"It's all, like, shiny up in here."
Once again we have a devilishly clever episode which gets even cleverer at the very end. On the surface it's about Walt juggling two worlds: one where he's under pressure to deliver his meh quota; and another where he has family obligations to wait at the hospital with the family as Hank fights for his life. Yet there's so much going on beneath the surface of the deceptively simple plot, and we discover that literally everyone is but a fly in Gus' web.
Jesse basically spends the episode being a ridiculous dick, with Aaron Paul's facial expression when he discovers what happened to Hank being utterly priceless. And his arrival in the lab at exactly the wrong moment while Walt (not Heisenberg!) is bullshitting badly to Gale is hilarious. I'm calling it now; Gale is to become a future antagonist and Walt will regret treagting him so shabbily.
Elsewhere we have hints at a connection between Walt and Marie, which is interesting. We have a truly terrifying horror scene where the surviving brother sees Walt, leaves his hospital bed and crawls, legless and bleeding on the floor, towards Walt. We have a uniquely straightforward opening. And we have Walt Jr telling his dad about a book Hank got him- Walt being out-fathered by a man fighting for his life.
Yet all that is overshadowed by the end, with Gus humiliating Walt and subtly letting him know that he knows everything, and proceeding to kill the remaining brother (and only witness as to who ordered the hit on Hank) before almost casually having his rival killed. We now realise just how dangerous Gus is... and yet, with the trajectory of Breaking Bad being towards bigger and bigger scale, I expect one day he will have Walt for a rival...
A superb episode, and superb performances all round.
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