You Break It, You Buy It

So we're already on the sixth episode of Breaking Bad's half-season, only two left to go.  The question now is what sort of cliff hanger or jaw dropper will they leave us with. This week's episode, "Buyout," struck me as sort of an in-betweener--setting up things for the next two hours, and sometimes being a bit too obvious in doing  it.  (It's odd that after five A minuses in a row, A.V. Club chose this episode for the first straight out A.)  Creator Vince Gilligan said Walt will do something unforgivable before these eight shows are over, and while I don't think we've seen it yet, he has been pretty awful so far, and I think he rose to new heights of jerkiness in "Buyout."

It starts with a wordless sequence where the team disposes of the bike and body of the kid they shot last week. (I'm a bit surprised they didn't leave the body somewhere far away from the site to be discovered, but I guess they'd rather not have a murder investigation.  Still, no doubt there'll be a search for the missing kid, which means I guess they're removing all evidence of the tanks and so forth?)

Walt, Mike and the new boy and shooter Todd, do the work while shaken Jesse smokes outside.  When it's done Todd joins him and is surprisingly cavalier about the murder, which leads to Jesse punching him--on the nose, not unlike the scene: I don't think Todd feels so bad about what he did, but he should be sensitive enough to leave the subject alone.  Jesse is the least hardened of the three amigos, and we know nothing sets him off like dead kids.

After the work is done, Todd explains why he did what he did.  He feels justified.  (He also calls Walt "Mr. White"!) Jesse is disgusted.  Walt has Todd leave the room.  Todd mentions he cares about the business and even has prison connections.  How will this play out later?

After he's out, Walt tries to calm down Jesse.  They have three options.  Fire Todd (and pay for his silence), kill him, or keep him on.  Really they have no choice, and he stays. (Not that Walt minds in the least.)  Mike tells him he's still in and then shoves him against the wall telling him never to take a gun to a job without clearing it first.  Todd goes back in his car and looks at the glass jar with the spider the kid caught.  Odd.

Cut to the DEA surveilling someone.  It's Mike in the park with his granddaughter.  He leaves a note behind.  Is this a dead drop?  Gomie checks it out.  (Surveillance without Hank must be boring.)  Mike's written "Fuck You." A bit like Tio, and also, once again, a bit obvious.  Mike knows he's being watched, but does he have to let them know?  I guess there is an excuse in that it gets them talking at the office, which Mike can follow through the bug.  Hank talks about continuing the surveillance 24/7 (when he's not talking about the difference between mayonnaise and Miracle Whip).

Skyler visits Marie and clings on to Holly for dear life.  She tells Marie she worries about the kids' safety, and she's got problems that she can't even talk about, they're so horrible.  We start to wonder if Skyler will actually talk (and thus put Marie in trouble), but Marie let's slip that Walt told her all about the affair with Ted.  So he's gone that low, Skyler thinks, but she's not going to say what the real trouble is.

On a break at the latest cook, Jesse watches the news regarding the search for the missing kid.  Walt says how bad he feels too, but they've got to keep cooking for another year or so, make their hundred million, and move on.  After that, they'll have time to feel bad.  He lets Jesse off, saying he'll finish the cook. As Jesse leaves, he can hear Walt whistling. Once again, a bit obvious.  Even if Walt wants to whistle while he works, wouldn't he make sure Jesse is gone first?  Jesse gets a call.  Some new business going down?

When Walt returns to HQ, Mike and Jesse are waiting for him.  Mike notes he's being tailed by the DEA, which makes Walt explode in the classic condescending style he perfected while working with Jesse in the early days.  Walt says this can't go on and Mike says you're right, I'm out.  Walt accepts and says Jesse will take over distribution. (Really?) Jesse says he's out, too.  He didn't sign up for kid-killing.  He's retiring.  Walt can't understand.  They almost "killed" themselves stealing that methylamine.  Mike says they can sell it to a connection he knows for $15 million and walk away with a third each.  It's unthinkable to Walt to sell out, even as Jesse asks if they're in the money business or the meth business.

And though this is consistent for Walt's character now, it's also the latest (and last?) in a long line of moments he can walk away.  He always could, but it's never been so clear, except for maybe in the first season when Gray Matter promised to take care of him.  He doesn't know how much longer he has to live, but the original idea--that he should make enough to take help his family if he's gone--is taken care of.  They've got the car wash up and running to launder any money and now he'll have $5 million, more than enough. But Walt can't even consider it.

Mike and Jesse meet the connection out in the desert.  They're willing to sell their two-thirds of the methylamine for $10 million but the guy says he wants it all. Not just for cooking, but to get rid of Gus Fring's blue meth as competition. (I'm almost surprised this late in the game we see so casually a competitor on the American side of any size--in the past, Fring seemed to control the Southwest on this side of the border.) So the two sensible amigos understand they've got to convince their crazy partner to sell out.

Walt gets a call at home from Jesse.  He invites him over.  Really?  From the start, the house has been off limits to Jesse, but Walt doesn't care any more.  Time to let it all hang out.

They have a discussion.  Jesse tries to explain the situation and once more give Walt a chance to do the right thing (without resorting to Mike's hardcore style of negotiation).  No one knows more about Walt's plans.  When he started, making $5 million and walking away would have been beyond his dreams.  A good speech, but, once again, a bit on the nose. We already get this, don't need it spelled out.  And then Walt has a nice monologue, but also on the nose.  He talks about his past with Gray Matter, confirming what we already know if we paid attention.  He helped found the company but due to personal reasons (he doesn't spell it out but I assume it's because one the male partner stole the female partner away from him) sold his share for $5000.  The company is now worth over $2 billion and it still eats at him.

Walt won't let that happen again.  He's building an empire and nothing will stop him, not even Jesse noting a meth empire is nothing to be proud of.  Then, in a great moment, Skyler enters.  Early on in the series Skyler confronted Jesse (whom she thought was selling her husband marijuana) and since then they've stayed away from each other. Skyler only knows about him as having some connection to all these problems since his run-in with Hank.  But Walt has nothing to hide (or nothing left to lose) and invites Jesse to dinner.  Skyler, depressed and defeated, doesn't object.

It's a great scene. At dinner, as husband and wife glower at each other, Jesse tries to keep the conversation going, reverting to the old, dopey, former student Jesse, talking about how great the green beans are and how bad frozen food usually is.  He then tries to compliment Mrs. White, and she brings up her affair with Ted.  Then she takes her wine and leaves.

Walt turns to Jesse and tells him about how his kids are gone and his wife is waiting for him to die.  So all he has left is his business, and Jesse wants to take it away. Once again, too on the nose.  And why didn't Jesse slap him and say You idiot, here's your chance to get it all back.  Empire? Even if everything works out you could be dead in a few months.  Here's your ticket to be rich, be safe and win everyone and everything back before you're gone.  I know Walt is too far gone to listen, but why does he think his speech will move Jesse rather than disgust him?

Later that night, Walt goes to protect his methylamine.  Mike is waiting for him, figuring he'd make this bonehead move.  He informs Walt the sale--of all of it--is a done deal.  He holds him at gunpoint all night.  Last time he did that they were waiting for Gus Fring to come in and maybe kill him.  Now he actually has to force the guy to accept $5 million.

As the sun comes up, Mike has a meeting to go to so he ties Walt to the radiator.  Walt manages to escape by chewing on some wire and burning his hand.  Mike's meeting, by the way, is with Hank and Gomie.  He's represented by Saul Goodman.  Always nice to see Saul.  I hope we get more of him.  Saul says stop this harassment, and he's got a TRO on the DEA.  He knows it won't hold up for more than a day, but Mike figures that's time enough to take care of the final transaction and move on.

But when he gets back, the methylamine (I keep wanting to type "meth" for short but that won't work) is gone.  He goes into the office, ready to shoot Walt to get the information. But Walt has called Jesse in and Jesse (once again this season) intercedes on Walt's behalf.  Mr. White has already convinced Jesse of his new plan, which will get Mike his money.  "Everybody wins," Walt says.

I doubt it, but we'll have to wait until next week to learn what the plan is.  Yet another reason this episode feels like an in-betweeners.  I should add that I'm a bit surprised how Jesse has let go of the dead kid.  Sure, it made him walk away, but he hasn't gone nuts, he's not trying to kill anyone (yet) and he seems to be over it, ready to try on Walt's latest scheme.

Two to go, and the show always goes out crazy.  In fact, usually it's the next-to-last episode where the wildest stuff happen--Jane dies, Walt runs over a couple guys, etc.  I can hardly wait.