First off, what to do with Todd, a.k.a. our beloved multi-TV-series serial killer, a.k.a. "Ricky Hitler"? Well, all he gets for his troubles is a punch in the face from Jesse and a very stern warning from Mike: "The next time you bring a gun to a job without telling me, I will stick it up your ass sideways." In a twisted move, however, Todd decides to bring home with him the kid's tarantula… which means that I can only expect the critter to come back into play in the summer's last 2 episodes, perhaps with screamingly funny results. In any case, Mike knows darn well that he's not going to create a bigger mess than is necessary… the kid's disappearance has already become a local news story, and there's no need for him to call further attention to it.
Now, it's not surprising for Jesse to ask to exit the partnership in the wake of this mess: He was about to crumble when Brock was fighting for his life, and as the show's emerging moral center, he no doubt reopened all those emotions in the wake of the dirt bike kid's death. Take the episode's opening, where Walt, Mike and Jesse dispose of the evidence in hydrofluoric acid. We've seen Walt and Jesse do this many times, starting with the series' second episode (where HFl was used to shocking comic effect, no less). But this time, the atmosphere is drenched with silence and dread, even though most of what we see is of them dismantling the dirt bike. When it comes time for the kid (whose hand peeks through under a pile of dirt), and Walt cracks open another plastic barrel, we know we've headed to a very dark place… and fortunately, the show spares us the sight of seeing this play out on-screen. Nonetheless, the cold open is a haunting piece of work, adding moral weight to the series and setting the tone for Jesse's escape.
But as for Mike wanting out? Well, now that's a cause for concern. But his rationale isn't strictly on account of the kid: He's been tailed by the DEA extensively (including our friend Gomez), to the point where he can't even spend some time at the park with his daughter without the cops watching. (To send a signal to the DEA, he makes a "drop" at the park, which is nothing more than a "F*** YOU" note… you gotta love Breaking Bad's desire to infrequently drop the F-word, even though there's no chance it will be heard - or in this case, seen - on basic cable. Bring on the uncensored Blu-rays!)
So, Mike and Jesse decide to pull out, taking their shares of the stolen methylamine with them: a whopping 333 gallons each, leaving Walt with an equal share with which to continue cooking meth. Mike has located a buyer for the methylamine, who wants to pay Mike and Jesse $5 million each for their share. But, Walt attempts to sway Jesse back by stating that the meth, if it's all cooked, will net them a whopping $300 million… and that Jesse would only make pennies on the dollar if he sells out. Walt's greed is in full force here, and here's where the show effectively invokes its past in order to justify his actions; as he later tells Jesse when he stops by the White house, Walt's complicated past with Gray Matter has led him to no longer be part of a company that's worth $2.16 BILLION today. (Also, kudos on Jesse for calling out that Walt needs only $737,000, as he himself calculated in the Season 2 premiere.) As Walt's latest pompous quote indicate, he's no longer in either the meth business or the money business: "I'm in the empire business."
And at this point, the empire is all that Walt has left… as evidenced by the insanely awkward dinner scene between Walt, Skyler and unexpected dinner guest Jesse, who attempts to break the awkward silence between the couple with such Jesse-isms as "Hell yeah, I'm stoked for this lasagna!" and "Yo, whatever happened to truth in advertising?". We already know of Skyler's issues towards Walt from past episodes, but this episode complicates matters even more when she discovers that Walt revealed her affair with Ted to Marie. But, Walt being who he is, he's apt to play Skyler's disgust to bring Jesse to his side, by invoking sympathy from Skyler's wish, "I'm waiting for the cancer to come back."
But, as the episode ends, we've got a bit of a complication: The potential methylamine buyer will only take Mike and Jesse's shares of the chemical if he can get a hold of Walt's share, too. For him, the $15 million doesn't just buy him 1,000 gallons of the chemical: he's also essentially buying the ability to get Heisenberg's blue meth off the street. And with that, the pendulum of power swings mercilessly back to Walt, who attempts to steal the methylamine the night before the big deal. Unfortunately, Mike is there waiting for him: "I bought you might try something stupid." Mike plans on selling Walt's share along with the others tomorrow morning, and to ensure that Walt doesn't screw things up, Mike and Walt spend the entire night together at the Vamanos Pest building. However, Mike has to take care of some business at the DEA - he brings in Saul to announce that's pressing charges for 'police harassment of a senior citizen', and requests a restraining order. To that extent, Mike zip-ties Walt's wrist to a radiator in order to ensure that he doesn't run off… but Walt gets out by yanking the plug from a coffee pot and exposing it to burn the zip-tie open, in a bad-ass display of science, yo!
And so, Walt manages to hide the methylamine… which, when Mike discovers what happened, enrages him to no end, to the extent that he puts a gun to Walt's head. But then the show sets up quite a cliffhanger for next week: Walt has managed to figure out a plan that will ensure that everyone gets their $5 million… and Walt gets to keep his methylamine. ("Everybody wins!") The key to this scene - the one thing that has me excited about the next episode - is Jesse's passioned plea that the plan is, in fact, really that good. I hope this isn't a simple dilution tactic, like we did last week (the fact that they already have the pure sample would be a way to facilitate it), but being Breaking Bad, I hope that there's a more clever solution in play.
Random notes:
- Bryan Cranston is directing an upcoming episode from the final season of The Office! He's no stranger to the directing game: He helmed an episode of Modern Family last season, and he's helmed two episodes of Breaking Bad to date (not to mention seven episodes of his previous series, Malcolm in the Middle).
- "You guys didn't tell me this stuff smells like cat piss."
- The dirt bike kid's name is Drew Sharp. However, at this point, Dirt Bike Kid is a more descriptive name, so I'll probably use that going forward. :-)
- Quote of the Episode, courtesy of Mike: "I would never come to the headquarters of our illegal meth operation dragging a bunch of cops, Walter. It would be unwise."
- Nice shot of the Heisenberg hat by Walt's bed to kick off the home scenes with Jesse and Skyler.
- "You know my kids are gone?" "Thank God."
- "You know, I have never seen anybody work so hard to not make $5 million."
- Next week: The deal goes down! I promise that next episode's review will go up much sooner than this week's did… so come back soon!
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