Breaking Half: "Hermanos"

Left to right: Giancarlo Esposito and James Martinz
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 8
"Hermanos"


"Listen to me. The only reason you are alive 
and he is not...is because I know who you are. 
But understand. You are not in Chile anymore."
-Don Eladio (Steven Bauer)

Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) is brought in for questioning about his connection to Gale. Since he has a reputation of being friends with the D.E.A., his story is believable and he is off the hook. That is, until Hank (Dean Norris) thinks that Gus was not being honest about his Chilean background. He tries to have Walter (Bryan Cranston) plant a tracker on his car, but Gus knows and it defuses the plan. Walter tries to talk to Jesse (Aaron Paul) about finding a way to get Hank off of his trail, but he doesn't care. The less losers in his life, the better. Saul (Bob Odenkirk) gives Andrea (Emily Rios) and Brock (Ian Postada) money that Jesse wants them to have, as he is still afraid to talk to them. Gus tries to talk to Tio (Mark Margolis), but he refuses. There is history between them in which he killed his partner Max (James Martinez) when he talked to drug kingpin of Mexico Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) about joining partnership. They were heading up from Chile and after a business meeting goes wrong, Max is dead and they leave Gus alive with the hope of instilling fear into his soul of never messing with them again.


Rating: 4.5 out of 5


MVP: Gus (Giancarlo Esposito)
This episode is essentially the great story of a man named Gus. Up to this point, we knew very little about him other than he'll kill anyone who stands in his way. But now there is this sense that so much more is going down. He hates Tio, but for good reasons. From his smooth interrogation that begins the episode to the flashback where he builds a hard, outer shell, we fully understand why Gus seems to be distant and at times almost too anal about his work. He's had a rough life and the fact that he is still selling in order to spite the cartel is impressive. For those that love Gus, this is pretty much the best episode that the show has done to date on him.


Best scene: While the episode is jam packed with memorable moments, the flashback cements something in the story that wasn't there before. We didn't know where Gus came from or why he was so distant. In a way, it is hard to watch the scene and not have a sense that they were the prototype for Jesse and Walter and may very well reflect the ultimate demise of the series. Still, what starts off as an innocent conversation evolves into Max's death (fun fact: Max's last name is Arsiniega, which is a play on actor Max Arciniega, who played Krazy-8 in season 1). No matter what, there is nothing more haunting than the notion of Gus being shoved onto the pavement of a pool and forced to watch his partner's head bleed. It is hardcore, and I feel a direct homage to The Godfather Part II. Whether it is or not, we come away from this experience wanting to give Gus a big hug and hope for the future.



Come back tomorrow when we recap "Bug"

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