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After the shootout, Hank is rushed into emergency surgery, and things are touch and go. Walt's feeling guilty -- with some good reason -- and Marie is just lashing out at everybody. But especially the DEA, who left her husband stripped of his weapon when he was attacked. While they're staying out of Marie's sight, the DEA packs the halls of the hospital anyway, partially so they can keep a wary eye on the sumbitch that shot Hank up. Gomez takes Walt up to see the bastard, and when Leonel gets a look at Heisenberg himself, he pulls himself out of his bed (revealing he's had both legs amputated), and nearly crawls across his entire room in order to get to him. It's pretty awesome.
Meanwhile, Jesse is playing Home Alone over in America's Meth Kitchen, as Walt has told him to stay put and wait for him. Gus hears back that production has halted, so he heads down to the hospital -- under the guise of philanthropy -- and basically tells Walt not to fuck with him. And Walt doesn't know the half of it. Not only did Gus set the Cousins up, he has Fixer Mike go in and poison Leonel in his hospital bed, killing him, and also arranges for a raid on Juan Bolsa's compound in Mexico, killing him. Suddenly, Gus is the only game in town.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously on Breaking Bad: BANG! BANG! SCREEEEEECH! CRUNCH. BANG! BANG! BANG! ping Step-step-step. [sound of axe being dragged across asphalt] Pause. BANG! SPLAT!
We're greeted by Jesse's back tattoo, which is of a skull that may or may not be blinged out. It looks oddly like something you'd find in Santa Muerte's shack, actually. We're seeing this because Jesse is gingerly getting dressed in his street clothes, as he's getting sprung from the hospital today. Clearly, a whole lot of him is still sore. He gets wheeled out to the curb by an orderly (or something), who asks Jesse if he's good to wait alone until his ride comes. Jesse -- who wasn't exactly the most friendly sort to outsiders even before Hank beat him into New Angry Jesse -- grunts his response, then moves to light a cigarette. The orderly says he'll have to move another 20 feet from the entrance if he wants to do that. "So roll me further, bitch!" is Jesse's charming reply. The orderly leaves his ass right where it is.
So Jesse smokes. And when the ambulance speeds up, he's sufficiently bored that whatever's inside is bound to entertain him for a moment. So he rolls on down and takes it in as the ER crew wheels Hank out and reads off his vitals. His pulse is weak and his belly is rigid -- neither one a good sign. Jesse's kind of amazed at seeing this up close, until he gets a good look and recognizes Hank. His expression becomes inscrutable. He follows the gurney into the ER (still holding his cig, I think), until they're past where he can follow. Then he returns to his wheelchair and his spot on the curb. Skinny Pete rolls up soon after and marvels at the holy hell that is Jesse's face. Jesse's expression is still a mask of shock. Skinny asks if he's okay. "Actually," Jesse says, and a wicked, sickening smile widens on his face, "I'm great."
After the credits, we catch up with Walt down in America's Meth Kitchen, firing the shit out of Gale. Gale, who totally doesn't get it. Gale, who feels shocked and betrayed and with a not inconsiderable flash of rage every here and there. Walt, who has trouble with honesty when it doesn't reflect well on him, mumbles around until he stumbles upon a metaphor: it's like he's classical, and Gale is jazz. You see? Just a clash of styles! Nobody's fault. Nobody made a power play to haul in his burnout old partner to save his brother-in-law from a costly lawsuit. (I'd also be remiss if I didn't point out Bryan Cranston's hilariously off-the-cuff snapping when Walt described Gale as "jazz." Wonderful.) Anyway, Walt's whole classical/jazz thing gets flushed down the toilet with the arrival of Jesse. And not just Jesse, but Jesse with the "obnoxious" dial turned up so high it broke off. "SHIT!" he keeps hollering as he marvels at the spiffiness of America's Meth Kitchen. With his face still half-swollen and purple, he greets Walt with a "Wassup, partner?" He barely acknowledges Gale, who shoots Walt the greatest "You have got to be fucking shitting me" glance ever. "IT'S ALL FUCKING SHINY UP IN HERE!" Jesse bellows. "This makes no sense," Gale says, in a last-ditch effort to restore some sanity in this room full of buffoons and the taciturn men who prefer their company. Gus's bag-man (you know, the guy who literally distributed the bags of money to Jesse and Walt) escorts him out. Walt, seeing how this all must look, grabs Bag Man by the arm and assures him, "This is for the best." Bag Man could not give less of a shit. "200 pounds by the end of the week," he bottom-lines.
Jesse's still orgasming over all the shiny vats, but Walt, already exhausted, says there's a lot to go over today. "Now?" Jesse asks, incredulous. When Walt makes it clear that the 200-lb. order of meth is the only thing weighing on his mind, Jesse's mind clicks. He ascertains that there's no cell service down here, so it makes sense. Walt hasn't heard. "Your brother-in-law," Jesse begins. What about him? Jesse lowers his head, looking away from Walt. It's one of the few indications to me this week that Jesse's humanity isn't totally gone.
Cut to the hospital, where it sure seems like the ER crew is working hard to keep Hank alive. Only it's not Hank. It's our good friend Leonel Salamanca. Before we even see him, amid the rapid-fire medical jargon of the ER docs, one of them says "his femur feels like a wet bag of gravel." GAH! May you never have to hear that sentence uttered in your real life. And apparently "the other one's not much better." They even have to cut off the poor guy's wicked skull-tipped boots. Sad.
Walt races through the hospital corridors (which are a lot better lit now that they don't have to be metaphors for Walt's secret life) and ends up at the waiting room. An armed guard tries to stop him, but Detective Gomez is there and ushers Walt inside. There, Marie, Skyler, and Flynn are waiting, as are Gomez and Merkert. Marie is, of course, a giant mess, and Walt picks her up in a hug that feels incredibly genuine even as it's thoroughly galling considering Walt's place in this whole mess. Although, to give Walt a bit of credit, he honestly doesn't know that he's part of the chain of events that led to this. Not yet anyway. And yet, the way Walt relishes playing The Man of the Family here ... it's unseemly, right? It's not just me?
Of course, not everybody's playing along. Skyler is keeping her distance, and Flynn bristles when Walt tries to comfort him. Gomez introduces Walt to Merkert, and rather than act squirrelly around such a high-ranking DEA official, Walt asks for specifics about the attack. Of course, when Merkert mentions the assassins probably are affiliated with one of the cartels, Walt looks a good deal clammier. They don't have a bead on the "why" of the attack, but they do mention that Hank killed one and put the other in critical condition. Pretty impressive, says Gomez, particularly for a man who didn't have his gun. Marie's ears perk up at this one, and you can see it coming a mile down the road: why didn't he have his gun? Markert can see it too. He explains he had to suspend Hank pending the assault charge, and that meant taking his gun. Marie freaks, gets right in Merkert's face. If they'd have listened to Hank and let him arrest "that little degenerate," he wouldn't have had to beat Jesse up, thus he would have still had his gun, thus none of this would've happened. Skyler tries to calm Marie down, but Marie shakes her off. "It's their fault," she concludes, energized now that she's got something to blame. Then she turns to Gomez: "What kind of partner are you?" He was supposed to back Hank up, and where was he? In Texas. Yes, it's disingenuous of her to say that given how relieved she was that someone besides Hank took the El Paso position, but Marie's having a moment here. She orders both men out of the room. "They're not welcome. The DEA is not welcome here."
Gomez and Merkert leave, and Walt, having heard Marie trace the chain of events just sort of where he came in, is feeling the guilt pretty heavily. Maybe Marie can smell it on him? I wouldn't put it past her. Whatever the case, she turns to Walt, and says he shares the blame too. After half a second wondering how she knows, Marie says that if Walt had never bought weed from Jesse, that little shit would have never been in their lives. Then Skyler, who knows that while Marie may be wrong by the letter but not by the spirit, has the balls not only to defend Walt but to say Marie is being unfair. She's backsliding in a serious way, guys. But she gets Marie to back down -- in tears, no less. And she ends the scene once again crying on Walt's shoulder.
The hospital hallways are positively choked with police, all waiting to donate blood for their boy in blue. Time-lapse takes us to the morning, where Marie, Skyler, and Flynn are all still sitting zombie-like in the waiting room, while Walt splashes drinking-fountain water on his face. As he sits down to read a magazine, he's vexed by the wobbly table. He takes a subscription card, folds it twice, slides it under the leg. No good. Folds it again. This time it's perfect. Walter White: solving problems.
America's Meth Kitchen. Jesse's hollering into the void. Um, literally. He's got nothing to do but Wait for Walt, so he's reduced to shouting to hear his own echo. He surveys the lab equipment and performs tests to make sure they're all properly calibrated. That is to say, he bangs his hands on the big steel vats so they'll make big CLANG sounds. Jesse is overstimulated.
Walt is severely under-stimulated at the hospital. Then he hears the intercom call for him to pick up the courtesy phone. Skyler gives him the hairiest eyeball you ever saw, but honestly, what's she going to do about it? As she's proven time and again: nothing. Anyway, it's Jesse on the phone, and he's antsy to start cooking. Walt's all "I'll get there when I get there; family trumps meth." Which is pretty hilarious, Walt, but do go on. Jesse thinks he could just start cooking by himself, but Walt puts the kibosh on that. He doesn't know how any of the equipment works, for starters. "I'm sure there's a manual," Jesse offers. "I can read!" Wow, Jesse is in primo pathetic d-bag form this week. "Touch nothing," Walt re-iterates. Jesse bristles at the order and snaps that Walt can't do that anymore -- "We're partners, remember?" At this point, Skyler walks out into the hallway (apparently to speak to a doctor, but if we're being honest, it's to spy on Walt), so Walt has to pretend he's thanking a well-wisher for his support. Jesse catches on and starts acting like a jealous lover. "Hey!" he says with faux-enthusiasm, "tell your douchebag brother-in-law to head towards the light." Walt hangs up just as Skyler approaches and says they should probably go and get everybody some breakfast. Walt stops her and gestures towards the phone. "Do you know who that was?" he says, smiling. Ready with a pro-active lie. Skyl
er, in her best moment this week, smiles a joyless but knowing smile at Walt, then walks away without giving him the satisfaction.
What follows is a scene that's almost surreal in its mundanity, with the family sitting around a hospital cafeteria table, and Marie fixated on the silverware. She says it's dirty; Skyler and Flynn try to convince her they're just water spots. Marie's on the edge of melting down and jamming her water-spotted fork in someone's eye, so Walt steps up with a story. About when he had his cancer operation at this very hospital. He muses about driving to the hospital that day and hitting every green light. And how he desperately wanted to spend a few more minutes with his family. And how scared he was. This doesn't feel like overt manipulation, but nevertheless, Skyler has tears in her eyes. Maybe because she's remembering a time before her life fell apart. "Anyway," Walt sums up to Marie, "I survived this place. And I'm not half the man your husband is." False humility hiding some actual truth there.
In his office at El Pollo Knockoffo, Gus gets a call from Juan Bolsa. Gus answers it with more pissy exasperation than he's mustered all season, so you know he's got the upper hand. Juan's all fired up about what happened to the Cousins, while Gus is playing it cool, wondering why they'd go after a DEA agent. Juan is no fool, though. He knows Gus is behind this. He says the shipment will be delayed until things at the border calm down, plus then he'll be able to get the full story from Leonel. Gus notes that Leonel may be alive. But he's still in custody. "God bless America," Juan says, in Spanish. "He's innocent until proven guilty." And Juan plans to hire the fanciest, most expensive lawyer there is (sorry, Saul) to get him out. "Keep me apprised," says Gus, not doing a good job of faking upbeat. This is bad news for the Chicken Man.
At the hospital, Marie and the fam are getting an update from the doctor, who says Hank is out of surgery and doing well. She just can't see him yet, until he stabilizes. But good news. Though not good enough that Marie will entertain thoughts of going home and getting rest. "Me neither," says Flynn, in adorable solidarity. Walt offers to swing by their houses and pick up toothbrushes and stuff, and in the hallway he bumps into Gomez. He updates the boys in blue on Hank's condition, and it doesn't take too long for talk to drift to the POS who put Hank here to begin with. Gomez fumes about the cushy bed and painkillers that scum gets to enjoy while Hank is unconscious. "Your tax dollars at work," chimes in one of the cops, who really must've had a hard time choosing sides in the health care debate ("Hmm, well I certainly don't think everybody has a right to health care ... but on the other hand, I really like the sound of these death panels!"). Walt tries to sound supportive of their rage without actually contributing anything. I often find that the best strategy when chatting with cops.
So Gomez and Tax Dollars lead Walt up the escalator and down the hall to Leonel's room. They're followed by every damn cop in New Mexico, which means the turquoise handicrafts industry is going dangerously unregulated at the moment. As they peer in on the seemingly unconscious Leonel, Gomez cranks the impotent rage meter up so high that I start to hope the Cousin wakes up and goes all Juarez on his ass. And then he does! Well, he wakes up at least. But it's not Gomez he's staring at. No, it's the guy who looks a hell of a lot like that drawing of Heisenberg. (Speaking of which: how awesome is this shirt?) He gets SUPER intense, so I guess those taxpayer-supplied painkillers aren't quite so plentiful. He pulls himself to a sitting position, never once taking his eyes off of Walt. Then he pulls the sheet off of him and reveals the TWO STUMPS WHERE HIS LEGS USED TO BE. Yeah, turns out "wet bag of gravel" is a bad omen for your femurs.
And THEN! As if that wasn't enough to blow your mind, Leonel then rips off whatever tubes are still connected to him and hurls himself at the floor. He them proceeds to crawl towards Walt, in a perverted reflection of the crawl to Santa Muerte in the season premiere. With his BLOODY STUMPS leaking behind him. And then it takes like seven doctors and cops to pull him back. Because they're using PCP for painkillers in Albuquerque. Amazing scene.
After the commercial break, we return to a very different vibe: Jesse wheeling himself around the empty lab on a rolly chair. He's half bored, waiting for Walt so they can start cooking, and half overstimulated by all the gadgets and doodads in the lab. Case in point: an air hose that he uses to full his coveralls up so he looks like a parade balloon. He's a child, but he's a very happy child. Of course, Bag Man shows up to find him dancing around in his puffy suit, which even Jesse has to find embarrassing. Impassive as ever, Bag Man asks why nothing's cooking. Jesse doesn't know how to answer that one.
Walt pulls back into the hospital parking lot -- the tape is still on his second new windshield of the season, in a nice nod to continuity -- and thing we know, he's once again answering the white courtesy phone. The sight of Walt chatting with his meth-cooking partner in the middle of a lobby filled to busting with cops is a striking one. "Reverend," Walt bullshits, "so nice of you to call." He then steps out into the parking lot, so he can talk to Jesse for real. And by "talk," I mean "lecture and harangue Jesse about bothering him." But Jesse tells him about Bag Man's visit, and how they have a quota to meet. Walt's distracted, though, and asks Jesse to remember back to Tuco, and how he had threatened them that people were coming up from Mexico to take care of them. Jesse vaguely recalls, but ultimately doesn't care to rack his brain too hard. Which is easy for him to do, since he didn't see the stumpy-legged Diablo crawling across a bloody floor with murder in his eyes. "His cousins," Walt brainstorms, "right? It was his cousins?" Jesse's all, "Sure, yeah, that's a possibility." He asks why, but Walt hangs up on him. He's finally as freaked as he should have been all season.
Walt returns with toothbrushes and stuff, and the women head off to make themselves pretty. Which gives Walt a chance to talk to Flynn. He brought the book Flynn had asked for -- a copy of Killing Pablo. Flynn explains that Hank gave it to him, the story of the men who hunted down cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. Hank said that while everybody knows Escobar's name, it'd be good to learn about the guys who brought him down. "He said the good guys never get ink like the bad guys," remembers Flynn. This statement lands on Walt with appropriate gravity. Then he gets another phone call and again flees to the parking lot. This time it's Gus. Walt bullshits that he and Jesse are "hard at work," but when Gus presses for delivery of product tomorrow, Walt says they won't be able to make that. "But not for a lack of trying!" he stresses. It's uncomfortable watching someone lie knowing that the person they're lying to knows the whole truth. Gus gives Walt every opportunity to come clean, but Walt simply blame-shifts the whole thing onto Gale. Look, I understand why Walt wouldn't want the local kingpin to know he blew his deadline while standing in a waiting room with 100 DEA agents all day, but still, that takes some balls to blame Gale. Gus keeps silent and lets Walt pull out enough rope to hang himself with, ultimately promising 400 pounds by week. "I have your word on that?" asks Gus. Walt assures him. Sucker.
Night falls on Albuquerque. Gomez sees Walt wandering the halls and asks if there's any news (there's not). In the background, Leonel is unconscious in his hospital bed. Walt fishes for information on who this guy and his brother are. Gomez says they don't know, but they will eventually. This, naturally, concerns Walt. As does this question he asks Gomez: "Do you think there could be others?" Gomez assures him that "nobody's getting to Hank." Which is hilarious in that it's not remotely why Walt was asking. "I'd love to walk in there and shoot that bastard right in the head," Gomez rages. "Me too," says Walt, with way more convincing badassery. I wondered at this point whether Walt would try to manipulate Gomez into doing just that. After all, what does Walt care if Gomez ruins his life/career? One less DEA agent, right? But he just keeps staring ahead. Gomez gets a phone call and announces to all that food's here. "Hey," he asks Walt, "you like [El Pollo Knockoffo]?" Gomez says the owner is "a big booster for the DEA" and he brought enough chicken to feed every officer in the building. And he brought it over personally! Walt looks like the dividing walls in his double life just came crashing down. Which they have.
After the break Walt and Flynn are enjoying the delicious chicken, while Skyler and Marie are chatting with "Mr. Fring." Skyler tells Walt Gus just said he's offering a $10,000 reward for any information about Hank's shooting. It's interesting, with as much as Skyler knows about Walt's business, to see her dealing with Gus, who she has NO idea is the local kingpin. Walt fixes his side eye on Gus as the Chicken Man serves up country-fried horseshit to Marie about Hank and the "thin blue line." Merkert, too, wants to shake his hand, which is even more perverse than Skyler not knowing. Gus tells the room a story about the time he met Hank, after he was a sponsor for the Agency's Fun Run. Gus makes special mention to Walt about how Hank was collecting money for Walt's cancer treatments at the time, and gosh, he sure hopes things have improved on that front. Aaaaand now it's Walt's turn to be completely in the dark. "Things have improved, yes." Says Walt, choking the words out. Gus then takes his leave, but not before once again accepting the accolades
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of Walt's grateful family.
Walt gets up and says he should walk Gus out. He catches up with him in the lobby. He asks to speak with him, under the pretense of concerned family member and generous benefactor. But the entire Albuquerque police force is still milling around in the background, giving this pointedly low-key conversation one hell of an edge. "You knew?" Walt confirms. "You knew my brother-in-law was a DEA agent." Gus is all, "Yeah, I perform very basic background checks, moron." "He is not a problem for us or our business," Walt assures him, though I would expect Gus would be the ultimate judge of that. Walt then asks if Gus showing up tonight is supposed to be a message to him. "I'm supporting my community," is all he'll say. "I hide in plain sight, just like you." Walt then begs -- actually begs -- Gus to explain this whole shooting to him. It's been a theme all season, but hearing Walt say it out loud like that -- "I don't understand it; I don't know what it means." -- really brings home just how much is going on that he has NO IDEA about. "I fear for my family," Walt says. Gus says he's sure they'll be fine. "The assassin that survived is gravely ill. It's doubtful he'll live. Now thank me, and shake my hand." Walt does as he's told. As Gus leaves, the lobby full of cops start rhubarbing like crazy and flocking upstairs. What's the commotion?
Well, Leonel is crashing, for one. The doctors are trying to revive him, but you all heard what Gus said. It's doubtful he'll live. Did anyone have any doubt this would come to pass, then? To the sneering approval of Gomez and Company in the hallway, Leonel is pronounced dead. R.I.P., Les Cousines Dangereuses. And in the background, unseen by anyone, Mike the Fixer walks to the elevator, dropping a used syringe in a waste repository. I'm not really in the habit of saying this-or-that "owns," but that guy totally does.
Back at El Pollo Knockoffo, Gus gets a call from an agitated Juan Bolsa. He's heard about Leonel dying, and he's also got Federales surrounding his house. He thinks Gus has been behind all of it. Gus is determinedly cool on the other end of the line, asking how it would possibly serve his interests to do this. Bolsa's not so sure about that -- maybe to go off on his own? But Bolsa's pretty confident; the chief of police down there is his brother. He'll get the Federales off his back, and then he and the rest of the cartel brass just might pay Gus a visit. But Bolsa's bluster is interrupted by crashing and gunfire outside. He puts the phone down, but Gus still gets to hear everything that's going on. Bolsa grabs his gun and opens his front door, where he's met by multiple laser sights, then a hail of gunfire. R.I.P. Juanny Sack. Gus smiles a satisfied smile and breaks the phone in half.
At the hospital, Walt wakes up from a nap to find Skyler sleeping on his shoulder. He can't help but be a little disappointed when the doctor walks in and everybody's gotta wake up. Hank's doing well enough that he can see visitors. Marie, Skyler, Flynn, and Walt all get up, but Doc says it's immediate family only. Marie says they're all family. Doc's like, "Yeah, metaphors are nice, but we have this policy..." only to have Marie reiterate: "We're all family."
In Hank's room, he's unconscious but alive. While the rest of the family looks at him with love and concern, Walt's face is a mask of horrified guilt. Or else I'm projecting. Walt's got a lot to feel guilty about, but historically he hasn't. But this shooting, Marie's words about family -- Walt got into the meth business to provide for his family; to keep them from going under. Now he's got to keep them safe. And maybe for the first time, that definition of "family" now extends to Hank and Marie. Speaking of which, Marie puts her hand on her husband's. Try not to feel something at the sight of that.
Joe R thinks God help Walt once Marie finds out the truth about the drug dealing. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at 1 2 3 4
href="mailto:joseph.reid21@gmail.com">joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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