Breaking Half: "Cornered"

Anna Gunn

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 6

"Cornered"

*Note: This is an edited video of the infamous monologue from this episode as done by comedian Gilbert Gottfried.

"I am the one who knocks."

-Walter (Bryan Cranston)

Skyler (Anna Gunn) is getting worried about Walter (Bryan Cranston) after she connects that maybe Gale is connected to him. When Walter assures her that he is not in danger, it only makes her more frightened. Walter feels apologetic about it, but cannot tell her. Instead, he buys Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte) a car. Meanwhile, Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) are continuing to work together on pickups. This frustrates Walter and causes him to rebel by having maids from the laundry service upstairs from the super meth lab clean the lab for him. This doesn't go over well, as Tyrus (Ray Campbell) comes in and puts them on a bus to Honduras by Gus' (Giancarlo Esposito) orders. Mike and Jesse are now going after two meth heads who have stolen some of their product. Mike wants to play the waiting game, but Jesse decides to take action by manipulating them. They get the product back, but they believe it is some sort of message from the cartel, as written on the cap of the product. During dinner, Mike tells Gus about Jesse's good job, and Gus finally respects Jesse. Skyler, contemplating leaving New Mexico, decides to stay to keep the cover story together and run the recently purchased car wash. She takes action and takes the car from Walt Jr., leaving Walter to feel like he is emasculated for not pleasing his son. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Bryan Cranston

MVP: Walter (Bryan Cranston)
Here's the thing about Walter at this point. He is mostly ego and Heisenberg has stripped out everything about the Walter we knew. His speech, which most would call "The One Who Knocks Speech," establishes him as this corporate giant and fearsome person. Nobody will stand in his way, even if he knocks out a few people to do so. The rest of the episode is him rebelling against the system with laundry ladies and buying his son a new, expensive car. This is Walter officially going insane as Heisenberg. All he wanted to do was be respected, and when he couldn't get that, he bought his way there. "The One Who Knocks" rightfully reflects just how far he went to get there and how far down he's probably going to go after this.

Left to right: Aaron Paul and Blake Berris

Best scene: For my money, it would be impossible to not see Walter's monologue as his easy in for the Emmy. However, the brevity does make it hard to constitute calling it the best scene. The best performance, maybe. However, this is a moment of triumph for Jesse and he officially becomes more than a sidekick in the whole operation. Using his knowledge of meth heads, he convinces them to follow his command and while it feels reminiscent of "Peekaboo" just a little, this time it feels like he is in control and everything will work out. While Tucker (Blake Berris) goes down easily, there's Scary Skell (Damon Herriman) with a shotgun posing a threat. It is a scene where tension consistently builds, but eventually pays off. From this moment on, Gus respects Jesse, and that will probably only hurt Walter more.



Come back tomorrow when we recap "Problem Dog"