At Madrigal Electromotive in Germany, executive Peter Schuler is informed by his secretary that there are police waiting in his office. Schuler goes into the bathroom with an automatic defibrillator, and as the police bang on the door, he electrocutes himself.
Jesse has become increasingly concerned about the missing ricin cigarette, afraid that an innocent bystander might find it. Walt tells him over the phone that he will come help Jesse look for it at his house. Before he does so he creates a fake cigarette and hides the real one he retrieved from Saul behind a power point outlet in his bedroom. Walt and Jesse search his house for a prolonged period of time and Walt suggests checking the Roomba, where Jesse finds the fake cigarette, and apologies to Walt for accusing him of poisoning Brock.
Walt and Jesse approach Mike at his home and offer him a partnership in their plans to continue making meth, which he refuses because he can see Walt is a ticking time bomb.
At the DEA, several Madrigal executives have a meeting with Hank, Gomez and Merkert, having flown in to answer questions about Schuler death and his involvement in Gus Fring's drug operation. The head of Madrigal Electromotive said he was shocked by Schuler's death, and that he was certain no one else in his company was involved, offering the DEA his full cooperation. In Merkert's office, Hank and Gomez share a drink with him as he has been pushed out of the DEA for his inability to see Gus as a drug lord. Gomez hopefully suggests that the discovery of Gus's secret offshore bank accounts as a possible lead in the investigation.
At a diner, Mike meets with a Madrigal executive, Lydia. She gives Mike a list of eleven men on Gus's payroll who can implicate Mike and herself in his operation and tells him she is concerned about what they'll do. Mike ignores her suggestion to kill the, and tells her that all the men have integrity and won't squeal.
After Walt Jr. leaves for school, Walt approaches Skyler who refuses to get out of bed. He suggests she take a shower to feel better, and she wordlessly agrees.
Mike is interrogated at the DEA by Hank and Gomez. He tells them he worked for Los Pollos Hermanos as head of corporate security. Hank doesn't believe him, but they don't have evidence against him either. As Mike leaves, Hank mentions that they traced Gus's offshore accounts to eleven benefactors, including a two million dollar account in Mike's granddaughter's name. Mike pauses, but says he has no idea what they're talking about
Walt and Jesse meet with Saul, who is still reluctant to be apart of their operation, but Walt forcibly tells him that he will find them a place in-town where they can cook undetected. Jesse tells Walt that he was able to find all the precursor chemicals except for methylamine, and again, Walt encourages Jesse to keep looking for it.
Chow calls Mike and tells him that the DEA has threatened to take his money, and that he needs to see Mike to discuss things. Mike agrees to see Chow at his house, unaware that Chris, one of Mike's former men, forced Chow to lure Mike there at gunpoint. However, Mike tricks Chris when he arriving, using an animatronic toy pig suspended from the door frame as a decoy, and he comes up behind him and tells him to drop his weapon. Chris tells Mike that Lydia offered him ten thousand dollars to kill the eleven men on the list and thirty thousand to kill Mike. Chris has already shot and killed Chow who is sitting on the couch, and Mike does the same to Chris.
Later, Mike travels to Houston, sneaks into Lydia's house, and pulls her into a bedroom at gunpoint. She begs him not to kill her for her daughters sake, and instead he asks her is she can get methylamine. Mike then proceeds to call Walt and tells him he's reconsidered the partnership.
Walt hops into bed with Skyler, who hasn't eaten dinner, and starts to caress her arm and kiss her neck as he tells her that in time her guilt over Ted will pass, and that they what they do for good reasons and that there's no better reason than family. Skyler makes no movement against him, a look of despair on her face.
After a dramatic shift in tone for last weeks season premiere, Breaking Bad returned to it's old self this week. The episode was extremely Mike-centric, and while I enjoy his character for the fact he sees Walt for who he truly is, his often nonchalant demeanour (an increasingly frustrating trait of Breaking Bad characters) gets boring fast. That being said, his plot was strong this week. After refusing to partner up with Walt and Jesse, he met with an executive of Madrigal Electromotive, and also a co-conspirator in Gus's drug operation. Concerned that she'll be implicated by men that Gus had on his payroll she suggests to Mike that he deals with them, but he assures her of their loyalty and integrity. Hank isn't so sure of Mike's though, and when Mike is interrogated by him and Gomez, he reveals that Gus's offshore accounts have been discovered including two million dollars in Mike's granddaughters name. Mike has more pressing matters though, when he's lured to Chow's house by one of his former men, Chris, who reveals Lydia hired him to take care of the men when Mike wouldn't. Mike kills him and confronts Lydia at her home. She begs him not to kill her for her daughters sake, and he doesn't, instead asking her if she can get methylamine for him, which Jesse has had difficulty acquiring. Mike then proceeds to call Walt and tells him he's reconsidered the partnership. While there was never any doubt that Mike would end up working with Walt and Jesse in some capacity, the reluctantness in which he has accepted was more out of necessity than anything else. I can see Mike biding his time until he can get out of this situation he's been forced into, or perhaps what would be even more exciting, if when he decides he's had enough of Walt. Furthermore, Laura Fraser played the paranoid obsessive-compulsive Lydia perfectly, and I'm hoping we get to see more of her desperate and intriguing character in the future.
While the Walt and Jesse's new drug operation isn't yet in operation, watching Walt plan it is extremely fun. The way in which he is able to emotionally manipulate Jesse is freakishly astounding as he demonstrates in this episode through the discovery of the 'ricin' cigarette, and his constant assurance they with the two of them working together anything is possible. Jesse, however, seems to be the only person Walt can convince of this though, with both Saul and Skyler continuing to be unwilling participants in Walt's life. Saul tries to convince Walt that he should get out while he's ahead, and even if Walt did have enough money, we know that Walt has gone too far and gotten too greedy to stop now. He wants Saul to find a lab for them to cook in, and watching poor Saul squirm as Walt lists outrageous and impossible demands to his lawyer like that the lab has to be close, but also hidden from people, is painful yet fulfilling as Walt continues his transgression. I wondered how Sykler would react to knowing the truth about Walt, and it seems in the face of fear she's become debilitating depressed. The way in which he continues to act as if nothing it wrong between them, while she lies horrified in bed makes for disturbing viewing. Especially in the closing scene when he starts to caress her and tell her everything they've done is for the good of the family as she lies their helpless. It'll be interesting to see whether Skyler is able to come back from this, and I hope she does, because having her constantly in bed will quickly become dry viewing. That being said, I think Walt will be the one who tires from Skyler's lack of involvement with him and his operation soon enough, and decide to do something about it. Surely not having her present at the car wash will be a strain on his new operation, particularly if he has to handle both the cooking and the money laundering. I can see him getting angry with her quite soon, so I pray she's careful. Also, I assume Walt Jr. is going to notice his mother's behaviour soon enough, and that brings another whole set of problems for Walt.
Although I've never really liked Hank, having his character back in his element, as seen is his interrogation on Mike was welcome. He senses he's close to uncovering everything, and I can see him getting to the point of constantly teasing people they interview like Mike, playing with his prey before killing it. I also hope that Merkert's departure from the DEA because he didn't suspect Gus, who was a close friend of his, is foreshadowing what is surely to be Mike's entertaining discovery of Walt's involvement with everything. I'm sure it's still a long way off yet, so I hope that, like this week, the DEA are shown to be slowly putting things together and getting more leads, because if the trail goes cold and the DEA drop of the map, it's going to be really annoying, and start to feel unnecessarily dragged out.
Rating: 3/5
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