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| Matt Jones |
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 8"Better Call Saul"
"Conscience gets expensive, doesn't it?"
-Saul (Bob Odenkirk)
After Badger (Matt Jones) gets arrested for selling drugs to a cop named Getz (D.J. Qualls), Walter (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) do everything they can to keep him from revealing Heisenberg's identity. This results them in hiring a criminal lawyer named Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), who through bribes, manages to cheat the system and get Badger off the hook, provided that someone takes the rat for Heisenberg. During a stakeout, Badger is set to sell to Jimmy 'N-in-Out (Jimmy Daniels), a man who likes prison and is willing to pose as Heisenberg. Meanwhile, Walter stalls Hank (Dean Norris) by trying to talk about his recent trauma during the stakeout, which has gone a little haywire due to Badger sitting at the wrong bench. Jesse fixes everything and the man is arrested. However, despite keeping his identity secret, Saul manages to figure out who Walter is and tells him to join forces with him to get better security. Meanwhile, Jesse and Jane (Krysten Ritter) are getting more romantically involved and have bought a mattress so that they don't need to sleep on the building's hard wooden floors. In a moment of passion, they decide to make out on top of the plastic wrapping.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
MVP: Saul (Bob Odenkirk)
There's a reason that the episode is named after him. This shoddy lawyer has his fingerprints over every minute of this episode. Whether it be in person or on a park bench, the presence of Saul is quickly discovered and he is one smarmy, witty guy who manages to cheat his way to success with every client. He is sarcastically hilarious and seems to undermine everything at every corner. In fact, it is also great to see another voice added to the series that knows business. Where Walter knows chemistry and Jesse knows how to sell, Saul knows how to cover tracks, and what he does in this episode is an amazing introduction of what's to come.
Best scene: What I love is how this show incorporates elements of westerns into their work. This episode has one of the show's best and earliest examples of this fusion with drama in the climactic drug deal, including great Mexican music and a consistent touch and go sense of peril. It may have cars instead of horses, but the standoff over Badger's arrest is by no means nothing short of tense and incredible thanks to the quick thinking that this show applies to saving their own hides and getting out of tough corners.
Come back tomorrow when we cover "4 Days Out"
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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| Bob Odenkirk |
There's a reason that the episode is named after him. This shoddy lawyer has his fingerprints over every minute of this episode. Whether it be in person or on a park bench, the presence of Saul is quickly discovered and he is one smarmy, witty guy who manages to cheat his way to success with every client. He is sarcastically hilarious and seems to undermine everything at every corner. In fact, it is also great to see another voice added to the series that knows business. Where Walter knows chemistry and Jesse knows how to sell, Saul knows how to cover tracks, and what he does in this episode is an amazing introduction of what's to come.
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| Left to right: Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston |
Come back tomorrow when we cover "4 Days Out"
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