Quick Take: Breaking Bad, "Mas"
"I didn't marry a criminal." – Skyler
Review: Breaking Bad, "Mas"
(S0305) There's been interesting use of intentionally disorienting flashbacks this season. Recently, in "I.F.T.," we revisited Tortuga prior to his untimely demise and learned of his association with the Mexican drug cartel led by Juan.
This week we open on Walt circa Season One, donning a full head of hair and armed with his early enthusiasm and certainty about how to proceed with becoming a meth cooking mastermind. We then experience more of what Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), pre-rehab and pre-"I'm the bad guy" unsettling clarity, does with the $7,000 that Walt had originally given him to get started. Namely, he rolls with his homies down to the local strip club and orders up $400 bottles of (mispronounced) Don Perignon, amongst other services. Perhaps we're seeing this to show that Jesse's (further) corruption was propelled along by Walt at an early stage in their relationship. But more likely the direct ramification is that Jesse obtains (and more like steals) the now infamous RV through his buddy Combo (Rodney Rush) and future drug dealing employee (who eventually gets got, very The Wire style, by a ridiculously young member of the Mexican drug cartel).
Something very unlike The Wire though: Walt and Jesse talking openly and explicitly about drug dealing, payments, and meth cooking on non-burner cell phones! It's pitch perfect Breaking Bad vibe too to see Walt huddled in a closet filled with little girl's clothes hissing into his phone while Jesse stomps around (Better Call) Saul Goodman's (Bob Odenkirk) office. Watching this scene I'm struck all over again at how hideously, ludicrously, and inevitably over his head Walter H. White really is, and how hard his breaking bad is going to come crashing down around him and his family and remaining friends, levels above anything we've seen yet if I might darkly portend.
There are so many scenes in Breaking Bad that are mini-gems within a larger treasure chest that it's tempting to write about them all, but here's a quick one. We see an RV under night scope and think that this could be the very same RV that Jesse obtained back in Season One. Hank (Dean Norris) and Gomie (Steven Michael Quezada) are staking it out, and we recall that Hank is on a mission to hunt down the vehicle involved with dealing blue crystal meth (not quite "Heisenberg's," but he doesn't know that) at a gas station. Gomie quite clearly wants to call it a night, but Hank ain't interested in any way, shape, or form. He has to know that this RV is or isn't the one he's looking for. This is the "new" Hank we're getting to know, the post-PTSD Hank, the Hank that rolls into a seedy bar without his gun and badge and takes on a bunch of low level meth heads to blot out his fear of El Paso and the front lines of the drug wars.
The scene ends on a welcome comic note, which has been much in need and well delivered upon the last few episodes. Hank crawls up top on the RV, to Gomie's chagrin, and spies an intrinsically middle American RV couple playing cards. True to Breaking Bad form though, we don't cut out just yet. The couple sees Hank, freaks out, and we then see a police report wrapping up the next morning. I love that we see this in that this is what happens in real life: if a strange man appears on top of your RV in the middle of the night, there will be consequences. And to top it all off and to add extra edge and dimension to the scene, a tired Gomie announces that he has to get home to pack. He's headed to Texas, it seems. While Hank clearly didn't want to take his second shot at a DEA promotion, it must kill him to see his best friend and partner from the Albuquerque office take the assignment in his place.
That said, Gomie's career trajectory may well be the least of Hank's problems, as he's clearly on the edge of a complete breakdown, blowing up at Marie (Betsey Brandt), who was being uncharacteristically warm and understanding in trying to bring Hank out of his increasingly isolated and self-destructive path.
And speaking of self-destructive paths: my attention perks up every time we see Pollos king and New Mexico-regional drug magnate Gus Frings. Gus opens up more than he has done to date with Walt, showing off what appears to be a super secret and super expensive drug lab that's literally hidden underneath an industrial laundry facility. It's a fascinating scene in that Walt is clearly flattered and tempted to take Gus' offer of a relatively safe and protected way to produce 200 lbs of blue crystal meth a week (an astronomical amount compared to what we've seen Walt and Jesse produce in the past!) but still ostensibly stays with "no mas." Fascinating too is that Walt is more lucid than we've seen him in the past about the terrible decisions that he's made and how they have affected his family. Whether or not he will stop breaking bad remains to be seen, but again, the train tracks for this kind of show seem to have been laid, and the joy and pain and excitement and catharsis will lie in watching this train reach its inexorable destination.
Ironically, as Walt is tempted into getting dragged back into the drug trade – and let's not forget for a second, the moment Gus decides that Walt is truly out, the Mexican drug cartel and the cousins come in – Skyler (Anna Gunn) is softening her feelings towards her estranged husband just a little bit. I love the subtle touch of Skyler putting a towel beneath her feet at Ted's (Christopher Cousins) heated floor as way of not getting dragged in too deeply into a new relationship… at least not yet.
You can't really say enough good things about Anna Gunn, by the way. She had a lot of scenes in this episode where there was not a lot of dialogue (luxuriating and later ruminating in Ted's bathroom, taking in the vast amount of money in Walt's "room") and showed a great range of emotion. Even though her lawyer is "half as qualified and twice as expensive" as a therapist, Skyler tries to work through her feelings. Her attorney, of course, is having none of it. "I didn't marry a criminal," Skyler weakly responds.
If Skyler had any hope (false hope, likely, but still) of reconciling with Walt, he's moving on and attaching the shambles of his life to Gus and the promise of a big cavernous and state-of-the-art lab to pursue his "respect for chemistry." Walt leaves divorce papers for Skyler to sign and moves out of the extra bedroom. Meanwhile, he gives Jesse the money that was tossed through his car window in "Green Light," but warns him to stay off his proprietary high grade methamphetamines recipe from now on.
So the clash of Walt and Jesse is coming. And meanwhile, Hank finally catches a break in his RV hunt and finds himself in Combo's bedroom, looking at picture from the strip club incident featuring Combo and Jesse.
In other words, things are sure to be heating up, and soon.
More thoughts on "Mas":
Video: Breaking Bad, "Mas"
Backgrounder on "Mas" from AMC:
Recap: Breaking Bad, "Mas"
In a flashback to the Pilot episode, Walt — sporting a full head of hair — handsJesse $7,000 to purchase an RV. Instead, Jesse heads to a strip club with Skinny Pete and Combo and spends the cash on lap dances and champagne. Come morning, only $1,400 remains, but Combo, in what he describes as "a no paperwork-type deal," supplies Jesse with a white and brown RV for just that price. Read more at AMC.
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