This latest episode of Breaking Bad somehow took a little bit of every good element in the show and capitalized on it unmercifully.
Hank continues his eavesdropping and 'extralegal' activities with his wheel-man Walt. It's somewhat comical. He thinks Gus is so clean that he must be dirty.
Hank is off the scent for a minute, until he Google Maps a satellite image of a certain distribution center for Pollos Hermanos and its partner restaurants. We recognize this distribution center as a staging ground for countless important scenes in the past. After this, the Hank aspect is to be continued for this episode.
Walt is in a sort of floating mood we haven't usually seen him in. He shares a cigarette with Jesse outside work and has an important, but subtle discussion. I love Walt's line as he walks off, he says "Doesn't matter, we're both dead men anyway." Not only in reference to their special circumstance, but seemingly in reference to man and existence in general.
Next, we see some new scenes of inside the warehouse where some packaging and other initial stages of the meth moving assembly line happen. I applaud Slovis as usual for including some of the clutter and machinery in the warehouse as valid set background.
A midst the otherwise random odd-jobs Mike and Jesse have been up to lately, Jesse begins justifying with Mike to not harm Hank, if in fact that is Mike's intention. Hank beat Jesse into a pulp not very long ago, and now Jesse has not only forgiven Hank, but is speaking partially in his defense. There's more tied into it, and it's complicated as Jesse points out, but I don't want to give away much. In the end of the monologue, though, Jesse says, "Who cares what I think anyway." Another bit of giving the finger to existence, in my opinion, like Walt's ambiguous line earlier.
Out of the blue, the cartel makes a bold gesture. Bold like I haven't seen since the grittier parts of good 'Wire' episodes. Bold that makes you stare in that awkward position in your seat.
After this conflict Gus decides to finally give in to the cartel, and calls them up. He tells them in Spanish that his answer is now "Yes" to the previous question they asked him, which we the audience do not know.
Jesse has arranged to speak with Gus at Gus' home. This scene was terrific. We don't see very much of Gus speaking with Jesse. At the end of their conversation, we learn there may be a new job for Jesse. One that maybe he isn't ready for.
Skyler is claiming to be almost turning a profit at the car wash, though she is sort of fibbing. Cut to her old boss Beneke, whom I have been waiting to re-enter the plot. My theory was that Skyler would somehow employ Beneke and his 'cooked books' to clean some of Walt's cash. Ted comes to the car wash bearing bad news, and says the IRS could soon be sniffing around him and possibly her. I don't think the IRS has anything on Walt or Skyler in terms of busting them with drug money, but the IRS does represent a black cloud that really no one wants over their heads, especially the White family. Skyler has a temporary solution.
After taking simple lessons from Hank's 'extralegalities', Walt decides to do some eavesdropping of his own, on Jesse. In what seems to be a too coincidental moment, Jesse calls Walt somewhat out of character and asks that Walt drop what he's doing and come over.
The episode ends with a scene of biblical proportions at Jesse's house. This was such a great scene I stood up the whole time I watched it. Again, McDonough and Slovis make a masterful decision on how to capture this scene. First, the camera stays at a master shot with Jesse in one corner of the ring, and Walt in the other. The shot never changes. It seems to go on forever. Walt is sitting on the couch staring at the coffee table like a statue. Jesse is pacing, projecting, and gyrating around just spitting out dialog that is equally stunning to the audience as it is to Walt. For a minute, we are Walt. We feel what he is feeling. They don't cut to a long-lens close-up shot, though, to try and drive the effect home. They let us, the intelligent audience, choose what and who to look at. Scorsese is a fan of shots like this, claiming the audience gets to be the editor for a minute. It reminded me more than anything of watching a play. During a play you don't get more than one camera shot. A scene THIS important, depicting a show-down with the best actors in the show really requires no magic from the camera, only that it be turned on.
The lighting in Jesse's house was almost all studio lighting. They obviously chose the camera position, plus the studio lighting to give this scene the effect of a mythical performance. The exchange between Walt and Jesse at that moment reminded me of some of their earlier escapades where they got themselves into heaps of trouble and would bark at one another, both not knowing exactly what to do. After a long spat of tension building dialog, the rubber band pops with the magnitude of something from a Tarantino film. If you miss this episode, you're missing the show.
Hank continues his eavesdropping and 'extralegal' activities with his wheel-man Walt. It's somewhat comical. He thinks Gus is so clean that he must be dirty.
Hank is off the scent for a minute, until he Google Maps a satellite image of a certain distribution center for Pollos Hermanos and its partner restaurants. We recognize this distribution center as a staging ground for countless important scenes in the past. After this, the Hank aspect is to be continued for this episode.
Walt is in a sort of floating mood we haven't usually seen him in. He shares a cigarette with Jesse outside work and has an important, but subtle discussion. I love Walt's line as he walks off, he says "Doesn't matter, we're both dead men anyway." Not only in reference to their special circumstance, but seemingly in reference to man and existence in general.
Next, we see some new scenes of inside the warehouse where some packaging and other initial stages of the meth moving assembly line happen. I applaud Slovis as usual for including some of the clutter and machinery in the warehouse as valid set background.
A midst the otherwise random odd-jobs Mike and Jesse have been up to lately, Jesse begins justifying with Mike to not harm Hank, if in fact that is Mike's intention. Hank beat Jesse into a pulp not very long ago, and now Jesse has not only forgiven Hank, but is speaking partially in his defense. There's more tied into it, and it's complicated as Jesse points out, but I don't want to give away much. In the end of the monologue, though, Jesse says, "Who cares what I think anyway." Another bit of giving the finger to existence, in my opinion, like Walt's ambiguous line earlier.
Out of the blue, the cartel makes a bold gesture. Bold like I haven't seen since the grittier parts of good 'Wire' episodes. Bold that makes you stare in that awkward position in your seat.
After this conflict Gus decides to finally give in to the cartel, and calls them up. He tells them in Spanish that his answer is now "Yes" to the previous question they asked him, which we the audience do not know.
Jesse has arranged to speak with Gus at Gus' home. This scene was terrific. We don't see very much of Gus speaking with Jesse. At the end of their conversation, we learn there may be a new job for Jesse. One that maybe he isn't ready for.
Skyler is claiming to be almost turning a profit at the car wash, though she is sort of fibbing. Cut to her old boss Beneke, whom I have been waiting to re-enter the plot. My theory was that Skyler would somehow employ Beneke and his 'cooked books' to clean some of Walt's cash. Ted comes to the car wash bearing bad news, and says the IRS could soon be sniffing around him and possibly her. I don't think the IRS has anything on Walt or Skyler in terms of busting them with drug money, but the IRS does represent a black cloud that really no one wants over their heads, especially the White family. Skyler has a temporary solution.
After taking simple lessons from Hank's 'extralegalities', Walt decides to do some eavesdropping of his own, on Jesse. In what seems to be a too coincidental moment, Jesse calls Walt somewhat out of character and asks that Walt drop what he's doing and come over.
The episode ends with a scene of biblical proportions at Jesse's house. This was such a great scene I stood up the whole time I watched it. Again, McDonough and Slovis make a masterful decision on how to capture this scene. First, the camera stays at a master shot with Jesse in one corner of the ring, and Walt in the other. The shot never changes. It seems to go on forever. Walt is sitting on the couch staring at the coffee table like a statue. Jesse is pacing, projecting, and gyrating around just spitting out dialog that is equally stunning to the audience as it is to Walt. For a minute, we are Walt. We feel what he is feeling. They don't cut to a long-lens close-up shot, though, to try and drive the effect home. They let us, the intelligent audience, choose what and who to look at. Scorsese is a fan of shots like this, claiming the audience gets to be the editor for a minute. It reminded me more than anything of watching a play. During a play you don't get more than one camera shot. A scene THIS important, depicting a show-down with the best actors in the show really requires no magic from the camera, only that it be turned on.
The lighting in Jesse's house was almost all studio lighting. They obviously chose the camera position, plus the studio lighting to give this scene the effect of a mythical performance. The exchange between Walt and Jesse at that moment reminded me of some of their earlier escapades where they got themselves into heaps of trouble and would bark at one another, both not knowing exactly what to do. After a long spat of tension building dialog, the rubber band pops with the magnitude of something from a Tarantino film. If you miss this episode, you're missing the show.