Breaking Good – Jim’s Breaking Bad Instant Review – “Salud” – 410

Looking for A.Ron’s take?

What do you do when you’re put in a difficult situation?  When pills and alcohol join up to unleash a world of emotions upon your unsuspecting child?  When you’re faced with the threat of all-out war with the head of a drug cartel?  When your ex lover/boss is in a jam that could very well get you in trouble with the law?  When you need to convince someone that you can cook?  Well, if you’re one of the characters from Breaking Bad, the answer is obvious.

You Lie.

Almost all of the characters in tonight’s episode of Breaking Bad were using deception in some way.  And as has been the case throughout the series, lies usually just add fuel to the fire.

Take Skyler’s lie, for example.  Skyler doesn’t want the IRS looking any further into Ted’s tax troubles so she concocts a scheme to get him the money he needs to pay off his back-taxes through a fictional dead aunt and Saul.  However, not only is she running the risk of angering Walt by giving away his money, but Ted decides to use the cash to start his failed business back up.  It’s the worst possible outcome for Skyler.  That’s one strike against the liars.

Strike two is Walt’s lie to his son about his injuries.  Not only does he call him Jesse (which will surely come back into play later) but he lies to cover for a lapse in judgement that Jr. has been wishing for years would come.  Even after admitting that everything is his fault the night before, it shows just how little -still- he understands the repercussions of his actions.  He’s oblivious to the emotional needs of his son, one of the people for which he’s gone to such great lengths to try to solidify a future for.

The final strike is Gus who leads Don Eladio to believe that he’s going to give Jesse (and $50 mil in cool cash) to the Cartel.  Of course this is all a lie to cover Gus’ master plan.  But even though the plan goes down as expected, there are still a couple minor hitches such as Gus being poisoned and Mike being shot.

And those are just the lies that have immediate consequences.  Jesse is trying to pass himself off as a cook.  And Walt Jr. is trying to make his mom think that 16 year-old males enjoy driving PT Cruisers.  There’s no telling how bad that one will backfire!

By now I’m sure you understand that I’m not lying when I say that I thought this episode was stronger than the previous one which was stronger than the one before and that we’re still 3 episodes form the season finale.  It’s a great time to be a Breaking Bad fan!

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