Breaking Half: "ABQ"

Bryan Cranston

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 2, Episode 13

"ABQ"

*NOTE: This is the blooper reel for season 2 as found on the DVD under special features.

"I woke up. I found her. That's all I know."

-Mike (Jonathan Banks)

Upon finding Jane (Krysten Ritter) dead from an overdose, Jesse (Aaron Paul) decides to have one of Saul's men, Mike (Jonathan Banks) come and help him out by clearing out the drugs. Meanwhile, Jane's father (John de Lancie) is having trouble coping with the loss. This leads him to becoming a wreck. The Save Walter White website is starting to get a considerable amount of money, which causes the local newspaper to interview Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte) and the family about the cause. This helps a great deal for everyone but Walter (Bryan Cranston). While under anesthesia, he tells Skyler (Anna Gunn) about another cell phone, which causes her to leave him at the end of the episode. Meanwhile, the D.E.A. is thinking that Combo is related to the Heisenberg case. Walter tries to help Jesse by taking him to a bath house, but he is clearly shaken up, blaming himself for the death. The episode ends with Jane's father, still traumatized, doing his job as an air traffic controller, but causing two planes to collide. This results in a massive scene of destruction that recalls the opening scenes of the episodes "Seven-Thirty-Seven," "Down,""Over, and this one: "ABQ." If there was any doubt that this show was brilliantly constructed, just dissect those titles for the big season 2 arch.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Left to right: Cranston and Aaron Paul

MVP: Tie - Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Jane's father (John de Lancie)

It was tough deciding who would be the front runner in this bang of a finale. The best answer would have to be one of those that ended up the most affected by change. While it introduced us to Mike and teased about Gus' relationship with the D.E.A., it was the men in Jane's life that had one hell of a ride. Jesse just lost it and has continued an amazing streak of acting since "Down." Meanwhile, we get the better sense of Jane's father's disappointment and regret. Sadly, the Margolis family isn't long for this show, but they've provided some of the most earnest emotions that we've seen in the series. It was tragic, and John de Lancie manages to pull off heartache so well that even with limited dialogue, he manages to make it count. 

Best scene: Whatever you do, please listen to the Breaking Bad Insider Podcast on this episode. The final scene in which a plane crashes and the camera zooms in over the city of Albuquerque is not only visually impressive, but the way it was shot is even more fun to hear about. Vince Gilligan and crew talk about what it took to make it. Also, it tied everything together in a very unique way in a season that saw a junkie get his head beat in with an ATM machine and a decapitated head rode on an exploding tortoise. The series is all about pushing the envelope and possibly even more on going out with a bang. This imagery is immediately shocking and different as well as poignant not only to the plot by symbolizing Walter's selfishness in a grandiose manner, but also just in the show's plotting (just read the cryptic episode titles mentioned above).

Come back tomorrow when we recap next season's premiere "No Mas"