The Great Train Robbery

"Dead Freight" is the kind of dark episode of Breaking Bad that makes the show both compelling and hard to watch.  It opens with a scene of a young guy driving his motorbike through the desert.  He stops, chances upon a tarantula and puts it in a glass jar.  That's it.  Didn't seem to mean anything, but about halfway through it starts to dawn on us where this is heading, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. (After the credits we get a ton of commercials. Didn't the show used to go right back into the program?)

At the DEA, Hank is in his new A.S.A.C. office and he has a surprise visitor--Walt.  Hank notes Walt's nice new watch--he's an observant cop, but he still believes Walt is the milquetoast genius brother-in-law.  And he'll continue to believe that with Walt the psychopath playing the hurt husband--his wife doesn't love him, he's lost her, etc.  We figure he's manipulating Hank to try to get Skyler on his side again.  And a bunch of fans are thinking didn't we spend all last week dealing with domestic issues?  Let's get back to the meth.  But Walt is more subtle. He starts crying, sure to drive Hank out of the office--claiming to get coffee--while Walt composes himself.  As soon as Hank is gone, Walt attaches a bug to Hank's computer and another behind a photo of Marie so he can hear what goes on in the office.  It's a bit of a callback to Hank having him attach a tracker to Gus's car last season.  In fact, this episode has a lot of callbacks, which allow us to see how things have changed.

Meanwhile, Mike has captured Lydia, and the Three Amigos are deciding what to do with her.  (Where's Saul.  Is he completely cut out now?  I guess he's happy to leave them alone and collect his percentage.) Mike gives her a script and has her call Hank to tell him about the GPS on the methylamine barrel.  They're trying to discover if she put it there or the DEA.  After the call, their bug tells them Hank is surprised.  So Lydia must have done it, though she protests her innocence.  However, before Mike can kill her they hear another call from Hank to the Houston office (where Madrigal is) and Hank discovers they clumsily put trackers on all the barrels.  So Lydia didn't do it. (I'm shocked.  I assumed Mike was right last week.)

Unfortunately, it also mean her supply is being tracked so they have no source.  But, as Walt explained last week, the roads must roll, and the production can't be stopped.  Mike still wants to kill Lydia, because, even if she did save them, she's a loose cannon who will turn them in--after all, she put a hit out on Mike.  Lydia promises she can get them a supply of methylamine, an ocean of the stuff.

While Mike and Jesse wait outside, chemistry experts Walt and Lydia have a little talk.  She wants a guarantee of safety, but she doesn't have much leverage.  Walt is truly in his element here--being a drug boss and a chem expert, it's really what he's always wanted.  She explains why she order the hit--all those guys who know so much, and how Mike wants to keep paying them to shut them up.  A good point for Lydia, since Walt would probably rather they be killed, too.

So they decide to let her talk some more.  She knows about a train that travels with a supply of 24,000 gallons.  There's a remote stretch where no one can track things.  (It's all a bit convenient, but at least she's the expert who'd know about something like this.) But these guys, as imaginative and hungry as they are, aren't Jesse James.  (Not too long ago, Mike told Walter just because you shot Jesse James doesn't make you Jesse James.) As Mike explains, the only way to pull it off is to kill the crew--two innocent men.  That's not what they do (not Jesse and Mike, anyway--I bet Walt would).  Lydia is almost  disgusted at how they'd kill her but not a couple of other guys.

At the Schraders, Hank and Marie enjoy Holly, though "Emo McGee" mopes around. I get it, though--he's been through a tough time and on one ever explains why.  And he's back to being called Flynn.

Three Amigos discuss their options.  Mike figures the train robbery is out, so time for a pseudo-cook, which disgusts Walt.  Piddly, much less money, different sort of cook, etc.  Mike and Walt have another go-round on legacy costs, but Jesse--the new smart guy--has an answer.  Let's take the methylamine without them knowing.  Yeah, Jesse!

So they scout the area (by now we see how this all will end) and Jesse's plan is pretty brilliant.  They set up an area under a bridge not far from a road, which is where they'll hide waiting for the train to stop.  They dig out an area nearby and put in two tanks.  An empty one for the 1000 gallons they'll steal, and another to hold water which they'll replace it with so no one notices the weight change. (The company will blame the Chinese for watering down the product.) They explain this all happily to Todd--the smart boy from the pest company--who they'll need to pull it off.  Obvious exposition, but fun.

Back at the White's, Flynn has returned.  Hey, he's got a car, you stop him.  Walt comes in and lays down the law to his son without telling him anything.  Junior has been whining about this for about three seasons, but what else would he do?

Once he's gone, Walt and Skyler have a talk.  He can't sweet-talk her.  She hates him and considers herself not a wife, but a hostage.  But she'll go along with everything as long as the kids are protected.  And part of that is keeping them away from Casa Blanca.  Walt doesn't fight any more.  Is the relationship at a standstill and Walt doesn't care, or will we be getting more out of it?

At night, we see Lydia getting the information and passing it on.  (She wants to be paid for this.  She's got a lot of nerve.)  So everything's set for the great train robbery.  One of Saul's A-team stalls a truck on the road and he flags down the train. The guys on it try to help him (and they can't push the truck out of the way) and his job is to keep them there until Mike gives the all-clear sign. (So Mike is there--I'm almost surprised he's not at Lydia's place, ready to kill her if anything goes wrong.)

Jesse gets under the train and opens the spigot. Walt is by the tanks, counting the gallons, running the operation. Todd runs up top to replace the Methylamine with H20.  It's all working until a good Samaritan drives along the road and offers to push the truck out of the way.  So there's a nerve-wracking but exhilarating sequence where Jesse and Todd just manage to pull out as the train rides away.  The whole thing is a bit of a call-back to the first season, when Jesse and Walt, much more inexperienced and small-time, stole their first barrel of methylamine.

So they guys high-five.  The audience also does, though we're celebrating a criminal act which will lead to many more criminal acts and destruction of life.  Funny how that works.

But the celebration is cut short when they see the kid from the opening scene.  He came across a spider which he captured, and now they've come across him.  There's no option, or is there? Up to now, for all the horrible things they've done, they've never gone so far as to kill an innocent child.  In fact, much of the trouble of the entire fourth season was incited by the killing of a kid.

Todd doesn't hesitate.  He pulls out a gun and and shoots the kid dead.  Jesse is horrified, of course, though I'm almost surprised it wasn't Walt who did it.  He sure seems capable.  Are they saving his worst deeds for the final eight?  Are they afraid Jesse wouldn't stand for it from him?  Either way, it's a sickening but somehow inevitable end to the episode.

Todd looks like he has a future with the organization.  Walt, if he ever pulls a Victor, might just pick him to be someone's replacement.

I should add that though fans seem to hate hysterical Lydia, I have a lot of sympathy for her.  Maybe that's because I can imagine knowing someone like here.  A successful executive who figures she can make millions by being a chemical connection, and who's suddenly scared out of her wits that she'll go to jail or even be killed.  Walt, Mike, even Jesse are hardened criminals by now.  She's just a person caught up in something beyond her control. Yes, it's her fault, but her reactions are closer to how a normal person might feel.

Only three episodes more until the first half of the season ends and we wait another year.  This season they're at the top and have to start everything again, so getting momentum going is a bit trickier (compared to trying to make it, or killing Gus), but there's so much going on you're never bored.  There's also a lot more left to do--makes you wonder how far they'll go in this half-season.