Bug (S4E9)

Gus reaches out to Jesse for help in resolving his conflict with the cartel. Meanwhile, Skyler faces a threat to her money laundering scheme.

I enjoyed this episode – everyone had something important to do but especially Jesse, the most underutilised character in Breaking Bad. In fact, I am going to structure this review around Jesse’s scenes and what they reveal about his current state of mind.

We start with a brief conversation between Walter and Jesse outside the laundry. While it reminds the audience yet again that Jesse still has the ricin cigarette, the more interesting revelation is that these two can no longer connect with one another. There was a time when they were friends, but Walt’s refusal to be supportive and take an interest in Jesse’s life has allowed that bond to wither away. A random discussion about Ice Road Truckers is not going to make up for all the emotional labour Walter could not be bothered to do.[footnote]Walt has often acted as a surrogate father to Jesse, and it is noteworthy that in this episode Walt is asked about his real son’s sixteenth birthday and he just lets Skyler do all the work.[/footnote]

A few days later, Jesse is helping to remove any trace of drug residue from the Los Pollos Hermanos poultry farm outside of Albuquerque, as Hank will soon be visiting it as part of his unofficial investigation into Gus.[footnote]Walt warned Mike that this was going to happen after Hank asked for a ride to the facility, giving everyone time to prepare.[/footnote] As Jesse leaves the building, a Mexican sniper kills another worker standing right next to him. While this man turns out to be the only casualty of the attack, the risk of being incriminated finally compels Gus to agree to the cartel’s demands.

That leads us to the next scene, where Jesse is invited to Gus’ house for dinner. There is an obvious parallel to be drawn to when Walt visited back in Abiquiú (Series 3, Episode 11) but the tone of these meetings could not be more different. Walter allowed Gus to dominate the conversation, almost to the point of being obsequious – Jesse meanwhile is much more outspoken and confrontational. He does not let Gus pretend that he is a reasonable businessman having dinner with his employee, instead calling Gus out as the murderer he is and angrily declares that he will die to protect Walt.[footnote]An expression of loyalty that no doubt reminded Gus of his own relationship with Max.[/footnote] It is a moment of profound courage and integrity and possibly Jesse’s finest moment in the entire show.

In a masterful piece of juxtaposition, the writers take us from that moving display of loyalty to the complete breakdown of Jesse and Walt’s relationship. Jesse invites Walter over and tells him that he has to go to Mexico to teach the cartel how to make blue meth, but he might as well be talking to a wall – all Walt can think about is how Jesse failed to poison Gus the night before.[footnote]Walt is aware that Jesse went to Gus’ home because he planted a tracking device on Jesse’s car.[/footnote] He does not see Jesse as a person anymore, only a tool to defeat his opponents – first Gale, and now Gus.

Unfortunately for Walt, when he picks a fight with Jesse, he discovers that he can rely on neither persuasion nor force to win Jesse’s allegiance. Bloody and bruised, Walter is thrown out of his former partner’s house, leaving him without any allies at a time when he needs them more than ever…

Odds and Ends

• It was foolish of Gus to drive between just one branch of Los Pollos Hermanos and his house while Hank was surveilling him, but I interpret that as Gus overcompensating because of the amount of stress he is under. Under better circumstances, he would probably have visited a theatre or a supermarket in order to look less suspicious.
• I’m unsure if this was intentional on the part of the writers but you could interpret Walt calling the cops on Tyrus as a white man exploiting police racism for his own benefit.
• I liked the little callback to Problem Dog (Series 4, Episode 7), with Skyler entering fake transactions of around $50.[footnote]Gus pays Walter in unlaundered fifty dollar bills – out of spite I imagine…[/footnote]
• Jesse’s conversation with Mike at the poultry farm annoyed me. I know that Jesse is probing for information, but it is a really clumsy way to provide the audience with exposition. I don’t think it is information we even need to be honest – if you haven’t watched any other episodes, you can easily guess that Walt would be furious if his brother-in-law was murdered!
• I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the Ted subplot, but it is excellent and I really appreciate the parallel to Walt’s story. Skyler overlooked that Ted was committing tax fraud back in Mandala (Series 2, Episode 11), allowing herself to be persuaded by excuses of saving a business that sustains a family of employees. That one moment of moral compromise has led to Ted potentially destroying Skyler’s life and the man doesn’t even have the brains to realise what he has done.

• The same week this episode was broadcast, the first three seasons of Breaking Bad became available on Netflix. We don’t need to get into how streaming revolutionised the television industry but suffice it to say, AMC would never agree to an arrangement like this today – there was a very brief window where executives thought platforms like Netflix would supplement their incomes, rather than be their biggest competitors.[footnote]It wasn’t a particularly good deal for the actors either – Aaron Paul revealed in a 2023 CNN interview that Netflix have never paid him any residuals for Breaking Bad![/footnote]

Salud (S4E10)

Gus, Mike and Jesse travel to Mexico to deal with the cartel. Back in Albuquerque, Walt misses his son’s sixteenth birthday party.

One of the reasons I find Breaking Bad so fascinating is its discussion of toxic masculinity, and that might explain why I love this episode – pretty much every scene is about men and how they manage their emotions. That said, I am afraid we will be dedicating a substantial portion of this review to the problematic way the writers empathise with some male characters and not others, and how that divide reflects American racism and xenophobia.

I’m not trying to defend the honour of the cartels – Mexico clearly has a serious problem with organised crime, although some academics have argued that monopolistic cartels with distinct territory are a myth used to justify state repression – but it shocks me how much of a double standard the writers employ when it comes to illegal activity. Some people (usually white) can be forgiven while others (usually non-white) are irredeemable. Mike can leave the police and become an assassin-for-hire but it doesn’t matter because he loves his granddaughter – his Mexican equivalent however is a thug who can be poisoned or garroted without remorse. It is not hard to link this attitude (and there are so many examples of it in popular media) to the horrific violence currently being inflicted by the United States at its southern border.

I understand that I am being quite harsh on the writers – the scene is supposed to be about Gus taking revenge on an organisation that murdered his friend (and possibly lover) and that moment is extremely satisfying. My issue is that Breaking Bad used to be a show defined by its morally-complicated antagonists, and somewhere along the way the writers became less interested in that.[footnote]If I had to pick a single episode when this change occurred, it would be No Más (Season 3, Episode 1) – this is when Tuco’s supernaturally-invulnerable cousins were first introduced.[/footnote] I know it is considered bad form to criticise a writer by saying what they should have done instead of focusing on what they actually made, but can you imagine a version of Breaking Bad that humanised the cartel in the same way as Jesse, Krazy-8 or even Tuco in his final appearance? We could have explored the flow of firearms to the cartels from poorly-regulated American gun stores or how NAFTA undermined Mexican agriculture and pushed farmers into low-paid employment and criminal activity. It would have been a better show.[footnote]This was my problem with Pluribus – it raises all these extremely interesting questions about global inequality, individualism and autonomy and then pushes them aside to focus on interpersonal drama.[/footnote]

I think the main reason the cartel subplot frustrates me in this particular episode is because it is placed alongside an extremely emotional reconciliation between Walter and his son. Bear in mind that our protagonist is an abusive husband and a murderer – he doesn’t deserve a satisfying relationship with his children. That ultimately doesn’t matter though, because you can do bad things and still possess good qualities and connect with other people. In short, Walt is a human being while Don Eladio and his fellow cartel members are just caricatures.

Walter’s conversation with his son demands a bit more discussion, because this scene tells us so much about these characters and their attitude to the world around them. In a contemporary interview with The A.V. Club, Gilligan said they often found it hard to include Walt Jr. in the story because he represents the innocence and normality of family life, the thing his parents have now turned their backs on. That worked to the writer’s advantage in this episode though, as he is able to be a stabilising presence for his injured and crying father. The next morning, ashamed of his moment of weakness, Walter tells his son a story that provides a fascinating insight into our protagonist.

We discover that Walter’s father died prematurely from Huntington’s disease, and Walt only remembers him as an emaciated man lying on his deathbed. I found a LiveJournal essay with an excellent take on this scene so rather than plagiarise it, I’ll share their words in this review:

“It’s clearly an important memory (for Walt), and it’s about his terror of a man “empty” as he dies. That sight of naked weakness has haunted him his whole life. He’s sharing it with Junior because he’s terrified Junior’s memory of him after he dies will be the way he was the night before, weak, lost, unsure. But Junior responds that remembering Walt that way wouldn’t be bad at all (because) “at least last night you were…you were real, y’know?” Walt’s repulsed by the truth, Junior’s repulsed by the mask.”

The author then links Walt Jr.’s acceptance of mortality and weakness to his experience of disability, which made it impossible for him to deny human frailty.[footnote]Walt Jr. has cerebral palsy, as does the actor RJ Mitte who portrays him.[/footnote] It is certainly an interesting question to ponder – is the “Heisenberg” persona primarily motivated by greed or is it a response to a deep-seated fear of appearing weak?

Odds and Ends

• Jesse suddenly insulting the cartel chemist felt a bit incongruous to me – he isn’t proud of the fact he makes crystal meth for a living – but I suppose you could interpret it as Jesse using bravado in order to protect himself from punishment.[footnote]Jesse needs the cartel chemist to make phenylacetic acid for him as he is unable to create it himself.[/footnote]
• A cynical person would argue that Skyler giving Ted over $600,000 without talking to her husband first is a plothole, but it makes perfect sense considering how Walt has been acting recently. He told Hank to keep searching for Heisenberg, bought expensive items the family shouldn’t be able to afford and just missed his son’s birthday without explanation. Skyler needs Ted to pay the IRS right now – she doesn’t have time to consult her emotionally-unstable husband!
• Walt says that he took “painkillers that I had left over from my surgery (washed) down with a couple of beers.” Assuming that those tablets were opioids, does that mean he tried to commit suicide? It wouldn’t be the first time.[footnote]My partner would like me to point out that Walt might not be suicidal but could be undertaking extremely risky behaviour due to depression or trauma.[/footnote]
• Walter accidentally calls his son “Jesse” as he falls asleep – blunt yet effective storytelling.
• Some reviewers compared this episode to Fly (Series 3, Episode 10) as Walt once again needs drugs to become emotionally vulnerable. I don’t think that’s correct though – he willingly tells Walt Jr. about his father’s death and is sober by the time he does it.
• Ted’s behaviour is absolutely infuriating – pretending that he can restart his business and talk the IRS out of prosecuting him – but it is more understandable when you realise that he is in denial.[footnote]What Ted should do is pay off his IRS debts and then immediately declare bankruptcy – that is obviously going to be a humiliating and unpleasant experience, but he will have avoided a prison sentence for wilful tax fraud.[/footnote] A man deciding that he can just ignore his problems until they go away isn’t exactly unheard of…
• Gus taking off his jacket and placing a towel on the floor before he forces himself to vomit is a wonderful piece of characterisation.
• The crew had hoped to secure product placement for the tequila that poisoned Don Eladio, but none of the companies they approached were interested – guess they didn’t want to be associated with a mass poisoning…

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