Oh No They Didn't!

I don’t EVEN know where to begin.  Breaking Bad is more addictive than, well, meth.

That opening sequence with the cousins and Tio had so much going on – the decapitated doll (niiiiiiice given what happened to Tortuga and  what Hank’s about to do to Cousin #2 in the last scene of this episode), the backstory of the cousins’ loyalty to each other in the wake of the harrowing (and icy) near-death experience Tio inflicts on one of them, and perhaps even more chillingly, Tio’s statement that family is all (made all the more ominous by the eventual deaths of both cousins while taking care of “family business”).

Did I hear Tio’s phone conversation in the flashback correctly – he was discussing whether Gus could join up with the bad guy cartel?

Dean Norris (Hank) turned in an amazing performance, on par with Anna Gunn’s in “I.F.T.”  I’ve never liked Hank much, but it took some top-shelf acting (as well as writing and directing) to give the audience warm fuzzies about him this week.  The portrayal of Hank’s brutal assault of Jesse, followed by the cracking of his tough-guy exterior, his final willingness in the wake of professional humiliation to at long last to seek support from Marie although only behind closed elevator doors, and his profound anxiety when he received the “one minute” phone call and realized he was vulnerable and unarmed out in the open were astounding.  And just when we think he’s down, BAM!, there’s the tough guy again.  W-o-w.

That brings us to the cousins’ death sequence.  Once again, AMC has served up some of the most creative gore around.  I loved the serial shock value – oh no they didn’t just have Hank smash Cousin #1 to death, and oh no they didn’t just have Cousin #2 shoot Hank and leave him marinating in his own juices while going to fetch that shiny ax, and OH NO THEY DIDN’T just show us Cousin #2’s brains splatting on the camera lens!  Last season’s death by ATM suddenly doesn’t seem so outrageous any more, does it, kids?

But enough about the morgue, let’s talk about the living for a minute.  Hank’s boss remarks that Hank must have a guardian angel.  So Chip, who do you think was the guardian angel on the other end of that “one minute” call Hank receives later?  Gus?  Saul?  Hank’s boss?  Even though Gus is the obvious choice because he’s the only one (so far as the audience knows) who knows the cousins are on Hank's trail, I'm putting my chips on Mike the Cleaner.  He knows the cousins are a threat and a nuisance, and by tipping off Hank he saves Walt the distraction of a dead brother-in-law as well as has Hank do the dirty work of killing them without incurring the wrath of Tio’s organization in Gus’s (or whomever’s?) territory.  I’m more intrigued every week to find out who Mike answers to and why.  Again, Gus seems too obvious.

So let’s talk about vengeance, drug wars, et al.  Who does Tio have left to settle the score with Hank for killing the cousins?  He’s a little, er, incapacitated himself these days.  Which brings up another point – do we know how Tio ended up in a wheelchair?  He wasn’t paralyzed (or speaking only through bells and Ouija boards) in the flashback.  I had a vague notion he might have had a stroke -- was there discussion in Season 2 that gave me this idea? If not, what could it be?  Surely not something so pedestrian as being shot by the DEA.  No, there must be a story in this.

Before I wrap up, let’s call on Saul for a minute – was he really suggesting to Walt that Jesse had to go? As in permanently?  I can’t help but laugh at the prospect of Saul doing any dirty work himself and ruining one of those “$300 suits.”

And on that fashion note, I'm wondering who is going to fill those boots with the cousins gone?  You know which boots I mean.....

Peace, Holly