As I said tonight on Facebook, this episode provoked two reactions; “Whoa”, and “WTF?” I was blown away Brock’s poisoning, Jesse’s confrontation of Walt, and Walt getting back to Heisenburg mode. The thing that left me with “WTF?” Gus.
It’s a hard sell for me to think Gus realized he was in danger and backed off. On the other hand, I can kind of see it. As Walt says Gus has been 10 steps ahead of them all season long. The one time they would get a step ahead, I guess it would make sense if Gus smelled the setup.
Kudos to whoever predicted the ricin getting into Brock’s hands! I did a quick search on email and facebook and couldn’t find who to give credit to. Hopefully we can get that found out before tomorrow, because whomever made that call deserves the recognition. Aaron Paul tore it up this episode, with the panic stricken search of his cigs, the emotional quasi-confession to Andrea, his confrontation of Walt and eventually Gus. I love how they shot Jesse stumbling through the ER, that was some very nice camera work, and really gave us the feeling of the desperation and frantic nature of Jesse’s task.
Walt cooking up explosives in his kitchen made me very, very happy. It was very nice to see some old school Heisenberg, and ultimately that might entirely explain my slight dissatisfaction with the way the episode ended; I really, really wanted to see Gus go boom. Am I the only one the end was a bit of a stretch for?
Miscellaneous thoughts…
- Holly only cries at dramatically appropriate points. I’m wondering if that’s a bit of foreshadowing?
- Skyler really grew up in this episode. She finally “gets it”. I’m interested in how detached she appeared through most of the episode, and where that’s going.
- Gomez isn’t as good at the Knock and Walk routine as Hank, not nearly, but he was good enough to put the okie doke on a laudromat manager. If Hank did that, he’d be both more personable, and also far more menacing on the sub-surface.
- Speaking of Hank, man, did you see his face as he went through the Laundry facility images? That’s a man on a mission.
- It’s official. Tuvok is a dick to everybody.
- Lot’s of sped up camera work. Life is spiraling out of balance.
- Here’s a question. Are we totally sure that Gus is responsible for the poisoning? If so, that’s a bombshell. It means he’s known about the cig for a long time, and it also means that Gus probably knows that Jesse is lying to him about not being aware of how Brock got poisoned. If that’s the case, then it almost seems as if Gus isn’t wary enough in this episode.
- The student has definitely become the master. Now he’s the guy calling Walt and banging on his door and spouting crazy paranoid nonsense.
- As if the show wasn’t tying enough Christ imagery in reference to Jesse, Gus’s confrontation of him at the hospital took place in, of course, the chapel, framed by a very prominent crucifix.
- I know we talk a lot about how good everyone on this show is, but god, damn. Walt’s panic and fear with Jesse having the gun on him, Jesse’s various breakdowns and panics… Cranston and Paul really earned their paycheck.