Breaking Bad 3x07

Another saturated, oily yellow scene down in Mexico, the Cousins are still kids and Don Salamanca is talking to someone on the phone about Gus the “Chicken Man.” The kids get into a fight and one of them says he wishes his brother was dead. Uncle Tio pushes the other kid’s head down a tub of water to teach them a lesson: “La familia es todo (family is everything).” In the present, the Cousins place a photo of Hank Schrader at the altar of Santa Muerte. For his part, Hank takes out his anger on Jesse, beating the crap out of him. In the hospital, Jesse swears revenge, to press charges, to haunt Hank for the rest of his life, to return to cooking crystal, and if he ever gets caught, to give them “Heisenberg.” Later Skyler visits Walt as his new condo begging him to convince Jesse not to press charges, sensing Walt is somehow responsible.

At the lab, Walt the perfectionist complains to his new assistant Gale about putting the temperature off by ten degrees. He has to throw away the whole batch. He tells Gus he wants to replace Gale. He offers Jesse a renewed partnership, sharing equally. But Jesse gives him the full motherload of all his pent up anger and frustration. Yet by the time Walt arrives at his new place, Jesse calls and agrees on a 50-50 partnership. Hank gives his statement of events as honestly as he can. He believes his career is over. He gets suspended, without pay, badge or gun, but word is that Jesse dropped the charges. Hank goes to a shopping mall, all relieved. He gets a call from a muffled voice warning him there are two guys coming to kill him. One tense minute later and a dramatic shootout commences. Hank pins one Cousin between two cars and with the guy’s gun shoots the other Cousin in the head just before he could take a swing with his silver axe. All I can say is “wow!” This sure was pay-off for the slow start of the season. Now half-way through, the action is really picking up. Exhilarating!