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I'm just in for the recaplet, but with this show that's as draining as the full recap is for most others. So a couple bits and pieces first: The DEA is keeping Mike under surveillance at all times, even when he's spending time with his granddaughter. Mike, unsurprisingly, is several steps ahead of them, but their dogged persistence (and Mike's monitoring of them thanks to the bug Walt planted in Hank's office) convinces Mike he needs to take action. Meanwhile, Skyler visits Marie and her purple shirt and purple rug and purple throw pillows and breaks down crying yet again – she wants to tell Marie the truth, and she even alludes to it, but she can't get there – but she does learn about Walt telling Marie about the Ted affair. In seasons past, I would have worried for Walt's safety, but she seems too beaten down for that – at least for now.
With the introductory elements out of the way, we pick up pretty close to where we left off last week, with a montage of the four train robbers breaking down their dump truck – and destroying the dead kid's motorcycle. Of course, then it's time to dispose of the kid's corpse, but at least the show doesn't make us watch that bit. What we do see is Landry cracking jokes at this exceedingly appropriate moment and getting Jesse's fist in his face as a result, which is nice. In the aftermath, Landry pleads his case to Walt and Mike – the kid could have gotten away on his dirt bike – while Jesse plays witness for the prosecution. Walt, with Mike's tacit approval, uncomfortably lays out their options, and Mike and Walt concur that keeping Landry on to tent houses is better than paying him to keep quiet or killing him. Of course, the last we see of Landry is him looking excitedly at the dead kid's tarantula, so maybe natural selection will do Jesse a favor here?
Regardless, unfortunately, at their house-tent cook, Jesse sees a TV news story about the boy they killed, and is distraught. Walt feigns empathy, but when Jesse soon after catches him whistling, without a care in the world, he knows on some level that he and Walt aren't wired the same way. This leads to Walt walking into an ambush: Mike is quitting the business, thanks to the DEA surveillance – and so is Jesse, thanks to his possession of an actual conscience. Walt would be happy enough to let Mike go on his merry way, particularly if he'd train Jesse on the finer business points, but losing Jesse would be devastating. Unfortunately, he has no cards to play -- that is, until the Gus Fring contact to whom Mike was planning to sell their methylamine for a cool ten million says he needs to take it all – even Walt's share. Walt won't sell, due to his capital-issues-issues over his old business Grey Matter (recently valued at $2.1 billion, yikes), so Mike decides to detain Walt physically while he sells the kit and caboodle without his permission (while still planning to cut him in; also, in fairness, Walt was ready to steal all the methylamine himself). Unfortunately, Mike has to leave Walt alone to go watch Saul buy him a window of non-surveillance from the DEA, and thanks to Walt's willingness to chew through electrical wire and to burn his own skin, when Mike returns, he finds the methylamine gone. He's ready right there to fulfill a long-denied wish and blow Walt's brains out, but after Jesse talks him down, Walt – by the way, completely unfazed at having a gun to his head -- claims he has a way for them to sell the methylamine and still retain some for him. How that will not happen, we have to wait until week to see.
By the way, I didn't even get into the dinner Jesse attends at the White house, at which he takes Flynn's literal place at the table and flaps his yap while his surrogate parents stare daggers at each other. That is, when Skyler isn't trying to fit her face into her goblet of wine. Jesse Pinkman, I love you and your bug eyes.
-- Couch Baron
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: The great train robbery turned into a terrible train robbery celebration when an unsuspecting ... or maybe he was suspecting ... hell, it's a moot point now, because Landry from Friday Night Lights killed his second person in as many series, this one an innocent little spider-wrangling kid. Jesse, and you could imagine, took it hard.
Currently: Another week, another riveting cold open, this one not as obscure as last week's. Walter, Mike, and Landry (Jesse is conspicuous by his absence) are digging the dead kid's motorbike out of the back of their truck, where they've got it buried in sand. They begin breaking the bike down into small enough parts so it can fit into the big plastic barrel. After it's in the barrel comes the acid bath. We've seen this before on this show. With Krazy-8. With Victor. This is how dead bodies go away without leaving evidence. In fact, it's because we've seen those bodies get disposed of that the scene here is so effective. We know the process here. We're old pros at the meth business and all its unsavory extracurriculars. Everything they're doing to this bike -- cutting it into pieces, shoving it into the barrel, melting it with acid -- they're going to have to do to the body as well. We don't see that part, but with the bike as stand-in, what we see is gruesome enough. The men undertake the task with grim efficiency, probably one of the reasons Jesse isn't participating. His feelings would only slow the process down. (I should note we also get a patented Breaking Bad "Stuff gets poured on the camera" scene. This show loves to pour some stuff on you.)
Outside the garage, Jesse's smoking a cig. Landry comes out to join him, which you know is his first mistake. They're both leaning against a tank of something, and Jesse won't even look at him. After an awkward attempt at making small talk ("You didn't tell me this stuff smelled like cat piss"), Landry makes his second mistake by trying to lighten the mood with a "Hey, shit happens." Jesse waits not one second before turning, punching Landry right in the face, and heading back to the garage. ...Wait, didn't Tyra do that to him on FNL too?
Let the record show that I still cannot handle the vodka ads with Aaron Paul and Diddy and Omar and Phil Leotardo and Eva Pigford and Jesse Williams all being the New Rat Pack without even the faint whiff of irony.
After the credits, the Triad are holding a debrief/interrogation/morbidity & mortality conference, seemingly at Jesse's behest, to figure out what to do about Landry's haste. Landry defends himself pretty well (you know, for a child-killer), saying that he didn't exactly relish the opportunity to blow the kid away, but he reacted quickly and neutralized a "threat" and he'd do it again. Jesse, who's been pacing this whole time, objects to the term "threat," as the kid was kind of just waving at them. Landry has a point, though (again, if you think a child-killer can have a point): They didn't know how much the kid saw, and if he started to ride the dirt bike away, they'd never have been able to catch him. Besides, Jesse had already expressed the paramount importance of them not getting caught. At these words, Aaron Paul's nonverbals in the background are off the charts. You know that thing you do where you're so mad all you can do is flex your fingertips? Jesse's doing that. Landry finally appeals to Walt, very contrite, but resolute that in the kid-or-us choice he was given, he chose the right option. Walt and Mike are both silent and likely thinking the same thing: the kid's right, even if it's ugly to admit it. Walt asks him to step outside while they talk. At this, Landry starts to get a little antsier. On his way out, he talks about how "the business" is his top priority and he wants to be a real part of this AND he's got connections, like for instance his uncle in prison and all his connections.
With Landry outside, Jesse begins to make his case with some degree of vehemence, calling Landry a "whackjob" who killed a kid unnecessarily. Walt plays the devil's advocate, saying that while it didn't look like the kid understood what he was seeing, even the most innocuous mentioning of what he did see to anyone else could have Domino'd into something awful. Jesse's like, "Yeah, but we'll never know since Ricky Hitler there shot him." Jesse also brings up the faux-casual mention of his uncle's prison connections just now, calling it an intimidation tactic. Mike isn't overly concerned about the uncle, however. Walt finally lays out their options: fire Landry, kill Landry (at this, Jesse, bless his little heart, looks away, knowing he's not going to chase one murder with another) or keep Landry in the business, under their control. The last one is what Walt is advocating, and Mike agrees. Jesse hangs his head in defeat.
Mike heads to the other room to inform Landry of their decision. Landry is relieved, but he can't even get his thank yous out before Mike grabs him by the collar and shoves him against a locker: "The time you bring a gun to a job without telling me, I will stick it up your ass sideways." Landry seems to get it. Of course, he then scampers out to his car, sits down in the driver's seat, and picks up the jar with the tarantula in it. His expression is inscrutable at first, but the faintest hint of a smile crosses his face before the scene cuts away. I really don't like that smile.
In the cold light of day, Gomie and some other cop are surveying Mike at the park, and apparently have been for a while now, as he relaxed on a bench and watches his granddaughter play. Their view is partially obscured by trash can, but otherwise, nothing suspicious is happening. Eventually, Mike writes something on a piece of paper and places it underneath the can. "It's a dead drop," says Gomie, as he watches Mike leave the park with Kaylee. There's nobody in sight coming for the note, and Gomez worries it could be hours before anyone does. So he risks blowing his cover and makes a quick dash for the can. When he gets there, he finds the note, which reads as follows: "F**k You." All appropriate blurring provided by AMC, but the sentiment? That's pure Ehrmantraut.
Mike's now at home, scanning through the recordings from the tap from Hank's office. He fast-forwards through some pretty funny drudgery -- HR headaches and misfiling and "Miracle Whip is not mayonnaise, okay?" (Okay, that last part is not funny but deadly serious. Quit it with the Miracle Whip, everybody.) Mike finally gets to the part where Gomez explains how Mike made their tail. Even pros make mistakes, Hank says, helpfully. "We'll just have to wait it out and be there when he does." Mike sighs loudly at this and can't help nodding at the eventuality that, yes, he will slip up one time and that will be it.
At the Purple Palace, Skyler is visiting Marie and Holly and getting an update on the kids (Holly is an angel; Marie doesn't see much of Flynn). She asks Skyler how therapy is going, but that's pretty much a pretext for her to resume preaching the Gospel of Dave, the best shrink in the world. You think we'll be able to meet Dave before the series ends? Just in passing? Anyway, Skyler says that her (wholly fictitious) therapist, Peter, is pretty good! Marie says to "keep working through it," and Skyler starts to cry. It's to her credit that I'm not sure whether she's gaming Marie here or not; obviously, she's not telling Marie everything, and there's every chance she's trying to elicit the same sympathy Walt was with Hank last week; but I get the feeling she really might want to. "I need the kids to be safe," she says, but she also just wants to be with them. She hugs Holly closer. "Whatever I choose is wrong," she cries. Marie begs her sister to talk to her. "I know you think I have a big mouth sometimes, but if you felt you couldn't talk to me, I don't know what I'd do." Skyler wants to, but she's also scared to. Marie asks about "safe," and Skyler clarifies: "Safe from us." Marie reassures her she and Walt are not bad parents, but Skyler insists there are things, if Marie knew, she would never speak to her again. Marie of course thinks she knows what this is about, so she's like, "Try me," then finally, she takes the bull by the horns and tells Skyler she has to forgive herself for Ted. Skyler is taken aback; Walt TOLD her? Marie tries to make her feel better -- "You were having all these problems with Walt ... and Ted is a really good-looking man!" -- but Skyler's jaw is in the process of setting. Oblivious Marie is all, "Doesn't it feel good to get it off your chest?" Oh yeah. Skyler feels GREAT.
At this week's Tent House, Walt and Jesse take a break from the cook to watch a nicely informative program about caviar. When Jesse goes to turn the TV off, he changes the channel to the news, where quite conveniently there is a report about missing child Drew Sharp. Jesse sits down, his eyes welling up. Walt turns off the TV and puts on his Concerned Dad mask. He assures Jesse he hasn't been able to sleep the past few nights just thinking about it, but they finally have the chance to be completely self-sufficient now. No one to answer to anymore. In a year, year and a half, when they've cooked through all this methylamine and made their money, there will be time for soul-searching. But first they need to keep going and run the business their way, "and make sure something like this never happens again." Such twisted logic. Perpetuate the meth business to keep kids alive! White/Pinkman 2012!
Walt offers to finish up by himself, and a teary Jesse accepts. Jesse heads upstairs to get his stuff, and when he comes down, on his way to the door, he passes Walt, already back to work inside the plastic bubble. He's whistling. Walt is. The guy who just said he hasn't slept in two nights fretting about the kid they killed is whistling. It nearly stops Jesse in his tracks. Guess they have pretty different ways of coping. Jesse's thoughts are interrupted by his phone buzzing; whoever it is, Jesse agrees to a meeting.
Later, Walt delivers the day's batch to the garage and finds Mike there, who figures they might as well "get this over with." They head to the back office, where Jesse is waiting. Mike says he and Jesse parked off-site, and Walt might consider doing the same. Which makes sense because Mike then informs Walt he's thrown three separate DEA tales just since this morning, and it's been happening for a while. Walt is freaked out and furious, and Mike is equally peeved that Walt thinks he would ever be so stupid as to lead the cops to them. As you might expect, both men get into a shouting match, with Walt yelling about their thousand gallons of stolen methylamine, and Mike being all, "Decades of professional experience says I know what the fuck I'm doing." Walt: "You know this can't continue, right?" Mike does, and that's why he's made his decision: he's out of the business. Walt is obviously not all that broken up about it, though he manages to be somewhat magnanimous in victory rather than rubbing it in Mike's face. After all, he's going to need Mike to pass on all his business acumen to Jesse.
Except ... about that. Mike and Jesse exchange looks and Jesse sheepishly pipes up in a voice that tells you he's been going through some stuff today and says he's out too. "I don't think I can do this anymore." Walt is less sanguine about this news. Through clenched teeth, Walt tells Jesse that, when cooked, that methylamine they stole is worth $300 million. "You're telling me you're willing to walk away from that?" At this, Mike pipes up: he said they're walking away from the meth, not the methylamine. The methylamine is community property, and as such, it will be divided three ways. Mike has a guy willing to pay $5 million each to him and Jesse for their 2/3 of the stuff. Mike even twists the knife a bit by pledging to keep paying those legacy costs that so vex Walt. Walt rounds on Mike, the usurper who has now stolen his son from him (it's a lot of kids for Walt to lose in two weeks). Jesse wants Walt to come in on the plan with them. Walt's of course free to hold on to his third and keep cooking, but ... oh, it's all over Jesse's face: he doesn't just want out of the business; he doesn't even JUST want WALT out of the business; he wants Walt, Mr. White, to WANT out of the business. He gets his answer when Walt rounds on him: "You're selling to my competitors?" At this, Mike rolls his eyes, all "Here we go," and says this guy is in Arizona, out of Walt's territory. "It's a big country, Walter." Walt hisses that Jesse would sell out for "pennies on the dollar." Jesse says $5 million is not pennies; it's more money than he's ever seen before. "And when it comes down to it, are we in the meth business or the money business?" Food for thought as we hit the break.
After the break, Mike and Jesse are out in the middle of the desert, anticipating the meeting with their methylamine buyer. Jesse is antsy, but Mike, as ever, reassures him. A dark car pulls up and out come some guys, led by Declan, their buyer. Mike has brought one gallon, for free, and when Declan takes it back and tests it and verifies it's legit, Mike will provide the other 665 gallons, in exchange for what he would like to be rounded up to an even $10 million. Big numbers like that are just so easy to divide up between partners, see. Declan goes through the dance where he acts noncommittal for a moment before saying his people should be able to put together that kind of money; after all, it'll be worth it just to get the blue stuff off the streets. An ocean of silence follows, to the point where I wonder if the sound cut out, followed then by Declan asking more pointedly if this means the blue stuff will be off the market. So Mike has to explain that they have a third partner, who is not selling. He assures Declan that this won't be a problem for him, as their territories don't overlap. But it IS a problem. Declan says he's looking to use this buy to increase the scope of his market. So we have a standoff. Declan wants Fring's blue meth off the streets, and he'll pay $15k a gallon for the full thousand, but not a drop less. Mike says it's not his meth to sell, but Declan says it's not his problem.
Meanwhile, Walt is at home, sulking, when his phone starts buzzing from under the Heisenberg hat on the nightstand. It's obviously Jesse, and Walt pouts his end of the conversation and says he's not going to see Jesse; Jesse can come to see him. Jesse sounds dubious about showing up at Walt's home, but Walt gruffly assures him that it's fine. When Jesse does show up, he has trepidations and Walt is dismissive.
Jesse gets right to the point, telling Walt about Declan and the deal and how it needs to be the whole thousand gallons, and of course Walt immediately says "absolutely not." Jesse was prepared for this response, so he's come prepared with logic and an appeal to the past. He asks Walt what he was looking for when he started this business. He knows for a fact that all Walt was looking for was $737,000. That number exactly. Because he worked it all out "like, mathematically." Selling now means no one ever gets killed; Jesse's voice cracks at that one. More importantly, they'd be out! Time to spend with family! No more worrying about them getting hurt. Isn't this what he's been working for? Walt snaps that they haven't been working this hard just to sell out; Jesse snaps back just as loudly that it's not selling out. Walt: "We have suffered and bled literally for this business, and I will not throw it away for nothing!" Jesse doesn't know how else he can say that $5 million isn't nothing. Semaphore flags, maybe? Walt responds with the story of Gray Matter. Boy THAT takes me back!
Walt talks about his days as a research chemist, and how he and his partners founded the company back when they just had a few measly patents pending. After the falling out, he sold out to his partners for $5,000. He needed the money at the time. He makes Jesse guess how much it's worth today; Jesse guesses millions, but Walt snarls that it's now worth billions, with a B. $2.16 billion. He checks it every week, which can't come as a surprise to any of us. Walt's verbiage here is crucial: He sold his "potential," his kids' birthright for a couple of months' rent. That's what it's about, really. Walt thinks he sold his talents, his intelligence, his manly can-do American dream short all those years ago, and it's humiliated him ever since. He's not doing that again. He brings up Jesse's earlier question about whether they're in the meth business or the money business. "I'm in the empire business, he says, and takes a purposeful swig of his drink. Jesse lets that sit for a moment, and then asks: "Is a meth empire really something to be proud of?"
Suddenly, the door opens and Jesse scrambles out of his seat. It's Skyler, and Jesse thinks the jig is up. But Walt just glowers at her, and then kind of darkly chuckles to himself about how he doesn't have to hide anything anymore. He re-introduces his wife to Jesse with a kind of petulant pride. "Meet my best friend and drug-dealing partner, you powerless bitch." Jesse is polite as ever and makes to quietly take off, but Walt's in a mood to make everybody miserable, so he insists that Jesse stay for dinner, then insists to Skyler that it's okay if he does. Skyler balls up her rage into a tiny hissing breath and says, "Why not?" Walt, to Jesse: "See?"
Awkward Dinner ahoy! Jesse is going to town on a plate of green beans, and he enthuses about them to a nonplussed Skyler. Slivered almonds! Just like his mom made 'em! Finally, almost out of pity for Jesse more than anything, Skyler tells them the beans are from the deli ... at Albertson's. She then sips her GIGANTIC wine glass. I'd like to think Skyler opted for the biggest, most ostentatious wine glasses she could find, just as a tiny act of domestic rebellion. Anyway, so much for Jesse making conversation. Skyler pours the wine up to the top of her cavernous glass, as Jesse switches to babbling about disappointing food vis-a-vis the packaging. Why does microwave lasagna end up so scabby? Nothing. No response. He gulps his water and is like, "Yeah, it's bad."
THEN, he changes the subject to how great Skyler's doing at the car wash, or so Walt tells him. At this, Skyler perks up, though not in a way that Jesse would want to see happen any place besides his nightmares. She's all, "Oh? What else did he tell you?" She turns to Walt: "Did you also tell him about my affair?" [Raises glass; sticks whole head inside and drinks.] She's not the only one trying to disappear into a glass. The way Aaron Paul slurps from his water glass, with his lips raised up to his nose, is the best thing he's ever done on this show. Walt, for his part picks at his teeth and radiates resentment. Skyler: "May I please be excused?" She pours herself more wine AS SHE WALKS AWAY. Farewell, my Queen of the Harpies! Here's your crown your majesty!
With Skyler gone, Walt gives Jesse some context. "You know my kids are gone," he says. Jesse: "Thank God." Ha! No, Walt clarifies that they're living at Hank and Marie's, all because of Skyler. "She told me that she's counting the days until my cancer comes back," he says, with maybe a glimmer of genuine hurt in his voice. "My wife is waiting for me to die." The business, you see, is all he has left. "And you want to take it away from me," he says, twisting that knife in Jesse but good.
Later that night, Walt shows up at the garage, and he's running in that scurrying way he does, which is the easiest tipoff that he's up to no good. Indeed, he's halfway to unchaining the tank of methylamine from its anchor when Mike emerges; he figured Walt would try something stupid. He tells Walt to accompany him in the back, and he points to his gun to show that this isn't a request. In the office, Mike declares definitively that this deal IS happening tomorrow, and to ensure that, he and Walt are going to spend the whole night in the office together, "like it's my birthday." Walt tries to talk his way out, to no avail. He can't exactly appeal to Mike for sympathy like he did with Jesse.
Time-lapse to the morning; they actually made it through the night without incident! Like an infant's first night at home! With the sun now shining in, Mike says he has an errand he needs to attend to before the deal, and he doesn't trust Walt alone with the methylamine, so he's going to have to tie him up. Walt groans in a very "oh, brother" way as Mike first pats Walt down and removes everything from his pockets, then walks Walt over to the radiator (Walt: "Come on, man!"), then uses a plastic zip-cuff to attach him to the radiator.
The second Mike leaves, of course, Walt is looking for an escape route. Anything he can find that could cut the cuffs. He spots the coffee pot which is two file cabinets over; he makes a valiant attempt to kick at the cabinets and jostle the pot over to him, but he ends up knocking it harmlessly across the room. Plan B: he takes the cord from the coffee maker and strips it down to the wires, frays them, then plugs it back in and touches the wires to each other until the sparks catch the plastic cuff on fire. So he's cooking his own wrist and has to wait for the plastic to melt, his wrist steadily blackening like codfish, until he's free. Then it's right over to the water cooler for some relief!
Turns out, Mike's other business was a meeting with Hank and Gomez at the police station. He's employing Saul for this task, which is a sweet little vote of confidence; maybe they can build a friendship out of this! Saul does what he does best: playing the part of the slickster attorney so genuinely that the cops have almost no defense against it. He calls this a DEA "persecution" of Mr. Ehrmantraut. He calls it disturbing and tells them that, try as they might to stalk their way into Mike's heart, "He's just not into you." He brings up the warrantless nature of the tail, and drops the name of a judge who might look on this kind of police action as "police harassment of a senior citizen" (to Mike: "Sorry"). As such, he's filed for a temporary restraining order, so Hank has no choice but to stop the tail. Boom! Goodman out!
Back in the car, Saul and Mike listen in on Hank and Gomie as they bemoan the judge and her temporary restraining order. Saul says it was a hell of a gamble. The temporary restraining order WILL get overturned, and when it does, Hank's "hard-on for you has now reached Uncle Miltie proportions." Charming as ever, Saul. Mike asks how big of a window it gives him, and Saul surmises about 24 hours. Mike says that's enough.
Of course, he says that just before returning to the garage and finding the methylamine gone. He storms into the office where Walt AND Jesse are. He shoves past Jesse, pulls out his gun, and sticks it to Walt's head. Jesse's yelling all the while that they've got a new plan. One in which he and Mike get their $5 million and Walt gets to keep the methylamine. Just hear him out! Mike: "Is that true, Walter?" Walt: "Everybody wins." I am almost positive that is the one outcome that WON'T happen.
Joe R wonders if Skyler has finished that gigantic glass of wine yet. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at