TV RECAP: ‘Breaking Bad: Mas’

Warning: heavy spoilers for this episode ahead. In the world of Breaking Bad, this was a relatively quiet episode.  A lot happened, but it was mostly character driven, not action.

Once again, we begin with a flashback, this time we get to see how that ubiquitous RV was actually acquired.  Shortly after Walt met with Jesse to discuss going into business together, Walt (still sporting a full head of hair) hands over $8500 dollars (which is basically all his money) to get them an RV to cook in.  Jesse takes the money and immediately tries to find the best deal for them.  Nah, I’m just kidding.

Intoxicated by the cash burning a hole in his pocket, Jesse heads to a strip bar, and promptly proceeds to order $400 bottles of “Don-Perri-Don” as he calls it.  He’s cavorting with the now deceased Combo, and the two party their balls off until the sun rises.  When Jesse walks out of the bar, he is dismayed to find that he only has $1400 of the original $8500 left.  Where is he going to find an RV for that measly sum?  Fortunately, Combo knows just the RV, and the deal is done.

Flash forward to real time, and it looks like Hank has found his white whale RV.  He is casing the RV with partner Steven, and since all the windows are covered, he decides to climb up on top of the RV to look through the rooftop window.  When he peers down into the RV, he is greeted with screams by a half naked man and woman who are playing cards in the vehicle.  Doh!  Wrong RV.

Steven reveals that he is moving to El Paso, and Hank tries to act cool about it, but it clearly triggers another fit of anger.  He takes it out (verbally) on wife Marie, when she tries to ask him what the heck is wrong.  Marie got more face time on this episode than I can ever recall, and I did notice that actress Bestsy Brandt did a great job convincing me that she was Skylar’s sister.  She shared some mannerisms with Skylar, and  really surprised me.

Her character is genuinely concerned about her husband, and when she called Skylar later in the episode to lament/voice concerns, my heart went out to her.

Skylar got caught up in the luxury of Ted’s heated bathroom floor before heading back home, where Walt was conducting meth business on a phone in his daughter’s closet.  It was a surreal scene, what with him surrounded by all the dresses and baby clothing (and sitting on a child seat) while discussing drug business.

Walt met  with Gus, with the sole intention of convincing Gus that Jesse should not be employed, particularly while he is in business with himself.  Walt pretends to be outraged that anyone would think he would be meeting with Gus simply out of pride over his meth formula, when we all know that is exactly what is going on.  Again, Walt denies the obvious.  He keeps exclaiming that, “The chemistry must be respected.”

Gus takes Walt to one of his businesses, this one a laundromat/dry cleaning type business.  Walt looks confused as to why they are there, but then Gus takes him downstairs, into the bowels of the building, and there awaits the most state of the art cooking lab any cooker could ever dare dream up.  A fancy  air filtration system assures no odors, and the business receives regular chemical shipments legitimately.  It’s the perfect lab.

I loved how Walt said, “My God”, and it was not out of horror, it was out of reverence.  He couldn’t contain his excitement over the equipment, but he still declined Gus’s offer, citing all his bad decisions in the recent past.

“Why did you make those decisions,” asks Gus.

“For my family,” replies Walt, to which Gus says, “Then they weren’t bad decisions.”

He goes on to explain to Walt that real men provide for their families, even when they are not appreciated or respected.

Back at the White household, there is a family dinner.  Skylar seems to soften a bit this episode, first at the lawyer’s office, where she starts to excuse Walt’s behavior, because he did it for the family.  Next, when Holly is crying, Skylar asks Walt if he would like to pick her up.  He seems shocked, and delighted.

In an earlier scene, Skylar took out the duffel bag of money and gave it a long hard look.  Could it be that she is coming around, and willing to accept Walt’s new occupation?  Doesn’t look like we will find out, because when she comes home from work the next day, she sees that Walt has cleaned out his belongings, including the duffel bag full  of money.  In the crib she finds a signed application of divorce-just what she has been wanting all these weeks.  However, she doesn’t look all that thrilled.

One of the last scenes shows a very bitter Walt chewing up Jesse and spitting him out in Saul’s office.  Walt makes it very clear that Jesse has no shot as long as he is in the game.  Walt is at his chilling best here.

Then, Hank gets a lead on the RV, and finds an incriminating photo with Jesse’s face.

So, do you think Skylar is regretting her decision to divorce Walt?  Did Walt make a choice of cooking over family, and that is why he left the divorce papers?  How bad is Hank going to lose it when the shit hits the fan?

I thought this was a good episode, but I am ready to get back to the action next week, what about you?