Grade: B
There is no doubt that
Breaking Bad has grandiose plans coming to fruition for the end of its season & a well laid out setup for the series finale next season. The wheels have been turning for a while now as well & no doubt they will continue too for some time creating even grander setups but, tonight, we finally see some raw action come from everything the fourth season has been building up to & I cannot wait to see how it all unfolds in the last three episodes of the season.
The episode starts off with Gustavo, Mike, & Jesse all boarding a small plane that has landed out in the middle of the desert to pick them up. We are dropped right into the repercussions of Jesse’s fight with Walter with Jesse making the decision to go to Mexico and Walter waking up all battered & bruised. Hell, Walter only wakes up because his son keeps buzzing the doorbell & calling to let him in since Walt has slept through his Walt Jr.'s birthday. Meanwhile Saul is going forward with Skyler’s plan of setting up her former boss with a fake inheritance to use to pay off his debts to the IRS so there is no further investigation.
Throughout
Salud, problems keep arising from all our characters as they try to fix the ones they are already facing. Some problems are more grave than others, especially in Mexico. The great thing we see is that each character steps up to the plate when shit gets pear shaped but that still does not seem to resolve everything. Skyler is learning that her attempts to correct things by her moral code are not going that well & that people like Saul do know the game quite well compared to her. Still she is an unwavering person true to her character and it is great to see Anna Gunn show that commitment as Skyler.
Walt on the other hands is just dealing with his recent fight with Jesse & what that means for him & his place in Gus’ operation. Bryan Cranston as Walt really pulls on the heart strings as he tries to explain to his son that seeing the real image of a person can not always be the best. RJ Miller, however, as Walt Jr., really pulls out some of his best character work by telling Walt that no matter how bad seeing his father for what he is it is still better than being fed lies & not knowing what is really going on.
The real fun though comes from what is going on with Jesse & the cartel down in Mexico where it becomes apparent that he is not a chemist but still can run an operation better than the cartel & can cook like no ones business. This is where the majority of the meat of the episode really comes from, what is going on in Mexico, & sets everything up for one killer of a season finale & this isn’t even the penultimate episode.
Breaking Bad is a show that not only found its ground early on but has been able to expand its universe like its drug network without much casualty & with some great finesse.
Grade: B
