"Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?"
This is a bloody clever, subtle, psychological episode, from the opening char chase with it's fittingly panicked-looking directrion to the final scene with Hank discovering the Los Hermanos Pollos connection.
At a surface level, much of thus episode is on the everyday mundanity of the work required in the meth trade, from cooking to money drops. There are multiple speeded up montages to the same soundtrack. Yet behind it all is tension; what is Gus, the unseen puppetmaster, forever in control with his all-seeing cameras, going to do to Jesse and then to Walt? This season seems to be shaping up to be a contest between the two of them but, at this stage, it's hardly an equal one.
Gus is controlled and controlling, his lack of presence being a sign of strength. He decides, and then stays in the background while his decisions are implemented. Doing, and having to be seen, is for underlings. Not having to be seen is power.
And Gus wins here. The manipulation of Jesse through clever psychology, driving the beginnings of a wedge between him and Walt through divide and rule tactics, works like clockwork. Walt may be having sex with Skyler again (crime is sexy, as in the first season), and be back in the family home,]the proud co-owner of a car wash-cum-money laundromat.
Yet Skyler is still naive, having no idea of the dangers Walt is in. Not least of which is his own tongue, as a tipsy Walt ends up perhaps saying things to Hank that he shouldn't have.
It's going to be fascinating seeing how all this plays out. I'm loving this season.
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