Quick Take: Breaking Bad, "Half Measures"
"Get 'em young and they're yours forever." - Jesse Pinkman
Review: Breaking Bad, "Half Measures"
(S0312) "Half Measures" is punctuated by a series of extraordinary interactions between two characters. It also pushes, hurtles, zooms the story ahead in important ways and has one of those truly classic moments at the end that is a true game changer. Let's start with the one-on-ones:
Walt and Skyler
Bryan Cranston as Walter White and Anna Gunn as his estranged wife Skyler are so good on screen together that it's a shame that they have had relatively fewer scenes together over the last season plus. The scene in which they discuss and then negotiate their plans to launder Walt's illicit earnings reminded me a little of Tony and Carmela Soprano's negotiation for their reconciliation after being separated. The difference in The Sopranos is that Carmela (Edie Falco) long knew about Tony's (James Gandolfini) criminal dealings and that Tony was able to leverage her desire to build a spec house to plot his way back into the Soprano home. Walt's in a weaker position with Skyler, and ends up acquiescing to her main demands (that they purchase the Car Wash that Walt worked out for four years, use it as a front to launder money, and install Skyler there as bookkeeper), quickly backing down from reconciling to some plan of eating at the house a certain number of nights per week.
Gone is the Walt who walked into Krazy-8's headquarters in Season One and used a handful of unstable chemicals to create havoc and get his way. His nothing to lose attitude served him well for a short period of time, even with the crazy risks he took. Now, when he has everything to lose, he's perhaps devolving into the timid high school chemistry teacher that he used to be. His risk-taking stunts (driving all over the highway, forcing a cop to mace him on a routine traffic stop) are no longer calculated but merely wildly self destructive.
Walt and Jesse
When Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) and Walt have a drink and discuss the blue crystal meth that Jesse purchased from Combo's murderers, it's really the first time that this drug dealing team discussed the human toll that their product and trade causes. The wildly ironic and subversive thing though is that Jesse doesn't realize that he's directly part of the problem. "Hearts and minds," he explains of how they used an 11-year old boy to be the shooter in taking out Combo (Rodney Rush). "Get 'em young and they're yours forever." Even though he's a self-described "bad guy," perhaps he poses himself as a "good" drug dealer? Walt, able to use reason and even sound reasonable when not dealing with his own pile of troubles, sounds almost but not quite fatherly when he councils that, "You are not a murder. I am not a murderer. It's as simple as that." Jesse hisses in response that he's doing it, with or without Walt's help. And all of the sudden the stakes just went up a few notches.
Walt and Saul
Walt cooks up (sorry) a scheme to get Jesse thrown in jail. Well, "not jail jail" he explains to a skeptical Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), just something to get him off the streets for 30 days so that cooler heads can prevail. Saul says that he'll call his PI Mike (Jonathan Banks), who we know actually works for Gus Frings (Giancarlo Esposito). This thing is getting dicey for our favorite meth cooking anti-hero.
Jesse and Wendy
Jesse talks Wendy the prostitute into bringing poison along with her usual delivery of hamburgers to the drug dealers. It occurred to me that when Jesse is not in his typical urban street lingo-slinging mode these days, he's even more sinister and unsettling. Jesse is more comfortable in his own skin these days, more assured, and it's the skin of a very not nice guy indeed.
Walt and Mike
Mike pays Walt a visit, "a professional courtesy," and explains calmly – dead calmly – that he's not going to do anything close to putting Jesse in jail as it would anger the boss. No, not Saul, the other boss, both of their bosses. If that's not enough of a shock, Mike lays out in dispassionate, world weary terms why they need to rub out Jesse now, "before he becomes more of a problem." Mike goes on to tell a truly horrifying tale from the days when he was a beat cop, a domestic violence call that he and his partner had to take every weekend, and in which the woman refused to press charges out of fear. On a week where his partner was sick, Mike scared the guy within an inch of life, threatening him not to touch her again. He considered going all the way, but didn't. Two weeks later, the man brained the woman with a blender, killing her. "The moral of the story is I chose a half measure, when I should have gone all the way," Mike says. "I'll never make that mistake again. No more half measures, Walt."
Jesse and Gus
When Jesse's poison-fueled hit is abruptly halted by Mike, he's forced to go to a meeting at a Los Pollos Hermanos office trailer. Since we've never seen Gus lose his cool even for an instant, there's a huge payoff in his dealing with Jesse: it's obvious that this guy speaks very softly and wields a very large stick. Incredibly, and you have to give him a little credit for bravery here, Jesse balks at Gus' initial demand that he shake hands with Combo's murderers (who are sitting there, quite gangsta-ed out, in the room) and keep the peace. Jesse finally relents after Gus orders his men to stop using children in their dealings. While Jesse escapes and Walt, Gus, and Mike get what they want, it's possible that any respect that Jesse may have still had for Walt may be dust in the wind at this point.
Marie and Hank
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Hank still refuses to go home until he's convinced that he's recovered. Marie (Betsey Brandt) uses multiple tactics and finally bets that "if I can get the groundhog to see its shadow…" Beyond the super awkwardness (and honesty) of seeing such a private moment between a long time married couple, we're also seeing a far more human and sympathetic and even empathetic Marie than we've seen in the past. It's clear that she loves her husband fiercely and will do whatever it takes to see him through to the other side. Long story, er, she gets her way.
Jesse and Andrea
She asks him if he hard a day and he replies, "I don't even know." A moment later the phone rings. It's grandma, with news that Tomas, her kid brother and Combo's assassin, is dead. While it could be construed that Jesse took him out (we see Tomas riding his bicycle moments after Jesse storms off in his car after getting a lift from Walt), I think the evidence is strong that he did not see this coming: he looks shocked, not guilty, at the murder scene. And he's historically had a soft side toward children but, more importantly and as Walt noted, he's not the murdering kind (remember the freaky bumbling meth heads that he was supposed to get medieval on in Season Two?).
And then, here come the repercussions…. Jesse's using meth again (that great blue stuff he's been pushing everyone on, the stuff that makes everything interesting). Walt sees the news report and, particularly because Jesse missed work at the meth lab and won't return his calls, believes Jesse to be involved.
Finally, one episode-ending scene changes everything yet again. Jesse, hopped up on meth, goes to confront Gus' drug dealers, and they see him coming from a mile away. It looks as though Jesse's going to get taken out by these battle hardened thugs, when Walt rolls up in his trusty Aztek and runs them down, literally. Finishing one of them off with his own gun, Walt glares at Jesse and says, "run."
Walt has reclaimed his sense of purpose and, perhaps, some semblance of self-respect in helping to protect this boy that he has helped to utterly corrupt. But in so doing he's placed himself into brand new hot tiers of jeopardy (ironic, in that Walt and Walt Jr. were watching the game show of the same name just before Walt sees the news story about Tomas' death).
So, I think we can safely say that we're in for one monster of a season finale.
More thoughts on "Half Measures":
Video: Breaking Bad, "Half Measures"
Head inside the episode, from AMC:
Recap: Breaking Bad, "Half Measures"
Wendy the meth whore turns tricks outside the "Crystal Palace" motel. Her finances replenished, she exchanges cash and burgers for blue meth with the dealers behind Combo's murder. Jesse, nearby in his car, watches the deal go down. More at AMC.
From Around the Web: Breaking Bad, "Half Measures"
