Breaking Half: "Dead Freight"

Left to Right: Jonathan Banks, Bryan Cranston, and Aaron Paul

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.

*Originally published on August 13, 2012

Season 5, Episode 5

"Dead Freight"

"Everyone sounds like Meryl Streep with a gun to their head."

-Mike (Jonathan Banks)

After last week's discovery that the methylamine tanks have been traced, the team begins a quest to find out if Lydia (Laura Fraser) was responsible for this. Walter (Bryan Cranston) puts tracers in Hank's (Dean Norris) office and forces Lydia to call to prove that she didn't do it. It turns out that the Houston D.E.A. division did it. Meanwhile, Walter's home life isn't so great, as Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte) is not taking life with Hank and Marie (Betsy Brandt) so well. After this, Walter, Mike (Jonathan Banks) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) go on a quest to find a new supply by strategically robbing a train in a no signal area on it's way from Long Beach. With the help of a Vamanos Pest employee named Todd (Jesse Plemons) and Kuby (Bill Burr), they set about stopping a train and getting what they need. Walter pulls it a little too close and almost kills his coworkers. However, when it is discovered that there is a nearby child who witnessed it, Todd shoots him. 

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Left to right: Laura Fraser and Banks

MVP: Jesse

While the overall heist may seem like a bit of a stretch, it is keeping with the tradition that Walter screws things up. He comes the closest that he ever has to killing Jesse and Todd by waiting until the last second for them to finish their duties. However, Jesse proved to be the smarts behind this operation by having a well thought out way to make it seem inconspicuous. He finally carries himself for the first time this season and reminds the audience why he is such a vital character to the series. He finally gets his due.

Best scene: Easily the extensive heist of the methylamine. At no point was it believable that these guys could actually pull it off and to see them achieve that is nothing short of a miracle. However, with Walter growing ever greedier, I worry that he is close to axing off Jesse and Mike by his hotheadedness. While the scene is elaborate, it actually kind of works out and the twists that come from Kuby's involvement is a nice touch. Of course, the defining touch that shows that things are a little askew is the death of the poor child, whose story only involve capturing a spider. This is a dangerous world, and if Todd is willing to kill a child, who knows if he'll do worse.

Come back tomorrow when we recap "Buyout"