Gus is caught between a rock and a hard place. Mike notes that Hank’s investigation and the Cartel’s aggression may prove to be “the perfect storm.” Should the Cartel make another move against Gus’ distribution line while Hank is watching, the entire thing could unravel, leaving the Fring empire exposed. Will Gus be able to stave off the Cartel’s advances while under Hank’s scrutiny? What is he going to do about Walt?
Jesse, it appears, has shaken the melancholy and suicidal ideation that haunted him after Gale’s murder. It also appears that he’s resolved to assassinate Fring to protect Walt and himself. With Walt all but impotent, the onus is now on Jesse.
With the DEA satisfied with Gus’ explanation of his relationship to Gale, they’re no longer interested in pursuing a case against him. Hank is working alone. Can he find a way to implicate Gus? Is he in danger of being killed?
Really good ep. Skyler isn’t off the hook just yet, and her old boss may try to burn her by blaming her for all the problems with the books.
Walt burns his only bridge by bugging Jesse’s car and then gets in a fight with him? Is he that insane? It seems he’s misread Jesse since the very beginning, which makes for some very interesting episodes. But it’s gone from resulting in possibly amusing resolutions to becoming deadly serious. If Jesse can cook the formula, both Hank and Walt are expendable.
At first I’d say it’s not that “both” of them are expendable but rather one of them is. Gus could let them hash out their crap on their own as long as he keeps getting his product out the door on time. If one kills the other, he knows he still has a cook.
But at the moment, neither of them are. If Gus loses one of them he’s still in the in the shit list with the Cartel. He needs to get Jesse to Mexico before Walt kills him [Jesse].
Also, did anyone else hear what Jesse said to Walt after the fight? “Get the f— outta here?” Just like that. It was censored.
Have the never sworn on this show and I’ve just not noticed it?
If she doesn’t bail him out then the resulting reopening of the investigation could include her and eventually Walter’s odd “gambling winnings”. Walter may well see the wisdom in preventing that. Then again, his jealousy and male pride may prevent him from seeing things that clearly.
On another issue: did anyone else think the dripping blood at the beginning might be something like a nosebleed indicating the return of cancer? Obviously, it wasn’t that but we didn’t know that till the end of the episode.
I realize that Walt’s feeling the pressure, which is why he’s pressing Jesse to use the ricin, but it’s a really dangerous thing to do, and something that needs to be done with care.
I can imagine the series ending when Jesse discovers that Walt was involved in Jane’s death. If he reacts so brutally to Walt’s bugging his car, I can only imagine that he’d end up beating Walt to death if he ever found out that Walt was involved with Jane’s death. Speaking of which, can somebody remind me:
Mike showed up to clean Jesse’s apartment and coach him on how to respond to the incoming paramedics and the inevitable police inquiry. He did this at the Walt’s request. Did the writers ever reveal how much Walt told Mike about the cause of Jane’s death? Is it possible that he could’ve told Mike more information than he should have – enough to arouse in Mike a suspicion that Walt was at Jesse’s apartment the night of Jane’s death?
At the end of the series, I can see Mike having a discussion with Jesse about the night of Jane’s death, and Jesse growing increasingly suspicious that Walt would know certain particulars. He questions Walt who, already calloused by his actions in the previous four seasons, does nothing to dispel the notion that he was at Jesse’s apartment that night. Or he ends up letting the information slip in another way. I’m recalling one of the early episodes of the third season, where Skyler questions Walt about the origins of his income. She accuses Walt of dealing marijuana, and by the expression on his face, comes to realize that it’s far worse than that. I can imagine a scenario where Jesse broaches the subject of Jane’s death, and Walt, so taken off-guard, is unable to compose himself in time.
We know Jesse can cook the formula (season 3), but it’s rote-knowledge; he simply doesn’t have the education and experience to truly understand the chemistry involved. If something goes wrong, he’ll most likely be at a loss to understand why, correct it, and explain it to his new Cartel bosses.
Who are probably even less forgiving than Gus.
Gus is getting desperate if, on the one had, he’s hanging his hopes on Jesse, and on the other, planning on “easing” Walt out (of this life and into the next).
It seems everyone is between a rock and a hard place
So, the episode title was “Bug”, and while Jesse referred to Walt “bugging” his car, that’s not the word I would use for such a tracking device, since it’s not like it records sound. Makes me wonder if there was a real (audio) bug in the episode, without it being referenced. Hmmm…
The other thing that kind of threw me was that Walt would go anywhere near the lab after learning that Hank has it in his sights. He can’t be sure that Hank didn’t decide to have someone else drive him, or have someone else doing some surveillance. It seems pretty stupid for Walt to go anywhere near there ever again - at least in his own car and/or able to be seen walking in.
Remember the scene when Victor attempted to cook the recipe to prove to Walt that he was disposable? Walt pointed out that it takes expertise to know how to adjust things to adjust for issues like high humidity. So Jesse would similarly be unable to deal with variations.
As Tarwater said, it took me a minute to figure it out, but it wasn’t the lab he was looking at. Something else struck me. The gravel parking lot at the lab. I’m waiting for Hank to nose around the lab and then ask Walt why his car is so dusty. But I gather New Mexico is full of gravel parking lots and probably doesn’t really raise any suspicion.
As for the bug, I was guessing that Walt was going to drive it around town all day (to a bunch of places Gus should be) and then hand it back to Hank as the one on Gus’ car just to throw Hank off of Gus’ trail. Either that or for a minute I almost thought he would do that but make a stop at the laundry in hopes that Walt would turn his investigation to that place. (“Now, I ask you, why would a fried chicken guy spend 6 hours a day, every day, at a commercial laundry? Doesn’t that seem, oh I don’t know, a bit odd”)
I noticed the popped-out lens lying on the floor next to the eyeglasses, and from that assumed we were seeing the result of a fight of some sort.
Another note. Walt assumes incorrectly that Gus killed the young minion whose dead body is brought in for disposal. I thought Mike would correct him on this, but he doesn’t bother to. It didn’t feel like deliberate deception — more like Mike wanting Walt to shut up and do as he’s told. But it still makes me wonder a little, whether that’s a little mistake that goes nowhere, or a bigger mistake that snowballs into something else.
Hell, it goes back to the first few episodes when they had the RV. Remember when it was boiling over and Walt added some chemical to get it to stop. Jesse can’t do that kind of thing on the fly. Sure, he might be able to do it if he had a troubleshooting guide, but if something wonky happens, he’s got nothing.
I have to assume the Cartel understands that all they are getting is the recipe and someone who can walk them through it a few times. From there they’ll get their own Walt or Gale or “Gus’ Partner” to take over. I have to assume Gus would have been just as happy to send Victor to the Cartel if he was still around.
I got the distinct feeling that Mike was sick of explaining things to Walt and knew full well that he wasn’t going to change Walt’s feelings about Gus having it out for him or Jesse changing teams. It was Mike’s way of saying “Just shut the fuck up already, not everything is about you”
That was before Jesse knew what he was doing. He’s since, through trial and error, produced a batch that Walt admitted was every bit as pure as his own.
Jesse knows what he’s doing. Sure, he won’t be able to compensate for higher humidity or a thousand other possible complications, but his job will be to show Mexican chemists how to prepare the methamphetamine. It will be up to those chemists to maintain a proper working environment.
And honestly, Walt was blathering about the difficulties of cooking his signature product because he suspected that Victor could, in fact, cook it properly. He was trying to convince Gus that he was still needed, that Victor couldn’t account for certain variables – which, come on, they’re cooking in a climate-controlled laboratory, so the degree to which the product can go completely awry are few and far between, I think.
While I agree with you 100% (WRT Walt trying to save his neck) I think he was talking about being able to compensate for differences in the raw product. If the stuff in the giant bag needs to be at 1.1-1.3% moisture, but it came in at 1.7% or the stuff in the drum is contaminated. Walt can adjust for that while he cooks by adding different amounts of other chemicals. Walt/Gale/Gus’ Partner can do that, Jesse/Victor/random person watching him cook cannot.