SkimIt
The gang pulls a high-stakes train robbery that goes right, until it goes oh-so wrong.
The Final Shot
Another week, another strong episode of Breaking Bad. Protecting children was the central theme and through-line repeated often throughout the episode. Hank and Marie bond with baby Holly, Skyler continues to try to protect her children, and Lydia tries to bond with Walt over their shared status as parents. It's one child in particular, however, which makes this episode heartbreaking. Seen in the beginning of the episode collecting spiders on his bike, he's brutally shot by Todd (Jesse Plemons) who was following Walt's (Bryan Cranston) security maxim to the extreme.
Another Pinkman Plan
This show has a fairly bad track record when it comes to child-safety. Throughout the seasons we've seen several children killed or put in harms way. But this is perhaps the first time we've seen a fatality as violent and direct as what happened in the shocking conclusion to this episode. Jesse (Aaron Paul) once again thought up a brilliant plan which allowed the group to go about their mission without killing anyone. But this plan turned out to be all in vain in the most brutal way possible.
Jesse James
Before the shooting, however, the episode was a fun Western-style romp as Jesse, Mike (Jonathan Banks), and Walt work a complicated train robbery. Unable to steal the methylamine from Lydia's (Laura Fraser) warehouse, they instead listen to her detail a train route carrying the stuff. Mike is against, of course, because it will bring down too much heat. Walt seems tactically for the plan, even though it might mean killing two innocent train conductors. That is until Jesse once again solves their problems by pointing out the obvious. What if no one knew the methylamine was stolen?
On The Tracks
Donning his Heisenberg hat, Walt looks like a great Western villain as they lie in wait for the train. Everything goes according to plan, at first, with the truck they planted in the center of the tracks distracting the conductors. But soon enough things start going wrong when a friendly driver helps tow the truck off the road. Rather than abandon the project, Walt waits until the last moment, causing the train to literally run over poor Jesse. Soon the group is celebrating their good fortune...but the celebrations are short-lived and come to a violent end.
What do you think will happen as a result of Todd's actions? Will Jesse reevaluate things? And will Hank ever find out his office is bugged? Sound off in the comments!
Best Lines:
"New car, new watch. Good for you. All of the curve balls that were thrown at you this year, you deserve to treat yourself."
-- Hank to Walt.
"She thinks I'm a bad father."
-- Walt to Hank about Skyler.
"You're a smart business woman, you understand the concept of leverage. You have none."
-- Walt to Lydia.
"Like rob it? Like Jesse James?"
-- Jesse to Lydia about the train robbing.
"Bottom line: I have done this long enough to know that there are two kinds of heists, those where the guys get away with it and those that leave witnesses."
-- Mike to the group about the heist.
"I'm not your wife, I'm your hostage."
-- Skyler to Walt.
Recommendations:
