Warning: Breaking Back and Forth is a weekly feature where Chris and Jeff discuss the latest episode of Breaking Bad in detail. So if you haven’t seen the episode yet, you should probably hold off on reading any further.
Jeff: First off, wow, what an episode. It started slow, but it seemed like a lot happened after the first 20 minutes.
Chris: Yeah, it was something of a slow build-up but when it turned, everything started happening very fast.
Jeff: I think we should start off with the ending, because that is where most of the discussion is centered around in my texts with friends and family. Everyone seems a bit confused by what happened with Jesse at the end. I think I have it figured out, but I’m still wondering what he was searching his pockets for and what made him come to his revelation.
Chris: He was searching for his pot and he realized that Huell lifted it from him on the way out. But the revelation was that Huell had done this before with the ricin but I was under the impression Brock was poisoned by a plant from Walt’s garden.
Jeff: He was poisoned by that plant. What happened was Walter had Huell lift the cigarette off of Jesse, so he could make it look like Gus stole the cigarette and used the ricin in it to poison Brock. And you’re right about the pot. For some reason, I thought Jesse was looking for the phone and realized Huell lifted it, but that scene near the end confirms that Huell lifted the pot. It was a lot to process in a small time frame.
Chris: Well everything was moving very fast, so it is entirely understandable to get a little crossed on what was happening. Still Jesse’s actions make him a factor that now needs to be dealt with in a more… permanent manner.
Jeff: I still think Jesse goes to confess, especially now that he realizes Walter has been manipulating him the whole time. He definitely hates Walter now, if he didn’t already. What did you think of the scene between he and Walter in the desert? I called it play for play. Walter was manipulating him, and Jesse was seeing through it, except Jesse called him on it this time.
Chris: I think Jesse’s money delivery episode finally has him seeing straight, and he now sees what bad things they’ve done in full detail. He also sees that he’s never been in control of anything since coming into contact with Walter. He was willing to go away but he wasn’t going to let Walter suggest it to him like his friend/father figure this time. He wanted him to spell it out, exactly why he wanted what he did.
Jeff: Jesse saw exactly what Walter was saying. He had to leave or Walter was going to kill him. That was the subtext of the entire worried father pep talk. I was surprised by how Walter responded when Jesse called him out. He obviously has feelings for this kid that he royally screwed up, and he hugged him, but I thought Walter was literally going to stab him in the back during that hug. I seriously thought Jesse was going to get killed either in that scene, or when he went to disappear.
Chris: Which wouldn’t have surprised us really. We’ve been saying for the last two weeks that it seems like Jesse is in for a bad end. However, now it seems that Jesse is going to go out fighting, and he is going to do anything he can to bring Walt down. But enough Jesse, we need to talk about Walt’s “confession.”
Jeff: What a surprise! Here, I thought Jesse was going to confess to Hank during this episode (I still think he will), but we got a different kind of confession, which wasn’t a confession at all. It was a threat to Hank and Marie. When they first showed Walter doing the confession, I thought, well, maybe he’s going to try to protect his family. Say Skyler didn’t know anything. But no. It was typical Walter/Heisenberg throughout this episode. And he came up with another brilliant move while his back was against the wall.
Chris: It was a master stroke. Hank knows he’s boned, the money trail points right to him. Everything Walt said in the video can be linked with past events in the series. It was insane, almost like he had this plan all along. But we know that this is just a stopgap and eventually it will come out that he is Heisenberg, so I’m really excited to see where it is all going to go.
Jeff: To me, it was more a threat to Hank and Marie more than anything else, which Hank recognized. It was Walter saying, “This is who you’re dealing with. I might not have evidence to prove you are part of this, but do you really want to go down this road?” It was very cool to see Hank and Marie see Walter in a completely different light. To really see his Heisenberg side.
Chris: it certainly was a threat but Walt realizes he won’t need the evidence because if it gets to that point he is going to have to kill himself and if he’s proved anything in the series thus far, he can always make it seem like someone else is to blame. The medical bills are the biggest twist because Hank knew absolutely nothing about that but he also realizes that there is a money trail heading back to him now.
Jeff: That was a very nice twist. I totally forgot that they gave them the money for his medical bills, and that Hank didn’t know.
Chris: I think the clip from next week kind of sums up my thoughts on Walt right now, “Mr. White is the devil.”
Jeff: Question is, who is Jesse saying that to? Hank? Skyler? Walt Jr.? My best guess is Hank.
Chris: I don’t know but if this episode is any indication, there isn’t much reason for us to speculate because it is going to surprise us next week with something we never saw coming.
Jeff: Yeah, the confession was especially surprising. The show does a good job of making things fall into place kind of how we expect while still surprising us big time along the way. I still say Jesse confesses. Money on it.
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