Episode Report Card Joe R: A | 3 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Sunset
By Joe R | Season 3 | Episode 6 | Aired on 04.25.2010
about the RV and is looking for it. Immediately, Clovis wants the thing off his lot and out of his life. Walt stresses that he needs Clovis's help, or else they all go down with the ship. Clovis snaps to it and says he knows a guy who can "wipe this off the planet." That sounds better than Walt's plan, and to Walt's credit, he actually trusts someone else. He and Clovis head off to call the guy. "What about Jesse?" calls Badger, who has been clearly left out of the decision-making committee. "What about him?" Walt dismisses. And if you guessed Walt's arrogant disregard for those "beneath" him would come back and bite him, well, congratulations. Because instead of explaining to Badger why they can't really contact Jesse right now, he just stomps off and leaves Badger to call Jesse and tell him what just happened. Jesse, understandably, goes apoplectic and barges out of his house, headed for the lot. Which means Hank's headed there too. Well strategized, Walter.Back at El Pollo Knockoffo, the Cousins continue to freak Gus's employees -- and customers -- out. And now Gus is forced to make a choice: do nothing and risk someone calling the cops -- or suspecting that Gus is up to something shady -- or confront these two creepily silent thugs. Gus reluctantly chooses the latter. Weirdly, I don't think it's that he's afraid, though God knows he should be. I think he is pathologically averse to making a scene. This is a guy who's gotten good at not getting noticed. In Spanish, he asks what they want. They say he knows. Gus's reply is one word: "Sunset."
At the lot, Walt pays the demolition guy and reiterates about a dozen times that he needs the RV to be "beyond recovery." In another little Hey! It's That Guy! Moment, the demolition guy is played by Larry Hankin, who was, among other things, the actor playing "Kramer" when Seinfeld did that sitcom-within-a-sitcom. He assures Walt that they'll be crushing this thing into a cube, then shipping it off to China. After Fake Kramer ducks out, Walt scours the RV for anything he doesn't want to leave behind. He discovers a bag of Funyuns, probably from his and Jesse's disastrous last trip out to the desert. The misty, water-color Funyuns look like they're making Walt reminisce about the ... well, if not good times at least the times that he and Jesse were in this together. Of course, if those onion-flavored snacks conjured up any residual warm feelings for Jesse, odds are they cooled right about when Jesse comes bounding into the RV.
Jesse's all finger-pointing and yelling about how the RV is just as much his as it is Walt's. Walt doesn't even have time to argue back before it dawns on him. He races to the window and has it confirmed: Hank's pulling into the lot. Walt scrambles to lock all the windows and pull all the curtains shut. "He's here," he gasps at Jesse. He's too scared to be properly angry, despite an accusation that Jesse "led him right to us."
Hank disembarks and makes sure his sidearm is at the ready. He creeps up on the RV; he knows Jesse's in there. He doesn't know if Jesse's, for example, armed. Inside, Walt and Jesse silently follow his movements, at an utter loss as to what else to do. This is already marvelously tense. Hank calls out that this is Jesse's last chance to surrender himself before he adds "resisting arrest" to the charges. Walt makes sure Jesse doesn't respond.
Hank then comes at the door with a tire iron, trying to wedge it open. Inside, Walt is hilariously trying to hold the door shut. Before anyone has to do anything more drastic, Fake Kramer comes upon the scene and asks for a warrant. As the owner of the lot, he tells Hank he can't come breaking into vehicles on his property without a warrant. Hank decides he'll humor this rube who thinks he knows the law; says he's got probable cause. Ah, but this is clearly not Fake Kramer's first rodeo. He says probable cause only applies to vehicles. Hank sarcastically points out the wheels on the RV. Fake Kramer points at the RV and says, "This is a domicile. A residence." You know, I guess I never appreciated the legal gray area occupied by RVs and mobile homes. Fake Kramer continues to pepper Hank with questions, while inside, Walt and Jesse alternate looks of being impressed and trying to figure out a plan. Fake Kramer concludes that Hank is just fishing with no real cause for suspicion. Hank turns to the RV door which is dotted with duct tape. Hank rips each piece off individually, revealing a bullet hole underneath. Inside, as every piece of tape is removed, a beam of light shoots in and lands on Walt's person, with all the swiftness and silence of a sniper rifle. It's an amazing shot in an hour full of them.
While Hank tells Fake Kramer that these bullet holes are probably all he'll need to make probable cause, Walt turns to Jesse and whispers, "How could you have known that they were there before you took off the tape?" Jesse doesn't get it. Walt repeats himself, then tells Jesse to say it. Jesse does, leading Fake Kramer to note that the voice makes a good point. Adding, with much surprise, "There's a person in there!" Hee. Walt then has Jesse say, "This is my own private domicile, and I will not be harassed!" Jesse pauses, then adds, " ... bitch!" Jesse Pinkman, I could hug you. Walt gives Jesse one of his patented "...the fuck is wrong with you?" shrugs, but whatever. It's great to have the band back together.
Hank grins the grin of a man who's been bested by annoying lowlifes ... for the moment. He's still gonna get the warrant. And he's prepared to wait right here until he does. This is still a problem, for Walt especially. So he does what is clearly a last resort: he places a phone call. "It's me," is all he says. "We need your help." Show of hands who thought it was Gus on the other end of that line?
Moments later, Hank gets a phone call. The woman on the line identifies herself as an Albuquerque police officer with an urgent message about one Marie Schrader. She's been in a car accident and has been airlifted to the hospital. Hank's face immediately breaks down into panic and concern. He presses for more information about Marie's condition, but the woman doesn't have anything further, just telling him he'll want to get to the hospital as soon as possible. Hank, to his credit, doesn't hesitate to hop into the car and speed off. As single-minded and maniacal as his devotion to the case has been, he didn't hesitate to throw it overboard for his wife. And so, Walt took advantage of a good man in order to keep from being punished for his actions. Because, yes, it's no surprise that the woman on the phone is not a cop. She's Saul's secretary. She grouses to Saul that she doesn't get paid enough to do this. Saul smiles at her nervously and breaks the phone she used in half.
Cut to the hospital, and Hank barreling through the hallways towards the front desk. The soundtrack is oppressive ambient noise, like we're underwater, so we can't hear what's being said. We don't need to, of course. Hank's demanding to know where his wife is. The nurse is trying to tell him there's no patient by that name here. Hank starts raging in all directions, until the one sound we hear -- his ringtone -- becomes loud enough for him to notice too. He answers, and it's Marie. She's just checking in about dinner. Hank can barely croak the words out: "Are you okay?" Um, obvi. Hank drops the phone to his waist. Somebody's gonna get fucked up for this one.
Back at the lot, in yet another intentionally strange marriage of old-timey (this time Spanish) music to the action, we see the old RV get systematically crushed into a tiny cube. We had some good times in that ol' deathtrap, huh? Walt and Jesse watch with the awed fascination one usually reserves for watching a giant behemoth made of metal get demolished and crushed into flat hunks of steel. Walt spares one sidelong glance at Jesse, and it's the only indication we get that these two are feeling the same kind of nostalgia for the ol' horse as I am. But I believe they are.
Out in the desert -- where it's deep ambe