Breaking Bad – “Half Measures”

In case you were wondering, that sound you just heard was me crapping my pants. That’s right. I’m an adult. And I crapped my pants.

Walt tells Jesse, “You are not a murderer. I am not, and you are not. It’s as simple as that.” As it turns out, it’s not quite that simple. Not when Walt sees Jesse making a move that will get him killed, if not by the two street toughs who killed Tomas, then definitely by Gus. When Mike visited Walt earlier that evening and said no more half measures, I don’t think this is what he had in mind. Mike was trying to say that Jesse was trouble. He knew he was trouble, Walt knew he was trouble, and sooner or later he was going to do something stupid that couldn’t be contained by some half-cocked scheme Walt and Saul cooked up on the fly. Right now, Walt’s trying to get Jesse out of the picture, only for a month or so. Just so he can cool off and forget about his vendetta against these dealers. Mike’s trying to tell him temporary solutions only work for so long, and eventually Jesse’s going to have to be taken care of.

Walt’s not a stupid man, so why would he respond to Mike’s cautionary tale about the abused woman and her drunk husband by running out and hitting two of Gus’ “trusted employees” with his car? Weeeeellll, I think something in Walt’s head finally clicked and made him realize that he and Jesse are in this together. Does Walt trust Gus? Maybe. He has to, at least a little bit. But he’s a man Walt knows he has to be on his guard around. Showing up at the hospital after Hank got shot. Inviting him over for dinner and delivering cryptic messages. Gus is making Walt rich and God bless him for that, but there always seems to be a thinly veiled hostility to everything he does. And I think what Walt’s taken away from all that is, more likely than not, his days are numbered. Walt needs Jesse on his side (preferably alive). So when he sees the news report about Tomas and pieces Jesse’s plan together, he jumps in his car and heads off to help his friend.

But not only are they in this together, they’re in this together. Tomas was killed as a direct result of Walt going to Gus. Yes, it’s nice to tell ourselves stories about noble intentions, and how we became meth cooks to help our families. Those will probably help us sleep better at night, but there comes a point where we look at the dead bodies piling up around us and come to terms with the fact that we’re not as noble as we thought we were. Walt’s come to that place where he can no longer hide from himself. Ever since getting out of rehab, Jesse’s been upfront about being the bad guy. Walt’s finally doing the same. Does any of this really explain why Walt did what he did? Maybe not. This is just my interpretation. I always allow for the possibility that I’m a complete idiot.

I do have one complaint about the episode. And this comes from watching too many episodes of The Wire and reading too many books about the Mob. But would Gus, who’s now supplying crystal meth to the entire American Southwest really go into a meeting with two street-level dealers? What’s going to happen when these guys get pinched and are looking at ten years in [Prison Mike] ‘da clink? [/Prison Mike] They’re going to tell the cops, “The Los Pollos Hermanos guy! It was him!” Not very smart, Gus. And speaking of Gus and stupid moves, I’m having a hard time figuring out who came out of this little pow-wow he set up with more egg on his face. Was it the dealers, for killing Tomas when Gus specifically told them no more children? Was is Jesse, for going after them after telling Gus he wouldn’t? Or was it Gus himself for thinking he could settle this whole thing with a handshake? Do you think he’s seen The Wire? Doesn’t he know that when s**t like this goes down, someone’s got to get got?

The last five minutes of “Half Measures” may be the greatest five minutes of television I’ve seen in the past year or two, and a definite turning point for the show. Up until this point, Walt’s only been dipping his toes in the Bad Guy Pool (trademark pending). Now he’s all in, and while he’s ever the scientist, ever so analytic, I don’t know if he’s planned an exit strategy for himself. So who knows how deep he might go.

Breaking Bad – “Abiquiu”

When Walt got into the meth business, he did it with the best of intentions. He had cancer, and so a very finite amount of time left with his family. He needed to get in and make as much money as he could so that they’d have something by the time he shrugged off his mortal coil. But the cancer went into remission and Walt’s plan changes. Instead of shaping up and flying straight, he only went deeper. Fast forward several months (I have a hard time keeping track of the show’s timeline) and we’re seeing Skyler walk down the exact same path. A few weeks back she was able to come up with a story that would allow Walt to pay for Hank’s hospital bills without raising any suspicion. The first in what’s going to many, many large — and don’t forget weekly — bills came this week, and Skyler must have been taken back by the amount at least a little bit because she went to Walt and insisted on learning exactly how he was cleaning his money. Because like she said, by the time it got to Hank and Marie, it had to be unimpeachable.

And even though Skyler went through the motions of meeting Saul — in another scene that proves what a brilliant addition Bob Odenkirk has been to the cast — and later, arguing with Walt about being his Danny, she was involved in Walt’s business from that moment on. Skyler, with good reason, has always been disapproving of Walt’s more illegal activities, and sees herself as someone much more mature than he is because of them. So when she says that money has to be unimpeachable, not only for Hank’s and Marie’s sake but for her’s and Walt’s as well, she sees herself as a natural choice in helping Walt go about that. I think that right now, Skyler’s making a practical decision, but I can’t help but think back to Ted Beneke and his heated bathroom tiles. Skyler’s decision may not be a good one, but you can’t really fault the logic. But once more of that sweet, sweet meth money starts coming in, I think we may see Skyler following Walt down that same path.

Wherever Walt is on that path, I think Jesse occupies a place way ahead of him and at the same time far behind. He was back at the Narcotics Anonymous meeting this week, with Badger and Skinny Pete (“My name is Brandon, and this, I believe, is Peter.”) pushing his meth. When they tell Jesse that they’re having a hard time of it because these are all people trying to make serious changes in their lives — not to mention the fact that Walt’s hip to Jesse’s scam and there’s no new product coming in — he gets angry and sets out to show them how it’s done. So he hooks up with Andrea, who at first is nothing more than an object lesson. But as he gets closer to her, meets her son, hears about her brother, Tomas — who as it turns out is the one who shot Combo last season — he begins to care for her. And when she says she wants to take him up on that meth he offered, Jesse reels back and asks what kind of mother she is. That Jane-shaped hole in his life is still a little too fresh, and while he has no problem selling to people he knows nothing about, watching someone he cares about poison themselves the way Jane did is a bridge too far. It’s an interesting comparison, Andrea and Tomas. While Jesse couldn’t stand to see himself hurting her, it looks like he’s got no problem going after him, or at least the people who put him up to shooting Combo. Watching Jesse in that last scene, walking away from the buy with that expression of rage on his face was great. And it’s really those small, personal moments that push this show above others around it.

We saw this week that Hank’s begun his physical therapy. In a show full of men who are all strong in there own ways, Hank’s the only Alpha Male. And although he’s come to some pretty scary realizations about the life he’s been leading all these years, he’s still very macho, very prideful, so it makes sense that he’s going to have trouble in therapy. We know he’s going to give his nurses lip and shirk off Marie even though she only wants to help and be there for her husband. For the character it makes sense, but it’s something we’ve seen sooo many times before that it’s hard to keep fresh. I’m much more interested in seeing how Hank reacts if his recovery isn’t as speedy as he’d hope.

In the middle of all this, there’s Walt. Trying to listen to and placate those around him. He listens to Saul and although his ideas are a little out there he realizes that he’s not a complete idiot. He listens to Skyler and eventually agrees to let her run the car wash he’s going to buy. He’s watching Jesse, making sure he doesn’t do anything that’s going to get them in deep with Gus. And he listens to Gus, who out of the blue invites Walt to his house for dinner, and makes all the cryptic statements and gestures you’d expect from a man who holds your life in his hands. When Gus tells Walt not to make the same mistake twice, I guess there are several different ways you can take it. The one I picked up was that Gus new Walt and Jesse’s cook had been coming in a little light and wanted to make sure they were keeping their hands out of the damn cookie jar. We’ve already seen how serious Gus is about his business, so this is just one more thing Walt’s going to have to plan around. And if that just takes Walt and his family further down that rabbit hole, that’s just how it’s going to be. Walt’s getting good at thinking on his feet, and things have worked out so far, relatively speaking, so maybe they’ll work out for a while longer.