Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 3: 'Hazard Pay' Review

Tweet

As always, this review will contain spoilers, you have been warned.


Another solid episode in what is shaping up to be an excellent start to Breaking Bad's final season. This episode featured less action than the ones preceding it, but it more than made up for it with superior storytelling. The other two episodes showed how Walt was covering his tracks, in this one we got to see how Mike would go about covering his now that he is back in the game. What we got was an interesting scene of Mike talking to one of "his guys" about "making him whole" (this episode featured so many great quotes it was hard to count) with hazard pay; hazard pay is basically money provided in return for keeping one's mouth shut about an illegal operation. As far as characters go, you have to appreciate Mike, he is fiercely loyal, intelligent, and careful. You get the sense that, if he wanted to, Mike could be the kingpin of his own empire. What started off as a minor character (at best) has evolved into one of the main figures of the story.

Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 2: 'Madrigal' Review

Tweet

As always, there will be spoilers  in this review, you have been warned.


Now that was a really good episode. The pacing, tone, story, and acting (acting has never actually been in question with this series, but it still warrants mentioning) were all top notch. I don't think that it is merely coincidence that the formula: less Skyler = better episode came into play here. As I have stated before, Skyler's story-lines only seem to get in the way of the main plot, while at the same time managing to be horrendously boring and uninteresting. Less Skyler means more Mike, a really under-rated character in my opinion, I get that what he does is popular among breaking bad fans, but his actual character might be the best one on the show. I will touch on that point as I go through the episode in more detail.

Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 1:Live Free Or Die Review

Tweet

Be warned, there are spoilers ahead. So if you have not seen the episode you should probably stop reading this right now... unless you like spoilers in which case keep reading.
Quick tangent:  AMC decided to split season 5 into two parts. As if it wasn't bad enough that we had to sit through endless promos for the garbage that is 'small town security' throughout the season premiere. Finding out that this 'season' will only have 8 episodes this summer, then conclude with 8 episodes next summer did not make for a fun night, but I digress

After a long wait (seriously, it felt like forever) we can finally watch Breaking Bad again. The season premiere wasted no time and quickly picked up right from where we last left the show but not before treating us to a scene from the future. We know that Breaking Bad is not afraid to flash forward and show glimpses of where the current plot may be going (remember the pink teddy bear from the plane collision in season 2?) and the scene they showed was very interesting indeed. Seeing Walt buying an M-60 on his fifty-second birthday using an alias in New Hampshire obviously brings up a lot of questions, but those are probably questions that we wont have answered until the summer of 2013 when part two of season 5 is set to air.

Following the flash-forward scene, we got to the immediate aftermath of last season's finale.The writers did their best to answer many lingering questions from last season, including what happened to Ted. The answer to that one probably made many fans let out an audible groan. I've hated all story points involving Ted and Skyler so far and that trend continued in this episode. I really hate to start the review here, but I really want to get this out of the way before moving on to the good stuff. I pointed out before how incredibly stupid it was for Skyler to support Ted and try to save him from the IRS precisely because of what happened in this episode. Obviously Ted is going to be blackmailing Skyler which is just going to bring more complications (ones they easily could have avoided). At this point I hope Mike sneaks into the hospital and cuts his head off.

Whew!, now on to the story lines you actually care about. Walt quickly moves to destroy any remaining evidence that could be used against him. He cleans up the materials he used to make the bomb that killed Gus and he gets rid of the 'Lily of the Valley' plant that he used to poison Brock (and his involvement in the poisoning was confirmed by Saul later in the episode). This is what I like to see: characters acting logically! Unfortunately for Walt, he forgot about the cameras from the meth lab; the same cameras that had been recording him and Jesse cooking meth for months. To make matters worse for our favorite anti-hero, the hard-drive that stored the videos is in the hands of the police. Realizing that they could be done for, Jesse and Walt convince Mike (nice to see that he has recovered nicely) to help them destroy the evidence. The scenes with these three were really fun to watch. From the tense confrontation where Mike wanted to shoot Walt (stopped only by Jesse), to the scene where they were arguing about how to destroy the evidence (where Jesse of all people had the best idea on how to do it, "magnets") there never was a dull moment.

I wont get into too many details about how they managed to destroy the evidence (it has been an extended hiatus from writing for me, I need to warm up a bit) but long story short: their elaborate plan appears to have worked. What will be really interesting to see though, is what was written on the inner frame of one of Gustavo Fring's photos. Scenes from the next episode revealed that Walt will try and recruit Mike into a partnership, will it work? Mike is not exactly Walters number one fan (ironically, Mike openly questions Jesse's loyalty to Walt while he pretty much has the same exact allegiance to Gus, it doesn't really add to this, but it is interesting to point out) but if that means more scenes of them together, then sign me up. Overall, this was a very fast paced episode that looked to answer a lot of remaining questions, while setting up future plot points. We are only 15 episodes away from seeing just how far Walter White will fall and if this episode is any indication; it will be a fun ride.

Overall score for this episode 8.1/10 It was a very entertaining and fast-paced episode, but nothing too drastic happens that would warrant a higher score.


Best scene: Mike and Walter arguing over how to destroy the evidence room, while Jesse yells "Magnets" about 9 times before they listen to him.


The AMC decision to split this season: -12/10 


Follow us on Twitter @MillenniumSandE and me specifically @Daki_4 and leave us a comment if you like (or even dislike) what you read, cheers until next time!

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 13: "Face Off" Review

Tweet

Full spoilers below you proceed once you have seen the episode.


Wow, who would have thought that the episodes title would have such a double meaning. To be honest with you, I have no idea how to do this review, I have gotten so used to good episodes (we have been spoiled from episodes 4 through 11) that I am not sure if this episode was actually bad or just bad compared to the ones preceding it (which actually wouldn't be a bad thing). What I am sure of is that this episode is most definitely not a 10, or a 9, and might be lucky to get an 8. The initial reaction from most fans has been very positive and I can't understand why. Gus's death was nicely executed up until the end, I can't believe that someone allowed the writers to kill Gus off in such an unrealistic way. I'm not saying Walt's plan was unrealistic, but Gus being able to walk out, adjust his tie one last time and stand still for a solid five seconds was just blasphemy.

If you described what I just said to someone who has never seen the show, then asked them to guess how he dies these would probably be the responses: sniper, someone shoots him, etc. Then you would tell them "actually no, he JUST had a bomb go off one foot from his face, which by the way is half missing" The person talking to you would say something like "man that's unrealistic, how can he walk out of the room and adjust his tie... or even stand?". I have two explanations: firstly, the second season of 'the walking dead' is coming out soon and this was a good way to show how good their make-up artists are, and secondly the writers really wanted to send Gus off with a scene that would be iconic. The only iconic thing about it is that it destroyed any chance that Breaking Bad had of being remembered as a great TV show. Watch the scene again, it killed the beautiful build-up, acting, and music (man was the music good, I think it saved the episode) really disappointing stuff. Other scenes in the episode like Jesse being investigated by the FBI and being kidnapped in front of a police station just added to the unrealistic feeling of this episode. The FBI and Saul was a nice touch, as was Walter sending his neighbor into a very dangerous situation, but overall it felt as if this season could have done with 12 episodes instead of 13. Realistically, all the things that happened in this episode were just a dragged out version of last episode without anything dramatic. We didn't even get a nice plot twist! I kept looking at the time and knew that there was 15 minutes left when Gus died and 6 left when Jesse and Walt destroyed the lab. I kept waiting for something but it never came, oh wait it did! It turns out that it wasn't Risen that Walt poisoned Brock with; it was some berries off of the plant in his back yard. This would have been great had the entire fan base not predicted it last week, and yes the last four or so lines are pure sarcasm. I find it really hard to believe that after such an incredible season that we went out with a whimper and not a bang. Don't believe me? I went back and looked at the ratings I have been giving these episodes, after an average score of 7.2/10 for the first 3 we got this stretch: 9, 8.2, 8.4, 10, 9.4, 9, 10, 9.2, 9.3. My goodness.

So what the hell is season 5 going to be about? A few candidates: Jesse vs. Walt when Jesse finds out Walt poisoned Brock (it has to happen), Hank connecting more dots and Mike, good ol' Mike (I really hope they show us a scene of him leaving Mexico and seeing the carnage Walt left) are the prime story lines I can think of, the good thing is I don't think we can go wrong here. All in all it is really a bitter end to a season that was brilliant as a whole, it is just a shame that the worst episodes were at the start and at the end and this is all made worse by the fact that we have to wait a year to see how this all ends. If this review feels mailed in to you, then I hope its the same feeling you got from the episode, because man did they mail this one in. Breaking Bad: you are better than this

Overall Rating for this episode: 6/10 (any higher would be insulting your intelligence)
Best Scene: Anything with Aaron Paul, I refuse to say Gus's death here because it was so 'Hollywood' and not realistic at all.


Overall Rating for the season: This was tougher than I thought because the final episode was so disappointing but overall the season was a solid 8.5/10
Best scene of the season: Let's go with the fight between Jesse and Walt, there were many worthy candidates but that one was the most intense.


A different take on things (from Jovan):

I cannot fully agree with the above review. I understand that there were some unrealistic scenes, as there have been throughout the entire show, but even though most people had already called some of the events beforehand, it was still acted out and directed extremely well. Hector got his revenge, and he had nothing left to live for, so I can't complain with his suicide. What I didn't like is how Gus did not realize that when Hector visited the DEA, it was set up. Why would Hector just suddenly decide to go and talk to the DEA? He clearly talked to someone first. Another problem I have is Gus not noticing the bomb on Hector's chair. It was in a visible area and when Tyrus turned around the chair, one of the two should have seen it. Lastly, Gus exiting the room before dying is somewhat unrealistic considering he lost half his face, but it made the scene that much better. The episode overall wasn't as good as some of the previous ones, but it was a good ending to a great season, and even though there were no twists (except the Lily of the Valley poisoning Brock - so why did Huell search Jesse in the last episode? I want this explained), there needn't have been any. What happened needed to happen and now we'll have to wait another year to see how Jesse will deal with Walt when he finds out that Walt was the one who poisoned Brock.

Episode Score: 8.5 (Season Rating: 8.8, while episodes 4-12 get a 9.5 average rating)


Look for some more Survivor thoughts in a week with some individual projects coming from each of the writers soon! Thanks for reading

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 12: 'End Times' Review

Tweet

Spoilers below, fair warning.

This episode of Breaking Bad was like watching a great athlete put the finishing touches on an MVP season.  Not sinse the third and fourth seasons of the wire (still easily the best show ever, this is not up for debate) have I had the pleasure of enjoying a television show this much.  Season 4 of Breaking Bad has really been a joy and it is a shame that there is only one episode left before a year of waiting.  This episode was not without its tense moments, but slowed down considerably from the last few.  This is a nice calming period before we get to next weeks finale (titled 'Face Off') and this episode felt more like a stage-setter much like the episode 'half-measures' was last year.

There is not really a point in discussing the minor happenings of the episode, because everyone on the internet is focusing on the question of who poisoned Brock?  The main theories are almost divided down the middle with one side saying Walt did it and the other saying Gus did it.  Before getting into that we have to acknowledge two more theories: first, Brock may have poisoned himself, very unlikely.  Second, Skyler somehow did it, again unlikely but not impossible; she has the connections with Saul, she was more sane than Walt as of last episode and seems to be cold and calculating so I do not put anything past her at this point.  Now that those are out of the way, lets get to it.

The Case that Walt poisoned Brock

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 11: "Crawl Space" Review

Tweet

Okay, lets all take a deep breath.  Exhale. Wow.

No matter what happens in these last two episodes, the fourth season of Breaking Bad is the show's best season hands down.  We could talk about how Skyler's decision to tell Ted that it was her who gave him the money backfired in a big way.  I have to admit, the scene of Skyler demanding that Ted pay off the IRS was actually very enjoyable, Anna Gunn even acted well enough to show us that she was not through with Ted as she walked out the door, brilliant stuff.  Her method to get him to pay?  Not the best, I would have just forged that check and been done with it but that's me.  Now for all we know Ted is now dead and you know that there will be an investigation and you know that Skyler will be investigated.  Whether the police will look at the shady accounting or the sending of thugs to Ted's house to sign that check remains to be seen.  We can talk about Gus's sheer coldness and planning ability, or his stupidity.  He is brilliant in his planning; he set up an emergency site where he, Mike, or Jesse could receive instant (well, almost) treatment for any wounds they could have picked up when obliterating the cartel.  He is ice cold when he tells Hector (old man with the bell) about how he killed all of the big players in the cartel, colder still when he informs him that the last of his family is left, and even colder when he presents Jesse to him as the guy who helped Gus do it all.  Despite what I just said about the guy,  for the first time in the series I am calling him stupid.  All he had to do was 'fire' or pay Walt off, guarantee his safety and he would be leading a much less stressful life right now.  But we need to have a fifth season, so he had to make a big show to Walt, taking him to the desert just to tell him to stay away from Jesse?  Of course Walt figured out that Jesse was still loyal to him and not to Gus and of course Gus (normally calm and collected, even when he finished the cartel off in Mexico) had to snap; threatening to kill Walt's entire family AND telling Walt that he planned to kill Hank!?  After many years of being careful, Gustavo Fring has finally made a mistake, a really big mistake (I will discuss this towards the end of the review).

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 10: "Sauld" Review

Tweet As always, this review will contain spoilers you have been warned

So much for Breaking Bad falling off.  After what many fans would agree was a very slow start, season 4 has blossommed into arguably Breaking Bad's best season to date.  Before we get carried away, we do have 3 more episodes, but its hard to believe that they will not be as good as the ones we are lucky to be watching now.  While you can't blame anyone for getting excited about the last scene, the reality is that the entire episode was incredible, from start to finish.  Before we get to the big finale, the other aspects of the episode should be discussed.  Firstly, Skylar is probably guilty of the worst mistake in the show so far (yes the worst) I still can't believe that she told Ted that it was her who sent him the money to bail him out of the trouble with the IRS.  How does the ONE person who has been the most careful and logical about covering up Walt's 'job' slip up so badly?  If she felt bad for Ted, that is still no excuse, Im sure anyone would have let the IRS have him after seeing how greedy he actually is.  Not only is he greedy, he completely ignores Skylar at first and even kicks her out of the office, only one episode after she bailed his ass out!  In my opinion, a greedy scumbag like this will want more and could easily start blackmailing Skylar, if that happens it could be the thing that finally ends (and we all know its ending somehow) Walter's run.  Enough about Ted and Skylar, I agree with Jovan's statement he had when we discussed this episode, this is what he said: "In all honesty, they never should have brought him back" Well said, we move on. 

It took 3 seasons and 10 episodes but at last Walter White admitted he was wrong.  It seems that Jesse's final words from the previous episode really hit Walter hard and for the first time in a long time he was human again.  It really did feel weird feeling sorry for him after all he has done but the acting performance Bryan Cranston put on was nothing short of incredible.  He not only gave an incredibly authentic "I made a mistake" line while crying, he had a monologue that could rival Mike's 'half measures' one.  I actually felt like the actors were father and son and could'nt beleive how into the scene I was, well done guys seriously.  The line that really stood out for me was Walt Jr's, when he said he did'nt mind seeing Walter like this, but he hated the monster he was from the time he got diagnosed.  What a wake-up call for Walter, I mean just wow.  Okay, now that I respected this episode with the minor scenes (if we can even call them that) let's discuss the main ones.  

Jesse, Gus, and Mike (how entertaining are they as a trio by the way?) travel to Mexico to meet with Don Eladio, you may remember him as the guy who ruthlessly had Gus's original partner killed.  After having Jesse show Eladio's cooks how its done, Eladio is so thrilled he decides to throw a party, opening it with everyone taking a shot of some liquor Gus was kind enough to provide.  Now, I do realize Eladio made Gus drink it first, but how stupid do you have to be?  Every single person I spoke to also though it was poisoned right away, but I digress.  Before the meeting we saw Gus taking some pills, which I think its safe to say were some anti-poison meds.  During the party, Gus excuses himself and promptly forces himself to start throwing up (I don't know how effective this method is, but James Bond did it in Casino Royal too, so We'll go with it).  Outside, where the party is happening, people start dropping like flies.  The whole scene is shot beautifly and is only ruined by the fact that we kind of knew what was coming, but that is my only gripe with this sequence.  Once everyone is dead, our (heroes?) characters start making their escape, where Mike is shot and saved again by Jesse.  So now Jesse has to drive a wounded Mike and a very ill Gus out of Mexico... Did I mention we still have 3 episodes left?  I can not wait.

Overall rating for this episode: 10  I debated between 9.9 and 10 due to the predictabillity of the last scene, but the other aspects of this episode more than made up for it.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 9: Bug Review

Tweet
WARNING: Full Spoilers Ahead.

Breaking Bad continues to impress after its slow start to the season. Last week offered us a background episode on the show’s most secretive character, Gus, and gave us insight on why he’s such a badass and why he despises the cartel. In the latest episode, titled “Bug”, we were back on track with the current story. The title may sound familiar to the bottle neck episode (one with a lower budget) in season 3, “Fly”, and whether you hated or loved that episode, you should know that this episode is nothing like it. In that episode, Walt and Jesse were trapped inside their lab for the whole episode trying to catch a fly so that it does not contaminate their product (you can see how that episode could deal with a lower budget). In “Bug”, there is a lot of violence, a lot more blood, and it is overall a much better episode.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 8: "Hermanos" Review

Tweet As always, this review may contain spoilers so if you do not wish to have anything ruined please stop reading now and come back after you have seen the episode.

Breaking bad is having a stretch of episodes that makes me openly question the fact that there are people out there who do not watch this show.  It amazes me sometimes that this show can sustain such a streak of quality episodes, even deep into season 4.  The only other show that I recall doing this is the Wire (which is also the best show of all time).  'Hermanos' features a lot of story lines and manages to flow very well.  I will discuss the smaller ones first, then the big ones after.

To begin, we have Saul dropping off Jesse's money to Andrea who has now moved in to a quality neighborhood with a nice house.  In breaking bad every scene is important and no scenes are wasted, which means that Andrea still has a role to play in the series and I am curious to see what it is.  On the Skyler front, we see her vacuum-sealing the stacks of money from Walter's earnings and concealing them with clothes, the money winds up underneath their house.  This is the first episode in a while that Skyler has not been a prominent part of and it was a little refreshing, don't expect it to last.  Finally, we got to see the immediate resolution of Hank's investigation on Gus.  As some of us feared, Gus turned out to be well prepared for the questioning and law enforcement sided with him over Hank.  At the way things are unfolding, Hank really is an awesome character and I really hope he catches his guy(s) at the end.

This brings us to our key plot developments.  Firstly, Hank is deciding to go with his intuition and enlists Walter to help him plant a GPS tracker on Gustavo's car.  There are a few tense moments where I wondered if Gus would decide to just get rid of Hank, but thankfully he does not plan on doing anything...yet.  It was interesting that Mike showed concern saying that they cannot fight the Cartel and Hank at the same time, so how they do decide to handle it should be some good television.  The second development is that Walt discovered that Jesse is now closer to Gus than he originally thought.  This is key because we know what a panic-struck Walter White is capable of.  How Walt will respond to this discovery remains to be seen but again, we know it will be good (at least for the viewers, not so much for the other characters).  We saw some of his ruthlessness when he was getting his scan, where he essentially told the guy that was with him that he was a pussy.  I have spent enough time praising the acting on this show so I wont waste anymore time, but really, the acting is incredible by Bryan Cranston, I cannot see anyone else in this role anymore.  There was one final development that was in this episode and as always, the best comes last; the story of Gus.  This is the first time we learned a bit about the man's past, where he came from, how he came to own a restaurant, and why he despises the Mexican cartel.  I wont talk about the scene too much, but after seeing it I do not feel bad for Hector (the old man with the bell) even slightly.  I will say that Gus's line at the end of the episode "Look at me" gave me chills.  Can not wait for the next episode.

Overall rating for this episode 9.4/10
Best Scene: 'Hermanos' Gustavo's past


Like the article? Follow me on Twitter at Daki_4 to see more

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 7: "Problem Dog" Review

Tweet These reviews may contain spoilers so please do not read them before having seen the episode if you do not want to be spoiled.

Let me break down how I watched the last 20 minutes of this episode: in disbelief.  Every season has 'that episode'  the one you point to and say "yeah, that episode was really good" and nobody really disagrees. 'Problem Dog' is that episode (at least so far).  I legitimately could not move for a couple of minutes after it ended, I just could not process what I had seen.  Now that i have calmed down a bit I will try to write rationally about my thoughts on this masterpiece of an episode.

We started off with a really dark scene of Jesse playing a zombie killing game, but each time he killed a zombie he just saw Gale's head jerk back.  Clearly he is still recovering from the guilt, and we can see this clearly.  The scene itself was shot beautifully, it had no talking and minimal movement yet it perfectly conveyed what Jesse was going through still.  The expensive car Walter bought for Jr. last episode is quickly burned away... literally.  After joy riding in it and getting it stuck on his way to return it, Walter decides just to burn the thing!  Not the smartest thinking on his part and Saul managed to get him off free (if free is $52000).  Other than a slightly emptier pocket, Walter came to the conclusion that the only person who can get close enough to Gus to kill him is Jesse.  Jesse did not need much convincing and agrees to do it with our time tested method (ironically, their go to method, or the 'best way' is 0/2 so far) of poison, which Walter created in the lab in a spot out of the view of the camera.  Jesse hides the poison into one of his cigarettes and vows to poison Gus at the first chance he gets.  It was kind of nice to see Walter and Jesse scheming together again, but there is some awkwardness to it now that was not there before.  Maybe Walt's B.S. has finally caught up to Jesse, maybe Jesse no longer wants to be Walter's hit-man, the truth is we can't know.  Skyler's only involvement in this episode was to complain about how they can not launder 7.5mil (Walter's drug salary) in one year, not her brightest episode, but she has had her fair share of screen time this season, any more in this episode, it would have received a lower score from me.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 3: "Open House" Review

Tweet As always, this review may contain spoilers, so if you have not yet seen the episode and do not wish to have anything spoiled stop reading here; come back when you have seen the episode.

Remember a time when you were younger?  More specifically, do you remember middle school?  I don't remember most of it but what I do recall is always looking forward to the first day of school.  The chance to see people you have not seen in a while, play some recess basketball, and all that good stuff.  Then a week in you realize that its not what its cracked up to be and you pray for the last day of school.  That is kind of what this season of Breaking Bad has been like so far.  We were so excited for it to start up again, but now prey that the Breaking Bad of old comes back.  Don't get me wrong, this is still a great show, with very good actors and a very interesting story-line, its just that...right now the show is in transition and its not as good as it was before.  That's not to say that it wont get there, it will just need some time to.  The writers know what they are doing and if these episodes are necessary, then so be it, I will wait.  So how has 'Open House' continued the trend of the other 2 episodes?  Lets examine things.  The problems I have with the current season are as follows: Walter has been reduced to a secondary character, Hank has been reduced to an annoying character, Jesse has been reduced to a one-dimensional character, Marie brings back an old (and boring) story line of hers, and the police (or lack there of).  You may have noticed that I did not take my obligatory shot at Skyler, this is because she actually displayed something in this episode (and that character development was a long time coming).  But more on that later, for now lets focus on the bad.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 2: "Thirty-eight Snub" Review

Tweet Sorry this review took a bit of time, with Champions league action underway and The addition of a new staff member (check out his debut article for us here)  I only recently had enough time to put together this review.  As always, there may be spoilers ahead so beware and enjoy!

After the way season three of Breaking Bad ended,  it almost feels awkward watching season four's much slower pace.  The wonderful thing about Breaking Bad is that it can set whatever pace it wants and the quality of the program will not suffer.  'Thirty-eight snub', like 'box cutter' moves slowly, but is developing some key story points for later.  One of these points is Walt's continuing character development.  Remember in season one how all we wanted was for him to succeed?  How bad-ass he looked at times playing the role of his alter-ego 'Heisenberg'?  All of that is gone now.  He has truly broke bad, and at this point it really is tough to root for him like we once did.  Major props have to go to Bryan Cranston for portraying this change of character in Walter White as the series moved along.  It really is unbelievable that this guy was once the dad from 'Malcolm in the Middle'.

In this episode we see how Walter is attempting to cope with his current situation, an uneasy relationship with his employer Gus.  While the logical thing for him to do would be to just keep cooking and leave it at that (after all, he always wanted a professional relationship in the meth business).  However, Walt has his own way of dealing with things and apparently can not co-exist with Gus anymore.  Here we are treated to a nice scene portraying how Walt has changed from a moral stand point.  Back in season one he flat out refused to commit murder, now?  He is buying a gun with no cereal number, intending to use it on Gus.  The Breaking Bad staff as usual does a nice job of making the scene feel realistic.  I do not know much about buying guns illegally, but what I saw in this episode feels accurate enough.  Ultimately Walt does not kill Gus, at least not in this episode, but who knows anymore?  The reasons for this can be summed up in two words: intelligence and Mike.  Gus is far too intelligent to allow him self to be vulnerable at this point as he has correctly guessed Walt's plan. On the other hand, Mike is way too skilled to let Walt even think of getting within 50 feet of Gus.  This combination will make it difficult for Walt to do anything and when he tried to get Mike to betray Gus in this episode, he got a much deserved beating.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 1: "Box Cutter" Review

Tweet This review may contain spoilers so if you have not seen the episode yet and do not wish to have anything ruined, stop reading now. 

After what seemed like an eternity, we will finally be able to continue watching how the story of Walter, Jesse, Gus, Hank, and a host of others will unfold.  To be honest, I had no idea how the writers would continue the story after season 3's very dramatic final scene.  Would Walt and Jesse be on the run?  Did Jesse actually shoot Gale?  What will Gus do when he finds out Gale's been killed?  We truly could not have guessed the answers to these questions, we had to watch.  Part of what makes Breaking Bad such an interesting show is its ability to keep us on our toes at all times.  I can honestly say that I have not been able to correctly guess where the plot might be headed at any point during the series.  Whether I was watching the first season, the second, or the third, any ideas I had turned out to be wrong.

The season 4 premiere managed to answer the immediate questions that the season 3 finale left for us to ponder.  Before we got into the mix of things we were treated to a flashback sequence of Gale setting up the under-ground lab for the first time with Gus. It is revealed here that Gale had a huge role in convincing Gus to hire Walter White to cook for him.  I liked this scene because for the episode to make sense, it was absolutely necessary as I will explain later.  Following the flashback, we see the immediate aftermath of Jesse's shot, and Gale's death.  Aaron Paul's acting in this shot is absolutely phenomenal, he manages to bring out the emotions of having to commit murder for the first time in his life, and as the audience we fully understand what he is going through.  In my opinion Paul is the best actor on the show, as the degree of difficulty on this particular scene was through the roof and I think only he (out of the whole cast) could have pulled it off.  Gus's henchman (not Mike) arrives and finds Jesse sitting in his car.  He takes Jesse back to the lab where Walt and Mike are waiting.  This is where things slowed down a bit, as Mike insisted on waiting on Gus before doing anything else and we got some shots of other characters.  Marie coping with Hank's inability to take care of himself is probably the best of these shots.  It truly is tough watching Hank struggle with simple tasks such as going to the bathroom on his own, and Betsy Brandt portrays Marie's struggles with the whole situation very well.  Hopefully Hank being incapacitated wont drag on for too long, in my opinion it would make things very stale.  Other characters that were featured were Skyler White and Saul Goodman.  Saul is as paranoid as ever and is seen checking his office for bugs and wire-taps, while Skyler is as manipulative as ever, getting a locksmith to open Walter's apartment for her, and driving his car away so her son wont get his hopes up.  I really do not like the direction Skyler's character is going, I find it very tough to watch scenes where its just her, and honestly she just does not bring as much to the table as she did in seasons 1 and 2.  Hopefully, the writers will find something for her to do, other than causing audiences to cringe and beg for her scenes to end.