Breaking Bad: Bullet Points

" The ozone layer is already thin because of the cow farts..."

This is a second set-up episode in a row, a brave choice but a necessary one as scenes giving us the appearance of a semblance of order gradually yield to the realisation that Walt is in a chaotic and perilous situattion.

Skyler, in being the brains behind both the car wash and the gambling cover story, is showing herself to be an impressively efficient administrator. Yet the thought has to be admitted that her thirst to impose order arises out of a kind of wishful thinking, a refusal to accept the reality that Waly now leads- and so, behind the curtain, does she. For all the tension- and little character moments between the two of them- as they rehearse their story for the benefit mainly of Hank, there are in reality far bigger things to be afraid of that are (as yet) beyond Skyler's comprehension.

All of which Walt pretty much says to Saul as he ponders the precariousness of his situation, with Hank closing in (I love the chat between Hank and Walt as Hank proudly declares Gale to have been Heisenberg; these scenes of Hank getting close are clever and fun, yet it's not easy writing to keep them nevertheless so plausible. Yet the threat of Hank is as nothing compared to the certainty that Gus will kill both Walt and Jesse if they're not on their best game.

And they aren't, particularly Jesse. His dissolute, squalid lifesryle belies a man who has given up hope, who sees no future and is just waiting out the days until his murder as hedonistically as he can, devoid of meaning or human connection. And the arrival of Mike, lately of arather cool opening sequence, indicates that things are set to reach a crisis point.

This episode is masterful. Next episode looks eventful.