"My wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we didn't intend. My fifteen-year old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make $43,700 per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable and within eighteen months, I will be dead. And you ask why I ran?"
'Bit by a Dead Bee' is another important episode of Breaking Bad. It is a prime example of how this show really mastered the art that is creating good television. In the first episode of this season, we saw the build-up to the big events that happened in the top quality 'Grilled'. Now, in the third episode of the season, we see the fall-out from those events. Bryan Cranston does more excellent work here as Walt hatches a plan to explain his disappearance, while also knowing that Jesse needs a good alibi.
This is the first time that Hank and Jesse meet and it's an excellent scene for both Dean Norris and Aaron Paul. Hank seems sure that Jesse is lying about his three-day party with Wendy, but cannot prove it - yet. He thinks he can break Wendy, but this goes wrong when she remembers him from when he visited with Walter Jr. and she thought he wanted her to 'do that kid!'. Despite this, Hank and Gomez have one more card to play - Tio Salamanca. It's great to see Tio's return, especially as we realise that he is old school and would never talk to the DEA. So, Jesse is let off the hook.
Walt, meanwhile, reveals to his psychiatrist a certain degree of the truth in the speech I quoted at the top of the review. Of course, he fails to mention that they were kidnapped by a psychopathic drug dealer. The most heartbreaking scene of the episode is surely when Walt visits his house in the night and catches a glimpse of what his family's life would be like without him. The question that keeps coming up is whether or not what he is doing 'for his family' is actually worth it. Is he in fact losing them in the process?
Just as when Krazy-8 was killed in '...And the Bag's in the River', it's unclear where the story will go now. Tuco's grill is all that remains of him, so who will Walt and Jesse partner up with next? This was a slower episode, but it was still full of quality, as this show always is.
9.2/10
'Bit by a Dead Bee' is another important episode of Breaking Bad. It is a prime example of how this show really mastered the art that is creating good television. In the first episode of this season, we saw the build-up to the big events that happened in the top quality 'Grilled'. Now, in the third episode of the season, we see the fall-out from those events. Bryan Cranston does more excellent work here as Walt hatches a plan to explain his disappearance, while also knowing that Jesse needs a good alibi.
This is the first time that Hank and Jesse meet and it's an excellent scene for both Dean Norris and Aaron Paul. Hank seems sure that Jesse is lying about his three-day party with Wendy, but cannot prove it - yet. He thinks he can break Wendy, but this goes wrong when she remembers him from when he visited with Walter Jr. and she thought he wanted her to 'do that kid!'. Despite this, Hank and Gomez have one more card to play - Tio Salamanca. It's great to see Tio's return, especially as we realise that he is old school and would never talk to the DEA. So, Jesse is let off the hook.
Walt, meanwhile, reveals to his psychiatrist a certain degree of the truth in the speech I quoted at the top of the review. Of course, he fails to mention that they were kidnapped by a psychopathic drug dealer. The most heartbreaking scene of the episode is surely when Walt visits his house in the night and catches a glimpse of what his family's life would be like without him. The question that keeps coming up is whether or not what he is doing 'for his family' is actually worth it. Is he in fact losing them in the process?
Just as when Krazy-8 was killed in '...And the Bag's in the River', it's unclear where the story will go now. Tuco's grill is all that remains of him, so who will Walt and Jesse partner up with next? This was a slower episode, but it was still full of quality, as this show always is.
9.2/10