Partners

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Gus is brought in to talk to Hank, Perd, and the D.E.A., and when he delivers a plausible-sounding reason for his fingerprints to have been in Gale's apartment -- Gus's story of Gale being the recipient of chemistry scholarship Gus set up is so plausible as to likely be true -- everybody but Hank believes him. Hank in particular is interested in the fact that Gus's records in Chile before he came to Mexico are completely unavailable.

But with alarm bells going off in Gus's head, Hank decides to continue the investigation as a lone wolf. He takes Walt on an unexpected trip to Pollos Hermanos, where he asks Walt to plant a tracking device on Gus's car. Walt shits a brick, obviously, but when he wanders into the restaurant, not only does he get the shock of a lifetime when Gus meets him at the register, but Gus also tells him to go ahead and plant the device.

So now Walt is freaking out, and he goes to the place he normally goes to freak out: Jesse's house. Walt's (rather dubious) idea is that Jesse needs to kill Gus NOW, but Jesse's still holding back about his recent opportunity to do just that. Jesse would much rather have Hank and Gus take care of each other, but Walt reminds him that if Hank takes Gus down, it'll lead him right to them. So Jesse once again agrees to kill Gus, should he ever get the chance again, which he probably won't, because he certainly has not seen Gus since the diner, nosirree. Only when Jesse leaves the room, Walt checks a text message on Jesse's phone and sees it's from Mike, rescheduling the meeting they have with "The Boss." Lord knows where Walt's paranoia is going to take him from here.

Finally, Gus takes a meeting with our old, immobilized pal Tio Salamanca, where we enter an extended flashback to Mexico, where Tio is a still-thriving Hector Salamanca, Juan Bolsa is still alive, and Manny from Scarface is the head of the cartel. They're all meeting with a youthful Gus and his Pollo Hermano, Max. Actual brothers? Business partners? Something more? The vagueness is as delicious as Max's famous chicken recipe. Of course, Gus and Max are also selling a little meth, which displeases Don Manny. Gus tries to assure him that he was only trying to get the Don's attention, so they could partner up. Meth is the drug of the future, you know. Ultimately, Don Manny knows this, but he simply cannot allow someone to deal drugs under his nose and get away with it. After a fakeout where it looks like Gus the businessman will die, it's Max the cook (and chemist -- hello, window into Gus's soul) who gets his brains blown out, right in front of his partner/brother/secret-lover(?) Gus. And that's how Gustavo Fring, Trembling Businessman became Gustavo Fring, Ruthless Drug Lord. Mexico in the '80s sounds like a bummer, you guys.

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This week's cold open takes us on a journey back to Season 3. The episode ("I See You") when Gus brazenly walked into the hospital full of DEA agents holding a vigil for Hank, and announced to Walter in hushed tones that he's known all along that Hank was Walt's brother-in-law. Hell, the show is playing the whole scene back again, why not dip into last season's recap:

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?

The commotion, of course, was Leonel Salamanca dying from the poison that Mike secretly slipped into his IV. Undetectable. For the betterment of everybody. Does this plan sound familiar? Maybe Jesse can take out Gus and take after Mike after all.

Anyway, the scene that we didn't get last year was when Gus left the hospital and paid a visit to our old, slobbery pal Tio. That's Don Hector Salamanca, if you feel like showing him the formal usted-form respect. Tio's watching the news report that says his nephews are now dead, and when Gus arrives, he tells him that it was likely Juan Bolsa who tipped off Hank, for some reason that Gus isn't even going to bother to conjure up. Because remember how Gus arranged for the fédérales to storm Juan Bolsa's compound and shoot him dead? That. Tio is still wearing his ever-present mast of defiant disgust, but in his eyes you can see something like defeat. He then begins to rage, or however much he can rage from inside his stroke-addled prison of a body. Gus simply pats him on the leg and says he just thought he should know what's happened. Then: "This is what comes of blood-for-blood, Hector. Sangre por sangre." And then we get a shot of something we haven't seen before: a closeup on crystalline turquoise water that becomes clouded with blood. You know, I thought this season was lacking a certain faceless-portent-of-creeping-doom quality.

After the title card, we see Walt is in for one of his once-a-season cancer checkups. The indignity of Walter White in a hospital gown will never not be hilarious nor poignant. He sits down in a waiting area a few seats down from this severely bummed-out looking young guy who's worried that this test is "the loud one with the magnets." Walter, ever the know-it-all, explains that this is the Positron Emission Tomography(PET)/CT scan. He dumbs it down with a sneer: "Quiet, no magnets." This guy is pretty young -- late 30s, tops -- and super nervous, which means he's in a waiting room with the absolute worst person possible. He starts to talk about his fears, his kids, but Walt rudely and ostentatiously makes a phone call to Jesse's voice mail, demanding a progress report on the "have you killed Gus yet" front. This poor guy obviously wants to talk, and he doesn't know Walter is an asshole. So he keeps talking, about how scary it is to give up control, but you know how they say, "man plans and God laughs." Walt is obviously not above telling this guy that that is a pile of bullshit. "Never give up control," he says, without one ounce of pity. "Live life on your own terms." I'm sorry, WHOSE terms is Walt currently living his life on? "Sure," the other guy says, "but cancer is cancer, so..." "To hell with your cancer," Walt says. "I've been living with cancer for the better part of a year." (Begin freaking out, because these four seasons have covered ONLY A YEAR.) Walt continues, talking about how everybody said his cancer was a death sentence, but guess what? Every life comes with a death sentence. I love tough-talking Walt. He always goes best right before powerless-before-unstoppable-forces Walt. Anyway, he says that every time he comes in for a scan, he knows one of these times will be bad news. "But until then, who's in charge? Me. That's how I live my life."

So Mr. In Charge is seen in the underground drug lab where he's currently indentured, followed at all times by an intrusive security camera, a camera currently being monitored by Gus Fring. We see that Gus's laptop screen is following six security feeds: the meth lab, the counter at Pollos, the chicken farm, the laundromat parking lot, maybe another parking lot, and one where I can't quite... is that the Big Brother house? OH how Gus would take care of Rachel. And despise Adam's weakness. Gus then heads out to micromanage the kid at the fry fats when the phone rings, and he answers: "Pollos Hermanos, where something delicious is always cooking." Love it. Gus doesn't get to join me in my glee, however, because the call is from the police.

Gus waits at the DEA offices and spots the wanted poster with Victor's sketched face on it. Inside a conference room, Gus is welcomed by Hank, Perd, Gomez and Merkert, who tells him they're here to ask him some questions. Gus is exceedingly polite and courteous and asks after their various families. Playing the game. Merkert offers Gus the chance to bring in an attorney, but Gus is all, "I can't see why that would be necessary, but of I course I don't know what this is even about!" Perd informs him that his prints were found at the scene of a drug-related homicide, and here, Gus does the smart thing and immediately mentions Gale. He doesn't pretend he doesn't know him; prints are prints, after all. Instead of stonewalling, he tells a story that may well be mostly true: He runs a chemistry scholarship at UNM, "named after Maximino Arciniega, a dear friend of mine who died too young." [Which, by the way, is also the name of the actor who played Season 1 DEA informant (and unsuccessful plate piece wielder) Krazy 8 - RS.] Gale was a scholarship recipient, one of three dozen or so. He hadn't seen Gale for many years, until he ran into him a few weeks ago at Pollos. Gale invited him to dinner at his home, and according to Gus, he pitched Gus on investment opportunity, which Gus saw as purely begging for cash. See, in this version of events, Gale was a brilliant chemist, but he was always looking for short cuts. "Personal shortcomings aside," Gus says, "he was a warm, gentle person, and I thought a lot of him." He declined the offer, left, and heard about the murder a week or so later. So does he have an alibi for the night of the murder? Gus checks his planner, and... aha! Fundraiser at the hospital! Imagine. Perd asks his colleagues if they have anything else anything else, and Hank, of course, does. "Is Gustavo Fring your real name?" WELL! Shit just got real. Hank goes on that Gus is supposed to be a Chilean national, but there are no Chilean records for him to be found. We get to see the difference between Walt and Gus in action right here. Where Walt would not be able to take such disrespect in stride, Gus's face does about a billion different things without moving -- calculations, suppressed anger, suppressed panic -- before he explains calmly that Generalissimo Pinochet's government, while primarily being awful for human rights abuses, was also for shit when it came to keeping records. Guess that's everything, then! The men exchange friendly handshakes -- oh, don't get up, Detective Schrader! -- and Gus exits the room. In the elevator, Gus's hand twitches while the rest of him remains still. Frighteningly still.

After the break, the interrogation commission holds a post-mortem. Hank is defending his Chile questions, saying they were legitimate -- why does Gustavo Fring not exist before turning up in Mexico? Both Gomez and Merkert (who admits to some personal bias) believe Gus's story, to Hank's frustration. He hides it pretty well, though, and persists in a fairly unobnoxious way. "I think it was a good story," he says, again very Columbo. "But why are we hearing it now?" In other words, why didn't Gus use his close ties and influence with law enforcement to bring Gale's case to their attention? Throw his weight around to get his pal's murder solved? Merkert rightly says that they can't predicate a criminal investigation on a person not making phone calls. Perd finally speaks, says he wants to follow up on the college scholarship thing, but overall, he believed Gus. So that's that.

Elsewhere, at a pretty nice house in a pretty decent part of town, Saul pays a visit to Andrea and her son, Brock. From the familiarity they're expressing with each other, this is obviously not his first visit. Andrea and Brock have just moved in -- unpacked boxes are all over the place -- and Saul hands her an envelope with money for rent and expenses. Saul hilariously talks to the kid about schoolyard romances and the girl who got away (to Scottsdale) and "carpe diem, okay?" Andrea tentatively tells Saul to thank Jesse and asks after him. "He's good," Saul says, diplomatically. "...He's busy." When Saul heads back to the car, Jesse's in the passenger seat. He asks Saul how the house is, and Brock. Saul bluntly, but nicely for his standards, tells him to go see for himself. Jesse's not ready for that and instead jumps out of the car and starts walking away.

Skyler is at home, packing all the money that can't be laundered into vacuum clothes-storage bags. She has to pack so many that when she tries hanging them all in her closet, the rod breaks under the weight. SO MUCH MONEY. So with the kicky elevator music playing on the soundtrack, we see the clothes bags end up in the basement. The dusty, cobwebby basement.

That night, Hank and Marie are over for dinner, and Marie is talking delightful nonsense about moving up to the corporate level like Skyler now has, because no one where she works knows shit about giving an X-ray. Junior asks after Walt's cancer screening today, and Walt says the tests came back clean. Marie talks about Hank's big muckity-muck meeting at the DEA today, which obviously gets Walt's antennae pinging. Hank then asks Walt for a lift to a mineral fair tomorrow, to which Walt has to oblige.

The day, Walt blabbers about his own mineral-collecting days as he drives Hank to the mineral fair. Only, psych! They're not going to the mineral fair. There is no mineral fair. Hank only lied because he didn't want Marie to freak. Hank directs Walt into the Pollos lot, and of course Walt begins to freak. He listens to Hank explain everything that Walt already knows about Gus, and Walt is just waiting for the other shoe to drop; for Hank to be like, "I know what's going on." But no, Hank just knows about Gus. Which is still bad, and which still causes all the veins in Walter's head to bulge at once. Hank also mentions Walt's drunken blabbering that made him think twice about Gale -- turning the screws on Walt without even knowing about it. Hank catches Walt up on the events of the interrogation. He says Gus was convincing. A little too convincing. He KNOWS Gus is the guy, he just needs to prove it. So why tell Walt this? Because Hank needs Walt to plant a tracking device on Gus's Volvo. He produces the device -- $289 from SkyMall! -- and assures Walt that it's not illegal, just "extra-legal." Now it gets insane, as over Hank's shoulder, Walt sees Mike pull into the parking lot. Was he following Walt this whole time? Following Hank? Just coincidence? Either way, the "WTF?" look he shoots Walt is priceless. Hank, meanwhile, is instructing Walt on how to fake a shoe-tying in order to plant the device. Walt says he's uncomfortable with this, but Hank pretty much begs him. So Walt gets out of the car, walks to the Volvo, and bends to tie his shoe. From Hank's angle, he can't see if Walt actually does it. He doesn't. Instead, he proceeds into Pollos, where he's met at the counter by Gus, of all people. The man he was never supposed to see again. Gus is in cheerful, public-facing mode. Walt is scared out of his mind. Who's in charge of his life now? He blubbers that he didn't do it. He pulls out the tracker. Gus: "Do it. DO. IT." Then... "May I help you with your order?" Outside, then, Walt has to ONCE AGAIN do the shoe-tying thing, to Hank's WTF reaction, and actually plant the device now. In the car, Walt says he had to make sure it was secure. Hank accepts the explanation, then asks, "Where's my soda?" HA HA WALT, JUST KIDDING. Meanwhile inside, Gus's face is once again a placid mask of suppressed rage.

After the break, Walt comes barreling into America's Meth Kitchen all sorts of frantic. He runs right up to the security camera and pleads with this hunk of cold metal for mercy. He didn't know Hank was taking him to Pollos -- he'd never have gone with him if he knew! He then tries to do that thing where he fancies himself the World's Most Rational Man (hard to believe Dos Equis passed up on him for their spokesman). "Evidence-wise," he assures Gus, Hank has nothing but pure conjecture, and no one at the DEA thinks differently. But if something were to happen to Hank, suspicion would fall on Gus, and then on Walt. I have to say, it does speak pretty well of Walt that he's so desperate to keep Gus from murdering Hank. He tells that camera that both he and Gus have a mutual interest in keeping that suspicion from falling on them. "I will make sure that he discovers NOTHING," he promises. Like a grade-school kid volunteering to be hall monitor, this guy.

Then it's directly over to Jesse's, because that's where Walter goes to unload all his feelings of powerlessness and panic. He rings the doorbell like a jonesing meth-head and screams "JESSE!" And then, it happens. Jesse answers the door in the sparkliest, most bedazzled t-shirt you ever saw. It's like his time spent with Mike has finally given him the confidence to wear rhinestones, it's gorgeous. Anyway, after asking if they're alone -- Walt really has been thrown by Mike's presence in Jesse's life -- Mr. Mutual Interest, wants to step up the timetable on the whole Jesse-killing-Gus thing. He's got to make this happen this week, tomorrow, tonight if possible. Jesse's like, "Oh, okay, let me go and light up my Gus Signal." Walt explains about Hank's investigation into Gus, and obviously Jesse can't be thrilled that Hank is fucking things up again. He's also "thinking" -- that's new. "What if this is like math?" he asks Walt, with a severe sarcastic edge. "Or algebra? You add plus-douchebag to a minus-douchebag and you get, like, zero douchebags." Jesse's demeanor here is just lights years beyond where Jesse began. That kid is unrecognizable now. He's harder. More hollow. But also smarter and more assertive. Walt counters with some math of his own: "Hank catching Gus = Hank catching us." Math AND poetry! Walt is a true Renaissance Man. Jesse figures Hank's got nothing, else he'd be dead. Walt asks Jesse again to confirm he hasn't seen Gus since that time at the diner. Jesse lets his silence be his assent, even though it's dirty lies. Walt starts forming a plan where Jesse tells Mike he's worried about Hank's investigation and wants to arrange a meeting so they can coach him on what to do and say. I love that Walt is in the Skyler role now, coaching Jesse on exactly how he should approach Mike to set up this meeting, so that it sounds like he's credibly worried about Hank catching him. Jesse doesn't think Gus will see him if he thinks there's trouble. "INSIST ON IT, DAMN IT," Walt snaps. "He will meet with you if he thinks you're a liability." Wow, talk about hanging Jesse out to dry. "He will waste me if he thinks I'm a liability," Jesse sensibly argues. He's finally like "whatever" and goes to the bathroom. When he's gone, Walt hears Jesse's phone message beep, and his curiosity gets the better of him. He takes a look at the text that just arrived: "Meeting is off. Something came up. Boss busy." When Jesse returns, Walt informs him of his message, and he asks Jesse if it's anything important. Again, Jesse is silent, and again that silence is LIES. Now Walt knows, and his mask of hate is formidable.

Back at Pollos, Gus is once again monitoring his various security cameras when he gets a call from Mike. He reports that Hank is investigating as a lone wolf, without the approval of the DEA or the police. So, what, they didn't just take Walt's word for it? Mike says Hank has no warrant for the tracking device he placed, and is essentially just "Miss Daisy with binoculars." "What about Chile?" Gus asks. Mike says if he can't find any trace of him before '89, Hank won't. BUT, with the cartel and Hank at the same time... if they make a move while Hank's eye is on them, it could be the perfect storm.

Gus removes the tracking device form his Volvo and goes to pay another visit to Tio. Hector. Gus informs him he's said no to the cartel's ultimatum and that DEA Agent Schrader is a concern as he's looking into Gus's past. You get the feeling Gus unloads on Tio like this from time to time; part therapy, part torture. We get another flash of the sparkling blue-green water again, and Gus whispers, "Is today the day, Hector?"

Flashback to Mexico: Gus and this other guy are waiting nervously poolside; out from the house emerges Young Hector, who proceeds to pee in the pool, despite Juan Bolsa (hey, Juan Bolsa!) admonishing him that if their boss ever found out... But Hector says he won't ever find out; then he turns his attention to Gus and Gus's friend and is like, "These two like what they see," and makes kissy noises at them. Oh, right, Hector was an awful person.

Hector pours himself a shot of tequila, pointedly refusing to pour anything for Gus or Max (Max is the other guy, I'm not going to wait around for him to finally say it). "So," Juan Bolsa begins, "Los Pollos Hermanos." The Chicken Brothers. Hector looks at them both with disdain: "Dark meat and white meat. They don't look like no brothers to me." This seems pointed, but I'm putting that in my back pocket. Don Eladio -- Steven Bauer from Scarface -- emerges from the house. This is the boss -- you can tell he's the boss because he's wearing a track suit and yelling stuff like, "the master chefs!" He raves to Gus and Max about their chicken. Max explains that the recipe is Chilean, modified for Mexican tastes. Eladio jokes that "we like a little more chili than you Chileans," and Gus eyes him warily.

Eladio begins a line of questioning that he'll keep returning to: if Max is the chef, what is it that Gus does for their operation? Gus is the business guy, of course. Then Eladio asks, "Besides that delicious chicken, what else do you have on your menu?" Max is like, well we have side dishes! Rice and such! Of course, Eladio is talking about the meth. When he sends his men to their restaurant, they come back high on meth. Gus nervously but steadily explains that he's not selling to Eladio's men, he's giving them samples. Hector scoffs at this, but Gus says it's true -- he wanted them to bring the drugs to Eladio's attention, so they could get into business with him. Max earnestly corroborates Gus's story. Eladio is like, "I know about meth. The poor man's cocaine, right?" For North American bikers and hillbillies. Max assures him that he is a chemist, and the meth they make is extremely superior to that biker crank he's talking about. He starts talking about molecular structure and crystals. Walt talk. Gale talk. Gus tells Eladio that meth is the drug of the future. It'll triple, maybe quadruple your profits. Now Hector AND Juan Bolsa scoff, but again, Gus responds with facts: without having to deal with the Colombians for their product, they won't have to be the middlemen anymore. Meth is more addictive, Max says, and will move in higher volume, and you can manufacture it right here in Mexico. Eladio says his men do like the product, and he tells Hector to pour these men a drink. Hector gets up to get some glasses.

Eladio asks about Max's chemistry training; Max says Gus paid for him to go to the University of Santiago (hmmm -- again, putting that in my pocket). Max again pitches that they would set up labs and train Eladio's men for manufacture of methamphetamine. Now Eladio is impatient. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, but once again, if you're the cook, what do I need Gus for? "Why should I negotiate with someone who doesn't respect me? Who does business under my nose and manipulates me into a meeting." He is displeased. Gus knows he's in the water with a shark, and he's bleeding. He apologizes, promises that he meant no insult. He's shaking. He's scared. Max is scared too and begins begging on Gus's behalf. He's the most honorable man he's ever known, he rescued him from the slums of Santiago, and he made him the man he is today. "He is my partner." BANG. Both at once. Those words pretty much unlocked all the "Hmmm" I'd been building up. They're partners. Hermanos. Closer than brothers. But we don't get more than a second to even make those connections because remember the BANG? That's Hector blowing Max's brains out. Gus is splattered with blood that sprays from Max's head, speechless with horror. He charges Hector, but Juan Bolsa holds him back, then wrestles him to the ground where he now faces Max's lifeless face. "Look at him," Hector says, his foot on Gus's neck. "You did this to him." Now Don Eladio steps forward. "The only reason you are alive and he is not is because I know who you are. But you're not in Chile anymore." Okay, this Chile stuff is gonna be good. Gus is crying as he watches the blood drain from Max's head into the pool. Hector tells him to stick to chicken.

So the debate this week has been whether this episode "explains" Gus, and whether or not that's a good thing. Is it an explanation, though? Or just a demystification? There's a difference. On this show that takes every opportunity to pull the rug of mystique out from under Walter -- its erstwhile Scarface -- when we constantly see the whimpering, petty, domestic truths behind Walt pretty much every week, does it really service the show to have such an opaque and omnipotent villain in Gus? It did, for a while. But I'm glad that badass Gus Fring didn't get to stay uncomplicated for too long. And honestly, we're still swapping one bag of secrets for another. We'll probably find out about Chile soon enough, but I'm not sure that will paint the whole of Gus either. But I'm glad we know more about him. And don't think that The Great and Vaguely Alluded to Love of Gus and Max doesn't immediately make me an even bigger Gus Fring fan.

Back at the hospital, Gus tells Tio to look at him. "Look at me, Hector," he repeats. He gets up, pats Tio on the shoulder as he drools. Then he says, with a villainous glint in his eye: "Maybe time." Oh, how long has THIS been going on? And guys? How did Tio end up in that wheelchair in the first place?

Joe R wonders how many other fast food chains in America have such fraught and tragic maybe-romances as their origin stories. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.