Walt’s manipulative genius reached its apex in this episode, but threats loom everywhere.
There are few things that should surprise me about the show, but the amazing sequence at the Mexican restaurant – followed by the Schraders’ playing of Walt’s “confession,” followed by Walt and Jesse’s dramatic desert meeting – was the an extraordinary tour de force or writing, cinematography, and acting. Â As the show will be over soon, and perhaps will disappoint some of us in the end, it’s important to appreciate the achievement.
The choice of a chain restaurant, with Trent the eager waiter, is not the first time the show has used the false cheeriness of American commerce as a backdrop. We’ve seen it at Los Pollos Hermanos. We see it at the car wash, where Walt and Skyler wish customers an “A1 Day.” Â In this case, the waiters’ cheeriness served a more obvious, ironic purpose – emphasizing the tension of the meeting between the Schraders and the Whites. Â Walt has called the meeting after Marie tried to ask Walter Jr. to dinner, for purposes that are obviously about more than fixing a computer, and he wants the Schraders to back off. Â He denies everything, even as Skyler tries to reassure both of them that the danger – and criminal activity – has passed. Â Hank and Marie, avoiding her customary purple, are angry and not backing down. Â So Walt calls a halt to the dinner before it starts, leaving Hank a CD. Â In the next scene, we see what’s on it – Walt’s “confession,” one that paints Hank as the criminal mastermind who partnered with Gus Fring and had Walt do the cooking. Â He mixes fact and fiction, narrating his account in an even voice that rises to vulnerable outrage when talking about Hank taking his children for three months and hitting him in the face. Â And he tosses in a fact, that Walt paid $177,000 for Hank’s medical bills after Hank was shot.
When it’s over, Hank recognizes it as the obvious threat he intends to use if the DEA agent continues the pursuit. Â But he’s blown away by the revelation that Walt’s drug money paid for his treatment. Â Marie looks stricken, saying she thought it was gambling money – Walt’s old cover story. Â Hank realizes that he’s trapped, that Walt isn’t going to man up and admit his crimes, as Hank taunted him to do (much as he used to do when mocking Walt as a wimp). Â No, Walt is way ahead of Hank again, and willing to go further than Hank imagined to protect himself.
And then we cut to the chilly desert, where Walt is meeting Jesse and Saul. Â Walt wants Jesse to go away, but portrays it as for Jesse’s benefit. Â The likelihood that it almost certainly would help Jesse doesn’t impress him, because Jesse is annoyed that Walt won’t say the real reason – that Walt wants Jesse gone because Hank isn’t going to give up. Â Jesse is a liability, one who – like his surrogate father Mike – can be killed if he becomes too inconvenient. Â Jesse, out of his trance, challenges Walt to stop working him for once. Â Walt approaches Jesse, and we’re close enough to the end of the show that Jesse’s death seems at least possible (though unlikely with five episodes to go). Â Jesse flinches. Â Walt gives him a hug, and it’s still not clear how that hug will end. Â But it’s enough for Jesse to agree to go along with Walt’s plan to disappear. Â The scene is a reminder of how good Aaron Paul has become in his role, and of course how masterful Bryan Cranston is – in both scenes – as Walt.
And then we get to the contrivance, about which I have decidedly mixed feelings. Â It starts when Jesse wants to smoke pot before he gets picked up by the guy who is going to give him a new identity. Â Saul objects, and to avoid problems that might mess up the endgame, has Huell pick Jesse’s pocket of the dope. Â This, of course, is a repeat of the famous, or infamous sequence in which Huell grabbed Jesse’s cigarette pack and replaced with one that didn’t contain a ricin cigarette. Â This goes back to the still murkily-explained episode in which Walt somehow poisoned Brock, Jesse’s girlfriend’s young son, with the Lily of the Valley plant. Â Jesse was convinced the ricin cigarette had been smoked or ingested by the boy. Â He survived, but it was an example of Walt putting a child in mortal danger to advance his own ends, in this instance to get Jesse back on his side against Gus Fring.
When Jesse realizes his pocket has been picked, he pulls out a cigarette pack and puts two and two together rather quickly. Â Instead of leaving for Alaska, he returns in a rage to Saul’s law office, where he beats the truth out of him. Â By the end of the episode, Jesse is pouring gasoline inside Walt’s house in a rage, and Walt is suddenly in a panic. Â The herky-jerky camera work and intense music adds to the sense of chaos – internal and external. Â Jesse the wild card is on the loose, and Walt retrieves a very cold gun from the vending machine.
Someone had to break ranks, and tortured, guilt-ridden Jesse was always the most logical candidate to do that. Â (It is, of course, unclear what he will actually do. Â He wasn’t interested in talking to Hank before.) Â But the last part of the episode was less compelling to me simply because it felt too much like plot points clicking into place. Â That doesn’t take away from the brilliance of the rest of the episode: Â Hank’s failed attempt, for now, to get Jesse talking. Â Todd’s careless talk about the train robbery, as the new crew heads to New Mexico, and understated phone message to Walt – who seems to think those killers aren’t a factor in his life anymore. Â Walt’s presence as a dark shadow in the doorway of Skyler’s office. Â Marie urging Walt to kill himself, an echo of Skyler’s not-long-ago statement and she could only wait for the cancer to come back. Â And Walt telling his son that he has a “shadow” on his lung, a half-true confession made only because he wanted him to stay away from the Schraders, a statement that had its desired effect. Â Walt will say or do anything. Â The brilliance of the show is watching him keep it up, even when you hate him for it – and cannot imagine it ending well for anyone involved.
There were a lot of Chekhov’s guns in this episode…Todd’s phone message to Walt (right before he tells his uncle about the methlamine train heist), Jesse’s gasoline (we already know from the flash forward in Ep 9 that the house does not burn down), and of course the actual frozen-over gun that Walt retrieves from the Coke machine. With only five episodes left after this one, I don’t really begrudge the writers for these set-ups, because there aren’t many chances left.
I loved that Jesse finally called Walt out on the way Walt uses faux-father concern to manipulate Jesse into acting in Walt’s interests. Very few characters have pulled that off…it remains to be seen whether Jesse will either, but it was refreshing. In some ways not unlike the way Skyler making choices of her own was also refreshing. I wonder if that will continue to be a theme as we move towards the end…Marie, Hank, Todd, adn even Walt Jr. are also positioned to start making choices rather than just reacting to them, with potentially huge impacts.
Also, this was the funniest episode in a long time. The scene in the chain restaurant (which I understand to be an actual super-cheesy ABQ family fixture) was hilarious, as was the bathroom conversation with Todd’s Aryan Brotherhood uncle–this country started going to hell when they took the asktrays out of airplanes. It will be hard to hit the right black humor notes in the end game, so it’s much appreciated here. Among all its other brilliance, this show has often been shockingly funny.
I’ve been thinking about the episode for a while now and I’m still not sure how I feel about it…it had some great moments but I’m just not sure about Jesse making that connection that leads him where he ends the episode.
I read a lot about this in the comment section of Sepinwall’s recap. Many people were put off by this also, but I was convinced by this argument:
1. Jesse suspected Huell picked his pocket immediately at the time of the Brock poisoning. Walt at the time convinced Jesse it was a Gus plot, not Walt’s doing.
2. In this episode Jesse is finally giving voice to his long-lingering feeling that Walt’s been working him.
3. When Jesse realizes that Huell has picked his pocket again, when taken in the context of his fresh consciousness of Walt’s manipulations, he puts 2+2 together and realizes that it was Walt behind the Brock poisoning all along.
I read Sepinwall’s recap too and I appreciated that he laid it all out…I guess I just need to chew on it some more. They go back in forth on just how clever and savvy Jesse is.
The one thing I still don’t like about this whole story is the fact that it’s supposed to take place in under two years…too much stuff has happened for such a short period of time.
I bought it. Jesse’s been a time bomb ever since, and having his pocket picked definitely should connect.
Plus, he was never going to Alaska.
Jesse is going to be part of the endgame somehow so yeah, him going off to Alaska made no sense.
It certainly snaps him out of his funk.
One of the things I like about this episode is the subtle reminder that as far as Walt has come, and as ruthless as he’s grown, there’s still a lot he doesn’t know. For example, Saul suggesting he get a device that detects radio signals to check for tracking devices instead of physically searching for them. I wanna say there were others, but I can’t remember them at the moment. Anyway, I also like that Walt is drawn as being more ambitious and more of a risk taker than Jesse, even though he’s more thoughtful and has more to lose, whereas Jesse is the more impulsive and reckless, yet he’s also the more cautious one and has a conscience.
Every time I want to dismiss Jesse as clueless boob, he comes up with some unanticipated insight. My respect for the acting in this series grows with every ep.
As to the Mexican restaurant scene, that place looks a Lot like a restaurant just off-campus at UNM, where we’ve eaten with my kid. I’ll ask her. I thought the waiter was overly reminiscent of the Flair Waiter in Office Space:
Saggio’s? It vaguely reminded me of that place, but it’s been 15 years since I’ve been there. Anyplace else and it was built after I left ABQ.
That’s the one. But a bit of googling led to this:
“The scene was shot over a long January day at Garduno’s’ Winrock Mall location in Albuquerque, N.M., with the restaurant’s staff playing busboys and servers (but not the guacamole-pushing waiter, who was a professional actor). In addition to Cranston, Gunn, Norris and Betsy Brandt (who plays Marie Schrader), filming brought several celebrity audience members.”
It seems they’re now having a run on tableside guac.
Never been to Garduno’s. Not sure if it even existed in ’98 (when I moved away).
I’m a sucker for tableside guac.
those aren’t guns. they’re quatloos.