This was a great episode. Jim’s raving about it, which is okay, although I’m not like that about it. I think what I admired most was the pacing. Lots of good acting work and letting the audience draw conclusions, with a nice action payoff.
The opening shot was reminicent of the Season One opener, with Walt in media res, carooming around in the increasingly badass Aztec, on a mad dash for Los Hermanos Pollos. I liked the paranoia and tension of the scene as he waited for Gus inside, as cameras, fat hillbillies, and latinos grabbing breakfast were suddenly things to be terribly suspicious of. It reminded me also of the last scene of The Sopranos, minus the inexplicable fade to black.
This series of scenes paid off with Walt and Skyler consumating their criminal alliance in literal fashion. Nice camera trick of blurring everything except what we could glimpse through Walt’s glasses.
Then we had Jesse’s arc, which saw him and Mike thrown together, with Jesse first being unresponsive, then frightened, then angry, the bored, which apparently is the catalyst for making a badass man of action. Obviously this paid of with the titular Shotgun, and Jesse attempting vehicular manslaughter of the person weilding it.
Finally, we have Hank, who is starts off grimly resigned to retirement, is challenged by a bit of Walt’s chutzpah, then shows quite a bit of emotional and mental healing as he fully resumes his role as investigator by asking the begged question, “What would a vegan do with fried chicken?”
All in all, the pacing is almost perfect. Other thoughts.
- Walt Jr. is obviously lying about being a coffee drinker. Is it possible he’s lying about this move in date? To what end?
- Only sour note to me was Jesse’s jackassery in the car with Mike. I liked his Star Wars Kid routine during the sped up action scene at the second drop, but I think it was a little too much.
- Mike had a Incurable Cough of Death relapse this week. So now we know it is significant, right?
- I like where the Jesse arc is going, and obviously it matches up with some of our thoughts about where things were heading, but I still don’t understand why exactly Gus is humoring his cooks like he is.
- I’m feeling very confident about my prediction for Walt cheating on Skyler.
- A lot of nice camera tricks showing things from Walt’s perspective. I’m looking forward to Melissa Maerz telling me exactly what it all meant on a deeper level tomorrow morning.
- Hank really is a changed man when he’s working, isn’t he?