Yada, Yada, Yada

Holly here.  Chip and I have been having some interesting sidebars that haven’t made the blog.  I thought I’d collect some of them here so we can check our accuracy at the end of the season.

ON THE MYSTERIOUS GUARDIAN ANGEL
HOLLY:
It occurred to me as I was reading your last post - what about Gomez? Are we overlooking one of the usual suspects -- any chance Gomey's playing both sides? It might be worthwhile to go back and watch the pre-El Paso action at the DEA and some of those phone calls that Hank ridiculed Gomez for making to his wife. Wonder Gomez' "wife" is named Gus? Or Mike?

CHIP:
It’s the sheriff, Holly.

HOLLY:
The sheriff and/or Gomez are appealing guardian angels because even if one of or both of them are dirty, it might make sense that they would save Hank when he's no longer a threat to the bad guys after being stripped of his badge. They seem to like him well enough to have his back, and he's a civilian now so he can’t do anything to Heisenberg anymore.

I really wonder if Gus served up Hank thinking the DEA would take care of the cousins while they were taking care of Hank and the cousins' blood wouldn't be on his hands so Tio wouldn't avenge their deaths on him. And of course that solves the Walt problem - he's free to cook in peace.

ON THE “ONE MINUTE” PHONE CALL
CHIP:
How did anyone know he had exactly one minute? I guess Mike could have been tailing them at the behest of Gus. He has served as Walt's guardian angel, so why not Hank?

HOLLY:
GP, Chip, GP.

ON THE UNEASY ALLIANCE OF TIO AND GUS
HOLLY:
You know another thing that has always bothered me is when the cousins were sitting on Walt's bed waiting to ax murder him and one of them got a call and the phone said "Pollo." Why would Gus be calling his enemy's henchmen? And how would he happen to have their number? Is there a directory for that? Or was it a text, not a call, warning them that Pollo aka Gus knew they were inside because Mike was outside after his aborted bug planting effort.

CHIP:
Back to that scene when Mike manages to get the cousins called off with the text message "Pollo." I think that even though Tio and others do not care for Gus, he is important to them. Important enough to get a stand down call with the word they know him by..."Chicken."

I definitely think Gus is capable of a chess move such as giving them Hank, hoping he would give them the same treatment as their cousin. Hank was much more likely to pull that off than Walt.

ON THE COUSINS CHANELLING “JURASSIC PARK”
CHIP:
Something I meant to point out was how the cousins looked like velociraptors in Jurassic Park as they fanned out to come at their prey from different angles.

HOLLY:
There were dinosaurs in that film?  I must have been distracted by Jeff Goldblum.

HANK ON TOP

I will start by saying “Amen” to your points on both the acting and the action in “One Minute.” The tone is set right off the bat when Hank charges Jesse like a bull. Hank has been “acting” like a tough guy in several previous episodes, but he proves to us (and himself) he actually is kind of badass. I rewound the initial punch in Jesse’s face several times just to watch him fly off his feet again and again. I called my family in to the TV to show them a real smackdown. Poor Jesse. This should have been Walt’s comeuppance since it was his fault. Still, it was a hoot to watch middle-aged Hank strike a blow against young punkdom. I think anyone who refers to a male as “Bitch” deserves a good pop in the schnoz.

I had alluded in a previous post for Hank’s need to lean on his wife even though he was a tough guy. Despite that fact he had been shutting her out, his frightening trip to the ER reminded him of how important she is to him. I like to think his elevator breakdown gave him the strength to pull off what he did at the end of the episode.

Before we get to that, however, I want to point out his greatest feat of strength...coming clean. Despite suggestions on how to “cover” his actions, he boldly states the truth in black and white, damn the consequences. That is why I wanted him to get that hollow point bullet in that gun in time instead of the cousin giving him the doll treatment. We knew from the previous episode that Hank’s life was on the line. He had become so close to a cartoonish buffoon I actually half wanted him to go down. He is back on top of my list now. Did I mention I loved the face-crunching blow he landing on Jesse?
Now I wonder if the writers will take Hank down a path of renewed confidence or even greater anxiety after this traumatic event.

My first thought on the guardian angel is Gus as well. He clearly does not want anything messing with his golden goose. I think that flashback phone call does indicate a long-running mutual animosity and disrespect. However, like you said Holly... that makes it too obvious. Breaking Bad does nothing if not confound expectations. After all, they went to the trouble of masking the voice on the phone. There is no way it is Saul. He is kept out of the loop intentionally on many issues. You are probably right about Mike the Cleaner, but I am going to be contrary and go with another possibility just for the hell of it. Sheriff Merkert is connected in ways we cannot quite see. I mentioned this suspicion before. I cannot outline the motivations or who is pulling strings, but that still water runs deep.

Chip

P.S.
While we both enjoyed the previous episode “Sunset” we did not have much to inspire us to blog. I will point out the sequence where Walt and his new lab assistant get to know one another like a scene out of the latest romantic comedy was a blast.

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