Breaking Bad: Sunset

 "This is my own private domicile and I will not be harrassed. Bitch!"

Wow. Breaking Bad is consistently bloody good, but this is easily the best single episode yet. It's simply extraordinary in how it inexorably builds up to that scene where Hank has Jesse and (although Hank doesn't know) and Walt at his apparent mercy in the RV. The script seems to drive events into a corner, with Hank certain to discover Walt… and then cleverly, plausibly, and with much wit, manages to withdraw from that corner. It’s a magnificent scene.

There’s so much to love in this episode, right from the first, tinted, suspense-filled and quietly terrifying scene reminding us what inexorable killers the brothers are to the final scene where Gus- an extraordinarily controlled performance from Giancarlo Esposito- solves the Walt problem by allowing the brothers to go after Hank, in a nice twist.

There’s also Walt’s first day as a salaried employee as he really bonds with his assistant over how the chemistry is “magic”; the two of them come across as alchemists in the almost mystical reverence they have for their art. There’s the interesting commingling of Walt and Heisenberg throughout this episode in a way that hasn’t quite been seen before. There’s Jesse answering the phone with a still-deferential “Mr White”? Amongst all the twists and turns there are so many exquisite little character moments.

Most of all, though, there’s Walt’s cleverness with that scene. Which is only as clever as the writer…