That episode was PACKED like a tin of sardines. So much stuff, and so effortlessly executed. No pun intended! Before I go further, make sure you check out our AUDIO instant review. It was a little experiment to see if we could pull a quick turn around off, and what you guys would think about it. Back to the show…
It’s interesting how much more sympathetic I am to Gus now that I know a little bit more about his origin story. And I do mean a little bit, because I’m left with a lot of questions; What was he in Chile? What was his relationship to his “brother”, like, and how does this impact his relationship with Jesse and Walt? How did he get started in the meth industry without his brilliant chemist brother? For that matter, how did he and the cartel ever work together after that introduction? What the hell was the ultimatum? And what is with Gus and Hector Salamanca’s ritual in the nursing home? Blood for blood indeed.
And that was just the last 20 minutes!
Before that, we merely had an epic Walt and Jesse confrontation, an incredibly tense Hank/Mike/Walt/Gus show down in a Los Pollos Hermanos parking lot, Hank trying to sweat Gus in a genial interrogation, Jesse rocking more rhinestones than Dolly Parton, and Skyler’s As Seen On TV infomercial. I can’t wait to get the answers to the questions raised tonight.
Other thoughts:
- Lots of fodder for the “DEA boss is dirty!” crowd. Although since everyone BUT Hank bought Gus’s stories hook, line, and sinker, I’m not sure it matters.
- How much of Gus’s story is true? The stuff about Gale, the scholarship, etc. We know some of it is a lie. What the hell was Gus doing in his apartment anyway? The scholarship I’m assuming (since I’ve only seen it once, I haven’t confirmed) is named after his “brother”. I wonder if that’s a thread Hank can pull at?
- I’ve never seen a man chew scenery with just his face before. Congratulations, Mark Margolis!
- Isn’t it funny/weird how involved Gus is with the day to day running of individual stores in his chicken empire?
- Can anyone beat Walter White in the self-deception department? As my partner Jim pointed out in our mini-review, the juxtaposition of him dishing out badass quotes from Atlas Shrugged to the cancer stricken patient and his miserable existence in the underground superlab was stark.
- Speaking of Walter, I want to throw this out there; was he lying about his cancer being in remission? I didn’t like the pause he put in there before answering.
- Was it my imagination or did Meat Eating Man pass out as soon as he got into Saul’s car?
- That scene with Hank trying to get Walt to plant the tracking device, with Mike pulling up, was in its way, as tense as anything from “Box Cutter.” And then they threw in Gus to the mix!
- Mike is right on that this is a perfect storm. Very hard to fight an illegal war against foreign nationals with the DEA standing over your shoulder.
