Breaking Bad 3x13

Walt and Gus have agreed to meet in the New Mexico desert. Mike has had to do a lot of cleaning up after Walt plowed his car into the two dealers. Gus is incensed that Walt intervened to save Jesse, “some worthless junkie.” Walt offers Gus two options: kill him and Jesse, or continue their business arrangement as if nothing has happened. When he returns to the superlab, Walt is unpleasantly surprised that Gale is back as his assistant. At some warehouse, four Mexican gangsters are holding the owner at gunpoint. Mike the goon outmaneuvers them all. Apparently the owner supplies chemicals for manufacturing the meth – and the Mexican cartel is trying to find a weakness in Gus’ business. For his part, Gus visits Gale to inform him that Walt is dying of cancer and, in the event of his death, hopes Gale can take over the lab. He urges him to learn Walt’s system for cooking crystal the next day. The next morning Mike probes Saul where he can find Jesse. Saul pleads he cannot tell him that, but that he might have accidentally left a note with his whereabouts, some trailer park in Virginia.

Saul then drives with Walt to an arcade, allegedly to talk about some money laundering scheme, but really because at least that place won’t be bugged. Jesse is already there. In very few words, Walt explains they need to get rid of Gale. Jesse suggests going to the DEA for witness protection. Walt intimates without Gale, they are the only one who know how to manufacture the pure blue meth. All Walt needs from Jesse is Gale’s address – with Gus’ men continually trailing him, Walt cannot be seen following Gale home. Later, Jesse calls Walt with the address, but again begs him to go to the police instead. Just when Walt is leaving his house, one of Gus’ men drives up telling him to come to the lab. Mike’s already there – and Walt knows this is the end. Panicking, he tries to wrangle his way out of the situation to no avail. Walt offers them Jesse. He calls Jesse, but instead of arranging a meeting, he quickly tells Jesse he has a twenty-minute lead. “They’re going to kill me,” he explains, “Jesse, do it now!” Now held at gunpoint himself, Walt tells them Gale’s address – enough for them to know his plan. “Your boss is going to need me,” he proffers. Jesse reaches Gale’s house, he shoots his gun and the screen goes black. We have to wait until the next season to find out if Jesse screwed up again or if he did kill Gale. What a cliff hanger! And what an astounding season finale!

I have been having some difficulties figuring out when the dramatic events are supposed to take place. There was a reference to Fanny-Mae in the first season, to the subprime mortgage crisis in the second; Skyler was several months pregnant in the beginning and gave birth to Holly in season two; Combo was killed in season two also, and in the third that was just two months ago; later Walt asks Skyler what she imagines has been paying for all the bills for the six months. So, while we have been watching the series for three years, only a little more than half a year has passed in dramatic time. Thus, the events must all take place in 2008.

It was clear from the beginning of this season that Tuco’s cousins were going to play a big role in this season’s story arc. At first I found their cartoonish appearance bothersome, but the shootout with Hank offered a highpoint in terms of nerve-racking action. The failed assassination also provided a marvelous twist in Hank’s plot that started with the panic attacks about his promotion in El Paso. In the aftermath, his wife Marie became a more well-rounded character than she had been so far. The supporting cast including Gus, Mike and Saul were excellent as well. Skyler’s gradually shift, from a complaining, cheating mother and wife, to a more involved and understanding partner was immensely rewarding. Nevertheless, the real kudos go to Walt and Jesse. Obviously the show revolves around them, first and foremost, but it is because their characters are so engrossing what makes Breaking Bad one of the best drama series of the moment. It is going to be a long wait for season four. (Mind you, I finished this season early in July!)

Breaking Bad 3x12

The third season is slowly drawing to its close – and to drive home the point how awful crystal meth really is, we’re shown Wendy the whore turning tricks outside “Crystal Palace.” After she’s given enough guys head in their cars she buys her meth from the dealers who had Combo killed by Andrea’s kid brother Tomas. From his car nearby, Jesse is plotting his next move. He’s seething with vengeance. Now that Jesse’s found out his friend Combo was killed on orders of rival drug dealers by the kid of his new girlfriend, he’s seething with desire for vengeance. They’re even selling the same blue meth, so they must work for Gus, too. Jesse asks Walt to give him ricin, a slow-acting, untraceable poison, but Walt tells him they are not murderers and that their death will accomplish nothing. Without Walt’s help, Jesse tries to employ Wendy in his plot. After Walt inform Saul about Jesse’s plan, Mike the goon pays him a visit and urges him not to take any half-measures when it comes to Jesse.

Meanwhile, Skyler is willing to go ahead and help launder Walt’s money with their car wash scheme, but he keeps shooting holes in her plans. He is trying to use it as a means to move back in with his family. If she gets involved, they must seem reconciled, he argues. They agree on four family dinners a week. At the hospital, Hank still grumbles that he won’t leave until he can walk again — implying that everyone who can’t use their legs should be hospitalized. Unwittingly he insults Walter Jr. Marie bets that she can arouse him with a hand job, and Hank agrees he will return home if he gets an erection – sure that nothing will happen. Later, she wheels him out of the hospital, smiling victoriously. These human moments make this show truly emotionally gratifying. This season especially, it seems a lot of thought went into character development. Still, it’s the main plot involving Walt and Jesse that offers the dramatic action of the show.

Before Jesse can get to the rival dealers, Mike orders him to come to Gus. Walt is already there – and so are the dealers. Gus intimates that he would have killed Jesse, if it wasn’t for Walt. Jesse refuses to budge because Combo’s death wasn’t just turf war, they use kids. To keep the peace, Gus agrees they cannot use children anymore. Jesse shakes hands with the two dealers. That night, Andrea gets a call from her grandmother. She rushes with Jesse to a playground where they find Tomas dead body! The next day, unable to catch Jesse on his cell phone, Walt hears the news on TV. He rushes out without saying a word. Jesse’s already waiting for the dealers to show up at their usual corner. High on meth, he grabs his gun, and walks up to them when they arrive. They pull their guns too. Right when the shootout is about to start, Walt plows his car into the dealers and kills them both! “Run,” Walt says. Unbelievable!

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.

Breaking Bad 3x10

Jesse continues complaining about the working conditions in the state-of-the-art underground laboratory. They have to clean and maintain their own equipment; they have to bring in their own food and drink; and relative to the street value their income is low. Jesse’s been talking to his buddies about dealing on their own again – and skimmed half a pound of meth at the lab. He thinks he found a new market: his rehab group meetings. Right away Walt notices their net total is off by half a pound. After Jesse leaves, Walt gets all worked up about a fly in the lab. He breaks a lamp, balances on the outer rail of the catwalk, and – you guessed it – falls off, nearly breaking his neck! When Jesse returns the next morning, Walt’s gone compulsively obsessive about it. He’s been chasing the fly the whole night, he has reversed the air ventilation, and refuses to cook until they’ve dealt with the “contaminant.” Jesse points out they are making poison for “people who don’t care.” Still, the situation goes completely out of hand. Walt even locks Jesse out and Jesse turns the power off in retaliation.

Eventually, Jesse goes to the pharmacy and buys every possible insecticide and fly swapper he can find. Walt settles on the fly strips. Jesse also bought sleeping pills which he later puts in Walt’s coffee. Jesse starts talking about his aunt who also had cancer, which leads Walt to reflect that he’s lost the perfect moment to pass away, before Skyler found out. Finally, finally, after climbing atop a ladder stack atop two steel carts, Jesse finally kills the fly. Walt’s already fallen asleep. So, Jesse cooks on his own. Before leaving the lab, Walt warns Jesse he won’t be able to protect him, if Gus ever found out about the missing meth. Jesse responds that he never asked him to. Ironically, when Walt goes asleep that night, there’s a fly in his bedroom. Even though this episode has the feel of filler to postpone the season’s climax, the writing is so stellar I was glued to the screen. It’s clear that Walt fears for his live now that he’s learned how ruthless Gus is (who’s been responsible for the deaths of cartel lord Bolsa and at least one Cousin, and for the shootout that nearly killed Hank) – one more mistake and Walt may end up dead, too.

Breaking Bad 3x09

The underground laboratory is working in full force manufacturing the purest methamphetamine ever seen: the notorious “Heisenberg” Blue Crystal. Walt kept his word. But Jesse did the math: they’re producing two hundred pounds a week for three months; they’ll be paid a million and a half each; but the street value of 2,400 lbs of crystal is some $96,000,000! Walt wants him to just leave it at that, be happy he’ll be a millionaire, but Jesse feels cheated. Afterwards, Walt visits Gus, because he has figured out Gus’ strategy: to divert the Cousins from Walt to Hank; turn an assassination into a shootout; setting the American and Mexican governments against each other; cutting off the drug supply from south of the border; and having the Southwestern market all to himself. Walk admits he owe his life to Gus, he respects his strategy, and would have done the same if he were in his position. In return, Gus agrees to extend his offer beyond the three months, for fifteen million a year, open ended, plus a guarantee of the safety of Walt’s family. For his part our crooked fake-Jew Saul is talking to Jesse about laundering his money by using a nail salon as a façade business. But Jesse’s uninterested.

Meanwhile, Hank’s DEA partner Gomez visits the hospital to relate that the blue meth is back on the market, just as Hank predicted. But Hank’s too concerned about the state he’s in. It’s unclear when or if he is ever going to be able to walk again. Health care insurance being what it is, Marie is understandably anxious that mediocre physical therapy isn’t going to be enough. She wants the best. And that may cost them. Later, Skyler offers her sister to cover Hank’s medical expenses. To Walt’s consternation, she tells Marie that they have enough money, because after Walt was diagnosed, he started gambling, he was too proud to take money from others and he wanted to provide for his family even after his death, and so he devised a system to predict cards at black jack and started gambling in illegal back rooms. Walt plays along with the lie and admits that’s how he made seven figures. Walt doesn’t know what to think. Has Skyler forgiven him? Does she really understand that he did it all for the best? But she avoids any confusion and warns him that she hasn’t forgotten that Hank’s in the hospital because of Walt. This is such an unbelievable series! I’m continually impressed where they’re taking the story, delving deep into the human drama of drugs.

Breaking Bad 3x08

Jesse, still battered and bruised after Hank beat the crap out of him, is leaving the hospital. Just when he’s waiting to be picked up, an ambulance drives Hank in, barely alive after the shootout with the Cousins. It makes Jesse’s day. He then visits the new underground super-lab, an Jesse realizes Walt still has no idea what happened to his brother-in-law Hank. Walt rushes to the hospital to be with his family, leaving Jesse in the lab bored out of his wits. Although Hank survives the emergency surgery, he remains too weak to receive visitors. His colleagues in the hospital lobby take Walt to see the sole surviving Cousin, whose legs had to be amputated below the knee. Meanwhile, Mexican cartel lord Bolsa accuses our secretive Gus of ordering the hit on Hank. With no meth coming from south of the border and Hank in the hospital, Gus worries about his business. Community sponsor as he is, Gus personally delivers the officers free food from Los Pollos Hermanos, and offers a $10,000 reward for any information about the shooting, but also uses the opportunity to compel Walt to return to the lab. Walt promises to manufacture 400 pounds by the end of next week. Soon after Gus leaves, the Cousin flatlines – and goon Mike slips out unnoticed. Outside his restaurant, Gus gets a call from Bolsa that the U.S. government is putting pressure on Mexico to crack down the cartel – and while Bolsa’s still on the phone with Gus, an assassination team crashes into his headquarters killing him and his bodyguards.

The episode has several scenes that are beyond believe. All the tense moments of Walt and his family sitting in the waiting room anxiously hoping for some news about Hank. Hank’s wife Marie is desperate to blame someone, the DEA for confiscating his gun, Walt for knowing Jesse. Absolutely captivating, too, is when the surviving Cousin recognizes “Heisenberg.” He pushes himself off the hospital bed and crawls towards the door before he is subdued. Walt realizes the would-be assassins must be Tuco’s cousins, but doesn’t tell anyone. The show certainly knows how to set us up for drama. The combination of tense action and human depth makes for thought provoking entertainment. The criminal world of drugs is never glorified or glamorized. Instead we’re shown the horrible damage it does to those involved – dealers and users as well as law enforcement, their family and friends alike. The main characters are all fascinating and the writing is stellar. It is easy to sympathize with Walt and Jesse, as well as with Hank. We gradually come to appreciate Skyler, we feel for Marie now that her husband has nearly lost his life, and obviously we adore Walter Jr. Personally, I found the Cousins a little cartoonish and out of sync with the tone of the show. But they’re done away with now. It remains to be seen, though, where the story arc is taking us on the last third of the series. Will Jesse do right this time? What are Gus’ plans for Walt after the three months are over? Will Walt’s cancer return?

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!

Breaking Bad 3x06

The Cousins are back. They kill a police officer who’s investigating the disappearance of the elderly lady living in the house they’ve occupied on a reservation outside Albuquerque. Skyler continues having second thoughts about the divorce. If she goes ahead, she will be blamed for ruining their marriage. Yet she is troubled accepting Walt’s drug money, even if that’s what has been paying their bills for the past half year. Walt for his part has bought a new condo. He brings Walter Jr. to school and then goes to work in his state-of-the-art underground laboratory to manufacture methamphetamine with his new assistant Gale. Meanwhile, Hank is staking out at Jesse’s house, waiting for him to lead him to the RV (the camper van he uses as meth lab). Then his wife Marie reminds him that Walt knows Jesse. So, Hank calls Walt and asks him if he happens to know something about the RV. Walt of course fears that his fingerprints are still all over the van, thus he has to get rid of it, but also has to make sure Jesse doesn’t lead Hank to it. Naturally, disaster magnet as he is, Jesse leads Hank straight to the RV on the junk yard!

Walt and Jesse are now stuck inside the camper. Hank wants to break in, but the owner of the lot walks up to Hank asking about a warrant. With a little more time on their hands, Walt figures out a way to get rid of Hank. He asks Saul to let his secretary call Hank pretending to be an officer informing him that his wife was in a car accident. Hank rushes off to the hospital, only to realize he was tricked. At the junk yard, the RV is already crushed into a tin box. The Cousins show up at Gus’ fried chicken diner, Los Pollos Hermanos. And they won’t budge – even if they don’t order anything. Eventually, Gus tells them to meet him at sunset in the desert. There, Gus tells them it wasn’t Walt who killed Tuco, but DEA officer Hank Schrader and he allows them to satisfy their vengeance on him. The pitch is really building up now: a great episode such as this is how I enjoy the show, with the right combination of depth and drama.

Breaking Bad 3x05

In a flashback all the way to the beginning, we see Walter White giving all his savings to his former student Jesse Pinkman so as to buy an RV (recreational vehicle – i.e., the camper van they will soon use as meth lab). Instead, Jesse burned most of the money with his buddies Skinny Pete and Combo at a strip club. Early in the morning, Combo offers Jesse a quick deal for the remainder of the money. Jesse’s too hung-over from liquor, drugs and strippers, to realize they just stole the van from Combo’s mother. Back in the present, DEA officer Hank Schrader is humiliating himself in front of his wife and partner by tenaciously pursuing the “Heisenberg” figment of an investigation. He has basically searched for every single RV of the make he saw on the ATM’s security tapes. Except for one, of course, the one Jesse stole, but that Combo’s mother never reported. Now Combo’s been dead for two months – killed on the street by rival dealers. That is, in the end, what Hank learns. Plus, at Mrs. Ortega’s house he finds a picture of Combo at the strip club – with Jesse. For his part, secretive businessman Gus Fring finally has his chance to appeal to Walt’s weaknesses. He shows him the state-of-the-art underground laboratory (concealed by an industrial laundry facility) which he has built for him. And he tells him a man provides for his family even if he’s not loved, because that is simply what a man does. It’s the clincher of the deal!

Walt’s wife Skyler is starting to have second thoughts. Maybe Walt did change after he was confronted with death, maybe he did it all for the good of his family, maybe he’s a good father to their children. But then her divorce lawyer hammers in the nail. “You may not have married a criminal,” she tells her, “but you are married to one now.” And she urges Skyler to leave the house, because she is accessory to Walt’s crimes, she’s culpable. When she comes back home, Walt’s gone and signed the divorce papers. At the law office of sleazy Saul, Walt and Jesse have a confrontation. Walt hands Jesse his half of the money from the deal with Gus. Then Walt tells them he’ll be earning $3 million by working for Gus for three months. Jesse’s out of business. They have become competitors now on the same market, rival drug dealers – and Hank’s already onto Jesse. This is going to be interesting! Things have really picked up and our patience has paid off. The season has gradually built up the dramatic tension and the audience is now reaping the rewards. What is going to happen with Tuco’s Cousins? Will Hank trace Jesse through the van? Will Skyler come to accept Walt’s choices or will all his efforts be for naught? It’s impossible to stop watching this show now. You just have to know what will happen next. Excellent!

Breaking Bad 3x04

Jesse cooked crystal on his own in the camper van. On his way back he fills up the tank at some desert gas station. As he forgot to bring money, he talks the cashier girl into taking some meth instead. Skyler slept with her boss Ted Beneke – to take out her anger, to feel better about herself. Now Walt is mad at her for ruining their marriage! He barges into the Beneke building, but then embarrasses himself in front of Skyler’s colleagues when Ted doesn’t let him in. Crooked Saul’s goon Mike takes Walt to the law office for an “intervention.” When Mike drops Walt off, he notices a drawing of a scythe on the street, and tells Walt, “sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have someone watching your back.” Afterwards, Walt is absent-minded and erratic at school. He even tries to kiss the principal Carmen. When he’s walking out with his belongings (on an “indefinite sabbatical”), Jesse’s waiting for him asking to set up a meet with businessman Gus, because he wants to sell his new blue crystal. Walt is outraged that Jesse used his formula and still came up with an inferior product. He doesn’t want his name associated with it.

Jesse has to approach Saul to arrange something. Mike convinces Gus to accept Jesse’s blue meth, and informs him that Walt’s not mentally well enough to work. Later Jesse drops the meth to one of Gus’ henchmen, but is upset to find he got only half the money. The other half is for Walt. For his part, Hank has been pulling strings for another shot at a promotion in El Paso. Just as he’s about to board his plane, however, he gets a call from the Sheriff that the blue crystal is back in New Mexico. Desperate to stay in Albuquerque, he follows the slightest trail to the gas station where Jesse traded a bag of meth for gas – and the ATM’s camera caught Jesse’s camper. Overall, I found this episode a bit more interesting than the preceding ones. Still, the season is very subdued thus far. Pressure is increasing on Walt to return to cooking crystal. He has nothing to do, he is out of work, and has a wife who loathes him. He just needs to be motivated. I’m also curious how things are going to resolve between Walt and Jesse. Is Hank going to trace Jesse’s van? The show has been taking its time building up – and begging for the audience’s patience. And the remarkable thing about the series is that you know it will pay off.

Breaking Bad 3x03

We’re in Mexico, saturated in oily yellow, in some “burro’s asshole” of a town. The “snitch,” Tortuga (who ratted to the DEA in El Paso last season), is still alive. But not for long. His boss takes him to the back of the bar, and right there Tuco’s Cousins hack his head off before they glue it to a tortoise and turn it into the explosive device that will kill one of Hank’s new colleagues and sent him back to New Mexico in panic. Back in Albuquerque, Walt has no idea he narrowly escaped with his life from those hell-bent Cousins. Sklyer is angry to find Walt back at the house. “I’m not coming in there until you get out,” she says. “Well, suit yourself,” Walt replies. He is calling her bluff about the restraining order and telling the authorities about his criminal activities. She does call the police, but for a “domestic disturbance.” With the officers there, Walt tactfully uses the children to make himself look better and lay the blame on her. In the end, Skyler doesn’t dare telling the officers about Walt’s drug dealing and there is no legal basis on which they can remove Walt from his own house.

Saul pressures Jesse to get Walt back to cooking crystal. Instead, Jesse continues listening to listening to his dead girlfriend’s outgoing voicemail message. But that night, her number’s no longer in service. He’s lost the last thing that bound him to her. The next morning he decides to take the camper and manufacture meth on his own in the desert. Together with a cartel honcho, the Cousins take their uncle Tio Salamanca to Gus, the secretive businessman, to inform them they demand vengeance. But Gus cautions them that they are on his territory and that he decides who he does business with. After he is done, it’s of no concern to him if the exact revenge. Walt shows Skyler the cash he’s saved to put their kids through college, pay for mortgage, and everything else. But she wants nothing of it. At work the next day, she kisses her boss Ted. They go to his house. When she comes home in the evening, Walt asks if she thought about their talk that morning, and tells her he’s glad he could be honest. She replies, “I fucked Ted.” Walt got what he wanted, to live with his family, but he didn’t get what he needed, which is Skyler’s love and understanding – not that I’m saying he deserves as much. But I’m wondering how long it will take him to realize he’s in a hopeless situation. Everything he fought for, all that he went through to protect his family, is gone.

Breaking Bad 3x02

It’s been about a month since Albuquerque last saw Heisenberg’s pure blue crystal. At the DEA, Hank speculates that the burned-out truck is a sign that drug cartel warfare is spilling over the border. Then he gets a call that Walt’s been arrested for a trifle – driving with a broken windshield (damaged by the double plane crash). At the police station Walt offers his apologies, then confides to Hank that Skyler has filed for divorce and will fight Walt for custody. When sleazebag Saul the faker-Jewish lawyer visits Walt at his new apartment, he consoles him that Skyler is bluffing, because the blowback would be worse for her if she told the police about Walt’s criminal activities: she would lose the house and the kids. At any rate, Walt still doesn’t consider returning to cooking crystal. Just to keep a tab on the situation, Saul has Walt’s house bugged. Jesse, clean for 45 days, drives by his parents’ house and sees it’s for sale. His dad refuses to let him in. Jesse collects his money from Saul, and offers him a job: to buy his parents’ house for him anonymously, for half the asking price. Of course Jesse’s parents won’t budge, until sneaky Saul mentions the old meth lab in the basement, contamination, fraud, a law suit, and suddenly they feel more inclined to consider his offer. The Mexican dudes in the matching suits visit Tuco’s uncle in a retirement home, and with the help of an Ouija board and a bell, Don Salamanca tells them the man they’re looking for is called Walter White!

Skyler is putting herself in a tough position. Her son “Flynn” wants to be called Walter Jr. again – he’s taking his father’s side and blaming his mother for ruining the family. Still, she won’t talk to anyone about the divorce – nor can she tell anyone that Walt is a drug dealer. Yet she is relying on her sister and brother-in-law for support, who have no idea what’s going on. Hank is sure Walt had an affair, but Marie believes there must be more to it. At the office, Skyler confronts her boss Ted Beneke about cooking the books. He responds that he hopes his children will come to understand that his intentions were good. Likewise, Walt didn’t want to tell his family about his cancer, then lied to them about his criminal activities – all because he loved them and didn’t want to lose them. He had the best intentions. Nonetheless, his wife and kids are gone. Skyler even threatens with a restraining order. In retaliation he wants to move back in. As she’s changed the lock he has to break into his own house. When he’s taking a shower, Saul’s goon Mike notices the Cousins walking in with an axe. Mike makes a quick call, and Gus, the secretive businessman Walt dealt with before, calls the dudes off. For the moment I am keeping a wait-and-see attitude about the show. This season is taking its time unfolding dramatic events – and throwing in some over-the-top tension in the form of the Cousins.

Breaking Bad 3x01

The opening scene of the third season of Breaking Bad is saturated in oily yellow. People are crawling on a dust-covered desert road like alligators toward the shrine of Santa Muerte (the Mexican saint of Death). Without a word, two dudes in matching suits make offerings and pin a pencil sketch of “Heisenberg” on the wall behind the altar. Then we return to the news coverage of the mid-air collision of two planes that ended the last season. Walt decides to burn all his ill-gained cash on the bbq, then changes his mind as it catches fire and throws the grill in the pool. Meanwhile, Skyler is expecting he is moving out of the house, even if she is understanding that the overhead plane crash delayed things for a while. Her attorney advises to maintain residency to strengthen her custody case. So Walt moves into an apartment, while their son (still preferring to be called “Flynn”) is resentful that no one tells him what the hell is going on. Then Skyler comes over to Walt’s apartment to discuss their divorce. She basically guesses he’s a drug dealer. He denies. She cannot imagine how else he would have made enough money to pay for all his medical bills. Then he finally admits he manufactured meth. She promises not to tell anyone on the condition that he grants her a divorce.

Jesse, of course, is still in the fancy new age rehab facility, listening to self-help psycho-babble about self-acceptance and self-transformation. The highly secretive and professional distributor, Gus, offers Walt $3 million for three months of work, but Walt rejects on account of his family. There was a great moment when Hank helps Walt move out: he lifts a bag we know if full of cash; he asks what’s inside, “cinder blocks?” “Half a million in cash,” Walt replies. Hank just laughs! We’ve also established that the Mexican dudes in the matching suits, who are after “Heisenberg,” are resourceful and ruthless. They change into regular clothes from a local farmer and leave their Mercedes with him. They travel across the border to Texas on a truck with immigrants. They kill all inside and blow up the truck. I’ll go with a wild hunch and guess they’re Tuco’s cousins and they’re hell-bent on revenge. No doubt the Cousins are here to provide a dash of excitement. It’s just that their scenes are like a Sergio Leone spaghetti western that fits awkwardly within the dramatic format of the show. Apart from the Cousins, this was a rather subdued season premiere, with little indication what may happen next. For that, we’ll have to wait until the next episode.

Breaking Bad - season 2

While I started watching Breaking Bad reluctantly, at first, I was eager to see what would happen in the second season. Off the bat, this season is even more incredible than the first! Remember that our main character is Walter White, a 50-year old chemistry teacher diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He’s calculated that it would take $725,000 to get his two kids through college, pay for mortgage and support his wife. To make so much money fast, he’s teamed up with his former student Jesse, a small-time drugs dealer, to sell the highest quality crystal meth. To hide his identity in his new-found criminal venture, Walter goes by the pseudonym “Heisenberg.” When we last saw Walter and Jesse they were selling their merchandise to this crazy, crystal snorting, paranoid, psychotic gangster Tuco Salamanca.

Now Tuco is planning to kidnap them so that they can work for him in his Mexican lab. Walt has a poison on him with which they are planning on offing Tuco. When they offer the powder to him as some new kind of meth, he dislikes the smell; then Walt sprinkles it over Tuco’s burrito, but it falls on the ground. When they finally get a chance to kill Tuco, they only shoot him once in the stomach and walk away. Meanwhile Walt’s brother-in-law, Hank, a DEA officer, has been slowly inching in on Jesse and Tuco, never realizing who this “Heisenberg” actually is. He happens upon Jesse’s car only to find a bleeding and stumbling Tuco. After a tense shootout, Hank is able to take out Tuco – and is received at the office as a heroic killer.

Walt has to enact a moment of amnesia to cover for his whereabouts, walking into a supermarket and stripping off his clothes. He has to go back on chemo, with sickness as a result. Hospital bills are piling up – amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. For Jesse things are possibly going even worse when his drug money is confiscated by the DEA. Walt and Jesse decide to return to business but this time arrange distribution themselves. Jesse sets up a few of his friends as dealers on the street. Soon, one of them is mugged, and Walt forces Jesse to find the thieves and scare them. In so doing, one of them is accidentally killed, which gives Jesse the necessary street-cred. Then another one of their dealers gets arrested and they need some dirty, sleazebag fake-Jewish lawyer to avoid the dealer to snitch. But this crooked Saul Goodman figures out that Walter is “Heisenberg” and blackmails them into sharing their profit with him.

In Walt’s family things continue to unravel. His wife Skyler almost finds out that Walt’s former partners Elliot and Gretchen never paid a dime for all of his medical treatment. Hank starts to get panic attacks after the shootout and another violent experience near the Mexican border. Walt returns to teaching and Skyler goes back to an old job to earn some extra money. As he’s afraid he’ll die soon and hasn’t been able to save enough money, he takes Jesse to the desert to produce a vast quantity of meth. Even though they are able to sell again, Walter misses the excitement of his secret double life. Then another one of their dealers is killed by rival dealers, sending Jesse into a guilt-ridden depression. With his sometime girlfriend Jane, he starts shooting heroin. In desperate need to get rid of the remaining crystal, they turn to crooked Saul for help, who gets them into contact with a very discreet distributor. Walter has only a short time to deliver the product. He rushes to Jesse’s place, who’s passed out on heroin with Jane. Walter finds the meth. Rushing to the location of delivery, Skyler goes into labor. Although he missed the birth of his daughter, he just made himself and Jesse one point two million dollars!

Through it all, Walt has been lying through his teeth to his family – precisely because he loves them. What was bound to happen finally does, as Skyler asks Walter to leave her. She can no longer tolerate his lies – she has uncovered so many, but is afraid to learn the truth. She just wants him to leave. I don’t think it’s possible for me to explain how good this show is. Every episode grabs your attention with incredibly intelligent plot twists. But what really pulls me in is the way the show keeps things real, dealing with real life issues surrounding cancer and drugs. I can honestly say that I warmly recommend the series.

Breaking Bad - season 1

A little while ago I started watching Breaking Bad (another AMC drama show). Oh, my goodness, this is a profoundly compelling series! (At first I was worried this would be a Weeds wannabe, but not funny. It isn’t.) This is the story of 50-year old Walter White, a highly over-qualified high school chemistry teacher, living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His wife Skyler is several months pregnant. Their son, Walt jr., suffers from a mild form of cerebral palsy. Then Walter is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, but is afraid to share the news with his family, as they have enough problems as is (not in the least the lack of money to pay for his treatment). He breaks down bad, quits his job on the side at the car wash, and through sheer serendipity comes into contact with a former student, Jesse, who deals crystal meth. Walter figures he can earn enough money to support his family after he passes away if he starts cooking crystal, and so doesn’t have to tell his family about the cancer.

Walter’s product immediately becomes a success, as it turns out to be of highest purity. Since Walter and Jesse lack the underworld connections they need to find some criminal to arrange the distribution for them. And so Walter unwittingly slides farther and farther into the world of crime himself. The two are soon forced to kidnap and eventually kill small-time gangsters (dissolving the body of one of them to avoid getting caught)! Gradually the show gets better and better, as his family learns of his illness, offers help, which he refuses, and he builds lies upon lies to hide the truth – all because he loves his family. Skyler’s sister, Marie, is a self-centered kleptomaniac, whose husband, Hank, is a DEA agent trying to hunt down the new meth kingpin, not realizing the man he is looking for is right under his very nose. We learn that Walter once contributed to Nobel Prize-winning research, and his former partner offers him to pay for the chemo and other medical care, which Walter resoundingly declines (he somehow understands the offer as a bribe for the wealth his partner made on Walter’s research) – but he starts using the offer as a cover-up to his family. Walter and Jesse eventually team up with some violently psychotic drug distributor called Tuco. The series offers entertaining action, satisfying psychological depth, and occasional comic relief. I can warmly recommend the show to anyone who isn’t already a devout viewer.