Breaking Bad, “Kafkaesque”: Church.

There’s a part of me that expects the story of Walter White to end in some sort of Scarface-type shootout, with Walter as Al Pacino. “Kafkaesque” seemed to lay down a little more of that framework, with Walter extending his deal with Gus, who’s now the principle meth supplier for the entire Southwest.

As much as Walter tends to roll his eyes or spaz-out every time Jesse gets on his case, he isn’t too proud to recognize when he makes sense, although he may be too proud to let Jesse know it. And I think it was Jesse who convinced him to go see Gus, or at least to bring up their arrangement during their conversation. And rightly so. If it weren’t for Walt and his magic meth recipe, Gus wouldn’t be pulling down so much money on the street. But Gus, ruthless as he is, also seems to be generous when it comes to Walt and agrees to pay him more while at the same time extending his employment from three months to a year. So, Walt’s a millionaire now, and that’s just fine.

Back at the hospital, Hank seems to have come out of the red, although whether or not he’ll walk again is anyone’s guess. With his hospital bills piling up and Marie’s insistence that they get Hank the best care money can buy, their situation is becoming desperate. The quick fix to that problem is sitting right in front of them, although Walt is understandably reluctant to bring it up: he can pay for Hank’s treatment himself using his filthy, ill-gotten drug money. Here, Skyler turns out to be a little more imaginative, coming up with a story that provides an excuse to pay their bills while at the same time explaining her and Walt’s divorce. It turns out that Walt’s idea for providing for his family after he passed away was to win millions counting cards. And after a slight setback – he blew their entire life savings during his fugue state – he’s earned a tidy sum that’s sitting in seven figures. Smart, eh? Marie buys it. Problem solved.

Or is it? When Walt asks Skyler how she could possibly come up with such a story, she says that she learned from the best. It’s hard to dismiss the suspicion that she understands – at least in a small way – what Walt was going through all those months, and why he started cooking meth in the first place. The divorce papers may be signed, but you can’t put a period on their relationship just yet.

During all this we’ve got Jesse, who’s decided to get back into his own meth game with the usual suspects, Badger and Skinny Pete. Using the two of them to build up hype in the middle of his recovery group meeting was pretty cold-blooded, but at the same time shows his determination to make the whole thing work. Unfortunately, like so many other things Jesse’s involved himself in, I have a feeling this will not end well. Whether he screws it up himself or Walt and Gus become wise to his plan, the entire thing has to go south.

Stuff I liked:

• Cold-blooded though it may have been, I do like it when Badger acts half-competent.
• The commercial for Pollos de Hermanos.
• How Gus transports his meth. Mmm. Delicious.
  

Breaking Bad, “I See You”: There’s nothing wrong with jazz.

This week’s episode could also have been titled, “The Waiting Game.” After his run-in with the Cousins last week, Hank’s been rushed to the hospital in critical condition. And we the viewers were forced to wait to see how things turned out, just like his friends and family.

It was a little curious to watch such a low-key episode after seeing the show’s momentum build to an almost unstoppable fever-pitch in the last few weeks. And I’m really not sure if I should take it as a needed break for us, the audience, as a necessary break for the show’s narrative, or just another brilliant move by what has to be the most brilliant show currently airing. I’ll just go ahead and say it was brilliant. Is that okay with everyone?

Not only were Marie, Walt, Skyler and Walt Jr. forced to wait for news on Hank, but Jesse – now Walt’s partner in Gus Frings’ meth operation – had to wait for Walt to return from the hospital and get to cooking. It seemed like Walt was also waiting, this time for the other shoe to drop, with his arrangement with Gus. When it became clear that he and Jesse wouldn’t meet their quota for the week, he called Gus and blamed the delay on our dearly-departed Gale botching things up.

(Speaking of Gale, is there anyone else who thinks that we haven’t seen the last of him? I mean sure, he seems calm and collected on the outside, but he’s a meth cooker. Anyone who opts in to that sort of that can’t be completely on the level. And it was obvious he did take being replaced – by Jesse of all people – that well. This season’s delivered a few surprises already, so I wouldn’t put it past them to bring Gale back to cause problems for Walt later on down the line.)

Despite Walt’s excuse – and I think Gus knew it was an excuse – Gus didn’t get angry. I mean, hey, he’s only trying to sabotage the Mexicans, thereby further cementing his hold on the Southwest drug trade, but sure, Walt can be late on this week’s shipment. It’s only TWO HUNDRED POUNDS OF METH. Gus didn’t get angry, but what he did do was much more sinister. In typical Gus fashion, he put on a smile and delivered Pollos de Hermanos to all of Hank’s cop buddies who were visiting him in the hospital He even took the time to talk to his family, which just happens to include Walt. You’ve always got to watch out for the quiet one because you just know they’re do something cool eventually, right? And it was that knowledge that caused Walt to follow Gus out into the lobby, just to make sure the everything between them was still simpatico. It looks like it is, for now.

Skyler and Walt Jr. have taken a back seat to things these past couple of weeks, but we were again reminded that Skyler’s feelings toward Walt may not be as clear-cut as she’d like to think. While Walt told Marie about the day of his XXXX, Skyler had to keep looking away, wiping tears for eyes. Beats like these make me miss her character, and happy to see her doing things besides sleeping with Ted.

“I See You” ended just about as well as it could, and I seriously mean that. The family, hearing that Hank has stabilized enough for them to see him crowds around his bed, and it’s there that the credits begin rolling. In an episode where everyone is forced to stand around and wait, it’s only fitting that the conclusion should, well, leave us all waiting.

Stuff I liked:

• I guess sabotaging the Mexican cartel was putting things lightly. He does it with a smile, but Gus is becoming more and more ruthless as the season goes on. How long until this affects Walt and his family?
• See Leonel shamble out of his hospital bed with two amputated stubs was probably the biggest shock of the night. Man, that stuff sticks with you.
• Jesse looks f’ing scary with his face all busted up like that.
• How old is Walt Jr.? 37?
  

Breaking Bad, “One Minute”: Family is all.

Well, he fell apart. As soon as he was done at the hospital, Hank drove straight to Jesse’s and beat the ever-loving HELL out of him. And man, it’s one thing to be punched, but getting face slammed over and over with Hank’s ham-hock fists is true pain. Now, Jesse’s in the hospital and planning on owning Hank’s soul until the day he crawls for his gun to jam into his eye socket blah blah blah. He’s REAL pissed off.

There was a lot going on in last night’s episode, and I’m still trying to figure out everyone’s motivations for doing what they did. Jesse sees his injuries as his Golden Ticket. The DEA’s going to want to steer as clear away from him as possible, so now he’s free to cook all the meth he wants. And if for some reason they ever do come knocking on his door, he’ll give them Walt, who right now is the only person Jesse hates more than Hank. So Walt has reason to leave Jesse alone, although he suspects he may be bluffing about sending him up.

Now Walt has reason to help both Hank and Jesse. Hank, because when Jesse presses charges it will end him. And Jesse, because he doesn’t want him to go after Hank. But at the same time, it doesn’t seem like he’s too eager to help either of them. Skyler tries telling him that because Hank’s family, he’s obligated to help him. That doesn’t go over too well because Walt and Skyler are getting divorced, so technically Hank isn’t family, and Walt doesn’t like the idea of Skyler coming around and acting civil (mostly civil) only when it suits her. As for Jesse, well, he and Walt have always had a love/hate relationship, and with the way he’s acting right now, I think Walt thinks it’s best to give him as wide a berth as possible.

I think it’s been established that Walt’s a stubborn person, so I don’t think he can just come out and help Jesse or Hank. After talking with Skyler, Walt goes to the lab in a huff, looking for a reason to be pissed off at Gale, who’s acting his usual, mild-mannered self. When Gale accidentally sets one of Walt’s science gizmos to the wrong temperature and ruins a batch of meth, Walt calls Gus and tells him there’s no way they can continue to work together. Who could Walt possibly use as a lab assistant? Jesse, of course.

When Walt makes Jesse the offer, Jesse isn’t exactly receptive, and it wasn’t until I heard him say it that I realized exactly what a red nightmare his life has become since hooking up with Walt. Jesse says that’s never been more alone, that he has no one. Then he reminds Walt that it wasn’t that long ago when he had told him that his meth was garbage. Why would Walt want him as an assistant? I was actually really surprised that Walt didn’t tell him it was because he didn’t have anyone either. For better or worse, the world has kind of bailed on these guys, and as weird as it sounds, all they really have is each other. I think Jesse realized this in part, and that’s why he accepted Walt’s offer in the end. And hey, there’s also that 1.5 million dollars. I’m sure that helped, too.

In the middle of all this craziness are the Cousins, who have given Walt a slight reprieve to take out Hank. Hank isn’t pulling any funny stuff with the Jesse situation. He realizes that what he did was wrong and he’s taking full responsibility for it. He had a good cry. He admitted to himself that he may not be cut out for more police work, and finally things are looking a little brighter for him. That’s when he gets a phone call from someone using a voice distorter who tells him that two he’s being followed by two men, and that he’s got about a minute before they find him.

Who tipped him off? If it was Gus, why would he hand Hank up to the Cousins only to tell him later that they were coming for him? If it was Walt, how did he know? I couldn’t possibly solve this mystery. Can YOOOU? Unanswered questions aside, that entire end scene was made of 100% pure awesome. Although I would have liked to have seen Leonel spitting out more blood after Hank rammed him with his car. Is there anyone I can talk to about that?

Stuff I liked:

• For a split second I could have sworn that truck driver was played by Walt Goggins.
  
• “Your meth is good, Jesse. As good as mine.”
• Although I thought Hank getting the bullet in his gun at the last possible second was a little predictable, the shot of the cousin’s head opening up like a Bloomin’ Onion made it all worth it. Violence!
  

Breaking Bad, “Sunset”: Why the hell are we making meth?

So Walt’s signed the divorce papers and for some reason Skyler doesn’t seem to be as happy as you expected her to be. I chalk that up to two things. One, she now has to deal with the reality of being a single mother. Raising Walt Jr. (I know he’s already in high school, but still), paying bills, working, all of that stuff. And two, I think it was apparent after last week’s episode that she may have been having second thoughts about the way she had been treating Walt. Now HE’S signed the papers? HE’S the one leaving? On a certain level that marginalizes her and her shortness with Walt on the phone was a reaction to that.

And what did Walt leave for? Maybe he’s finally coming to terms with the fact that his marriage is broken and probably can’t be fixed. Considering the gusto with which he got himself ready for his new job (even packing himself a neat, sack lunch), maybe the fact that he can still provide for his family while not living with them is okay with him. Whatever the reason, he looks like he’s ready to jump into the meth pool with both feet. Now he’s one of the team at Gus Frings’ Washateria and Meth Cookery, and even gets a secret head nod from one of the workers there when he comes in that morning. Now Walt’s got his state-of-the-art lab and intelligent yet never invasive assistant, Gale. From their conversation, Walt and Gale aren’t working with blinders on. They’re both wise to the fact that what they’re doing is very much illegal. But what’s important to take away from their “magic of the lab” conversation is that both of these guys are chemistry geeks, and there’s a certain nostalgia and pride in doing what they’re doing. Going through the motions, working building block after building block and creating something, no matter how illegal that something is.

So Walt’s got his thing going on, but he’s never able to completely separate himself from Jesse. That continued this week when he found out that Hank was close to finding the RV, which just happened to have Walt’s fingerprints all over it. With no one to do his dirty work for him, he’s got to go out and take care of this one himself. And for a second it looks like it’s all going to come off without a hitch, but when Jesse hears that Walt is having the RV destroyed, he comes after him and leads Hank right to their doorstep. Luckily they’re able to come up with a plan to keep Hank from finding both of them hiding inside. I thought this worked out okay. I mean, it was a little convenient that the owner of the junkyard knew so much about what cops can and can’t do, but you tend to just go with scenes like this, even though there’s a little suspension of disbelief involved.

Badger and Skinny Pete were back this week as Jesse began to rebuild his meth business. But now that his lab’s been smashed into tiny bits, who knows how that’s going to go. I’m guessing that he and Walt have to make up and be friends again and some point, so hopefully the two will find some way to work together again. After all, Walt could use a friend. The Cousins showed up at Pollos de Hermanos and it was all Gus could to not throw Walt at the their feet. He gave them Hank’s name, so that will likely buy him some time, but for some reason the Cousins don’t strike me as guys who get distracted by things like technicalities. And besides, you see how badass they look while doing things like eating apples and bludgeoning Officer Swifthorse in the head with a shovel, so you know this whole thing is going to end in a giant battle royal.

Finally we’ve got Hank. This poor man has just about had enough. He’s tired, he’s pissing off his wife, and all he wants is a break in the Heisenberg case. And for a second it looked like he might get it, until he got a call from Saul’s secretary, impersonating a police officer telling him that Marie had been in an accident and was being flown to the hospital. When he got there and slowly realized that none of it was true, I half expected him to take out his gun and start shooting people. However that whole thing plays out, you know he’s not going to be able to hold up much longer. That seems to be true of so many characters on the show right now.

Stuff I liked:

• “How do you think we’ve been paying our bills for the past six months?” Take that, Skyler. Take that.
  
• The return of Badger.
  
• I’m almost surprised at how cinematic the show has become. The entire sequence with Hank running into the hospital was really impressive.
  

Breaking Bad, “Mas”: What did we say about escalating?

Walt really gave it the old novel try. He told Gus during tonight’s Breaking Bad that it wasn’t an “overweening sense of pride” causing him to object to Jesse cooking on his own, it was his respect for the chemistry, because the chemistry MUST be respected. Gus apologized for being so transparent, then showed Walt the Batcave he had built for him to cook in 24/7. It took Gus a little more cajoling, but in the end he got his and Walt came back into the fold. Some people may think that the lesson to be taken away from all of this is that every man has his price. But from what we’ve seen this season, and from this episode specifically, I think it runs deeper than that.

There are a lot of comparisons to be made between Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, and the one here is that Walt doesn’t do what he does for his own personal gain — well, at least not yet and at least not completely. His career as a drug manufacturer was born out of a genuine desire to help his family and not to buy himself a bigger house and a better car. Earlier in the series, when Walt listed out the expenses he would need to cover, I thought the list was actually pretty modest. So while Walt is still in denial about exactly how bad the things he’s done are, I think there are still some principles there at the center of it.

We see a little more of this later in the episode when Skyler is on the phone with Marie. After Marie tells her how different Hank has been ever since he came back from El Paso, she says she has no idea how much someone might change when faced with their own death. Whatever else may be going on inside her head, it looks like that finally gave Skyler some perspective on what Walt’s been going through. It’s obvious from her conversation with her lawyer that she’s having second thought about throwing Walt out of her life flat out, even if she’s not running out to spend his stashed drug money. But even though Walt isn’t exactly Tony Soprano, I still think there’s a little Carmella inside Skyler. You could see how much she enjoyed Ted’s home (even if Ted himself is beginning to grow a little stale). In company, I think Skyler may be quick to condemn Walt’s action in front of company, but the allure of all that money and what it could mean for her, not the mention the family, may be too much for her to resist.

Walt’s meeting with Gus gave us a much better look at the kind of operation Gus is running and at the same time showed us how ruthless a person he is. He needed Walt working for him and did exactly what he had to do to make sure it happened. At first he gave him his half of the cash from the deal with Jesse, and when the money wasn’t enough, he gave Walt his own personal meth lab. Pay attention to what he said, Walt would be free to come and go as he please as long as he met his quota. This is in no way a partnership. Walt is working for Gus, and if he ever comes up short in any way, there’s going to be a price to pay. Never mind the fact that Gus is planning on throwing Walt to the Cousins as soon as the three months is up.

Hank’s come that much closer to finding Jesse and the RV. In a nice little piece of exposition, we found that the RV actually came from Combo, who stole it from his mom. And speaking of that opening bit, the show has come up with a really great way of handling its teasers. Almost like they’re their own, self-contained stories. Anyway, for someone who seems to be getting his life together, so to speak, things are beginning to fray at the edges for Jesse. He’s got the D.E.A. looking for him, and he really got served by Walt at their little sit-down with Saul. I like Jesse as much as the next guy, but watching him get his ass handed to him like that was fantastic.

TV critic for the Pacific Northwest Inlander Daniel Walters mentioned tonight on Twitter that he felt a prevailing theme on the show this season was loneliness. I would be hard-pressed to disagree, and am waiting to see how the show brings its characters back together again.

Stuff I liked:

• Gomez’s going-away cake.
  
• Saul’s Vietnamese chiropractor. “She adjusts you to completion,” and is every bit as delicious as she sounds.
• But really, that thing is the Batcave.
  

Breaking Bad, “Green Light”: Sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have someone watching your back.

After the adrenaline rush of the past three episodes, it seemed like last night’s Breaking Bad gave us all a chance to step back and take a breather. But just because people weren’t dying and stuff wasn’t blowing up in our faces doesn’t mean there wasn’t a ton simmering just below the surface.

All is not well in the White household after Skyler’s revelation last week that she “f’ed Ted.” Mike brings Saul a tape of the two screaming at each other and they realize what a potential threat this poses. Playing the drug game has really had a Fight Club effect on Walt. The deeper he’s involved himself in it, the more fearless he’s become in his day-to-day life. Before, it wouldn’t have been unreasonable to imagine him taking Skyler with another man laying down (zing!), but now he turns things up to 11 and goes to Beneke’s office to confront him in person. In a lot of ways, Beneke is just as introverted and scared as Walt used to be, and as Walt bangs on his door, screaming that he just wants to talk, Ted hides inside, only poking his head out to tell Walt that he’s really busy. And we have to remember that Walt, for all his badassery, is still an aging high school chemistry teacher playing drug kingpin. If this is something we sometimes forget, the show is nice to enough to give us scenes like we saw last night, with Walt throwing a potted plant at Ted’s window only to have it bounce off and hit the floor. “Next time you OPEN the door!”

After righteous anger, Walt figures that maybe he can also play at Skyler’s game and tries kissing Carmen at work. This doesn’t have quite the same effect and he’s sent on sabbatical “indefinitely.” From here he dials things down to quiet resignation, sitting at the breakfast table and playing with his Cheerios, while Skyler sits at the other end and puts up her, “I’m a quiet yet oddly upbeat asshole” act we’ve seen so much of. I’m not exactly sure what Walt’s game is here. Maybe he thinks that if he just sits back and does nothing, the situation will just resolve itself. After all, Skyler was dead set on kicking him out of the house. But he forced his way back in and she seems to have more or less accepted it.

Jesse’s doing his best to get back up on the horse. He’s back in the RV and cooking. I saw this as a further sign that he had embraced who he really was, the bad guy. After what happened to Jane last season, Jesse may be completely repulsed by crystal meth, and he’s obviously gotten himself off it, but he’s still the bad guy. In the end he knows he has to cook it and sell it. This week, though, he really jumped into the role with both feet, putting on his little song and dance for the cashier at the gas station, telling her that this crystal was “awesome,” and that what she had heard about it being addictive was just “the media.” Talk about embracing who he is. You could almost see the evil coming off of him like little stink waves in a cartoon. And the fact that he passed her the sample in front of a cop I think is very telling about the person he’s morphing into and shows that Walt isn’t the only one suffering from the Fight Club effect.

It’s become pretty clear that Mike is serving two masters, as we saw him talking to Gus Frings later in the episode. He was carrying a folder filled with copies of Walt’s medical records, so you have to ask yourself exactly what sort of reach and resources he has. Gus’ main question was whether or not Walt would live for the foreseeable future. Mike said he will, for the next few years, at least. So whatever nefarious plans Gus has cooking up (zing! I’m on fi-yah!), it looks like Walt will play a big role in them. When Gus last approached Walt, offering him three million dollars for three months’ work, Walt said he wasn’t interested. Well, he better get interested quick, because it looks like right now, Gus and his offer are all that are all standing between Walt and an axe in his head. Gus may have granted Walt a temporary reprieve with the Cousins, but he’s still marked for death. And we saw just how literally we needed to take that when Mike found a chalk drawing of a scythe on the street in front of Walt’s house. Listen to the bells, Walt! They toll for thee!

We got to spend a little more time with Hank this week, and saw that he’s really letting his post-traumatic stress get the best of him. Using the Heisenberg case as an excuse, he’s shirked off his promises to head back to El Paso. It’s possible that this won’t have an adverse effect on his career, but it’s definitely taking its toll in his personal life, with him getting more and more pissed off at people like Gomez, people who are only looking out for him.

The episode ended an a somewhat upbeat (?) note. As upbeat as a bag full of money can get, I guess. I was really holding my breath for a second there, as shows like these (I looking at you, Mad Men and The Sopranos), with characters driving down long stretches of road while quietly listening to the radio have a way of ending in car accidents. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Walt got his share of the drug money, and I’m guessing it isn’t going to take a whole lot more to get him back with Jesse and cooking again.

Stuff I liked:

• There’s a quick radio mention that Jane’s dad tried killing himself. Walt quickly changing the radio station was short and powerful.
• “Your half.”
• Saul’s class action suit against anyone who was caused “pain and suffering” as a result of the plane crash.
• Seriously, the scene at Beneke was great.
  

Breaking Bad, “I.F.T.”: Honesty is good, don’t you think?

A lot was revealed in tonight’s Breaking Bad, in what was probably the show’s most cinematic episode to date. While we saw Walt come about as close as he could to being the Cousins’ next victim, we found this week that even they have a master to serve, although that master isn’t sure exactly how much control he has over them.

It turns out the Cousins are in fact the literal cousins of the late Tucco, who met his end early in season two. It also turns out that Tucco’s uncle Tio is also known as Don Salamanca, who ran one of the Mexican cartels before age and infirmity forced him to retire. Now he and the Cousins are looking for retribution, but have run up against a roadblock in the form of Gus Frings, who’s told the cartel that they’re to keep their hands off of Walt until his business with him is concluded. Two things here. As far as Walt is concerned, he has no business with Gus, so expect him to be approached again sometime in the near future. Also, the fact that Gus is willing to throw Walt to the dogs as soon as he’s done with him tells us that he’s much more cold-blooded than we may have been led to believe. Maybe that should be obvious given the fact that he’s a high-end meth dealer.

So Gus has decreed that Walt is off-limits. El Jefe, the Panama Jack-looking boss who’s running the cartel tells him that he can’t guarantee the Cousins will listen, that they’re “different” from the two of them. I guess several things can be read into “different.” I choose to read that the Cousins are just really f-ed up. In any case, I wouldn’t expect to see them just sitting on the sidelines, twiddling their thumbs over the next few episodes. These guys don’t seem like they’d be incredibly receptive to being told no. Jefe also told Gus that meddling in cartel affairs might affect his good standing with them, so it’s possible that Gus could also find himself on the business end of that shiny axe the Cousins keep in their trunk.

So far this season (doesn’t it seem like we’ve seen more than three episodes?) it’s been interesting to compare where Walt and Jesse are in relation to each other. While Walt is still trying to rationalize his actions, Jesse is coming to terms with who he is, his role as the “bad guy.” When Walt left his big bag of money in the hall for Skyler to see, it seemed for a moment as if he had made a breakthrough. Yes, he got himself into this game with the best of intentions, but like he said, to earn that money he had to do terrible things. He told Skyler that if she didn’t accept the money, everything he had done — the people who had died, their failed marriage — would all have been in done in vain. For a second, I thought Walt might say that if Skyler would take the money, he’d give her the divorce she wanted and leave the family alone. But no, when she got home the next day there he was, making dinner, telling her that he felt really good about the conversation they had had. “Honesty is good,” he said. It’s like now that he’s come clean, there’s nothing left for her to do but forgive him. He still doesn’t get it, and I don’t think Skyler’s confession that she “f**ked Ted” is going to help things.

Jesse, on the other hand, is still torn up over Jane’s death, spending his time alone in the house he bought back from his parents, listening to her voicemail message over and over again. It’s a fitting image, him alone in a big, empty house given his current state of mind. But still, we see him beginning to pick up the pieces. When Saul drops by asks again for Jesse to get in touch with Walt, he says yes. And at the end of episode, we see him in the RV, getting ready to cook. He’s found his path and he’s moving on, where Walt is still running up against a brick wall, trying to travel a road that is now closed to him.

Just a few notes on our other characters. Hank is obviously still suffering from the panic attacks we saw last season. I can only guess that he picked the fight in the bar in an attempt to gain some control over the way he’s feeling. Whether or not this will keep him from going back to El Paso remains to be seen. Skyler looks like she’s ready to throw all caution to the wind. It was only a matter of time before her feelings for Ted bubbled up to the surface, and her conversation with Walt seems to have pushed her over the edge. I’m wondering if the fact that she’s just had hundreds of thousands of dollars thrown at her feet has anything to do with this. If she accepts the money, she’s made in the shade. It might be liberating. If Skyler feels like she no longer has to worry about providing for her family, what else might she feel like she doesn’t have to worry about?

Three episodes in and Breaking Bad has already reached that coveted Sopranos and Mad Men level of brilliance. Can’t wait to see what the rest of the season brings.

Stuff I liked:

• Saul Goodman. Are there any scenes where he isn’t fantastic?
• Walt finally cleaned up that pizza. Man, that thing must be gross by now.
  
• The return of Tortuga… and the death of Tortuga.
  
• What happened to the old lady in the wheelchair?
  
• We really got a sense of Jesse’s state of mind tonight. Lots of wide shots. An empty house and empty, dead, landscape.
  

Breaking Bad, “Caballo Sin Nombre”: I can’t be the bad guy.

There was a moment in last night’s episode of Breaking Bad where Walter tells Saul, “I can’t be the bad guy.” At first it seems like Walt’s saying that this is a role he can’t allow himself to fall into. He knows he’s close, but doesn’t believe he’s quite there yet. But for a split second it looks like, in his heart, Walt realizes what he is. He’s just in denial about the whole thing.

This is only made worse later in the episode when Flynn, who’s gone back to being called Walt Jr., packs his bags and heads over to Walt’s apartment complex. As they’re talking he asks his dad how he could let Skyler treat him like this. How could he let her kick him out of his own house. He hasn’t even done anything wrong. This only feeds into Walt’s delusion that he’s the good guy in all of this, and convinces him that patching things up with his wife might not be more difficult than a splash of cologne and some dippin’ sticks. We saw him with his bags packed, so it’s clear he’s coming back home to stay. It’ll be interesting to see how his tune changes once Skyler gets home from work.

If Walt’s in denial about who he’s become, Jesse is the complete opposite. When he finds out that his dad is selling his aunt’s house, he immediately goes to see Saul Goodman — Bob Odenkirk’s first appearance this season — with a plan to get the house and stick it to his parents at the same time. The scene of Saul meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Pinkman was priceless. Jesse may be the reluctant bad guy in all of this, but Saul eats it up.

Speaking of Saul, he certainly seems to have transformed somewhat since we saw him last season. While his appearance in season 2 had him as the textbook definition of a shyster lawyer, he’s looking a little better in season 3. But apart from that, when we saw him leaving from his visit with Walt, you could almost see genuine concern for his client and maybe friend. Granted, whatever concern Saul may have for Walt’s well-being has to be looked at through dollar bill-colored glasses, but you can see the beginnings of a relationship starting to form, so we’ll see where the entire things goes.

Hot on the heels of Walt, and by extension Jesse and Saul, are the cartel twins we were introduced to last week. You knew that they would eventually track Walt down, but who knew it would happen in only two episodes. The last ten minutes of last night’s episode had to be the most tense the series has given us thus far. When I saw they got the “POLLOS” text message, it had me wondering exactly who is connected to who. I’m guessing they were being summoned by Gus Frings, owner and manager of Pollos de Hermanos. So if Gus is offering Walt work, will he be able to call the twins off their hunt? I don’t think it’ll be that anticlimactic, but who knows? Maybe by the end of the season we’ll see them all hanging out, eating dippin’ sticks and drinking mimosas. Stranger things have happened in TV Land. Remember St. Elsewhere?

Stuff I liked:

• Saul’s license plate: LWYRUP. Hilarious!
• I guess he was asking for it, but it was hard not to feel bad for Walt when we saw him pepper-sprayed and shoved into the back of the police car. And didn’t he look gross with his swollen eyes and snotty nose? Until last night, movies and TV had been telling me a horrible lie.
  
• “How ’bout it Counselor? Do you concur?” It still makes me laugh.
• Come on. The pizza flying up and landing on the roof in one piece was pretty impressive.
  
• You look at Walt, Jesse, Saul, Gus, the Twins and the Cleaner, and all of the comparisons between Breaking Bad and a Coen Brothers film look to be pretty well-founded.
  

Breaking Bad, “No Mas”: You’re a drug dealer.

From the very beginning, Breaking Bad was a show that really went from 0 to 60 in less than 10 seconds. After seeing promos before it premiered in 2008, with the dad from Malcolm in the Middle standing there in his underwear, I never would have thought it would so quickly become one of the best dramas on TV. Judging from tonight’s episode, the show isn’t looking to let up one bit.

A little time has passed since the end of season 2. Walt’s recovered from his surgery, Skyler’s suspicions about her husband and where he’s been getting the money to pay for his medical bills have finally come to a head and Jesse’s finished his stint in rehab. During all of this the community is still trying to come to terms with the plane crash we saw at the end of last season. As all of these things come together, we’re seeing Walt play a sort of “two steps forward, three steps back” game in regards to far he’s willing to go in his role as Heisenberg, and it’ll be interesting to see how the show deals with that as it moves forward.

Like Tony Soprano before him, Walter is incapable of owning up to it when he’s accused of doing anything wrong. Now that Skyler’s kicked him out of their house, he’s realizing that Jesse is the closest thing he’s got to a friend right now, so it’s important that he make him believe — like he believes — that he’s not to blame for Jane’s death and the resulting plane crash. We saw this same thing before, during the rally in the gym, in which Walt tried to downplay the crash and tell everyone that they would survive and move on, because that’s what people do. It eventually became painfully clear that Tony Soprano was a sociopath who could never accept responsibility for the things he had done, and to be completely honest, I’m hoping that Breaking Bad doesn’t go down the same road. There was that great moment from last season when Walt finds the two meth dealers in the parking lot of the hardware store and tells them to stay out of his territory. I feel that, regardless of the fact that he’s since tried to duck responsibility for his actions, Walt will eventually embrace who he is and what he’s doing.

Of course it’s possible that absolutely none of this will happen, but it looks like season 3 may be paving the way for just that. Skyler’s pushing for a divorce and Jesse’s come out of rehab accepting of the fact that he’s the “bad guy.” Gus has offered Walt three million dollars for three months of work and a couple of Coen-esque drug cartel boys are looking for Heisenberg, and the bodies are already starting to drop. So it looks like this season will be even larger in scope than the show has been so far. Now, with the offer Gus has made him and the high-level guys who are out to get him, Walt is going to have to make a decision about whether or not to jump into the deep end. I’ve been binging on Breaking Bad DVDs these past few days, so going back to one episode a week is going to be rough.

Stuff I liked:

• Look, I realize that he’s a drug dealer and lying to his family, but can Skyler lay off the guy for five minutes? When I’ve seen the two arguing before, I’ve always rooted for Walt, so I took special satisfaction in seeing how pissed off Walt Jr. got at his mom now that she’s kicked his dad out of the house.
  
• Although it didn’t take 13 episodes for us to understand going on, I really liked the teaser from tonight’s episode, with the villagers, and eventually the cartel boys, crawling on hands and knees to the shrine…or whatever that was supposed to be.
• The campfire scene with Jesse was obviously a turning point for his character. Before, it’s seemed like he could walk away from Walter without a second thought. Now, I think the two of them may be even more joined at the hip.