Thirty-Eight Snub (S4E2)
Aware that they are marked for death, Walter buys a gun while Jesse desperately tries to distract himself from his emotions. Meanwhile, Skyler tries to purchase the car wash from Bogdan.
When I write these reviews, I always try to bear in mind that television is a visual medium. I might find the plot and themes to be the most interesting part of Breaking Bad but this is a show, not a book. Where you point the camera and what you include and don’t include in the frame can have a profound effect on how your audience interprets a scene. I bring this up because this might be one of the most beautiful episodes of television I have ever seen, and that doesn’t just happen – it is because of the skill and talent of director Michelle MacLaren.
MacLaren started working on the show back in Season 2 and she is responsible for some of the most iconic moments in Breaking Bad – Walt and Jesse marooned in the desert in 4 Days Out (Series 2, Episode 9) and Hank’s gunfight with the Cousins in One Minute (Series 3, Episode 7) are just two examples. While the script for this installment is rather slight, MacLaren manages to do a lot with the material. Consider the scene where Walter practices drawing his gun in the apartment – they didn’t have to line up the bullets on the table or show the empty chair he is aiming at but those little details demonstrate Walt’s meticulous nature, as well as how unsuited he is for the role of assassin.1Although Walt is now responsible for multiple deaths, the last person he tried to murder in a planned deliberate way was Tuco – needless to say, that didn’t end well.
What I want to focus on most though is Jesse’s subplot, as I find it to be the most engaging part of this episode. Unwilling to process his emotions, Jesse seeks solace in drugs and deafeningly-loud music. This could have just been a repeat of I.F.T. (Series 3, Episode 3) where Jesse is also sullen and withdrawn (in that case, because of Jane’s death) – thankfully, the writers make the smart decision to break up this sequence with a visit from Andrea and Brock. Jesse is reminded that he can be a stabilising and loving presence in another person’s life – this could be his future, but only if he works out how to make the right choices.
Odds and Ends
- Badger uses an ableist slur while taking about zombies with Skinny Pete. This has happened a few times throughout the show and it stands out to me because by the early 2010s, writers had started to avoid using that word – why should Breaking Bad be any different?
- Marie is now the main caregiver for her husband and this is a situation Hank is not happy about – he is rude and dismissive to Marie multiple times in this episode, almost bordering on abusive. I appreciate this storyline because this sort of behaviour can happen when a loved one becomes incapacitated and the audience’s sympathies are clearly supposed to be with Marie. Hank has every right to be angry at his predicament but he still needs to treat his wife with love and respect.
- Victor is replaced at the laboratory by a man named Tyrus2Played by Ray Campbell. and it feels a little lazy on the part of the writers considering that they perform the same role and have similar personalities.
- The conversation that Jesse and his friends have about the uncut pizza is a response to the fan reaction to Caballo sin Nombre (Series 3, Episode 1). People loved Walt throwing a pizza onto the roof of his house but thought it was odd that he was able to buy one that was not already sliced.
- Walt drives out to Gus’ house in order to kill him and puts on his black hat so he can “transform” into Heisenberg. He starts walking towards the door but stops when his phone rings – the caller tells him to “go home”.3The voice on the other end of the line belongs to Tyrus, but I think the moment works better if it is ambiguous. I love this scene because it makes Gus seem even more powerful while also subverting audience expectations. Walter may feel in control when he adopts his alter ego, but that doesn’t actually make him competent enough to assassinate Gus – it’s just a hat!
Open House (S4E3)
Skyler reluctantly asks for Saul’s help in purchasing the car wash. Unable to cope with Hank’s unpleasant behaviour, Marie finds comfort in her old kleptomania habit.
I once watched a YouTube review that disparaged this episode as “(the one) dedicated to Marie stealing a souvenir spoon” but rewatching it, I quite liked it. The script gives a lot of agency and screentime to Skyler and Marie, providing a pleasant respite from the conflict between Gus and Walter that has dominated the season thus far. I also enjoy the chemistry that has been developing between Norris and Brandt – they feel more like a couple than they ever have before, even if Hank’s accident has forced the characters to become more antagonistic to one another.
I found Marie’s shoplifting arc to be the least compelling part of Season 1 but I have to commend the writers for finding a way to reintroduce that plot point and make it interesting. Hank has subjected his wife to some absolutely vile behaviour but Marie refuses to push back because she desperately wants to support her husband in his recovery. Unable to find an outlet for the emotional abuse she has been receiving, Marie retreats into fantasy. She attends realtor events so she can pretend to be someone else, stealing keepsakes that have no real value but give her a much-needed sense of catharsis.
Things come to a head when Marie is arrested and has to call Hank for help. We only see Hank’s side of the conversation and get some wonderful acting from Norris – he is initially furious but his expression softens once he realises that he made Marie cry. He agrees to speak to some colleagues in the Albuquerque police department and even though we don’t see the couple reconcile, we can infer from a later scene that Hank realises just how much he screwed up. Marie asks Hank why he hasn’t eaten his lunch and when he replies that he wasn’t hungry, she leaves him some rice pudding. Even though Hank objects, he doesn’t shout at Marie and eventually eats it. Hank isn’t redeemed by any means, but he is trying to do better.
Skyler and Walt also have their own moment of reconciliation in this episode, but it comes at the expense of someone else. Skyler has been trying to purchase the car wash where Walt used to work, believing that it is the most plausible business for her husband to invest in and therefore the safest way to launder money.4Skyler first made this argument back in Abiquiú (Series 3, Episode 11). Proprietor Bogdan is not interested but Skyler refuses to take no for an answer. She first gets Walter to support her proposal by revealing that Bogdan questioned his masculinity, manipulating her husband’s ego.5Walt is of course a grown man who should be able to rise above such nonsense, but my point is that Skyler knew that Walt is sensitive to this kind of insult and was prepared to use that to get her own way. Skyler then commits fraud to make Bogdan believe that he must spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to retrofit his business, thereby forcing him to sell. While I enjoy how much agency Skyler has in these scenes, we cannot lose sight of the fact she succeeded by embracing her worse impulses.
The last thing we see Walt and Skyler do is enjoy a bottle of champagne together, and it is the most affectionate they have been with each other in quite some time. The problem is that Skyler should not be reconciling with this man: he is a liar, a criminal, an abuser. He is a corrupting influence and that is the point of the car wash subplot for me – Skyler would never have cheated or humiliated Bogdan if Walter hadn’t decided to cook crystal meth. There is no happy ending to this story, just an inexorable decline into moral bankruptcy for the both of them.
Odds and Ends
- David Slade was the director for this episode – you might be familiar with his work on the Twilight movies.
- I love Aaron Paul’s world-weary delivery of “getting the shit kicked out of you … not to say you get used to it, but … you do kind of get used to it.”
- I was complimentary of Jesse’s subplot in the previous episode but why did the writers decide to turn his house into a drug den? Jesse lives in a respectable suburb – the police would have been called the moment someone saw an unkempt addict on his property.
- Stand-up comedian Bill Burr plays the fake inspector who tells Bogdan that he needs to close his car wash until he replaces the filtration system. Burr was a fan of Breaking Bad and contacted the production team asking if he could be on the show.
- “What, I’m Nixon now?” – a little bit Walter, a little bit…
Spoilers
- Skyler makes Walt promise to go to the police if he is ever in danger and even though he is irritated by the request, he agrees. Later in this season though he will scream at Skyler for suggesting the same thing – it is why Walt tells his wife that “I am the one who knocks!”