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Hank checks the tracker he put on Gus's car, which only shows a week's worth of trips from home to work and back again. But he's dogged, so he Google-fu's the location of the Pollos "main distribution center," a.k.a. the chicken farm. Walt tips Mike off about this, so Mike and Jesse get to scrubbing the warehouse clean. Afterwards, there's a shootout in front of the farm, killing one anonymous redshirt and giving Mike the opportunity to save Jesse's life. Gus also goes all "King Kong ain't got shit on me!" as he strides out towards the unseen sniper with his arms outstretched, daring him to kill him. The sniper declines.
After making Walter help dispose of the redshirt's corpse, Mike sets up a meeting between Gus and Jesse at Gus's house. Jesse considers dosing the stew with ricin but decides the communal pot of food they'll both be dining from isn't the best place for poison. Gus then asks Jesse if he can cook the blue stuff without Walter. Not so Gus can kill Walt, like Jesse's thinking (Jesse emphatically says that killing Walter means Gus will have to kill him too), but so Jesse can go to Mexico and train others to cook the blue stuff too, which appears to be a condition of the cartel's in order to stop the war.
Jesse calls Walt over to tell him about this, only in the meantime, Walt had placed a tracker of his own on Jesse's car, only to discover Jesse's meeting with Gus. So when Jesse lies and says Mike was the one who approached him about Mexico, Walt busts him. He berates Jesse for not having the guts to kill Gus, and Jesse figures out Walt bugged his car. The trust, she is gone. Walt tells Jesse to go ahead to Mexico and screw up "like I know you will" and wind up in a barrel somewhere. At this, Jesse throws the tracker at Walt and nails him in the eyebrow. FIGHT! The two men brawl, busting up Jesse's newly rehabilitated home (Jesse's house is the Aztek of this season). Jesse ultimately comes out on top, but it's their seasons-long, complicated, not always healthy relationship that's the true casualty. Jesse never wants to see Walt again.
In B-plot news, Skyler thinks the car wash is going well enough that she wants to go legit. Only she's soon visited by the Ghost of Indiscretions Past, "I Fucked" Ted Beneke. Goddamn Ted arrives with the awful news that he's being audited by the criminal division of the IRS. He's facing prison time, and worse, an investigation into his books will lead the Feds right to Skyler's doorstep. So Skyler's solution is to go all Erin Brockovich on the auditor, using her décolletage and a "Don't ask me, I'm just a girl!" routine to convince the IRS she was merely incompetent rather than criminal. That works for now, but Ted still needs to pay his back taxes and penalties to keep the IRS away. Only he's beyond broke. If only Skyler knew where she could find bags and bags of vacuum-sealed money...
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Hank told Walt to put a tracking device on Gus's car, Walt was scared shitless, but Gus was like, "Go ahead, hombre. I've been dead inside ever since that guy from Scarface killed my part-time lover." Meanwhile, Walt cooked up some ricin so Jesse could dose Gus and off him for good, but Mike and Gus have been making him feel so good about his worth as a human being that he's slightly hesitant about killing them as a favor to the mean old chem teacher who always yells at him. Also, Skyler fucked Ted. ...Oh, we back on that again?
We're going artsy minimalist with the cold open this week, starting with a closeup of glasses -- one lens popped out of the frame -- lying on a hardwood floor. It's joined by a drop of blood, then another, then another. Then, as you should have expected, a POV shot from the floor. Blood on the lens! Breaking Bad, you do not let me down. The blood trickles onto a pair of moccasins , followed by someone picking up the broken glasses. The cut to the title card makes sure we know this is all very important and will come into play very soon.
It doesn't take us more than half a second after the credits to see that those moccasins from a second ago belong to Walt. Ever the hip fella with the footwear, Walter. He's at the Schrader abode, picking up Hank to go to another "rock exhibit." Marie jokes that they're probably just sneaking off to a strip club. Which, whatever, out of the house is out of the house. An exterior shot of Hank and Marie's house is shockingly free of purple -- no wait! Umbrella at the patio table. Almost missed it all closed up like it is. And the plant potters at the front of the driveway. Okay, good. Marie's still got it! On the drive, the pretense of the rock show is dropped, and Hank is super antsy about retrieving the tracker and finding out where Gus has been all week. Walt is visibly tense and petrified, and checking the rearview mirror to see who's following them. Hank sees this and tells Walt to lighten up. Then he starts singing "Eye of the Tiger," all "BOMP BOMP BOMP!" and belting the wrong lyrics. They pull into Pollos Amantes, and we see that indeed, Tyrus has been following them. Walt retrieves the device and returns right back to the car, as Hank WTFs at him for not preserving his cover by going in and ordering a burger.
Back at Hank's house, he plugs the tracker into his computer. It synchs up, only to tell Hank the most dispiriting news possible. A week's worth of Gus Fring's trips to work, back home, over and over again. Hank calls Gus a "chicken-slinging son of a bitch," while Walt softly tries to push the idea that maybe Gus is not his guy. Hank's not buying. "A guy this clean has got to be dirty," he deduces. "What's my play here?" he wonders, mostly to himself. "How do I get this guy?" That question weighs heavily on Walt too. "Yeah," he says. "How?"
On his way out of Hank's driveway, a snarl of purpose creeps across Walt's face. On his way out of the cul-de-sac, he drives up to Tyrus in his car, pulls out his phone, and places a call to the cops. "I want to report a very suspicious man lurking in my neighborhood," he says, staring Tyrus down the whole way. Tyrus silently stares back, silently enumerating all the ways he'd like to make Walt bleed onto his moccasins (hey, maybe...).
In the parking lot of America's Meth Kitchen, Jesse's waiting for Walt. What he doesn't know is that Walt knows about all the time he's been spending not killing Gus. The trust is gone, and Jesse has no idea. (Of course, the trust might be gone going in the other direction too, so...) Jesse says he already got started on today's cook, so Walt asks for a cigarette. Jesse thinks Walt is being a dick about how Jesse hasn't dosed Gus yet (he is), and he's like, "Yeah, yeah, [the ricin cig] is still in there." He reiterates the lie that he hasn't had an opportunity to use it yet. Walt says he still wants a cigarette. A regular one. He coughs out a puff, proving that this is more a gesture than a genuine wish to smoke. He starts to pry about how Jesse's been lately, specifically what he's been doing with his free time. Jesse's closed off, but he does allow that he's been watching some Ice Road Truckers. Oh, the condescension on Walt's face at this. "What happens in that one?" Walt asks. "Guys drive on ice," Jesse answers. He also promises that he WILL do it -- he will kill Gus. I even think he believes his will ... at some point. He also tells Walt it's a good idea to inhale when he smokes. Doesn't he have enough cancer, though? Walt: "What does it matter? We're both dead men anyway."
At the Car Wash, Skyler is in her office, totaling up receipts. She makes a call to Walt, officially to talk about making low-key plans for Junior's birthday. She says they should bite the bullet and buy him a car. A used car. Credit to Skyler for saying all this without her inflection reminding Walt what a Grade-A asshole he was the last time he bought Junior some wheels. It's probably because she's trying to warm him up for her very casual transition into talking about how well the business is doing. So well that they could probably make it their real business. If they wanted to. Walt, ever the skeptic, asks if she's turning a profit. In another month or two, she says, yes. Maybe it's time to start thinking about an exit strategy? Hope and tears are both welling up in her eyes. Rather than reflexively reject this out of his usual sense of misplaced pride, Walt is instead thoughtful. "I'm working on it," he says. He actually sounds sincere.
The morning, Hank wakes Walt up with a phone call. He's been thinking of Gus all day and how they can nail him. Has been thinking of this chicken empire of Gus's -- who supplies him? He went and Googled the distribution center for Pollos Amores -- oh man, he's found the chicken farm! He figures that place offers lots of opportunities for nefariousness; they should go check it out. Walt, who thought he was largely clear of Hank's investigation, is freaked anew. He fakes gastrointestinal distress in order to beg off driving Hank. Of course, Walt isn't Hank's only friend; he'll just get someone else to take him. Walt, the complete moron, wasn't expecting that. He successfully scrambles to let Hank give him a day or two so he can go with him. After he hangs up with Hank, Walt calls Mike. Hilariously, the first thing he says is "Don't be angry." Like when you call your parents who went out of town and you threw a huge party and you need to prepare them for the fact that they're going to need to buy new carpeting for the dining room. He explains that his brother-in-law is probably, most likely maybe going to come to look at the chicken farm at some point soon. So, you know, be warned. Mike, because he is awesome, hangs up without responding.
Cut to Jesse helping some nameless thugs clean all the incriminating evidence out of the warehouse, while Mike supervises/glowers. As he removes a meth package from a vat of chicken goo, Jesse asks Mike where this is all going. "Elsewhere" says Mike. Hey, he may be the kid's mentor, but a man can still have his secrets.
Skyler is at the Car Wash, ringing up imaginary sales; she's having a bit of fun pantomiming upselling these make-believe customers, but you can tell the lawlessness of it is weighing on her a bit. Enter Ted Beneke. Well, great. It's awkward, of course, as he tells her she looks great. She's still happy for a compliment, though; the woman's not dead. But Ted, of course, has brought trouble along with him. Cut to her office, where she's reading his summons for an IRS audit (to be held TOMORROW). She notes that it's not just the IRS, but the CID -- their criminal division. He's facing a felony charge for back taxes and fraud, to the tune of up to five years in prison plus crazy fines. Ted sheepishly admits it's bad. He thought Skyler could help, what with her "knowledge of how the books got the way they are." If he were any less hapless, I'd call Ted out for making passive-aggressive threats just then. Skyler focuses on the fact that what he's asking is not possible. Uncook the books? With "accounting tricks"? What a moron. Skyler realizes that her name and signatures are all over those books. Ted assures her he's the accountable one, but she's finally like, "Listen, moron, while the U.S. government is busy deciding which flagpole to run you up, they're going to have free reign to investigate all your co-conspirators to their hearts' desire, and if you haven't noticed lately, the government reeeeeally likes getting up in everybody's business these days." Obviously, we know why this is even worse news for Skyler than it sounds, but Ted, as ever, is completely out of the loop. "I can't have this in my life," she tells him. "I cannot be audited." Ted: "Oh, you'll be fine. It's the captain they want, not some cashier at a car wash." SHUT UP, TED. Poor Skyler. Insulted by an idiot. He promises that he'll find a way out of this. Oh, I'm just certain.
Back to Mike, who is now taking a black light to the warehouse, finding specks of contraband for Jesse to scrub clean. Jesse starts to feel chatty. So is Gus gonna kill Hank? He makes the logical case for why Gus might want Hank dead. But, to the eternal credit of Jesse Pinkman, My Total Boyfriend, his voice betrays the fact that he actually wants Hank to live. He says that Walt would go even more apeshit should anything happen to his family. He'd never cook for Gus again. Mike just takes this all in, trying to size up exactly where Jesse's loyalties lie at the moment. He asks Jesse if he'd have a problem if something were to happen to Hank? Jesse ultimately backs down from taking a stand: "Who really cares what I think?"
Outside, Jesse and some randoms are loading up the trucks when one of the randoms totally gets his head blown off! There are snipers, unseen in the hills. Time slows down as Jesse PTSDs at the sight of sprayed blood on the side of the truck. Still can't get past Gale. With Jesse frozen and directly in the sights of the sniper, Mike leaps to pull him to safety. Mike hunkers down for a fight, but Gus is not having that shit. He strides out of the warehouse, into the clearing. Bullets are whizzing past him and hitting right in front of him, like he's The A-Team's van. Holds his arms out to his sides, all Denzel from Training Day. He even juts out his chin. His message, to the sniper he knows is zooming in on his face, could not be more clear: "DO SOMETHING." The sniper -- our cartel ambassador from the meeting, lines him up ... but he doesn't shoot. Gus wins. The crazy bastard.
After the break, Gus sits at his desk, in silence. He's not answering the ringing phone. When he finally does, he says, in Spanish, "Tell them the answer is yes." You're just going to encourage future sniping if you cave like this, Gus.
America's Meth Kitchen. Walt receives a special delivery from Mike and Jesse -- the dead sniper victim. Walt resents that he's now become the official company corpse disposer. What did this poor soul do to piss off Gus, he wonders. "Or did he just need to send another message?" Oh Walt. So embarrassingly out of the loop. Mike harshly tells Walt to shut up and grab a barrel. "And if you ever call the cops on one of my men again, you better get two barrels." Walt looks at Jesse -- he's both accusing and wounded. For his part, Jesse doesn't know whose side to take. To be honest, he still looks freaked from the shootout.
Outside, Mike loads the barrel full of corpse onto a truck. Jesse thanks him for what he did. Mike: "time, don't stand there like an idiot." Jesse then asks what was with Gus and that Terminator shit? Mike explains that the cartel needs Gus and his distrib network; they'd never kill him. Jesse's like, okay, but the rest of us are open season in the meantime? Is Gus doing anything about that, or are we just to be target practice? Mike does not have these answers, and he tells Jesse to ask Gus himself.
Meanwhile, Ted is getting audited. He has no explanations for the unreported income, and all he can do it stall for time, poring over receipts that have no answers for him. Just then, Skyler shows up, looking completely Brockoviched out. She makes apologizes for being late while really leaning on this new bimbo persona she's created for herself. "This building is so confusing! There are doors everywhere!" With boobs accented by gold necklace (and a hot pink bra peeking out), she means to hypnotize this poor auditor. Ted can barely wrap his head around what she's doing. Playing dumb, Skyler tries to explain the "missing" revenue. She takes a look, sidling up to the auditor, boobs under his nose. She explains one particular client, whose electronic payment she didn't enter, because he didn't pay with a physical check, and she's a "paper person." The auditor cites a section of tax law, and she's like, "I'm sorry, say that slower?" He says she's not allowed to do what she did with that payment, and she's like, "Well I thought I could. And you know what they say about opinions -- everybody's got one!" Oh, the laughs. The giggles. Auditor's like, "Income is income, lady; you gotta declare it." Skyler says that, well, the Quicken never flashed red, so she thought it was fine. Auditor is flabbergasted that a business this size uses Quicken for its books. Skyler really sells the idea that Ted hired her for her cleavage and not for her -- as she claims -- nonexistent finance training. She underlines the point by rubbing Ted's leg. "...Right." So the auditor thinks he has a handle on what's going on (he doesn't). He asks if she's managing accounts at any other businesses. "No," Skyler says. "I'm just a cashier at a car wash." If Ted were even a bit perceptive, he'd take that as the dig at him it was intended to be, but alas. So Skyler's not corrupt, she's just an idiot. At least according to the United States government. Anyone seeing a pattern? To her son, she's a bitch monster. To the IRS, she's a ditz. The only people who know the full extent of Skyler White's abilities and virtues are the people who watch this show, and half of us are too busy hating on her for ruining Walt's fun. Walt's fun of being a meth dealer. Think about that.
Outside, Ted, of course, only has a tenuous grasp on what Skyler did in there. She's like, "Well, I saved your bacon. Pay your back taxes and penalties and move on." Ted starts to whine that he can't pay $600,000+; she's like, "Just figure it out!" But her annoyance gives way to the practicality that defines her. If he can't pay it, he can't pay it. In which case the government once again will be all over their asses. "You HAVE to settle," she tells him. "I wish I could." Skyler's face: a mask of concern and plan-making.
After the break, Jesse fiddles with his cigarette pack, screws up his courage, and rings the doorbell at Gus's suburban abode. Inside, while Gus chops veggies -- slicing garlic, the most sinister of all vegetable preparations -- Jesse eyes the bubbling stew pot and pulls out the ricin. As always, we wonder what kind of psychic/magic intuition Gus has -- does he know Jesse is thinking about killing him? Jesse ultimately declines to add the ricin. It's a practical move as much as anything; Jesse's set to dine on that stew every bit as much as Gus is. Cut to the two men, sitting down for a civilized meal. Jesse asks what he's doing here. Gus knows he has concerns after the shooting yesterday. Yeah, you could say that. Jesse gets shirty about the small matter of a guy getting his brains blown out right in front of him, at which point Gus's friendly façade becomes his mask of anger. He embarks upon a fairly scary preamble. He says he's invited Jesse into his home, cooked them a meal, sat down with him like a civilized person, all so he can give Jesse some reassurance and answer questions about the business ("our business," he reiterates). But first, Jesse must answer this: can he cook Walter's formula? Jesse can see the minefield that this question represents; he knows that if he says yes, he's signing Walt's death warrant. Jesse's angry; part angry that Gus wants him to play a part in Walt's death, but a much bigger part is angry because this officially makes Walt right. Gus didn't see anything in him beyond an opportunity to get rid of Walter. Jesse basically spits Gus's plan back at him. But Gus wants to talk like men? Okay: "If you kill Mr. White, you're gonna have to kill me too." THIS GUY! First of all, "Mr. White"! Not only is he laying his body down on the train tracks for Walt, he's still referring to him like his teacher. I could cry. Gus: "That is not what I asked you." He explains that circumstances with the cartel have become untenable, and he needs Jesse's help to prevent all-out war. So he'll ask again: can Jesse cook Walt's formula?
Skyler lies awake in the middle of the night and finally gets up out of bed. She pulls up a floorboard that gives her access to the crawlspace, and, as we all figured she would, she considers the vacuum bags full of clothes and cash. Ted Beneke, you are lucky to know a woman with vast reserves of meth cash that couldn't fully be incorporated into her car-wash front business.
America's Meth Kitchen. Walt and Jesse are finishing up a cook, under the watchful eyes of Mike and Tyrus. Walt and Jesse, then, have no real reason to speak to each other. But you can see that Jesse obviously wants to say something. Ultimately, he asks if Walt is headed out. Walt merely gruffs out a, "Yeah."
Out in the lot, Walt plays the dropped-keys bit and retrieves the tracker that he bought and placed on Jesse's car LIKE A TOTAL JERK. At home, he checks Jesse's whereabouts yesterday. As Walt traces the route from Jesse's house to Gus's house, Jesse leaves a message on Walt's voice mail; he really needs to talk to him.
So Walt comes over -- the first time in a while he's arrived at Jesse's house without having to frantically ring the bell or bust the door down. Inside, we see the house is really returning to form. A futon, Jesse! Very good. There are still speakers up on tripods, like Jesse still wants to throw bumping dance parties, but also: curtains! Jesse gets right to the point: "they" want him to go down to Mexico. He's so nervous, you guys. He explains everything he's been told about Gus's war with the cartel and how they've been attacking Gus's operations. Walt, at his low level, knows about none of this, which has to make him even angrier. So between the cartel and Hank, Gus's hand has been forced; the cartel wants half of Gus's operation and Walt's formula. ...Okay, time out: no. I don't buy that Gus would do that. I don't at all think we have the full scope of what Gus's plans are. Half of the business PLUS Heisenberg? No. But anyway, Jesse says that "they" want him to go to Mexico and train the cartel workers how to make the blue stuff. Sounds foolproof. "Gus doesn't trust you," Jesse sums up, "so I gotta go."
Jesse is so freaked. More than anything else, he wants Walt to guide him. He's no chemist! He doesn't know! What if the instructions on the equipment are written in Mexican? Replace all the meth/chemistry/Mexico particulars in this scene and imagine yourself talking to your dad/mom/mentor about some scary job you've been offered where you're not sure you can do it. That's all Jesse wants here. He wants Mr. White to tell him he'll be fine and he'll be there for him if he has questions. He wants support. He finally says it out loud, to his credit: "Coach me. Give me some notes." But Walt's no longer interested in providing support. And why? Because Jesse won't commit a second murder for him.
"So you saw Gus?" Walt accuses. Jesse denies it, saying the order was "passed down" by "Mike and them." In the span of three seconds, Walt asks Jesse about seven times to clarify that he has neither seen nor spoken to Gus. "You weren't at Gus's house last night?" Jesse sputters. Walt forcibly grabs Jesse's cigs, sees the ricin is still there. He demands that Jesse look him in the eye and tell him. Jesse says he didn't have a chance to dose him. One big pot of stew, man! "What was I supposed to do, huh? Poison myself?" No, sweet boy, Walt had you do that last season. Walt calls him a lying little shit; he only had ONE thing to do, and after two hours and eighteen minutes in Gus's house, he still "didn't have the guts" to do it. Jesse, again not an idiot, catches the "two hours, eighteen minutes" thing; how did Walt know? Walt pulls out the tracker, all proud and badass. He again accuses Jesse of having "no intention" of killing Gus, while at the same time Jesse fumes about Walt spying on him, especially after "everything I have done for you..." "Everything you've done for me?!" Walt snaps. "You've killed me! You signed my death warrant!" Oh, if only. Imagine Jesse hearing this from Walt, not a day after he laid his body down on train tracks for Mr. White. Walt continues ranting: Jesse wants some advice? Sure thing: "Go to Mexico and screw up like I know you will. And wind up in a barrel somewhere!" At this, Jesse whips the tracker at Walt's face, hitting him just above the eyebrow. HURT HIM, JESSE!
So now it's a brawl. Oh, Jesse, your poor apartment that you just got back to looking nice! Walt, as you might expect, fights like someone who has never fought before. Why is your finger in his MOUTH, Walter? But Jesse gets the upper hand, smacks him with a lamp, kicks his legs out so Walt comes crashing down on the coffee table, and finally begins pummeling Walter about the face. Both men end up on the floor. With Walt dripping blood, his glasses broken, his moccasins stained, we've arrived at the beginning of the episode. As Walt struggles to his feet, Jesse asks him if he can walk. Walt says he can. Jesse: "Then get the f*ck out of here and never come back." And so Walter White stumbles out, having successfully assholed his way out of the one relationship keeping him afloat in the business. Good call.
Joe R worries for Jesse in Mexico. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.