Spoilers ahoy. Do not read this unless you’ve seen the episode or don’t mind it being blown wide open.
WOW. I bet two things, right now: 1) I’m going to open A LOT of instant take’s with that word, and 2), boy I bet Walt wishes he had Tuco back, huh? Tuco was a lot things; brutal, paranoid, psychotic, but Walt could always out think and out maneuver him. Think he can do that to Gus? And for how long?
I liked how the open with Gale’s gleeful kid on Christmas morning routine unpacking the lab equipment, and his utmost respect for the Walt’s work on the purity of his meth and his eagerness to please Gus and make sure he gets exactly what he wants. They brought this full circle in the Denny’s diner when Jesse made the darkly humorous observation that he bet Gale is sorry that Gus ended up finding him. It’s especially tragic considering Gus likely wouldn’t have known or cared about the difference betwen 96 percent pure meth and 99.ohmygod purity. God knows the meth heads wouldn’t.
Contrast this with Victor, the other employee in the Fring enterprise for which this episode didn’t go so well. In his desire and haste to verify Gale’s status, he allowed himself to be seen by the public as a possible accessory to murder, and sealed his fate as well. At least, that’s what I’m assuming, given my first viewing. I can’t imagine Gus would kill him for having the temerity to try to cook without Walt, although that’s certainly possible. Speaking of which, Walt’s bluster in trying to lecture Victor on the finer points of meth chemistry sure seemed pathetic in context, didn’t it? I’m not a chemist by any stretch, but purely from a business and practical point of view, Victor’s world view is a hell of a lot closer to reality than Walt’s.
I don’t ever recall seeing Gus look that badass before. I mean, obviously I’ve never seen him bleed a man out like a pig before. But even before that, the purple suit, the stony silence… this man is amazingly scary.
I’m interested in seeing Jesse’s evolution here. From an eyes wide and streaming assassination of the relatively sweet and innocent Gale, to the world weary chow down of his Grand Slam the next morning. Do you think he’s just flipped the switch to “cold hearted” over the course of that evening, or that he just overloaded and that he’ll have a hell of a lot of guilt and emotion to deal with later?
Moving on to the “B” blot of the Schrader household… things over there don’t look pretty, do they? Aside from the rock mineral, that is. I really loved the scene with Marie in the car, steeling herself to stay positive during the withering assault she’s going to endure in her home. Hank was bearly recognizeable. No sneers, no cheap laughs, no bullshit, this man is broken. He’s reduced to sniping geodes on eBay and crapping his drawers while his wife tries to sell him that 16 steps in 20 minutes versus 15.5 is progress.
Marie is going to be very interesting to watch this season. Up to last season, the show chose to depict her has a shallow, selfish characture. The sheer amount of energy she is burning through to maintain support for Hank is written all over her face, and you have to wonder how long she can maintain that. Since she was one of the few characters I just couldn’t stand on this show, I’m liking the evolution.
Moving on to the “C” plot, Skyler shows some of the quick thinking and shameless manipulation that Walt is famous for in moving Walt’s car and exploiting the poor locksmith. Look at her face the moment the locksmith, knowing in that moment that he’s been had in some way or another, shuts the door on her. Fantastic. Also fantastic, the scene where Walt comes home in his new outfit (which we WILL get to later), and they check in with each other. There was a lot of tension in that scene, and to my eyes, not much of it was the angry, sullen stuff we saw in seasons 2 and 3. After all, Skyler might have “learned from the best”, but honestly she didn’t see that much of how Walt worked. She had this inside her the whole time, and like Walt realized, the feeling is like discovering you’ve had a super power your whole life and never used it.
Other random observations:
- God I love Saul. I love his office, I love the people he has working there, I love him on his hands and knees sweeping for bugs and talking on a pay phone with a handkerchief to avoid fingerprints. As I said in our prediction casts, I really want to see him cut lose with some badass lawyering. Surely the show is clowning on him now to set us up for some awesomeness later, right?
- Hello, ominous close up of Gale’s Lab Notes!!
- Is it just me, or was the music more dynamic in this season opener than any other time in the series? Maybe it was the fact that I watch it with ear buds that accentuated the bass notes, but the throbbing, ambient suspense music was really great at setting the mood and ratcheting up the tension.
- Ah, our old friend hydrofloric acid. Jesse’s line in this scene was reminiscent of Indy’s “pretty sure” remark to the Blonde Nazi asking if he was positive a carving in a cave depicted the Ark of the Covenant. Heh.
- Speaking of which, this show is remarkably violent for a non-HBO, non-Showtime series. Gus’ execution of Victor was horrific, and something about the way Walt and Jesse stuffed his body in the barrel… something about how comoditized it made the act of murder, really got to me. I also bet the practical FX guys had a ball with making the translucent barrel look so wrong in the scene where Walt was spraying it down.
- Okay. Jim and I have talked about how much fun it would be to cosplay at various conventions as Walt and Jesse. Can you just see us at Comic Con or PAX handing out little blue rock sugar candy? I’m talking full blown “yo” mode Jesse, with Walt in full Heisenberg getup. Hey, don’t judge us! I can feel you judging us! Anyway, we thought that would be fun, and that was BEFORE the matching white jeans / Kenny Roger’s outfits. I LOVED THAT! I want to organize a flash mob of Jesse and Walts in those outfits. Can we make that happen? This link might be a start…