Bad Nauseam: “Abiquiú” & “Half Measures”

Abiquiú (S3E11)

Jesse starts dating Andrea, a fellow member of his addiction support group. Meanwhile, Skyler advises Walter on how to launder his drug money.

This is an episode about relationships, focusing on the three main couples in the show: Walt and Skyler, Hank and Marie, and the newly-acquainted Jesse and Andrea. They do not get allocated the same amount of screen-time; the only thing we learn about Hank and Marie is that the assassination attempt has put a strain on their marriage, but I don’t see this as a flaw. It takes many months to recover from the sort of injuries Hank sustained, so there is no need to rush that storyline. Besides, this gives the writers more time to introduce a new character to the audience.

Andrea is played by Emily Rios (a second-generation Mexican-American) and I really like her in concept. New Mexico is a border state with its own particular history of racism and colonialism and it would be interesting for Breaking Bad to explore these issues. I think back to the first season and how Jesse’s parents had a Hispanic housekeeper – how often has Jesse actually interacted with Mexican-Americans without them performing menial tasks for him? Unfortunately, I don’t think Rios is given that much to do by the writers. We focus heavily on her role as a mother and that functions more as a reminder that Jesse hates children being exposed to drugs than anything else.1This was a prominent part of Peekaboo (Series 2, Episode 6), one of the Breaking Bad episodes I like the least.

I much prefer Skyler’s storyline in this episode, as she continues to regain the initiative from Walter and make interesting decisions. I’ve found her season arc to be the most competent and engaging – she starts desperate to push Walt away before learning that she is already implicated in his crimes, so she changes tack and tries to cajole her husband into using his drug money responsibly.2Skyler discovered in Sunset (Series 3, Episode 6) that Walter was using his illegal earnings to pay their household bills, making her an accessory after the fact. It was Skyler’s idea to pay Hank’s medical expenses and now she will make sure that Walter’s earnings are laundered correctly. The couple don’t exactly reconcile but Skyler’s confession that she never filed for divorce because spouses can’t be forced to testify against one another felt earned and consistent with her previous characterisation. She may no longer love her husband but Skyler now needs Walt to be a successful criminal – what this moral compromise is going to cost her is left to the audience’s imagination for now.

Odds and Ends

• In the opening flashback, Jesse and Jane are looking at My Last Door.3They were planning to visit the Abiquiú museum in 4 Days Out (Series 2, Episode 9) before Walter made Jesse drive into the middle of the desert for a marathon cooking session. The production team managed to secure licensing rights to the painting, but only on the condition they create a replica and donate it to The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.
• Skyler asks to meet Walt’s lawyer and we get a slow panning shot of Saul’s clients as they wait outside his office. I understand the intention – a prestigious law firm would not have a cramped and noisy waiting room – but the framing feels judgemental, if not outright racist and classist. Justice is expensive in America, so why are we looking down on the people who have to go to someone like Saul to get recompense?
• Andrea’s mother says the following as she leaves the house: “Idiots. Shameless. I’m tired, so tired of everyone. Shameless idiots.”4“Desgraciados. Sin vergüenza. Estoy cansada, bien cansada de todos. Desgraciados sin vergüenza.”
• I don’t mind the reveal that Andrea’s brother Tomás was the one who shot Combo back in Mandala (Series 2, Episode 11). It is a tad implausible but not beyond the realms of possibility.
• I am by no means an expert but I cannot be the only person who got queer horror vibes from the dinner scene with Gus? Two men sharing an evening meal without any women present is already a departure from traditional gender norms, but Gus is clearly trying to “seduce” Walter – he is showing him a new lifestyle that Walt “must learn” to accept before he becomes overwhelmed by it. I don’t know if it was the actors or the writers who decided to give this scene an undercurrent of erotic danger but I think it is one of the most interesting creative choices in the entire season.

Half Measures (S3E12)

Jesse vows revenge after discovering the identities of the dealers who groomed Andrea’s brother Tomás and orchestrated Combo’s murder. Walt tries to change Jesse’s mind but is eventually forced to intervene.

Breaking Bad is a show where characters learn to tolerate the intolerable. Walt comes to accept his terminal cancer diagnosis. Skyler decides that facilitating her husband’s crimes is preferable to trying to stop them. This episode is a little different because for once, a protagonist chooses to do what they think is right, regardless of the consequences.

A simpler script would have Jesse decide to commit murder because he felt honour-bound to avenge Combo, but I like that the writers gave him a more complex motivation. Jesse is obviously upset about his friend’s death but it is the fact a child was forced to do it that really pushes him over the edge. The technical term for this is child criminal exploitation – one of the many problematic side-effects of drug prohibition – and it makes sense for Jesse to be so enraged that he chooses to respond with lethal force.

Unfortunately, Jesse makes the mistake of confiding in Walter, who eventually decides that he needs to tell Gus about his partner’s plan. This leads to a great scene where Gus has Jesse brought in for a business meeting – an opportunity that allows him to manipulate everyone else in the room. He showers Walt with praise but does not let him speak, demonstrating once again that Gus is the one who is truly in control. He also threatens Jesse but does bend a little when the young man stands up to him, ordering the two dealers to not use children anymore.

When I first watched this episode, I assumed that Tomás was murdered by the dealers without Gus’ knowledge, ignoring the truce arranged by their boss – after listening to the Breaking Good podcast for this installment, I’m not so sure. We know that Gus is a cautious man, so would he allow a child to live when he can incriminate his employees? He might have even been counting on Jesse attacking the two dealers after Tomás’ death – Jesse is unlikely to survive such an attempt, allowing Gus to tell Walter that he wanted peace but Jesse made a reckless decision before he had a chance to punish his own men.

If that was Gus’ plan, he did not account for Walt’s impulsive need to keep Jesse safe. When this episode first aired, there was disagreement among fans over whether killing the dealers was justified – some even saw it as a step towards a potential redemption for our protagonist. Personally, I don’t think it is easy to judge Walter’s actions anymore – he obviously doesn’t respect the law, but I don’t believe that there is a moral line he will not cross. Walt now divides the world into people he must protect and those he considers expendable – Jesse is not expendable, as Gus has now found out to his cost.

Odds and Ends

• I don’t care for the opening montage with Wendy. I understand that some drug addicts resort to “survival sex work” in order to support themselves and it makes sense to depict that in the show. However, the writers rarely depict sex workers with any respect – they are either eye-candy or repulsive hags.
• We get a brief shot of Skyler looking at the Wikipedia entry for “money laundering” and it might be the most amateurish piece of film-making I’ve ever seen. It makes Skyler seem incompetent (undermining her characterisation in the last episode) when it could have so easily been remedied – just have her researching the punishment if she gets caught!5Under the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, Skyler could be sentenced to twenty years in prison.
• I really like the exchange between Hank and Walt Jr. in the hospital. Hank is refusing to go home because he can’t walk or go to the bathroom independently, and his nephew responds by asking if he should be confined to a hospital due to his cerebral palsy? It is a powerful critique of ableism but it also shows Walt Jr.’s inner strength – he’s clearly dealt with this attitude before and understands that you don’t have to be physically imposing in order to be a “real” man.
• Mike tells Walt about his time as a beat cop and how he tried and failed to prevent a woman from being murdered by her lover.6This is where the titular phrase “half measures” comes from. The story is evocative enough but I do find it distasteful to bring up domestic violence in this way – you could have just as easily had a story where a drunk driver hit someone with his car and Mike failed to arrest him earlier that night due to his own naivety.
• You’d think Marie persuading Hank to leave the hospital by giving him a handjob would come across as vulgar but it works for me. It uses Hank’s toxic masculine expectations of virility against him, but the actors also convincingly portray a couple that know each other so well that they can resolve an argument in such an unorthodox manner.
• The crew used digital compositing to create the fatal crash in the final scene. The two dealers mimed their reaction to the oncoming Aztek – the car was then shot separately running over a sandbag. In post-production they combined the footage, with the dealers being replaced with CGI models the moment the vehicle smashed into their bodies.

Please use spoiler tags in the comments, as some Avocadians are watching Breaking Bad for the first time