 |
| Giancarlo Esposito |
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 4, Episode 9
"Bug"
"That is not what I asked you. You are here because
circumstances with the Cartel are unteneable and I need
your help. I need you to help prevent an all-out war."
-Gus (Giancarlo Esposito)
Hank (Dean Norris) checks in with the tracker that he placed on Gus' (Giancarlo Esposito), which turns out to only be going back and forth to his house. After doing some research, he discovers the warehouse where Walter (Bryan Cranston) works and wants to pay it a visit, but Walter refuses. He informs everyone, but they aren't happy to hear that news. Walter wants Jesse (Aaron Paul) to get rid of Gus already as he grows more and more suspicious about his actions with Mike (Jonathan Banks). The cartel is continuing to interfere with operations and forces Gus to want to make a deal with them. This involves Jesse getting Walter's formula and teaching it to people in Mexico. Meanwhile, Ted (Christopher Cousins) is having some tax problems and calls on Skyler (Anna Gunn) to cover it up. She does, but it involves Ted paying some expenses to keep her lie from spreading. At Gus' house, Jesse has trouble getting Gus to take the ricin, as he is under constant surveillance. When he tells Walter everything, it doesn't go well, as Walter reveals that he tracked Jesse's visit and that he is now paranoid that he is losing Jesse to Gus and thus closer to be being killed off. Jesse insists that Walter leave and never come back into his life.
Rating: 4 out of 5
 |
| Aaron Paul |
As stated in the episode, over the course of a month, Jesse went from an unreliable junkie to someone that Gus personally trusts. In this episode, he is basically facing the moral dilemma of going to Mexico or staying with Walter, which seems to be their relationship's last move. It is also fascinating to watch him as he moves through the world and experience the cartel kill an innocent man and almost shoot him. There's this sense that the hard outer shell that was Jesse early on is gone and that what we have is a scared man who is loyal to the right people, but is still not looking forward to having a gun in his face everyday.
 |
| Top: Aaron Paul, Bottom: Bryan Cranston |
Best scene: This is a very cathartic episode for Jesse. He goes from being Walter's whipping boy to being somewhat independent. Even if he still wants to kill Gus, he can't stand Walter's nagging and consistent paranoia. Now that he has the approval of Mike, he is able to just beat up Walter without any problem whatsoever. This is a nice change of pace from the earlier seasons where Walter just manipulated him into working over and over for him. Even in a brief moment that recalls "Down," this fight is almost showing a new victor in the fight. Jesse is his own man, and he doesn't need Walter telling him what to do.
Come back tomorrow when we recap "Salud"
Comments
Post a Comment