People who have watched Breaking Bad more than once seem to agree on one thing. There is no show on television better than Breaking Bad, apart from Breaking Bad watched for the second time. It’s the most consistent, innovative, exciting, astutely plotted programme in television history and it is unlikely that anything will beat it any time soon. The only show which came close was its prequel, the phenomenal Better Call Saul, which shone light on the secret lives of characters who fell into the background of the mother show, like Saul and Mike, introduced in the second season, the focus of this very article.
The first season was a tremendous piece of fiction which somehow managed to be the weakest series of the bunch, yet there is an abundance of potential, the usual brilliant performances, and the pitch perfect blend between drama and comedy. Nothing is more satisfying than a good episode of Breaking Bad, and there is scarcely a bad one.
Season two was a big one for the programme, consolidating its success and introducing the remaining members of the main cast, namely Bob Odenkirk’s Saul, Giancarlo Esponito’s Gus, and Jonathan Banks’s Mike, each of whom forever altered the shape of Walt and Jesse’s journey. So much happens in these thirteen episodes, and it’s the first sign of Breaking Bad jumping from great telly to a true art form.
Episode Eight: Seven-Thirty-Seven
After watching Tuco murder one of his own men for insulting their intelligence, Walt and Jesse get to grips with their formidable new opponent. The pair decide the only means of escaping from Tuco’s clutches is to murder him. Jesse believes the best way to do so is a gun to the back of the head, while Walt wishes to use a poison called ricin. A manhunt is underway for Tuco and Walt and Jesse are taken captive by the dodgy dealer.
Although you may know what is coming, rewatching Breaking Bad is benefited by the attention to detail, and the season two opener is the first occasion where Gilligan’s plan for the five season arc becomes clear. The first set of episodes were made to set the scene and test the waters, but the second lot introduce the core concepts and threats that will be facing Walt in the seasons to come: The cartel, Hank, the Salamancas, all more formidable than the cancer which ends up being less important, though personal stakes are none the less prevalent.
We open with a typical cryptic cold open shot in black and white, where a one-eyed bear floats aimlessly in the White’s pool. The episode titles where these stings appear all build to the plane crash in the season finale: Seven Thirty Seven Down Over ABQ. It also foreshadows Gus’s fate long before we have even heard of the chicken man. You cannot think Gilligan did not have an endgame in mind, when Walt’s ricin goes on to define his relationship with Jesse following Brock’s poisoning, and Walt hears “Better Call Saul” when flicking through the channels.
Picking up straight where the cliffhanger of season one left off, the stakes are raised with the volatile Tuco, whose actions you can never predict. It’s a masterclass in tension and the viewer is bound to be on the edge of their seat throughout. It’s the first occasion where you finish an episode and do not want to stop watching more, with an insanely good cliffhanger that puts Walt’s secrets, and life, on the line.
Best Line: “Oh, this is beautiful. Hey, someone call Jay Leno. We got the world’s dumbest criminal. This guy wasn’t murdered. Look. Big stuff here was, uh, moving this guy’s body when the, uh… the stack must have shifted. Crushed his arm, pinned him here, and he, uh, he bled out.” (Hank upon discovering Gonzo’s body)
Best Moment: Walt and Jesse are stopped again by livewire Tuco who forces Gonzo to dispose of No Doze’s body, escalating the tension lingering from the season one cliffhanger.
Character of the Episode: It’s another occasion where Hank is an absolute legend, taking pictures of ‘the stump’ murdered in his crime scene.
Song of the Episode: “Anyway the Wind Blows” by J.J Cale. There are not really any great songs in this episode.
Episode Nine: Grilled
Walt is nowhere to be seen and Skylar and Hank learn that he has a second mobile phone, indicative of his potential affair or his links to buying marijana from his dealer, Jesse. Little do they know, Walt and Jesse have been taken captive by Tuco and are held in the desert. They attempt to poison Tuco using the ricin concealed within the meth but Tuco’s disabled uncle may put their plans at risk.
This is the first truly phenomenal episode from start to finish, a true masterclass in how to create thriller drama television. The stakes are sky high and we feel for all the characters, both those at risk and the ones searching for the missing Walt. It all builds to the spectacular final moment peppered with great twists and edge of your seat worthy tension, as well as much comedy in the farcical attempts Walt and Jesse make to avoid suspicion.
Tuco needs to be applauded as a splendid first proper antagonist who somehow made a huge impact despite only being on screen for four episodes. The character’s success springboarded into other villains who all brought their take to the table. It makes up for any slow moments with a perfectly constructed episode that ranks among the best of Breaking Bad’s early days. If you did not have faith in the show by this point, you never would acquire it.
Best Line: Hank says “Are we going to find this guy” and gets the entire DEA staff to chant “Hell yeah”. When exiting, he tells Gomez, “They ain’t gonna find him.”
Best Moment: When we believe the Cousins are approaching to rescue Tuco and collect Walt and Jesse, we are surprised when Hank makes an appearance. Walt must hide from his DEA agent brother in law as Tuco and Hank face off. Hank manages to get the upper hand following a shootout and Tuco bites the bullet.
Character of the Episode: One of the most iconic characters in the show, Hector Salamanca, is introduced here, among the most unique devices in the programme with his bell that borders on the whimsical, right out of a Tarantino film, but helps to build much needed tension here, and sets up the arc involving Tio in the seasons that followed.
Song of the Episode: “Red Moon” by the Walkmen plays while Skylar and Marie release the missing posters for Walt.
Episode Ten: Bit By A Dead Bee
Walt and Jesse cover their tracks after Hank nearly catches them in their deal with Tuco in the dessert. Walt is stuck in the Hospital following a rouse gone wrong, and Jesse is brought in for questioning over his connection to Tuco while Hank basks in the glory of having taken out ABQ’s most notorious drug lord. Skylar and Walt Junior also have questions about what has happened to Walt.
One thing we all forget about Breaking Bad is just how funny it is. It’s a dark, sadistic form of humour, granted, but it’s one that Vince Gilligan is attuned to, since he can manage to blend the comedy with the drama, and the tone is pitch-perfect, something that at first appears impossible to accomplish. It’s here that we see Walt’s elaborate plans fall apart and we do not know whether to laugh or feel pain, and it is Cranston’s powerful performance that makes us feel both.
The best scenes in this one are with Hank, making a case as the most likeable, if not best constructed, character in Breaking Bad. His first interactions with Jesse are worth the wait and his interrogation of both Jesse and Wendy, with the assistance of bell-ringing Hector, makes for cracking viewing, with much tension, emotions and laughter. Walt even has the chutzpah to admit there’s no fugue state after wandering around a supermarket with no clothes on, and to leave the hospital to check on his money before returning straight away later that night.
Best Line: “You are Willy Wonka, and I got the golden ticket. Put me on your magical boat, man. Sail me down your chocolaty river of meth.” (Badger to Jesse)
Best Moment: Tuco’s uncle is rolled in with his bell in his wheelchair and asked questions about Walt and Jesse turning up at his place. He starts dinging the bell with a squirming face as Jesse begs him to keep quiet. Hank asks him the questions but Tio’s response is a mess for the DEA to clean up.
Character of the Episode: Walt. It’s always great when we see the scrapes he gets into and even better when we have the opportunity to see how he worms his way out of them.
Song of the Episode: “Feel like Making love” by Bob James
Episode Eleven: Down
Walt is trying his best to build his family back up but the Whites are falling apart around him, just as Jesse’s life is crumbling in on him when he is kicked from his home and isolated from his parents. Skylar is not speaking to Walt and Walt Junior has changed his name to Flynn. Not much more happens.
There is no such thing as filler when it comes to Breaking Bad. There are slower episodes, and plenty of these, designed to build up the characters and set up their future situations, and that is very much the purpose of episode four of season two, which delves deeper into the aftermaths of the Tuco incident and the complicated ways these have affected Walt and Jesse, both in their connection and apart.
It’s very much like Cancer Man from season one, where our two leads do not spend any time together and the focus is showing what they get up to when they are apart and how their relationships with their families are crumbling apart, and how Walt and Jesse are making conscious efforts to salvage anything they have left. Plus, there’s the second purple bear flashback sequence, which pays off in a somewhat underwhelming conclusion in the finale following Jane’s death. We haven’t even gotten to Jane yet. And Jesse’s middle name is Bruce? How unexpected!
Best Line: “Yeah, and thanks, Daddy Warbucks, but that was before my housing situation went completely testicular on me, okay?” (Jesse to Walt)
Best Moment: Jesse ends up landing in a pile of blue excrement left behind in the RV in his lowest of the low moment. It’s such a shame to see Jesse fall and you really end up feeling sorry for him. He’s just one of those people who does not know how to help himself.
Character of the Episode: Hank does not appear, so nobody matters, but it would have to be Jesse, because this is the first time we see his attachment to kids shine through, which is so sweet.
Song of the Episode: “Let your love flow” by The Spokesmen
Episode Twelve: Breakage
Walt and Jesse acknowledge that the aftermath of Tuco’s death leaves a gap in the market which they may be able to take. Rather than trusting some unhinged maniac to shift their product, they decide to do the hard work themselves, with Jesse enlisting the assistance of his friends, Skinny Pete, Badger and Combo. While Walt receives some promising news regarding his chemotherapy, Hank’s health takes a turn for the worse as he reels from his encounter with Tuco and the news that he has a promotion which will send him to El Paso.
Since Tuco’s death, the priority of the episodes that followed had been on character work. There had been a lot of that in season one, but series two has the opportunity to dive deeper into the rich pools of these characters, and the drama and dark humour at their core. It is Hank in particular who we discover in a new light. In the pilot, he came across as a misogynistic jerk who showed off his masculinity in every gesture. It becomes evident that he employs these macho ego tendencies as a shield to cover up the layers that a peeling of the onion would be able to uncover, and Gilligan is very good at peeling the onion, tipping us onto the verge of tears which we attempt to repel.
This is the first occasion that Skinny Pete and Badger share screentime, but that is far from the only landmark. It introduces Krysten Ritter, who later became known as Jessica Jones, but here portrays Jane, a likeable and sarcastic character who brings out a different, lighter side to Jesse, while struggling with complex addiction issues of her own. There is only a passing hint at the romance to follow, but Jane is one of the most important components in the ever-changing dynamic between Walt and Jesse, and the events that would eventually tear them apart.
Breaking Bad nears perfection, but nothing is ever perfect, especially in media. A major issue is the pre-title stings, which try to entice but become underwhelming when they are unravelled. They can drag and feel like unnecessary distractions from the primary course of events. Same goes for Better Call Saul. We haven’t even met Saul yet. The time shall come.
Best Line: Not so much a quote, but a conversation. Merkert: Bring me up to speed on Tuco Salamanca; Schrader: Dead. Merkert: Still? Schrader: Completely. Merkert: Okay then, well, thanks for stopping by.
Best Moment: Walt and Jesse meet in an abandoned location in the dessert. Jesse has brought a new car with the money he has gained and Walt realises that his extortionate medical bills mean he cannot save up the cash that he needs to give his family the future which they deserve. This leads to plenty of “Bitches” and, on one occassion, Jesse even calls Mr White “Walt”. That’s the worst diss in the book that Jesse could give Walt.
Character of the Episode: Hank’s panic attacks allow us to see the character in a whole new light. He is the sort with true human struggles who hides the way he feels and is a far cry from what the audience may have misrepresented him as. There has been much controversy over claims that Hank is bigoted, but this is merely an act, because there is a sweeter man in that larger than life body than what the tough guy surface level may imply.
Song of the Episode: “Peanut Vendor” by Alvin “Red” Tyler. It never grows old seeing jaunty music play in the background while grim scenes play out on the scene, such as Jesse’s friend distributing the baby blue meth to the least desirable individuals imaginable, culminating in a police chase and Skinny Pete being mugged.
Episode Thirteen: Peekaboo
Skinny Pete has been robbed and Jesse needs to go after the muggers to get his product and money back. He comes across Spooge’s home and ends up encountering the child of the dodgy dealers, who he starts to sympathise with. He gives the addicts a taste of their medicine as he holds them at knifepoint and forces them to hand over the money, which is concealed in an ATM machine. Walt worries his lies may be caught out when Gretchen discovers that Walt has claimed she and Elliot are paying for his medical bills, and Skylar invites Gretchen around for a chat. Following drinks together, Walt blames Gretchen for his departure from Grey Matter and Skylar learns that Gretchen has cut the money that the Schwartz’s have apparently been gifting the White’s. Spooge is killed by his wife when the ATM machine lands on his head, and Jesse insists that the silent son should have a decent life.
It is always odd when we go an entire episode without Jesse and Walt spending time with one another. Their chemistry was so key to the success of the first season that any time that they were separated felt like a shame. The show has managed to develop by this point and both plots excel equally, perhaps due to the conflict between the climates in which they are based. Walt’s plot is set to the background of familial paradise and fancy bars, while Jesse’s scenes are the antithesis of domestic luxury. Both are powerful demonstrations of the true colours of these characters.
Jesse is a drug addict who has done bad things but is adamant on attaining redemption. He does this by taking parental watch over the silent child that he encounters, but achieves this in the only means he knows how, through the violent actions akin to those committed by members of the difficult crowds he had fallen into. Meanwhile, Walt is evidently a bad man who has no intention of changing. However, once upon a time, he was not such. Gretchen is so determined to assist him despite his lies that he must have been a more virtuous and faithful individual than we encounter on screen. Nobody would have expected at Episode One that we would sympathise with Jesse and despise Walt by the end, but here we are, the first sign of that possibility.
Best Line: “Spooge? Not Mad Dog? Not Diesel? You got jacked by a man named Spooge?” (Jesse to Skinny Pete)
Best Moment: Spooge’s woman, which is the only name she goes by in the credits, drops the ATM machine on her boyfriend’s head. It is yet another example of the gratuitous and bleak humour evidenced from the bodies in the acid bath sequence in series one. Spooge is later seen seeking legal advice from everybody’s favourite lawyer in a cameo during the sixth and final series of spin off Better Call Saul.
Character of the Episode: Again, we get to see a sympathetic side to Jesse, which is something the show enriches as it goes along. To think that Vince Gilligan originally planned to kill off Jesse, one of its most complex characters, in episode six of the debut run, would have been a travesty.
Song of the Episode: “By the Numbers” by John Cultrane. It’s the only music featured in the episode aside from the theme tune, so it wins by default. You best shazam it. You may find a new favourite tune.
Episode Fourteen: Negro Y Azul
Hank has started up his new post at El Paso but he does not get along with the cocky staff who are insistent on winding him up. This branch of the DEA comes to make a deal with a notorious drug kingpin called Tortuga, only for the cartel to intervene in his fate. Reeling from events with Spooge and the skank, Jesse wants nothing more than to relish in the company of his drugs, but Walt has other ideas on his mind, and uses Jesse’s recent actions as leverage to assert their power, as Jesse gets closer to Jane. Skylar also gets a job working for Ted Beneke, who later becomes her love interest. SFT.
You click on to this episode on Netflix or whichever platform you view it on and you start to suspect that you have switched on the wrong programme. A music video begins to play which features three singers with guitars and a jaunty Mexican tune which feels more like a trailer for the show than an opening sting. It ranks among the show’s most outstandingly outlandish moments, yet defines what we love about Gilligan’s partiality for defying cinematic convention. When Walt and Jesse appear in the background of the shot, and the singers start speaking about Heisenberg, you know you are watching the right show.
As the episode progresses, that is made evident, as for the first time, we move away from the small fry villains that we have been used to, Krazy-8 and Emilio, and Tuco, if you could label him such, and into the cartel circles which we are thrown headfirst into via Hank and his complex phycological predicament as he contends with his frequent panic attacks. Another outlandish scene comes in what is both an absurdly hilarious and grimly illogical turn of events, where Tortuga, introduced as a potential new big bad to up the ante following Tuco’s demise, has his head chopped off and plonked onto a turtle, which wanders around the desert and blows up, killing the DEA agents who mocked Hank. It goes to show that nobody gets away with hurting Hank, as proven by Jack’s gang’s deaths in season five’s finale.
Best Line: Tortuga states his name is Tortuga, “Do you know what that means?” he asks Hank, and Schrader replies “I’d say that’s Spanish for asshole.”
Best Moment: It has been mentioned already, but the scene where the tortoise appears from a distance, at first through the eyes of the binoculars, and then in all its gratuitous glory which defies the confines of logic, is the first sign of the show leaping from the small scale ambition of the early days to the wider scope which Walt and Jesse will one day have to succumb to in order to expand their increasingly progressive empire.
Character of the Episode: She has to be mentioned somewhere in the article, given that she later becomes one of the main catalysts for the fallout between Walt and Jesse which amounts to much of the action left behind, but Jane is played tremendously by Krysten Ritter, who delivers a subtle but likeable performance as Jesse’s landlord.
Song of the Episode: It would feel wrong to include anything other than the title song, which is right out of the Mexican music scene, akin to something Pablo Escobar would have listened to in Narcos.
Episode Fifteen: Better Call Saul
Hank is still reeling from the aftermath of the exploding tortoise in El Paso but decides, out of love for his job, to get on with his role in Albuquerque and pretends that he is not struggling with the mental toll of what has transpired. When Jesse’s friend and client, Badger, is arrested for drugs charges, Hank intends to exploit him to uncover the identity of public enemy number one, Heisenberg. Jesse pressures Walt to hire Saul Goodman as Badger’s defence attorney, who promises to provide the best criminal defence case that any man could. Cue a farcical attempt to prevent Badger’s arrest by framing a man who likes being in prison for being Heisenberg, in a meet that ends up going horrendously wrong.
Better Call Saul has an episode called Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad has an episode called Better Call Saul. Both of them are superb mean s of introducing the characters at the forefront of the other. Saul is one of the most iconic characters in the show, who would not have struck many viewers as the ideal candidate to lead a spin off programme, given that he does not appear to have too many dimensions or too much purpose beyond comic relief and sleazy one-liners, though it becomes apparent that this is in fact the reason why a spin-off does work. Since we know so little about Saul, we end up becoming enlightened to why there are gaps in his personal life, and why he puts on his skanky lawyer act.
There are few episodes which rely as much on comedy as this one, although there has consistently been a streak of comedy running through these five seasons of television, but while it acts as a wonderful self-contained piece of television, establishing a character that ends up laying the foundations for two more vital cogs who arrive later in the season, Gus and Mike, it can also be accredited as one of the most underrated aftermath episodes, which picks up on both Hank’s encounter with the grisly realism of Salamanca vendettas and Jesse’s encounter with Spooge and his ‘skank’ of a wife.
Best Line: It has to be something Saul says. “There are laws, Detective. Go get your Kindergarten teacher to read them for you”, when speaking to the least obvious and most unlikely undercover cop imaginable.
Best Moment: Those scenes where Walt and Hank get so close that Walt could easily be outed as the man who his brother in law is looking for are so exciting and exhilarating, and this closing moment in the third act is the perfect example of that. The fake Heisenberg ends up sitting on the wrong bench and Badger almost makes a drug deal with a random stranger in Saul’s scheme which ends up going horribly wrong.
Character of the Episode: Some of the revelations made here do not make sense regarding the timelines with Better Call Saul, especially concerning the “It was Ignacio” line, but Saul immediately consolidates himself as comedic gold. He is a far cry from the complex moral compass of Jimmy McGill, but we end up loving him almost straight away.
Song of the Episode: Not too much music in this one aside from the instrumental work, which is as subtle as ever.
Episode Sixteen: Four Days Out
Walt has his pet CT scan which will determine whether the extent of his cancer has worsened. Acting as though he fears the worst, Walt claims he wishes to go to visit his mother, who is not yet in the know about his diagnosis, but this turns out to be a ruse so that he can lure Jesse into the dessert to cook up the amount of meth required to make their recent deal with Saul a success. Taking their RV into the middle of nowhere, they plan to dedicate an entire four day stretch to cooking their product, only for their battery to run flat, stranding them on the outskirts of Albuquerque. Tensions rise between the pair of them as Walt ponders the ploys he could use to get him and Jesse back home.
The concept is simple but perfect: Walt and Jesse get stuck in the dessert and they need to get back home in the space of the four days they planned to stay there. This is one of two occasions when the show has taken the bottle episode approach, the other being Fly, although this is perhaps the more relevant and witty offering of the pair. Cranston and Paul carry the episode on their shoulders, because this is their episode. Yes, it may be their show, but there are other characters which make Breaking Bad a sure-fire success too. This is the opportunity for Cranston and Paul to shine, and they do shine bright, after being separated for much of the second season runtime, or in mortal peril whenever they are together.
You start to wonder during episodes like this how Vince Gilligan did his research and how he became so familiar with chemistry concepts that contribute to the manufacture of baby blue drugs, but he has to be thanked for the commitment to scientific principle, which grounds a show that so often resorts to dark humour that stretches the definition of realism, especially in episode s like these, which are very much reliant on the sparky dialogue and personal crises of one of the show’s greatest scripts. The ending is the most intriguing part of it all, which comes to suggest that Walt is upset, even alarmed, by the revelation that his tumour has decreased in size, as if his entry into the world of drugs is not a last ditch mid life crisis, but a suicidal cry for help, complicating Walt even further, even if we did not think that possible.
Best Line: There’s a great quote about Georgia O Keefe and her virgina paintings, but one witty rapport sees Walt searching through the supplies Jesse has brought, including three bags of Funions and water that later gets used up, and Walt asks Jesse “How are you even alive?”
Best Moment: Walt tells Jesse to tug on the battery adapter harder to generate a reaction, rather than pulling it “like a girl” as he has been to this point. Jesse follows this advice but ends up starting a fire and uses the leftover water to put it out. It’s very similar to the Simpsons episode where Bart and his gang go to the World’s Fair under the pretext of attending a spelling bee. Come to think of it, Breaking Bad actually ripped off Bart on the Road.
Character of the Episode: It would be unfair to call either Jesse or Walt the man of the hour because they both come as a package in this instance. The chemistry between Cranston and Paul is demonstrated here better than in most episodes because it is a raw and humorous opportunity to get to know them and their unlikely companionship
Song of the Episode: “One by One” by the Black Seeds. Cracking tune.
Episode Seventeen: Over
Walt’s in remission and this news encourages Skylar to throw a party to gather their friends and family together to celebrate. Attributes of Heisenberg are beginning to show in Walt for the first time as he clashes with Hank and coerces Junior into drinking. He later becomes obsessed with the rot in the basement, showing the increasing divide between Walt and his wife, and Skylar’s increasing attachment to Ted Beneke. Jane’s father arrives in town just as Jesse is getting closer to Jane, and she shuns him since she believes her father would not approve of their relationship.
The foreshadowing in Breaking Bad can be so subtle that it can pass the eye. There are the obvious examples, such as the pre-title sequence, which continues the trend of drip-feeding information regarding the teddy bear disaster. John De Lancie (Also known as Q from Star Trek‘s The Next Generation is the catalyst for the season finale’s plane crash, so it seems fitting that he should make his first appearance when the cryptic cold opens start to unveil more. Coinciding with this, Walt’s actions become continually reckless. Walt is in some effects an undiagnosed sufferer of some lethal mixed personality disorder, and the Heisenberg sides of his character are taking precedence. He can no longer control them or the toll they are taking on his personal life.
There are more ingenious ways that the episode accomplishes foreshadowing, but they may be looking too much into it. Walt fixing the boiler not only builds to a punch the air final moment in which he confronts some rival drug dealers planning to land on his turf, but mirrors directly season four’s psychological horror scenario in Crawl Space. Beneke also mentions that when his father died, he was so ill that he could “hardly get out of bed”, a direct hint at the carpet-tripping fate that will one day befall him.
Another incredible merit of Breaking Bad is Gilligan’s capacity to effortlessly switch moods and not have that be a problem. You could have the farce comedy of the last two episodes one moment, then a kitchen sink drama here, where the domestic problems take the lead, and there is very little mention of the narcotics that form the heart of the show. Thanks to the performances and the script, the comparatively slower pacing is by no means a problem here.
Best Line: “It’s kind of funny. When I got my diagnosis, cancer I said to myself, you know: “Why me?” And then the other day, when I got the good news I said the same thing.” We still remain unaware as to whether he wants to die. He just wants to go out with a bang and never be caught.
Best Moment: That ending scene is phenomenal, but there are plenty of more underhand scenes which are supreme, such as Jesse receiving the superhero drawing from Jane through the door following their argument. Best of all, Walt and Jesse’s discussion about Walt’s remission in the diner. It is among the first occasions that their interactions have not revolved around bickering or tension, and a pure reminder that, despite what he says, Jesse truly does care about Walt, and perhaps vice versa.
Character of the Episode: Jane is a character right out of a Tarantino script. As mentioned before, her relationship with Jesse brings out sides to him that prove he is complex enough to have justified Gilligan’s decision to keep him alive post-series one.
Song of the Episode: Whatever song is played at the end. It may sound like Flight of the Conchords has sung it, but it matches the mood of the hardware store confrontation perfectly.
Episode Eighteen: Mandala
When Combo is killed on the streets, the public begin to lose faith in Walt and Jesse until they have no means of distribution. Saul promises to connect him with his contact, via a guy that knows a guy, so Walt and Jesse attend Los Pollos Hermanos, a chicken restaurant, for a meet. Skylar goes into labour after embarking on some lengthy flirting sessions with her boss, and Jesse gets into heroin when Jane goes back on the drugs.
If you were told before you watched Breaking Bad that the central antagonist in the so-called ‘best television show of all time’ was the manager of a fast food chain, you would have thought the person who told you was slightly insane, but this is what makes Gus Fring such a unique antagonist. One moment, he is a perfect gentleman who behaves just like any staff member in a restaurant like this would, then he twists into a gruesome, emotionless bad cop. Fring is right out of a Tarantino film, which is just about right given that it takes a lot of inspiration from Tarantino.
This is also surprisingly one of the most important episodes of the entire show, which crops up when you do not realise it, and its importance may not become apparent until you have finished the show. Combo is killed, which builds to the introduction of Jesse’s next girlfriend, Andrea, and Jane gets back on the drugs, both of which result in significant twists in Jesse’s relationship with both Walt and drugs. Skylar giving birth marks new territory for Walt’s personal life and its conflict with his distribution process, proven by an excruciating cliffhanger in which Walt chooses getting to the meet with the meth on time over witnessing the birth of Holly. Plus, Gus is introduced, of course, eventually, amounting in the show’s most iconic moment: His death.
Best Line: “You can never trust a drug addict,” says Gus Fring, a line that is powerful because of Giancarlo Esponito’s stark delivery.
Worst Moment: Skylar sings Happy Birthday to Ted Beneke alla Marilyn Monroe to JFK. It may be the worst moment of the entire series. Hell, it may secretly be the true reason why everybody in the fandom seems to hate Skylar.
Character of the Episode: It has already been touched upon, but Gus is one of the most important characters of the show, and one of the best villains of all time. Neither factor becomes explicitly clear in this introduction, but it becomes true with time.
Song of the Episode: The cheery music clashing with the gruesome drug-taking and drug-dealing shenanigans, which hardly glamourize either act, is present when Jesse takes the heroin and gets, literally, as high as the ceiling, with “Enchanted” by the Platters.
Episode Nineteen: Phoenix
After receiving the demand to deliver to Gus’s distribution spot of choice at a certain point, Walt misses the birth of his daughter because Jesse has relapsed onto heroin and is therefore unable to complete the task. Walt refuses to provide Jesse with the money because he knows that Jesse will spend it to finance his addiction, and Jane blackmails him, promising to go to the police if he does not give his companion his share. After Holly is born, Walter Junior sets up a PayPal account to finance his new website, SaveWalterWhite.com.
It’s in the next episode, when her body is being cleaned up, that Jane’s father reveals that her mother was born in Phoenix, a place of great significance for her. This being Breaking Bad, phoenix also carries a symbolic meaning, alongside its literal one. It refers to rebirth and reincarnation, exemplified here in Jesse’s opportunity to start a new life with Jane in New Zealand – because that’s where they filmed Lord of the Rings – and through Jane’s battle with drug addiction, which is a journey ripe with second chances and grave mistakes. However, as we discover in the final moments of the episode, Jane’s life is not meant to be, and Walt’s to blame for that one.
We see in this episode, and the finale, the sides in Walt, perhaps for the last time, that are aware that what he is doing is wrong. Of course he opts for his involvement in the drugs trade over his relationship with his own family, and he seems to want his cancer to kill him so he can escape unscathed, because Walt is as much a coward as he is an exhibitionist, but he does visibly break once Jane dies and it is too late to save her, in one of the most horrifying and upsetting moments of the show, and he does pity Flynn’s attempts to raise the cash for him. Even if he did it for himself, he is a family man. He’s also a killer.
Best Line: Saul’s remark about Walt Jr’s website having “Pay pal and everything” somehow cracks me up, although that whole storyline is as tragic as Jane’s death.
Best Moment: The obvious answer would be the game-changing sequence that sees Jane die from a heroin overdose, but this unpleasant sequence is no match for the subtelty of Walt’s interactions with Donald in the bar, in which they unknowingly cross paths and seem to have a great deal in common. This happens just before Walt witnesses the death of his daughter.
Character of the Episode: Nobody really talks about Donald, but you have to feel sorry for him. He cares a lot about his daughter, attends AA meetings with her, then shoots himself because he causes the plane crash. This is Jane’s episode, her story, and John De Lancie’s performance is so subtle but perfect, and Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul have a penchant for guest actors who can accomplish that, like Carol Burnett’s role in the latter.
Song of the Episode: This one’s mainly an episode for incidental arrangements, which are effective in context but unremarkable in retrospect.
Episode Twenty: ABQ
Jesse wakes up to find Jane dead in the bed beside him and Saul’s contact, Mike, is called in to clean up the body. The aftermath leads Jesse to sink deeper into his addiction while the other man in Jane’s life, her father, Donald, is distracted by his grief and ends up crashing two plans, resulting in the incident that causes the pink bear to fall from the sky. Following Hollie’s birth, Skylar becomes suspicious when Walt inadvertently announces that he has two cellphones before hi operation, and though she is unaware of the extent of his lies, ends up kicking him out of the house.
It’s difficult to believe that it takes two whole seasons for us to be introduced to Mike, known to fans of the Breaking Bad universe as one of the most fascinating characters involved inVince Gilligan’s charade. Mike gets more complicated as time passes, when we learn his motivations are as a source of income to his granddaughter, a more sympathetic variation on Walt’s motive, to an extent. Here, he comes in as brute force, cool but nothing remarkable. Better Call Saul managed to add further layers, flashing back both to his first encounters with the trade, and further to when he ‘broke his boy’, and the extent of the character’s depth has Jonathan Banks to thank.
Unlike the previous season finale, this one does feel like a culmination of all the storylines that have been established, as Skylar pieces together all the faults in Walt’s claims, from the ruse that he was going to visit his mother in Four Days Out, to his falling out with Gretchen several episodes earlier. Skylar’s involvement in Walt’s games bring a major plot twist that builds to the ultimate denouement, but first, low and behold, the plane crash, some spectacular imagery and the greatest body count caused by Walt’s actions, directly or otherwise.
Best Line: Skylar’s delivery of “Thanks for that by the way” ranks among Anna Gunn’s best performances. Say what you like about the character of Skylar being intolerable, but Gunn’s delivery cannot be faulted. Then again, it’s Vince Gilligan. He doesn’t do poor acting, unless the script cries out for it.
Best Moment: Walt tracks Jesse down to an abandoned drug den doss house which acts as the starkest reality of what drugs can do. Some have argued that Breaking Bad glamourizes drugs. If you believe that, watch this scene. Walt finds Jesse, tells him all will be alright, and it ranks among the most enthralling demonstrations of their bewitchingly complex “chemistry”.
Character of the Episode: It’s got to go to Skylar here, as she figures out what Walt is up to, and the scene where Skylar confronts Walt feels like trhe right place to end season two, though an unexpected twist when watching the first time around.
Song of the Episode: “Life” by Mark Anthony Thompson. Yes, there’s actually a song in this one. Check it out.
This article series will continue in October with a retrospective on season three.
Writers' Room Reviews 