a GA meeting to do some research. Last season, when Skyler insisted they pay Hank’s medical bills using Walt’s drug money, they told Marie the money was coming from Walt’s blackjack winnings. It was a cover story, and Marie believed it. The problem is, Hank himself doesn’t know the Whites are paying his bills, and their recent carwash purchase has forced their hand—Hank will know they’ve got a bunch of money coming from somewhere, so now, Walt and Skyler are going to have to make the story look semi-believable.

Walt and Skyler start by practicing blackjack. For the sake of believability Walt’s actually done research into how to count cards, and in their practice session he’s eager to impress Skyler with his newfound knowledge and powerful intellect. She isn’t in the mood to massage his ego, so Walt suggests they do something else for a while.

Which takes them over to the couch. Skyler has typed up their entire cover story start-to-finish, in bullet points. Now they’re going to practice exactly what they’re each going to say. When they get to the point of the story where Walt’s supposed to admit he developed a gambling addiction, Skyler wrote for him to say he’s terribly, terribly sorry for what he’s done to everyone. Walt objects, sensing he’s being attacked, and they argue. Walt isn’t actually sorry for his decision to make meth, since he did it to provide for the family. And besides, if he admitted he developed an addiction, how would that look to Junior? Skyler retorts that at least Walt gets to look somewhat heroic. Throughout all this, Walter Jr. has thought of Sky as a domineering bitch. When Walt sees how much Skyler’s suffered in an unexpected way, he plays along with the rehearsal—but still doesn’t apologize for anything.

That night, the Whites show up at Hank and Marie’s for dinner. Hank and Marie have managed to put a happy face on their situation, for the most part. Before the meal, Hank takes Walt and Junior into the bedroom to show him his new mineral collection, and then, to show them something cool from some consulting work he’s doing for the Albuquerque Police Department. He pulls out a DVD, puts it in the player…and it’s Gale, singing karaoke. Hank and Junior laugh, but Walt turns pale.

Later, during the meal, when Skyler and Walt are telling Hank their tale of gambling addiction, marital strain, and carwash-buying, Walt can only think about all the evidence Hank might have on him. He excuses himself to go to the bathroom, then sneaks back to the bedroom to look through Hank’s files. And to his horror, he discovers Gale’s notebook—the one outlining how to make the blue meth. Hank’s even closer than he thought.

But Hank comes to check on Walt, so Walt has to stuff the notebook back into the folder without knowing exactly what Hank really knows. Walt and Hank meet in the hallway. Before they go back to the table, Hank admits he’s impressed by Walt’s tall tale, and offers his support in case Walt ever needs to talk. Walt sees an opening, and he offers Hank the same thing—an ear, if Hank ever wanted to talk about, oh, I dunno, a case or something. It works. Hank takes him back to he bedroom to show him the evidence from Gale’s murder. Finally Walt can get some answers. Sure enough, Gale’s notebook outlines exactly how the Superlab works and Walt’s recipe for blue meth. And ironically, that’s how Walt might be able to save his own skin. Because Gale has the recipe, Hank thinks Gale is Heisenberg. Walt doesn’t correct him. The only loose end is Jesse. Does Hank have any leads on who actually murdered Gale? Hank doesn’t, but does say they found some fingerprints at the scene. Uh-oh.

The next day, Walt heads over to Jesse’s house to warn him the cops might be closing in, and insists they go over the night of the murder to try to remember if Jesse left any clues. Jesse’s sure the cops would have showed up by now if they had anything on him. (And doesn’t look too happy to be reminded of that night in the first place). Walt checks with Saul, and Saul reminds him of the time last season when Hank got charged with police brutality after roughing Jesse up. Even if Hank did have solid evidence, he likely still wouldn’t go near Jesse. So Walt is safe. But still, the stress is getting to him, and he vents his overall frustrations with life. Saul agrees that Walt is essentially screwed, but does have an endgame in mind. Saul knows a guy who can make people disappear—think witness protection, only more thorough. Walt and his family COULD relocate, if it ever got to that. Planting seeds…

But for the time being, Walt’s biggest problem is actually Jesse’s increasing carelessness, even if Jesse isn’t about to be the target of a murder investigation. Jesse’s still fueling a never-ending party at his house, and this week, he tips a partygoer off about his duffel bag full of cash. Sure enough, his entire nest egg is stolen. And Jesse couldn’t care less. Later, after Mike and Tyrus have managed to track the thief down and retrieve Jesse’s cash, they they show up at his house with the thief bound and gagged. Jesse just thanks them starts to walk off. Oh, he knows what they’re driving at, that he’s supposed to shape up, but he’s not going to play ball. Mike thinks this over, and then reports to Gus. He too is worried about the risk Jesse poses to the operation

We wrap up the week with Walt in the lab. Jesse hasn’t showed up for work today. Walt’s pissed. He goes over to Jesse’s house to chew him out, but Jesse isn’t there—and Jesse’s cell has been left behind. Cut to the desert. Mike’s driving along a country road, headed towards nowhere. Jesse is in the passenger seat. Mike asks him if he wants to know where they’re headed, and Jesse…once again…couldn’t care less.

That’s where they leave us. Bastards! Check back Wednesday for the full post-mortem. Tons of stuff in this episode I didn’t have time for in the minicap, so I’m sure there’ll be lots to discuss.

Meth,

SCOA

To check out last week’s full recap while you wait for this week, click here!