Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 10: "Sauld" Review

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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

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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


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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 6: "Cornered" Review

Tweet Yes I do realize that this review is a little bit late, but that wont change the fact that there will be some spoilers but I seriously doubt that you have not seen the episode yet.


We opened up with another scene of a 'pollos' truck being attacked, this time the attackers were a bit smarter and the defenders were not Mike.  After a couple of minutes the truck is easily overtaken and the blue meth is stolen.  It took a bit of time to get back to this scene and what it meant due to other plot-lines but it was worth the wait.  The way the entire opening scene was filmed was very entertaining and well done by all parties involved.

Elsewhere, Skyler and Walt discuss Walter's behaviour at last night's dinner where Walt all but told Hank that Gale is not the guy he is trying to catch.  Walter attributed it to the alcohol but Skyler hit on an interesting point.  She theorizes that a small part of Walt wants Hank to catch him, just so all of this could be over.  I found this interesting because it offered up an alternate to the 'Walt wants to be in control' theory I made in the last review.  Could Walter secretly just be wanting this to end?  Another character also gave us something to ponder, Walter Jr.  It was refreshing seeing him get some screen time finally and he did not disappoint.  The scene where he compares Walt's 'gambling' to something he can not control, causing Walter to counter that whatever he is doing he is doing on his own free will was an excellent scene in my opinion.  I know that it is difficult to include Jr. more in these episodes but having him in periodically raises the quality of the show, he is the true voice of innocence and it is important to hear him.

We can't go on in this review without mentioning Skyler.  After seeing Walt's fury she decided to just run away... or at least it looked like she wanted to, but then she decided to head back and had a phenomenal line: "someone has to protect this family from the man protecting it".  At this point she is just like Walt from season one; willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that her loved ones will be safe.  Say what you will about her (and I still despise her as a character) but you have to respect the character (not like but respect) for the way she has grown this season.  Lastly we get to everyone's favorite plot: the growing drug war and Jesse.  Mike tracks down the stolen blue meth, and in a classic 'young gun does something reckless but succeeds causing his older, wiser partner to accept him more' scene Jesse helps Mike retrieve it.  I do find it cool that Jesse is proving himself to Gus and Mike (even receiving some props from Gus!) and that it may ultimately end the tension between them, but I can't help but think Walter's 'driving a wedge between us' theory might be right. We'll see.  On the war front, Gus tells Mike to set up a meeting with the opposing gang(s) so now it will be exciting seeing that unfold.  There are about a million ways the story could unfold, but we now know that Breaking Bad will not go beyond a 5th season.  So the end is coming, we just do not know how.  This was a very good episode and hopefully then remaining ones will be too

rating: 8.4/10
Best scene: The attack on the 'pollos' truck

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 5: "Shotgun" Review

Tweet You probably noticed that episode 4 was not reviewed.  This was due to some circumstances, but had I written a review for it, the episode would have received a 9/10 it was the best episode of this season hands down.  As always, these reviews may (probably will) contain spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled go watch the episode first.

I have to admit, the last episode left me wanting to see this one quite a bit.  We were left with Jesse and Mike taking a drive to who-knows-where and Walter freaking out.  The writers did not disappoint us here, choosing to pick up right where last episode left off.  We are treated to some GTA style driving from Walt as he is telling Saul to leave all his money to his wife, followed by him leaving a very emotional message to Skyler at their voice machine.  This scene was done really well and more importantly felt realistic.  It was not just Walt weaving in and out of lanes, but cars were actually getting out of his way and pedestrians looked horrified.  The context of him leaving the messages told us that he was going to do something drastic and he did, getting out at the 'pollos' restaurant and demanding to see Gus.  But as we are getting accustomed to it this season, Gus was not there, instead we got the obligatory call from Mike assuring Walter that Jesse was fine and would not be in trouble.

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.