Home Cooking

Breaking Bad is my favorite show, but how I wish it were on HBO or Showtime.  Watching it live feels like half the time is taken up with commercials. Speaking of commerce, let's look at this week's episode (only five weeks left!), "Hazard Pay."

Mike is tagging along as a lawyer's paralegal so he can talk directly to his "guys" who have been picked up by the feds.  He wants to assure them the Fring deal is still on--they keep their mouths shut, they get their hazard pay. He has to get to them all right away or who knows who'll speak.  Where will he get the money?  No need for them to know, but we sure do. There may be no love lost between Mike and Walter, but Mike does right by his guys.

Back at the White residence, Walt is moving back in.  Where he lives is harder to keep track of than who's got the guns on Lost, but it looks like this move is for good.  Depressed, frightened Skyler wonders if this is a good idea, but Walt isn't worried about her opinion any more.

Walt and Jesse meet with Saul and explain they're bringing in Mike.  Saul, recently threatened by Mike, isn't thrilled, but hey, as Walt notes, "it's what he does." Who hasn't been threatened by Mike?  So at the confab Mike explains they cook, he handles the business.  Walt's okay with it, he explains to Saul, because he'll be the one handling Mike.

Say what you want about Saul, he does his job well.  He's got a bunch of places lined up for potential cooking. I thought they'd take the first place, which looked pretty good, but Walt had some problems that he as a master chemist would have to deal with.  The four look at other places till Walt figures out a plan which he'll explain after the lengthy commercial break.

The last place they checked stored the colorful tarps pest control uses to tent houses being bug-bombed.  Walt explains they'll come in the first day, cook a batch, leave, and no one will be any the wiser.  Saul knows the guys and they're crooked enough that he can deal with them.  Walt's idea is so good he doesn't even feel there's any need to vote on it, even though he, Jesse and Mike are supposedly equal partners.

At a music store we discover Sneaky Pete is masterful at the keyboards. He's so good with classical music it's almost out of character.  Badger banging away at a guitar is more believable.  They're on a mission from Jesse to buy huge roller cases--they can pretend they're roadies, but no doubt they'll carry the cooking equipment.  Pete pays with cash, and when he and Badger deliver the goods, they offer their services to Jesse, who's obviously back in business.  Not so long ago, he asked them to get involved, but he's too big league for them now (thanks to training from the best--Walt for cooking, Mike for the rest).

Mike lays down the law to the pest control people.  This he's good at. Even Walt is impressed.  Walt is also impressed by some of Jesse's suggestions as to how to create the cook set-up. One idea is to use a medical tent--like the one Gus had in Mexico--to control the smell.  It wasn't that long ago Walt would regularly berate Jesse for his stupidity. The boy's turned himself around.  I bet he'd get a good grade in Mr. White's class now.

Andrea and Brock come home.  They're living with Jesse.  Walt meeting Brock, the boy he poisoned (or had poisoned, anyway), is pretty sickening. Walt must also wonder if Jesse should have this new family around. They can get in the way.

The pest control people tent a home, the owner leaves and Jesse and Walt come in wearing their "Vamonos Pest" suits, ready to do their business.  We've seen them cook in a basement, an RV, a superlab, and now they're taking their act from home to home.  They cook as good, or better, than ever.  During a break, the two take it easy as they sit on the couch and watch the Three Stooges on the owner's big-screen TV.  Walt talks to Jesse a bit about Andrea. He says he's sure Jesse will make the right decision.  In the past, Walt has cared about what Jesse does, but now it's more Heisenberg handling his young charge.

Marie visits Skyler at the car wash. She may be the least favorite and least necessary regular on the show, but it's nice to see her again.  She's perkier than usual--Hank is working (what about the investigation over beating up a citizen?) and walking, and Walt's 51st birthday is coming up.  The show started with Walt turning 50, and now it's time for another party.  Skyler can't take it any more and starts screaming "Shut up!" over and over.  A lot of people would like to shout at Marie, but Skyler overdoes it.

Back at the cook Walt and Jesse yield almost 50 pounds. The new system works.  They leave and the cockroach reprieve is over.  Walt returns home and Marie is waiting for him.  (Marie and Walt alone is a rare scene.)  She tells Walt about Skyler's breakdown.  In past seasons, we've seen Walt lie an awful lot to Skyler in this house, but now he gets to lie to someone new, and it's more despicable than ever.  He never liked Skyler's lies about where he got his money since it made him look bad, so now he can get her back.  He explains about Ted Beneke's serious injury, and says that's why Skyler is so shaken up.  That and the fact they had an affair.  (True enough, of course, but not the real reason she went off.) So Walt gets to share some gossip with Marie "explaining" his wife's odd actions, and makes her promise to keep it quiet.  Heisenberg strikes again.

Jesse is playing videogames with Andrea and Brock, but he's got something to tell them.  Meanwhile, Skyler, depressed, lies in bed. She here's some gunfire and goes to the living room where Walt and Jr. and Holly are enjoying the violence of Al Pacino in Scarface (which is also being heavily advertised during the AMC commercial breaks).

Anyway, the new partners are making fat stacks.  The first batch has grossed almost $1.4 million. But then the "mules"--the drivers--have to get their cut, plus the cost of methylamine (though this time was free), the loan from Jesse to get going (partly taken from Jesse's new stack--what gives?), the pest control people and Saul Goodman.  Then there's a "legacy cost"--making good on Saul's guys' hazard pay. Walt is not pleased.  Why should it come out of his end? Jesse says take it from his cut and Walt backs down, but you know it's not over.  So each of the three end up with $137,000--1/10th of the gross.  Less than J and W made with Fring.

Mike leaves and Walt asks Jesse how he's feeling.  Jesse says he broke it off with Andrea--just as Walt wanted, presumably. But Walt is more offended right now by the money.  Jesse notes they cooked a lot more weight for Gus.  They may have made more money, but they made a smaller percentage.  Jesse and Walt's roles have reversed.  Not so long ago Jesse did the math and figured out what a small percentage they were getting and Walt reminded him that they were making millions.  Now Walt, or actually Heisenberg, is the one fuming.  He brings up Victor.  Why did Gus kill him?  Walt thought it was to send a message.  It was probably mostly because he'd been seen and was a liability. But also there was Victor cooking--taking liberties. Walt doesn't say it explicitly, but now he thinks Mike is taking liberties.  Jesse wonders where this is going.

So do we all.  A fine episode, and good to see them cooking again (oddly enough).  But Walt is getting hard to stomach.  And where he'll make his next move is hard to predict.  The DEA is closing in, Mike is throwing his weight around, and Walt needs to handle Jesse, Skyler and Marie.  Who knows what'll blow up next?