Breaking Bad: Down

 "That was before my housing situation went totally testicular on me, ok?"

This is another cleverlt structured episode, with Walt and Jesse given perfectly contrasting parallel dilemmas in an episode which very much focuses on the drama as opposed to terrifying excitement. It's also an episode which shows even further what a superb double act Walt and Jesse have already become, to the credit of bot actors: we all know Bryan Cranston is extraordinary, but so is Aaron Paul.

After an artily shot beginning the two paallel narratives begin, reflecting cleverly upon each other. Walt is desperate to stay at home for a while to allay Skyler's suspicions, meaning no more cooking for a good while. Alas, it also means some bad lying from Walt- he comes across as far too desperate and secretive about the second phone thing, and Skyler isn't stupid. He's trapped, and his family life seems to be slipping away, as shown most subtly where e fails to connect with his son while trying to tach him to drive. I suspect, by the end of the season, Walt will no longer be with his family as for him to be a family man, while doing what he does, is simply not sustainable. Yet it's the very thing that gives his life meaning in the first place.

Jesse, meanwhile, is summarily evicted by his long-suffering parents, and is suddenly reduced to desperate sofa surfing. There's a nicely huanced scene of him in the house of an old man, now married with a young son, with the massive culture clash between them made awkwardly clear. Jesse needs to start cooking pretty damn quickly. And he needs Walt, as is made very clear indeed by the end.

I think I know where this is going- to the full transition from family life to one of criminal ambition. The scene between Jesse and his old mate illustrates how one cannot have both. But this is, again, a superb bit of telly.