Episode Report Card Joe R: A | 8 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT Conflict Resolution
By Joe R | Season 3 | Episode 12 | Aired on 06.06.2010
it happened. Back then, he might've been able to take care of it. Now, he's sober. And "murder is not part of your 12-step program." It's manipulative and kind of mean, but it's also the most caring point Walt can make: Jesse is not a murderer. "I'm not and you are not. It's as simple as that." Walt's a pragmatist above all ("This accomplishes nothing!") but he cares about Jesse, clearly.Hank's hospital room. He and Marie and Flynn are playing cards, and if he wasn't already annoyed by his condition and his wife's cheerful humming, he's certainly annoyed by her habit of saying "knock-knock" instead of just knocking the table, like you're supposed to do (and then defending this practice by saying this is just how she plays cards). But it's Flynn who lays down the winning hand, prompting some carping from Hank. Marie looks at the kid skeptically, "Have you been playing cards with your dad?" Fortunately, he has no idea what she's talking about. She then tells Flynn -- in a passive-aggressive poke at Hank -- that the doctors have told Hank he's clear to go home, only he's not going to. Hank fumes and cites the fact that he's "shitting in a pan and peeing in a pitcher," much less his nonfunctioning legs, as reasons why he's not going home yet. "So people in wheelchairs should be in hospitals," Flynn says, in a tiny little moment of heroism. "What about people on crutches? Maybe I should be in here too." Marie smirks, almost imperceptibly, and Flynn has a bit of the "gotcha" gleam in his eye too. Hank's having none of it, saying, "Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Deal, you little prick." Flynn knows he's made his best effort and picks up the cards.
Walt and Saul waste time in Saul's office, waiting for Jesse, who's obviously not coming. Walt says Jesse "promised" him, but Saul knows exactly what that's worth. He wants to know what plan B is. How do they keep Jesse from killing two of Gus's guys. Pay him off? Walt shoots that down. They need to get him off the streets and calmed down. "What if we...maybe...could you get him arrested?" Walt asks. At which point a camera crew burst into the office, along with a besuited guy holding a giant check and Miss New Mexico wearing a sash and throwing confetti, all to congratulate Walt on coming up with the Worst Idea in History. Congrats! Saul laughs him off, but not hard enough. He lets Walt talk him into it. Not jail-jail, you know, but nice jail. There are nice jails! He wants Jesse in an orange jumpsuit, picking up trash off the side of the highway. "That's jail," Saul deadpans. Saul offers up "Roswell Correctional" as a decent "Level 2 joint." He'd recommend Springer but he's "heard chancey things about their bathrooms." He tells Walt this falls under his "premium services package," a.k.a. more cash, but says he'll call his P.I.
Jesse's in a gross hotel room with Windy -- which is somehow lit all green from the outside. He's giving her a pep talk, reminding her of where to put the poison (he got it on the internet), and she can never tell anyone about it. Ever. Seems like there are great plans all over the place today. He tells her to think of it like she's just delivering some hamburgers. "It's not just delivering hamburgers," Windy whispers to the floor. Windy knows the leap it takes to becoming a murderer. Not Jesse yet. He appeals to Windy's son, Patrick. Imagine Frick and Frack had him working as a mule. Wouldn't she deliver some burgers to protect him? And the other kids like him? She doesn't respond, but he tells her he'll be in touch tomorrow. He leaves as Windy stares at the two GIANT bags of meth he left on her table. She's still gettin' paid.
Walt's at home, babysitting Holly, when he gets a knock at the door. It's Mike the Fixer. I do enjoy him. Considering one of the last times these two were around each other, Mike put Walt in a chokehold with about as much effort as if he were changing socks, the chilly reception for Mike is expected. Walt tells him to use the phone, but this isn't a phone conversation. Mike strides in and makes a little fuss over Holly. Walt grumps at that, so Mike tells him to take a seat. Says Saul told him about their send-Jesse-to-jail plan, but he's not about to go through with it. Why not? "Because it's moronic." I love Mike. Also a reason? "The boss wouldn't like it." Walt's all, "Saul," which leads Mike to give Walt a tiny peek inside what must be an immensely vast Pollos empire: he works for Gus, not Saul. Walt's floored anew. Every week seems to bring another piece of evidence that Gus's empire is so much more than Walt ever thought. And he knows so very little about it.
Anyway, Mike's point is academic: Gus doesn't want Jesse getting thrown in jail. That's about eighteen kind of potential problems, and Gus doesn't like having problems for very long. Mike levels with Walt: "You've got a good thing going here. We all do. You really want to risk it all on some junkie?" Here's the dilemma again: is it smarter for Walt to just cut Jesse loose? Of course, now, cutting Jesse loose means letting Gus have someone (Mike himself?) kill Jesse. So Walt's past the point of no return already. Mike realizes the relationship Walt has with Jesse, but "this kids been on the bubble a while now. It's a long time coming." Walt's like, "What's that?" and instead of an answer, Mike gives a story. He used to be a beat cop, see, and he'd get these recurring calls for a domestic incident with this one married couple. This giant shitpile kept beating up on his delicate little wife, and she was too scared of him to press charges. They couldn't do anything about it if she didn't. One night, Mike's partner's out sick, so Mike has to go haul Gigantor down to the drunk tank alone. And "this sideways asshole is in my back seat humming 'Danny Boy.'" And that was all Mike could take. He drives the guy out to the middle of nowhere, puts a gun in his mouth, and threatens to open a hole in his skull until the guy is a whimpering, quivering, pants-shitting mess. After a few minutes, Mike takes the gun back and says "If you ever touch her again I will such-and-such and blah-blah-blah." "Just a warning?" Walt asks, hopefully. Bargaining with himself whether a traumatized, soiled, humiliated Jesse would be worth it to keep him out of further trouble. But no, Mike doesn't even have that to comfort him. Because two weeks later, the guy caved his wife's head in with a blender. So the moral of Mike's little story is that mercy is for the weak and it never works. "I chose a half-measure when I shoulda gone all the way. I'll never make that mistake again." He stands up and tells Walt, "No more half-measures." So there's that happening.
The next day, Jesse and Windy sit in Jesse's car, waiting for Frick and Frack to show up. But they're inexplicably absent, leaving Tomas to ride his bike aimlessly. (Well, more aimlessly than usual.) Windy continues to fret about the practice of killing two people, and Jesse tries to reassure her. But he won't let her have another bump until it's done. Suddenly, there's a knock on Jesse's window -- it's Mike, and he and that silent dude who mans Gus's factory (his name is apparently Victor) dismiss Windy and escort Jesse to their car. This doesn't look good, and as Jesse gets into the car, he looks like a man who doesn't think he'll be getting out of it.
They drive him out to the trailers, where Gus met Tio and the Cousins and Juan Bolsa earlier this season. As Jesse marches grimly towards his double-wide destiny, he spots Walt's Aztek parked off to the side. So it's like that.
Mike and Victor lead Jesse inside, where at a large plywood table sit Frick, Frack, Gus, and Walter. Gus, dressed in a suit as opposed to one of his Cosby-er ensembles, tells Jesse they're here to solve the dispute between him and two of his dealers. Gus, I love you, and the even tones of voice are certainly effective, but if you don't start speaking up I am going to take my pollo business elsewhere, sir. As Frick and Frack stare on smugly, Gus says that there was blame on both sides -- they acted "rashly," but Combo was invading their territ