“It’s for defense … defense,” Walt says, assuring himself early in “Thirty-Eight Snub” that the serial number–less thirty-eight snub that he’s bought from an underground gun dealer is not meant to enable his descent into unambiguous murder. It’s not a mindblowing deception, but it beats the house. Using his cover, Walt’s able to learn more about Hank’s case against the now-deceased Gale. Walt has a gambling problem-or at least that’s what they announce, going so far as to visit Gamblers Anonymous meetings to sell their ruse. This script, she posits, is their best chance of flying under the radar. Skyler, knowing how hard it will be to explain how she and Walt had the means to buy the car wash to Hank, provides her husband with a list of bullet points. Pulling a con on your brother-in-law who also happens to be a DEA officer obsessed with tracking you, the blue meth kingpin of New Mexico, down, is another. This one ultimately starts Jesse and Mike down a path toward an elusive commodity that is in short supply for both men: something resembling friendship. The whole thing turns out to be another Machiavellian maneuver by Gus Fring-they set Jesse up to be the “hero” and manufacture a situation where he “saves” Mike, thus building Jesse’s confidence and hopefully steering him away from Walt and into their camp-but as with so many of these schemes, there are unintended consequences. That leads to all sorts of pick-and-roll conversational humor, including Jesse and Mike arguing over whether the former can smoke in the latter’s car (Mike declines the request in no uncertain Mike-like terms) and a declaration by Jesse that since he’s riding shotgun with Mike he must be Mike’s guy now (again, a hard on-brand no from Mike). Much to his surprise (and ours), Jesse spends the day doing pick-ups with Mike, complete with a music montage set to Ana Tijoux’s killer “1977,” which might be the best song the series ever used. But what we get here is the buddy cop comedy we didn’t know we needed. There are lots of two-man team-ups in Breaking Bad. So by the time Jesse and Walt begin their brawl, we know we’re watching the disintegration of the last honest relationship on the show. Gus is still alive and finding his cook increasingly troublesome. Skyler is pressuring Walt to make a plan to get out of the meth business. Hank is trying to make a trip to the Pollos Hermanos Factory Farm. In “Bug,” the walls are clearly closing in on Walt. Just compare it to the comical toilet fight from Season 1 and you’ll see how much things have changed. The scene doesn’t look like a junkie and a schoolteacher getting in an argument it looks like two desperate men trying to kill each other. There is eye-gouging, there is cheek-pulling, pieces of furniture are used as weapons. The last time Jesse and Walt come to blows is hard to watch. “Jesse tells me you were very brave,” Walt tells him, warmly, but the moment they’re alone together, he eyes the child icily, murderously. Here, Brock doesn’t recognize the man who almost killed him. This episode also marks what seems in the moment to be the first time that Walt meets Brock, Andrea’s young son, who survived a poisoning at the end of Season 4-one that Walt blamed on Fring, but which Jesse suspected, and later learns for certain, was actually Walt’s doing. They team up with a pest control company, whose employees-most notably the dreaded Todd (Jesse Plemons)-have their own criminal tendencies. Having tied up the last of the Gus Fring empire, Walt and Jesse launch their own meth business in earnest-with the help of Mike, now their third partner. We start this two-week-long journey-where else?-with a ranking of every episode of Breaking Bad. And because there’s much to recap-and celebrate-before the movie’s premiere on October 11, The Ringer is here to recall some of Breaking Bad ’s highs, remember some of the show’s most important characters and plots, and speculate on where we may be headed. Now, Albuquerque’s underground world is opening up once again with El Camino, a film that will explore Jesse Pinkman’s aftermath following the events of the series finale. Chips to Scarface,” and bringing to a close five seasons of propulsive, groundbreaking Golden Age TV. Remember “I am the one who knocks”? Remember “Two men are coming to kill you”? Remember “Yeah bitch! Magnets!”? Six years ago, Breaking Bad aired its final episode, concluding Walter White’s arc from “Mr.
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