Breaking Bad Review: Hazard Pay, Season
On the Orange Couch, Amanda Marcotte and Marc Faletti recap the latest episode of AMC’s “Breaking Bad.” They argue that this week’s episode is tour of the weaknesses of Walt’s business partner. Every single character has the potential to bring the entire enterprise crashing down.
Matt Yglesias of Slate complained of a plot hole in this week’s episode. How can Walt’s partner Mike be setting up a drug cartel while he was under surveillance by the DEA for his role in late Gus Fring’s meth empire?
I don’t want to be Mr. Plot Hole Whiner about Season 5, but what happened to Mike being a person of interest in a major investigation here? The city of Albuquerque had only 34 murders in 2011. The deaths of Gus, Hector, and Tyrus should be a really big deal, to say nothing of the drug smuggling. The DEA knows that Mike is dirty, but they don’t have evidence on him. Wouldn’t someone be following him around as he’s busy laying the groundwork for all these payoffs and the resuscitation of the drug organization? Shouldn’t Mike and Walt at least be suspicious that Mike’s under surveillance? [Slate]
The Orange Couch answers Matt’s question: It’s not a plot hole, it’s a device to build suspense. One of Mike’s imprisoned guys openly wonders how is boss could be involved in any new money-making enterprise while he’s taking so much heat from the feds.
Mike’s precarious position is carefully scripted. The only reason cooly rational Mike is in business with loose cannon Walt is that he’s desperate to turn a quick buck. Mike needs the money to top up the hazard pay of his imprisoned henchmen. Why? Because they’re all being watched, if not incarcerated, and the henchmen will talk if they don’t get paid.
The Orange Couch names 12 suspects spotlighted in this episode. I’d argue that Jesse’s ex, Andrea, is suspect #12.5.
In the final scene, Jesse reveals that he and Andrea broke up. Earlier, Walt had a smarmy heart-to-heart talk with Jesse in which he purported to give his apprentice a little fatherly advice about marriage and criminality. He strongly implied that Jesse should level with Andrea about his life of crime.
Walt was trying to get Jesse to break up with Andrea. He has two motives: First, Brock might still expose Walt’s attempt to poison him. Second, Jesse is more committed to his family than to Walt’s empire. Jesse hung on to a lot more cash than Walt did last season. It seemed like Jesse would be content to drop out of the meth game and play video games with his instant family for the rest of his life. Walt only reeled Jesse back in by exploiting his guilt.
Andrea’s only .5 of a suspect because we don’t know what Jesse told her. Maybe he broke up with her rather than have that conversation.
Andrea still has reason to be loyal to Jesse. So far, he’s still supporting her. As he puts it, “it’s the right thing to do” – which seems to be one of the many unfavorable contrasts the show sets up between Walt and his partners. Jesse and Mike pay their “legacy costs,” Walt doesn’t.
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