Buggin' Out

Characters openly talked about their mission and plans in this week's Breaking Bad, "Bug," but it was far from clear what they meant and where they were headed.  Also, now that the end of the series is in sight, most scenes echo earlier action, showing how far the characters have come, and sometimes how low they've sunk.

We start with the aftermath of some violence.  Walt's glasses are broke and he's dripping blood. He picks them up and walks away.  What just happened?  We'll find out before the show is over.

Meanwhile, Walt's helping out Hank.  Just goes to show you how hard it is to predict the path this show will take. I really didn't know what season four would be about, but I never would have gussed these two will team up to investigate Gus.

They drive to the chicken shack and pick up the GPS tracker.  To Hank, it's like the old days, even if he's stuck with a wimpy chemist as partner. Tyrus seems to be following them, not that Hank would know.  They go back to Hank's place and it looks like Gus only drive to work and back home.  (And something I've noticed--he owns a bunch of fast food places but only seems to go to one of them.)  Hank, with his great instinct, isn't convinced.  Makes you wonder why Gus didn't take a joy ride or two.

Walt leaves and, in a stone cold Heisenberg moment, let's Tyrus hear as he calls the cops on him.  (Walt and the rest don't believe in involving the police, though this is more a warning shot.  He's just tired of a guy on his tail.)

At the laundry/meth lab, Jesse and Walk talk.  Walt, who's now suspicious of Jesse, asks for a smoke. (Hey, once you've already got lung cancer...) Walt asks Jesse what he does in his spare time.  Walt doesn't believe Jesse will tell him the truth any more.  Though I do believe Jesse enjoys Ice Road Truckers, as he claims.  Jesse still says he'll do it, though Walt says they're both dead men anyway.  (Are both telling the truth or lying?  The first of many scenes where people seem to lay it on the line but we just don't know.)

Skyler calls Walt from the car wash.  She wonders if he can't stop cooking now that the business is good.  He says he's looking for an "exit strategy" (and apparently has bought a tracker of his own).  Once again, characters are openly talking about plans, but both may be lying. Anyway, Skyler still seems to hope she can make it all clean again.  She sounds more like Mildred Pierce than Lady Macbeth.

Walt is awoken by a call from Hank, who's done more Googling and figures Gus's big HQ may be hiding a lot of chicanery.  Say what you want about Hank, he's called it.  Hank wants another road trip.  Walt begs off, but then figures better him than someone else, and says he'll help out Hank in a few days.  Next Walt calls Mike to alert him to the surprise inspection.  It's almost like a farce, where they keep moving everything out of the way of the inspector.  Mike hangs up--he's clearly not thrilled to talk to Walt in general.  Next thing you know, Jesse is helping clean up the place.

At the car wash, Skyler does all sorts of fake transactions as cashier to show that extra profit.  Who should walk in but Ted "I.F.T." Beneke. Is he back for more? Will be be turned off by the overnight weight gain?

Turns out its wortse  They sort of dropped that whole subplot about his cooking the books, but not really. He's being audited.  Tomorrow.  Some things are just as scary as the cartel.  Skyler is troubled.  Not just for Ted, but because she knows how these investigations go, and how she'll be checked herself, maybe even bugged.  (She did once say "meth lab" to Saul--no Saul this week, by the way--but she's since learned to talk over the phone.) She could be dragged down by Ted.  Little does he know she's a much bigger criminal than he is.  She can't let this stand.

Mike is doing more cleaning--his specialty-with Jesse.  Jesse goes into a monologue about what's going on.  Will Gus kill Hank, what that would mean, etc.  (How would ex-cop Mike feel about taking down a cop?) Very text over subtext--except is Jesse saying it to get it out in the open, or does he have some plan?  When he's done, Mike says something very odd.  He asks Jesse if it's be okay if they took out Hank (I think it would be Hank, though maybe he means Walt).  Very odd.  Who asks Jesse anything?  Why do they want to sound him out? Jesse himself says "who cares what I think?"

They go outside and a sniper blows one guys brains out.  Jesse stands there like an idiot before Gus pulls him down and behind a shed to safety.  It's all as Mike warned last week--the combo of the cartel and Hank breathing down their neck is a bad combination.

Gus comes out, not afraid as bullets whiz by.  He knows the cartel won't off him, they need him as a distributor.  Sill, Gus gets the message.  He gets a call and says "si."

At the lab, Jesse and Mike wheel in the latest corpse.  Walt complains.  Dissolve another?  He starts blaming Gus and Mike has had enough.  He tells him to shut his mouth or he'll shut it for him (and we know he knows how to).  He's really most mad about Walt calling the cops on his guy. You don't do that.

They get the body out of there.  Jesse asks Mike what's going on. (Mike explains, unnecessarily, the cartel needs Gus, etc.)  Jesse has more questions, and Mike says why not ask Gus yourself?  Hmm. Things have changed.

At the audit, Ted's in trouble.  Then Skyler comes in dressed like a floozy.  She pretends to be a ditz who only got her job because of her sexual attraction.  As an accountant she missed lots of income because Quicken didn't tell her to report it.  Now she's just a cashier at a car wash, as Ted earlier called her.  The special agent gets it.  This was incompetence, not criminality. 

Skyler had to do it to save her own business, of course.  As Ted and Skyler leave, Skyler tells him to pay the fine now and be done with it or they'll continue the investigation  Ted says he owes $617,000 and has no assets.  No doubt Skyler, who's got more money that she knows what to do with, will take advantage of this.

Jesse drives to Gus's place.  Gus invites him in. (No family there.  He's claimed to have one.  Does he keep them hidden, or are they a useful fiction?) It's just like the old days, except last time it was Walt, and Gus was telling him to dump the junkie.

Gus chops up the dinner stew.  Jesse may have an opportunity to kill Gus with the fateful cigarette, but he doesn't take advantage of it.  They talk over dinner.  Gus will give answers, but he wants to know if Jesse can cook on his own.  Jesse shows his loyalty by saying you kill Walt, you've got to kill me.  Actually, he still calls him Mr. White. (He also notes what's on a lot of people's minds--just a month ago Gus planned to kill Jesse.  Now he's trying to cultivate him?) But Gus claims it's not about that.  The war is too hot and he needs Jesse to help prevent all-out war. (Looks like they're back to Tuco's plan.)

Skyler can't sleep.  She  looks at all her money in the crawl space.  No doubt more on this next week.  (A lot of fans find the whole car wash subplot boring, but I like it just fine.)

At the lab, Jesse wants to talk to Walt.  (For a second I wondered if Jesse had somehow gone through with it). Walt has to go, but before he does he pulls the tracker he planted on Jesse's car.  He checks and sure enough Jesse went to Gus's place and stayed there over two hours.

Jesse calls and wants to talk to Walt, who is more than happy to come over and get to the bottom of things.  We got another monologue from Jesse, this time about what's going on.  We see some of the goofy stoner kid we first knew him as.  (With less comedy as the show goes on, it's nice to have moments like this).  Jesse is trying to explain how he's being asked to go to Mexico and teach them to cook blue, but what'll happen when they find out he's not the chemist Walt is?  It's almost sweet.  Jesse openly asks for Mr. White's help, as if he's still his chemistry teacher.

You'd think Walt would be intrigued by all this new info, but all he cares about is how Jesse met with Gus.  Jesse lies about it, but Walt reveals he bugged Jesse's car.  And he didn't kill Gus when he had the chance (supposedly). Jesse makes excuses--not bad ones, since he knew Walt would freak out.  But Walt is in full Heisenberg mode, and Jesse is one of few people he can half pull it off with.

Walt says some horrible things.  They've had a bond, though Walt has regularly insulted him.  But telling him he has no guts when he did actually kill a guy for Walter is pretty cold. Walt feels betrayed by Jesse, but Jesse feels betrayed, too.  Then Walt gets mad and says "you signed my death warrant"--also cold since he'll die soon anyway, while Jesse is the one in trouble.  In fact, Walt can't help but say Jesse will screw up in Mexico and wind up in a barrel himself.

They get into a brawl.  In season two Jesse knocked Walt down when he'd had enough, but this was like some sort of Sopranos fight, except neither are great at what they're doing.  We know Walt will walk away from it, but is it even conceivable they'll kill Jesse?

No.  The two stop fighting eventually and Jesse tells him to get our and never come back.  So the central relationship in the show seems over, just minutes after Jesse opened up like it was season one.  Very sad.

A good episode (and, as always, with all the ads, way too short), but more interim than central.