Minicap: Breaking Bad

Hey guys. Breaking Bad, Week 6 is here. Let’s get into the short version…

The week starts, once again, 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. Like last time, the truck stops. The guards hear the driver protest before he’s shot. They get ready. But the doors to the trailer don’t open. Instead, outside, three assassins are hooking up the truck’s exhaust pipe to the trailer’s air vents. They seal the doors shut. The guards realize with horror that they’re trapped. After they expire, the assassins make their way inside and find the correct bucket using a black-light to identify its marking. They take the drugs and leave the truck sitting there on the side of the road.

It’s morning over at the Whites’. Skyler confronts Walt about his drunken confession last night, when Walt single-handedly prevented Hank from closing the Heisenberg case and kept Hank on his trail. The event has led her to start looking into the specifics of what Walt’s done in the criminal underworld, a topic he’s always wanted to avoid discussing with her. But when he insists he had nothing to do with Gale Boetticher’s death, she then tells him he’s getting in over his head, that he’s still just a hapless chemistry teacher. Incensed, Walt proceeds to tell her exactly how much she underestimates him. He basically admits to ordering Gale’s death. Walt’s a powerful, powerful dude—Gus’s business could be listed on NASDAQ, if it were legal, and Walt IS the business. The truth scares Skyler away and she’s gone when he comes out of the shower.

That night, Walt goes to the car wash to accept the keys from Bogdan. Bogdan needles him about not being truly tough enough to be the boss, but rather than let it go–again, he can’t stand someone underestimating him–Walt won’t let Bogdan keep the framed “first dollar ever he earned” that’s hanging on the wall. Walt’s buying the car wash as-is, sentimental items included. When Bogdan leaves, Walt smashes open the frame and spends the dollar on a Coke.

The next morning, Walt and Junior get ready for their day. In the interim Skyler has called Junior to let him know everything’s all right, but didn’t give him any indication when she would be returning. Junior’s wise to what’s happening, and later, on the way to school, he asks Walt if this all means his Dad won’t be moving in, after all. It does. So to buy Junior off, Walt takes a detour to a used car lot. Junior knows what Walt’s trying to do, and he uses it to his advantage. If Walt’s going to be buying Junior off, Junior wants it done in style. And soon, he’s pulling his very own Dodge Charger into the driveway.

Skyler and Baby Holly, meanwhile, visit Four Corners National Park—that place where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah converge. Skyler has come to make an Important Decision. She flips a coin. It lands heads-up in Colorado. Whatever that means she doesn’t like it, so she flips again.

Back at the house that night, Walt and Junior are having some takeout when Skyler pulls up in the Jeep. She sees the Dodge Charger, which adds yet another piece of shit to her pile…Walt buying a car for their son without consulting her. She goes inside and greets the guys. Junior seems to sense the tension related to the car, because he immediately starts justifying it to her—it may be flashy but it’s totally safe and gets good mileage. She sighs and lets him take it out for a couple trips around the block.

Time for Walt and Skyler to talk. He wants to discuss what happened earlier between them. He apologizes for maybe over-stating his case, but reiterates, once again, that he’s always acted in the best interests of the family, and that because of him they’re safe. But Skyler is more concerned about this new car. It flies directly in the face of their cover story. It has to go back tomorrow morning. Walt warns her that Junior will blame her for it, but Skyler already knows that. Junior blames her for everything. It’s unjust, but she accepts that responsibility. Like she puts it, someone has to protect this family from the guy protecting the family.

Let’s move over to Jesse’s story. Walt’s astonished to see Jesse actually showing up for work and gives him shit for being absent so much lately. But Walt really wants to talk about this recent development with Mike. To Walt, it all sounds fishy. Why would Mike want Jesse to be his bodyguard when he could have so many other, better-qualified guys like Tyrus? Then Walt starts to piece it all together—correctly, Walt assumes that the robbery last week was in fact staged, designed to drive a wedge between Jesse and himself. Walt starts to ponder the implications of this—what if this means he really isn’t safe, like he told Skyler back in the bedroom? But to Jesse all this sounds like Walt trying to keep him down, and he won’t stand for it. He tells Walt to fuck off.

Later, after they’ve put in a full day’s work, Jesse gets called away for an errand, leaving Walt to clean the lab all by himself. He doesn’t take it lying down. Walt goes upstairs and gets three of the ladies who work in the Los Pollos laundry building to help him clean up. While he watches them work, he looks up at Gus’s security camera with a smug expression. For which he pays the price later, when Tyrus shows up to ship the women back to Honduras as punishment.

While that’s going on, we follow Jesse and Mike on their job for the day. They’re staking out a trailer where some guys—probably affiliated with the ones from the cold open—are selling their blue meth. The plan, Mike tells Jesse, is that they’re going to wait for one to come outside, corner him, ask him some questions, and get their product back, but for now they wait. Jesse doesn’t like that. He gets out and, against Mike’s pleas, just walks up to the door and asks for some meth. A burnt-out dude named Tucker answers and tells him none is for sale.

Jesse returns to the car, grabs the shovel from the trunk, and goes over to Tucker’s yard where he begins to dig. Tucker wanders out, confused, and asks what Jesse’s doing, but when Jesse asks him to help out, the guy inexplicably does, for according to the inscrutable meth-head code, that’s what you’re supposed to do. With Tucker occupied digging a meaningless hole, Jesse makes his way into the house. There, he’s confronted by another burnout. This one has a shotgun and doesn’t like strangers. He points his gun in Jesse’s face. But when they hear the back door opening, the guy turns and Jesse manages to disarm him. It’s Mike at the back door, and they soon discover the lid from a Los Pollos bucket. On it is the message, “Ready to talk?”, scrawled in Spanish.

Later, Mike and Jesse are eating dinner at a diner when Gus shows up. He’s come to hear the news on today’s mission, and Jesse has to wait outside. Mike fills Gus in—the rival group, whoever they are, have sent a clear message. Mike wants to retaliate, but Gus wants to keep things quiet for the moment and orders Mike to set up a talk. Meeting adjourned. Outside, when Gus passes Jesse on the way to his car, he offers up a little praise for Jesse’s good work today. Jesse could leave it at that, but he stops Gus…he wants to know why he was chosen to do this work. And Gus replies, simply, that he likes to believe he sees things in people. Which is true—except he sees weaknesses as well as he sees strengths.

That’s it for the quick rundown. Check back TUESDAY morning–that’s right, Tuesday, not Wednesday any more–for the full rundown. To check out last week’s recap while you wait, click here.