In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
In the aftermath of the airplane collision, 167 people are dead, Jane's dad is swiftly sussed out as the responsible party, and while no one but you and me and Walter White know it, the line from Jane to her dad to 167 dead air travelers begins with Walt.
But he can't understand why Skyler left him! She's living at Hank and Marie's, with Flynn and bouncing baby Holly. Flynn's pissed as hell, and frustrated because he doesn't know why, because Skyler can barely voice her suspicions to herself, much less Flynn. (Or Marie, who is just dying to know.) Ultimately, Skyler serves Walt with divorce papers, and when he demands to sit down and talk about it, she lays it out: "You're a drug dealer." Sure, she first guesses he's dealing weed...then coke, before Walt sets her straight about how he's cooking and maybe-kinda-dealing meth. Skyler offers him a deal: grant me this divorce and stay out of our lives, and I won't tell anyone.
Meanwhile, Jesse's still living in the giant terra cotta onion, getting clean. His demeanor has changed entirely; he's almost catatonic under the weight of his extreme guilt. After he's released, he tells Walter he's learned to accept who he is: "I'm the bad guy." Oh, dear.
So with all this carnage being his fault -- and after an aborted attempt to burn his half-mil as atonement -- Walt meets with Gus (who may have grown a Mexican accent in the offseason) and tells him he's out of the meth business. Gus makes him another offer: $3 million to cook for three more months. Walt, though initially gobsmacked, again refuses.
So that's that, then! Walt's got a family to win back and a damaged apprentice to do right by, but at least "Heisenberg" isn't hanging over his head anymore, right?
Yeah. So there are these two Mexican badasses making their way to the States -- crawling towards pagan statues, hitching rides on haywagons, walking away from explosions like cool guys. They've got skulls on their boots and death at their fingertips and they are headed directly for Walt. So, you know. Gulp.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Breaking Bad: Walt got cancer. Walt started cooking meth. Jesse started dealing meth for Walt. Walt yelled at Jesse, a lot. Walt was very good at cooking meth. Walt's product got him a reputation, an alias ("Heisenberg"), and the attention of a decapitatingly dangerous Mexican cartel. Walt and Jesse got in on a million dollar payday from Gus, who owns the local El Pollo Knockoff-o. Jesse met Jane. Jesse and Jane got co-dependant and heroin-y. Walt got mad. So did Jane's dad. Jane choked to death on her own vomit while Jesse slept. Walt was there but didn't do anything to save her. Jesse didn't know that and blamed himself. Jane's dad probably blamed Jesse too, but what he also did was show up for work as an air traffic controller in a mentally compromised state. Two planes crashed into one another, raining debris on Walt's house and most of his corner of Albuquerque. Walt's drug money financed his chemo. Walt got better. Walt's wife, Skyler, found his second cell phone. Skyler tried to silence her suspicions. Skyler found out that the money to pay for chemo didn't come from where Walt said it did. After Walt's surgery, Skyler left Walt.
So! Season 3 begins obliquely, much like Season 2 began with the aftermath of what we would ultimately discover was the plane crash. Only this time, we're in Mexico, and a dusty older man is crawling across the desert ground. Away from something? Someone? We can't tell what. He's whimpering, and though cars, villagers, and the occasional chicken walk past him, they pay him no mind. Weird. Weirder: we soon see that he's not alone. Dozens of Mexicans now are crawling across the village, not even on their hands and knees, but on their bellies, inching forward with their elbows.
A shiny sedan drives up and gets everyone's attention. Out step two bald men, almost identical to one another, in expensive suits and silver skulls on the tips of their boots. The peasants crawl past them, around them, but not necessarily away from them. I'm just gonna cheat right now and call these guys The Cousins, since that's apparently what they're being called in the scripts, and I can't think of a better or more clever moniker. So the cousins survey the crawling villagers for a moment, then get down on the ground and start crawling with them.
As they get outside the village, we finally see what they're crawling towards. It's an adobe hut, adorned with flowers. A shrine. Inside, there are dozens of candles burning down to waxy nubs, and small statues of skull-faced death. Cousin/Cousine light a candle and place it atop what looks like a deck of tarot cards. It all feels very Catholi-Pagan, an impression that's made even more clear when we see the statue of Santa Muerte. The statue is adorned with totems, symbols of the prayer requests of the supplicants who crawl to her door. The Cousins tack up a sheet of notebook paper to the statue. This is who they want Santa Muerte to bring them luck in finding. We finally see it, but it's no surprise. It's a pencil sketch of the man the cartel knows as "Heisenberg." Psst! Santa Muerte! He's got a full goatee now. Just FYI.
Back in the good ol' U.S. of A., the news reports are coming in fast and furious about the mid-air collision of two passenger airplanes. Local and national news outlets (hey there, Ashleigh Banfield) take us through the days following the crash, including an eyewitness account from a woman who looks like Luann DeLesseps's southwestern identical cousin, and settle upon a body count: 167 dead. They also settle upon a pair of shoulders upon which to place the blame: air-traffic controller Donald Margolis, better known to us as Jane's dad. The news reports are all over the Jane connection, as we pull back to Walter White's newspaper-strewn living room. As I said in the recaplet, it's not hard to trace the line from Walt letting Jane die, to Jane's father's grief, to those 167 dead bodies. Walt's not a stupid guy. He knows this. The question is whether he knows it out loud.
Right now, Walt's in the backyard, lighting matches and tossing them into the pool. And while letting the match burn down almost to his fingertips before tossing it to it's chlorinated grave might seem like the kind of repetitive self-punishment Walt might be putting himself through, he's actually trying to work up his nerve. Because Walt's taken his half of the million-dollar payout from Gus and placed it in his grill. Ohhhh, man. I don't like to watch anything where bad stuff happens to money. With one match left in the book (said book being adorned with the mug of lawyer-for-hire Saul Goodman), Walter musters up the wherewithal to douse the cash in lighter fluid, flick a match, and set it afire. He looks at it for a moment, then ... remember that Simpsons where the dog is being all rambunctious and is digging all over the yard, ultimately digging up the TV cable and running down the block with it? And Homer goes "He's got the precious cable TV cable!" and starts chasing him all over town in a panic? That's kinda what Walt does once he realizes what he's done. He tried to tamp down the flames, but that's not gonna do anything but set the sleeves of his terrycloth robe on fire, which it does. Walt panics and throws the grill full of money into the pool, then follows suit when he can't extinguish his arm. Some of the money is charred, but most of it's just wet. Ben Franklin's eyes will be bloodshot tonight, man.
Skyler, meanwhile, is meeting with a divorce attorney and giving us a convenient little catch-up on where we're at: Skyler's living at Hank and Marie's place, along with Flynn and baby Holly. The initial weekend Skyler gave Walt to pack his things and move out got stretched out to a week, given the airplane crash. Lawyer Lady tells Sky about how important it is to maintain residency in these matters, so she should move back ASAP. She asks about the kids, and Skyler is adamant: "They need to stay with me." The edge in her voice there should be our first clue. LL moves on to the financials, asking if Sky feels she has a good understanding of her family's money situation. Skyler is reticent to go into it and tries to beg off, but LL insists she's not looking for loopholes. She wants her client to have an honest accounting of all her family's assets and thinks they should "leave no stone unturned," to that end. "You'd be amazed what I've seen partners hide from what another." At which point another airplane falls from the sky, brought down by the weight of the banner trailing behind it, which read "OH I GET IT BECAUSE WALT'S HIDING SOMETHING."
Back home, Hank stops by just as Walt is fishing the last bits of charred money from the pool. He even finds a glass eyeball in the pool filter. One last souvenir from the plane crash. He pockets the eye before Hank comes ambling into the backyard. He gets very male-afraid-of-contact as he fumbles around giving Walt advice about Skyler ("Beat a little tactical retreat..."). Looks like Hank's here to help Walt move the last of his stuff to whatever bachelor pad he's found. I'm just glad he's not moving into Jesse/Jane's duplex. That might've been a bridge too far. Out by the cars, Hank moves to pick up the duffel bag full of (likely still wet) cash and powers through when Walt tries to stop him. "What do you got in there, cinderblocks?" Hank asks. Walter barely moves his face when he replies, "Half a million in cash." Hank starts laughing. "That's the spirit." Man, sometimes Walt's just begging -- BEGGING -- for it, but Hank couldn't be less suspicious.
And now for a trip to Rancho Relaxo, or wherever it is that Jesse has gone to repair. We saw this place at the end of last season, with its big terra cotta onion bulb dwelling place. Jesse plants some flowers, with nary a speck of facial hair, knit hat, or baggy jeans to identify him as the yo-spouting ne'er do well we'd come to know. Now he just sits in group and doesn't say a word. The discussion leader (played by Jere Burns of Dear John fame, among other things...probably) asks for a show of hands for who came here looking to improve themselves. Everyone raises their hand, including a reluctant-to-participate Jesse. But Jere tells them they're all misguided. What they've come to Rancho Relaxo to accomplish, he says, is "self-acceptance." Jesse looks momentarily intrigued.
Back at Casa White, Skyler and the kids have moved back in, and we get our first look at Flynn, who is looking both cuter and angrier than we saw him last. He's icing out his mom and only sparks when Walt calls and starts leaving a message with his current living situation on the machine. Flynn picks up and pleads with his dad to explain what's going on. "Nobody tells me jack shit around here," he says, to Skyler's dismay. "I don't even care anymore," he says, giving up for now. "Can you just give me a ride to school?" Skyler, of course, is perfectly willing and able to take Flynn to school, but when she says that, Flynn ignores her and tells his dad he'll see him in a bit. Silence and secrets remain this family's stock in trade.
At Walter's pad, he makes himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He hears his drug phone ringing and sees the call's coming from El Pollo Knockoff-o (i.e. Gus). Walt ignores the call and goes back to obsessively cutting the crusts off his sandwich.
At school that day, they're having an assembly to work through the emotions associated with the tragedy. We get no indication that anyone at the school knew anyone who perished on those two flights, so this all seems to be Assistant Principal Carmen's way of having everyone "process their feelings" over being adjacent to a tragedy. Not that those kind of feelings wouldn't be legitimate, but what we get here are students fumbling around for emotions they feel they should have, more than what they do. One kid tries to back his way into making the "if your college roommate kills himself, you should get straight A's for the semester" urban legend come true. One Sarah Haskins-looking girl glumly asks the requisite questions about how a just and living God could yada yada (Carmen: "Keep it secular, honey."). Others talk about Simone's brother's girlfriend's cousin knows this guy who met this kid who saw a piece of debris fall down over by 31 Flavors last night. (
I guess it's pretty serious.)
Watching this play out in front of Walter, knowing what he knows about the part he played in that chain of events, it feels like an airing of grievances. And seeing Walt standing on the gym floor with some of the other teachers, scowling at this whole display, you can tell he's equal parts exasperated and incriminated by this whole display. Carmen finally notices his huffing and puffing and asks him to speak (after first offering a warm welcome-back). Walt's words of advice are to "look on the bright side." He goes on to spout statistics and precedent, all explaining how this disaster really could have been a whole lot worse. No one killed on the ground. The planes weren't at full capacity. It was "just" the 50th worst airline crash in history. Nearly 600 people died when two 747s collided over the Canary Islands in the '70s, but schmoes like your recapper here had to look up "Tenerife" on Wikipedia because, as Walt says, we forget these things. Clearly, the students aren't interested in hearing how this tragedy could have been worse, but Walt sure is. "We will move on. We will get past it. Because that's what people do. We survive and we overcome. We survive ... we survive." Unspoken after Walter's pleas for a collective memory lapse are the words "But at what cost?"
Back to Mexico, as the amber hue and dusty environs will tell you. Cousin/Cousine are back in their shiny sedan, pulling up to a run-down shack with a goat in the yard and laundry on the line. They saunter up, as is their custom, and wordlessly stride past the mother, father, and daughter living there, who know better than to even talk to them, much less ask what the hell they're doing there. They pluck some casual clothes off the line and begin getting changed. At first, I thought it was because their fancy duds were filthy from the crawl. They're not (it's a Santa Muerte miracle!); they're just changing so they'll be inconspicuous on this leg of their journey. After they're done, they drop their shades on the ground (in perfect unison -- it was at this point I started thinking of them as the nonunion Mexican equivalent of those albino ghost twins from the Matrix sequels. The stop to hover over the girl (in her adorable pink poncho), but rather than menace her, they just hang their car keys on the goat's horn and walk away. Like twin Anton Chigurhs but with silly landing-strip beards instead of Dutch Boy haircuts.
Walt drops Flynn off at home, in his car with the two corpse-shaped impressions in the windshield. He tries to make small talk with his son that doesn't have anything to do with the current marital strife, but that somewhat hilariously leaves him with nothing to say but "How's your aunt Marie doing?" On the list of concerns in Walt's life right now, "How's Marie doing" would probably not crack the top 300. Flynn gets frustrated and asks why Walt doesn't just come inside. "It's your house!" Walter doesn't have an answer for that, leaving Flynn to go inside, alone and frustrated.
Inside, Marie keeps watch and lets Skyler know when Walt's driven away. She greets Flynn with an overly exuberant "How's tricks?" which he totally doesn't get. He's immediately all over Skyler for treating Walt so poorly. "Why can't you just talk, even?" Again, Skyler has no answer for this. None she wants Flynn to know about, at least. Or Marie, who is positively vibrating with frustration at not knowing why Sky kicked Walt out. Skyler's not budging.
Rancho Relaxo. Jere Burns is leading an outdoor, evening campfire chat about "that voice that tells you you're not good enough...to deserve your share of basic human happiness." Jesse's clearly not hearing any of this and generally looking like a big ball of frustration and anger. Jere sees this and calls on him to speak up for once. Even if it's just to say Jere's full of shit. "What makes you the expert?" Jesse starts, before getting to the root of what's tormenting him: "Have you ever hurt anybody before? Not just disappointed your parents, but really hurt somebody." Jere's shocking reply is that he killed his own daughter. He goes on to explain how he was on a coke-and-vodka birthday bender and needed to drive out for more vodka and backed his car out over his six-year-old daughter playing in the driveway. Jesse's shocked but not so much that he forgets his own anger. "How do you not hate yourself?" he asks, of himself more than Jere, obviously. Jere says the self-hatred and guilt doesn't help. It just stands in the way of "true change." On a lesser show, here's where Jesse joins a cult or something. Sadly, I'm thinking he's going to end up much worse off than that.
At the bachelor pad, Walt drops the rogue eyeball underneath his bed. He's interrupted from retrieving it by a knock at the door. It's Skyler, and I have to give it up to Anna Gunn at this point, because her body language is amazing. She looks like she's about to be sick to her stomach. Walt gets a glimmer of hope in his eye and invites her in. As they sit around his kitchen table, there is a pregnant pause to end all pregnant pauses. Skyler looks hopeful for literally three-quarters of a second that Walt might lead with an explanation or an apology -- something that will mean she doesn't have to leave him. But Walt, the coward, asks her if she wants to start. He can't just come clean -- he needs to see what cards she's holding, on the off chance that he can still bluff. Instead, Skyler lays down her hand: the divorce papers.
Walt immediately gets defensive, says this is a punitive maneuver, that she's punishing him for something ... he can't say "that I didn't do," he can't say a lot of things, so there are a lot of half-sentences and trailing off. He demands she hear his "side" of things, even though I don't think he's the slightest bit prepared to offer any kind of version of his side. Skyler makes it easy for him and cuts to the chase: "You're a drug dealer," she says, barely able to speak the words without crying. Walt goes for "gobsmacked," but he can't sell it, and Skyler gets wide-eyed and tearful, knowing she's right. Well, sort of. She drew the lines between the sudden influx of cash and the shady dealings with Jesse. She thinks it's marijuana, though. Oh, honey. Wrong show. Walter averts his eyes, and his non-denial makes her up the stakes. "Cocaine?!" she asks, eyes wider and more tearful. Busted, Walt finally puts her out of her misery and cops to methamphetamine. "I'm a manufacturer, I'm not a dealer," he quickly equivocates, adding "...per se," just so he's not a total damn liar.
Skyler gets up, not wanting to hear another word. Walt blocks her path to the door, though, and promises, "There are a lot of angles to this. It's complicated." He begs her to sit down and let him lay the whole story out for her. I'm actually curious how Skyler would react if she heard the whole story. I don't necessarily think it would be as favorably as Walt thinks. But she can't listen to this. She makes Walt a deal: she won't tell Hank about the meth, and she won't tell their children, or anybody else, so long as Walt grants her the divorce and stays the hell away from them. She finally pushes past him and out the door.
At Rancho Relaxo, Jesse's getting sprung, and Walt's there to pick him up. I know it's guilt that's motivating Walt here, but whatever it takes for him to do right by this kid, I support it. Jesse seems to have inherited Walt's perma-scowl now that Walt's traded his in for the weary visage of the damned. Jesse gets a look at the windshield of the car and does the first Jesse-like thing of the episode, stating the obvious so simply: "windshield's broken." It's a start, but what I wouldn't give for a few gratuitous "yo"s to know he's really back.
The men unload at Walt's bachelor pad, as Walt explains his situation as "a little friction in the marriage right now." Jesse gets the couch. Walt gingerly broaches the subject of Jesse's half of the million. Saul's got it now, and Jesse can have it as soon as he feels better. "I'm better," Jes
se says without hesitation. "I'm done using." Walt then starts in on an incredibly ill-advised attempt to bright-side "how bad things got." He adopts the same unconvincing tone he did at the school assembly, saying it was a "wake-up call for both of us" (telling word choice there, given the events of Jane's death). Jesse changes the subject (but not really), asking about the plane crash. He asks if Walt knows it was Jane's dad who caused it. Walt tries to stop Jesse from going down that road, like he hasn't already a hundred times. So that guilt that rightfully belongs to Walt, the weight of 167 people, that's all on Jesse's shoulders now. Walt continues to deflect. "I'm very up to date on this thing," he says, "probably way more than you are." Trying to regain that teacher/student high ground. He talks about collision radar and antiquated equipment, and thankfully Jesse cuts him off before he blames seagulls and witchery. "You either run from things or you face 'em, Mr. White," Jesse says. He learned that in rehab. "It's all about accepting who you really are. I accept who I am." Walt asks who Jesse is. Jesse's face is angry without emotion, if that makes sense. That's just the way it looks now. He looks up and, without pity or anger, says, "I'm the bad guy."
At El Pollo Knockoff-o, Walt waits patiently for Gus to "casually" happen by his booth. They get the fake manager/customer pleasantries out of the way, and... okay, two things. One, Gus is wearing a blue ribbon, which has to be for cancer awareness. Everybody else had been wearing one this episode, Skyler, Marie, whoever. It might be something I'm just noticing now that I have to go over the episode with a fine-toothed comb, but I should note that while Wikipedia doesn't have lung cancer listed under causes the blue ribbon supports, it does have sex trafficking and slavery. Which are equally good causes, but I'm just saying. Also, and this could also get chalked up to "shit I never noticed before I was getting paid to," but is that a Mexican accent on Gus? Did he always have that? ANYWAY, Gus has an offer for Walt, but Walt cuts him off. Respectfully, always respectfully. But Walt has to tell him he's out. He's got all the respect in the world for Gus and the way he does business (keep that in mind when we re-visit the dudes with the skulls on their boots), but "I'm making a change in my life, is what it is. I'm at something of a crossroads, and it's brought me to a realization. I am not a criminal. No offense to any people who are. But...this is not me." On one level, this is deeply deluded. Walt is most definitely a criminal. But on another it's hopefully aspirational. It's not the man he wants to be.
Gus, impassive as ever, takes this all in, then persists in delivering the offer: "Three million dollars. For three months of your time." And then Walt's out. Walter is appropriately stunned at the enormity of such an offer. "Three million," Walt asks, squinting. Obviously thinking about it. Obviously still criminal enough to weigh the possibility. A satisfied smile creeps onto Gus's face. "May I take this as a yes?" Walt exhales. "I have more money than I know how to spend. What I don't have is family. The answer is still no." Interesting that even by refusing the money, he's putting a price tag on his family. He'll give up three mil for them. Gus's face is a map of emotions! No, I'm joking, he's a blank slate. After a beat, he throws up the genial smile, says "Enjoy your meal," shakes Walt's hand, and walks away. You guys, I've got Anton Chekhov on the phone, and he's asking about that $3 million.
In dusty, amber Mexico, a truck drives down a dirt road carrying bales of hay in its bed. Only the bales are hollowed out, and inside are Mexicans looking to make it across the border. Inside are the Cousins, one especially chatty fresh-faced hermano, and a bunch of unfortunate extras. Chatty Cathy goes on and on, about Texas, about the job he's got waiting for him, about why people call him "Olive Oil." Nobody inside the truck is remotely interested, least of all the Cousins, but they're all humoring him. Until Chatty looks down and admires those boots of theirs. The ones with the silver skulls at the tip. He immediately shuts up and sits up straight, as the Cousins look at each other. Cut to the exterior of the truck as shots pop out. A couple at first, then a lot more.
The driver pulls over, and of course he's an old coot who's all "What the hell?" and runs around to the back. A few more gunshots and the geezer gets to running. The Cousins emerge and gun down the old man as he runs down the single road. One shot. Cousin goes to light a cig while Cousine notices the geezer ain't quite dead yet. In fact, he's getting up to make another run for it. Hey, Bob Duvall, see how the road stretches out into infinity in front of you? That means play dead, fool! So Cousine pursues him down the road and makes sure he's all dead. And with that, the Cousins earn the Coen Bros. Daily Double, echoing both No Country for Old Men (by being silent, dogged badasses on the hunt) and now Fargo.
At the truck, Cousin shoots a hole in the gas tank, and as gas pours out, he hands Cousine a cigarette. They light up, take a puff, and then toss the burning smoke onto the wet brush. They both begin walking down the road as the gas ignites and the flames creep towards the car. And with the Cousins now walking directly towards the camera, the truck explodes in a giant fireball. And the Cousins just keep looking right at us. Making them official Cool Guys. Cool guys headed for Walt.
Joe R went to Catholic school for twelve years and still never saw anything as intense as that crawling business. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at