Breaking Half: "Cat's in the Bag"

Left to right: Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul

Are you tired of long, tedious accounts of Breaking Bad episode recaps? Then look no further than Breaking Half: a weekly column that takes the good and bad from each week's episode of Breaking Bad and dilutes it down to the core necessities. Each Monday, Breaking Half will attempt to take a few key moments from the episode and boil it down to one juicy paragraph.

Season 1, Episode 2

"Cat's in the Bag"

*NOTE: With the hindsight of fan videos having been made to parody aspects of Breaking Bad, I will occasionally be throwing these in when I feel that they are worth checking out. I will also let you know, as to not mislead you with videos of footage that is altered from the actual episode.

"I'm sorry, what were you asking me? Oh, yes, that stupid plastic 

container I asked you to buy. You see, hydrofluoric acid won't eat 

through plastic; it will however dissolve metal, rock, glass,ceramic. 

So there's that."

-Walter White (Bryan Cranston)

Following the events of "Pilot," Walter (Bryan Cranston) is seen after having sex with Skyler (Anna Gunn). He decides to go to the bathroom naked, where he ends up collapsing on the floor. Meanwhile, during flashback to hours earlier, Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Walter are in a conundrum on how to dispose of the bodies left by Emilio (John Koyama) and Krazy 8 (Max Arciniega), who they killed off in the previous episode, or so they think. Krazy 8 survived and after being stored in Jesse's basement, the two begin trying to figure out how to dispose of the rotting carcass in the RV. In between chemistry classes at J.P. Wynne High School. After Jesse calls Walter's house, Skyler begins getting suspicious and discovers that he is supposedly selling her husband pot the same day that she finds out the sex of her baby: female. In order to dispose of the body, Walter has Jesse go to the store to buy plastic containers, as hydrofluoric acid doesn't burn through it. He doesn't buy anything, as none of the containers are big enough. Instead, he decides to use his bathtub, which causes it to rust through the floorboards, causing a new series of problems. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Paul

MVP: Jesse (Aaron Paul)

While there is argument to be made that Walter is still helping to define the show, we are starting to get a sense of who Jesse is. From his MyShout page to the panic of an ignorant chemistry class dropout trying to dispose of a body disastrously, he held his own in this episode. Whether he was convinced that plastic containers cannot hold an entire body or dealing with Skyler, Jesse proved here that he was a character that Vince Gilligan and the staff were smart in keeping around.

Left to right: Cranston and Arciniega

Best scene: While this is a relatively more somber episode, it is still packed with plenty of memorable moments. It is also interesting to observe how Walter handled captives during the early go before he became pure evil. The scene in which he attends to Krazy 8's need for water, food, and toiletries shows probably the most innocent that Walter will be when it comes to doing chaotic and devious deeds. The line in which Krazy 8 asks about Emilio and Walter just walks away is one of those heartbreaking moments, as a crazy drug dealer just somehow came off as sympathetic. While many would argue that the bathtub scene was more memorable, this moment of kindness probably is necessary to juxtapose everything that follows.



Come back tomorrow for a recap of the episode "... And the Bag's in the River"