“Thirty-Eight Snub” definitely felt like a bridge episode. All of the storylines are sitting on super-volcanoes, just waiting to erupt, with devastating side-effects for everyone.
Walt has to be ultra-paranoid right now. Gus obviously has his house on LOCK DOWN. Jesse and Walt aren’t getting near him at this point. I don’t believe for a second that Gus was in that house – he’s too smart to stay somewhere Walt knows about and it’s for certain he owns more than just one house – but he’s definitely monitoring it. It’s going to take something drastic to get Walt “in a room with him” now.
I predicted in our podcast a few weeks ago that Mike would join forces with Walt. Obviously that didn’t pan out this week even though Walt gave it a valiant effort. However, despite every kick to Walt’s ribs feeling like a direct refutation of my prediction, I still think it’s going to end up happening. Walt can’t make it in this business without someone more experienced. Mike is the only guy he knows with the ability to keep him alive at this point.
Speaking of keeping people alive, Jesse isn’t doing such a good job keeping himself alive at the moment. He’s out-partying everyone he knows and holding down his meth job at the same time. He’s also blowing through money like there’s no tomorrow. Looks to me like he’s trying anything and everything to keep from thinking about the things he’s done and what’s coming his way. The sound system he’s put in shows that as plain as day. Several times we see him cranking up the volume. He’s also turned to drug use again and he’s partying 24/7. As soon as everyone leaves, he’s left with only his thoughts and we’re left with the image of him crouched in front of his speakers at the end of the episode. How loud does his stereo go – how long can he continue to ignore what’s in his head?
I loved the scene with Skyler and Eyebrows. When Walt hears about Eyebrows’ reaction, he’s going to FREAK THE FUCK OUT. It couldn’t have gone any better, in my opinion. To have Walter just buy out Eyebrows wouldn’t have been good enough for Breaking Bad. You need to have Walter’s character come into play. And that’s exactly what they set up here. We’ve seen over and over how proud of a man Walter White is. There is no way he’s going to take this insult lying down. I’m dying to see Walter crush this guy’s business! My prediction? Walt’s next move will be to open a carwash across the street, use his drug money to undercut Eyebrows’ prices and run him out of business. Then what would Eyebrows have to show for his 30 years of business-building? Nothing. In my opinion, crushing the man’s soul is the minimum Walt will accept now.
I keep relating this back to my predictions so lets go with that theme and talk about how Hank’s injury is going to lead to him discovering Walt. When Hank and Marie are lying in bed, they’re discussing blue corundum. Later on, when his packages arrive, he mentions that he’s expecting some fragile geodes. Thanks to my childhood days of rock collecting, I know that those are both types of crystal. To me, this says that Heisenberg is still very much on his mind. I’m not exactly sure yet why he seems to have turned so violently on Marie but the bridge is in full effect and we’re going to see their relationship blow up VERY soon.
That’s it for my Insta-take this week. We’ll have a LOT more analysis and discussion in our podcast Tuesday morning. Be sure to tune in! Also, we only need 2 more iTunes reviews to hit our goal of 20 for the week. Please help us out by leaving a quick written review or at least clicking those sweet golden stars!