Breaking Bad 3x11

Hank, who cannot take a single step in the electromechanical lifter, is going to need a whole lot of medical treatment to revalidate and Skyler is more than happy to foot the bill – with Walt’s illicit income. Skyler even joins Walt to the law office of sleazy Saul; she is a bookkeeper herself after all; plus she hasn’t signed the divorce papers, so she cannot be forced to testify against her husband. She isn’t impressed with his laundering schemes. Instead she suggests Walt buys the car wash where he used to work, a believable story. But Saul explains they need someone inside who they can trust as an accomplish in the scheme. Back in the hospital Hank tells Marie he won’t leave until he can walk out himself – it isn’t up for debate.

Jesse was planning to turn his Narcotics Anonymous session into his new market, but his buddies cannot get themselves to sell to recovering addicts. Jesse wants to show them how it’s done and approaches Andrea, the latest addition to the group. But when he learns that she is living with her grandmother and her five-year old son, he, too, cannot bring himself to pitch his meth. Andrea also has a younger brother, who she refuses to talk about. But later she confesses her brother Tomas got involved with a gang as a kid and was required to kill a rival dealer as an initiation. Jesse soon enough realizes what has happened: Tomas killed Jesse’s buddy Combo! The next day, Jesse checks out the corner where Combo was shot, finds Tomas on his bike, asks him for some meth, and spots the black car with the dealers inside.

This episode was simply astonishing. I barely breathed, afraid to miss any detail. The second half of this season is definitely making up for the subdued beginning. Seeing proud and manly Hank incapacitated and embarrassed in the hospital, while his wife wants nothing but to care for him at home, is heart wrenching. Meanwhile Walt keeps hoping against all odds that Skyler will come round and understand his intentions. He sees signs everywhere and she disappoints him every time. Yet step by step, she is coming to terms with the situation. Jesse is such a trouble magnet! The revelation who Tomas is, one of those intangible and inexplicable coincidences – like Walt happening upon Jane’s father the night she died, the day before the airplane collision – is yet another example of the stellar writing of the series’ team.