ABQ's Top Chef is Back in the Kitchen (Or Basement)!

Last night's Breaking Bad episode was relatively understated, even at times sort of 'quiet', stylistically, but packed quite a punch in the content department. Thematically, the episode was about 'what it is to be a man', specifically for Walt and Hank. Both are struggling to understand what their responsibilities as men are to themselves, their families, jobs, society.

The episode begins with a flashback to good old days of Breaking Bad, where everything was all cancer and strip clubs. Walt, complete with a pre-chemo full head of hair, gives Jesse $7000 to purchase an RV for the pair to cook their first batch of meth in. In classic Jesse style, he takes the money and a couple of buddies (including now-dead Combo) to a local titty-bar so they can floss a little bit with Walt's cash. The next day, with most of the cash gone, Combo does Jesse a solid by stealing his mom's RV and giving to him (This is the same RV that Hank is now hot on the trail of). This five minute intro really makes me miss the tone of the earlier seasons. Everything is so serious now, it makes me pine for the scenes of Jesse and his boys smoking meth and just having a good time. Also, this flashback gave me hope that this was going to be a Jesse-centric episode, but unfortunately after the first couple of scenes he did not return in earnest until the final scene.

Back in the present tense, Jesse thinks Walt backdoored him for a cut of the profit from Jesse's solo batch and Hank finds out that his partner, Gomez, will be taking his position in El Paso.

Walt pays a visit to Gus Fring to return the cash that was thrown into his car window last week, but Gus has other ideas (During this scene, Hanks offers the most self-diluted rationale for cooking meth yet: He just "respects the chemistry". Will he ever accept responsibility for all of the things he has done, or will he continue to rationalize forever?). He takes Walt on a trip to a laundry facility with a tricked out secret basement. Through a secret passage and down a spiral staircase is a state of the art meth lab, set up just for Walt, who is in absolute awe. Despite how impressed he is with the facilities, Walt still declines the three million for three months deal, after which Fring, calmly and quietly, lays a speech on him that sums up the entire episode:

"What does a man do, Walter? A man provides for his family."

"This cost me my family."

"When you have children, you always have family. They will always be your priority, your responsibility. And a man provides. And he does it even when he is not appreciated. Or respected. Or even loved. He simply bears up and he does it. Because he is a man."

Who could say no to these words of wisdom? And just like that, WALT IS BACK IN THE MOTHERFUCKING GAME! The moment we have been waiting all season for finally arrived and, as is so common with Breaking Bad, without very much fanfare. It just happened and then the show just moved right along.

Meanwhile, Hank is dealing with a bit of an identity crisis of his own. He is unable to admit to himself, much less anyone else, the true reason for him refusing to take the job in El Paso. That reason? He is scared. He has been a macho-man, tough-guy, DEA agent for years and it kills him to admit that he is terrified of dying. To him, a real man would never be scared of death, and yet he is. His wife, Marie, is beginning to pick up on this. She calls Skylar, who is parked outside of Ted's place (they are still fucking), to get some advice or maybe just to vent. During this conversation Marie mentions how facing death must certainly change a person, citing Walt as an example. This seems to have a genuine impact on Skylar, who seems to soften her stance on Walt slightly afterward. However, this might be too little, too late. Skylar comes home to find the bag of cash missing and her divorce paperwork signed.

Saul brings Jesse and Walt in for a meeting to clear the air. Jesse offers Walt ten percent of all of the profits of Jesse's solo venture if Walt will permit him to use his formula. Walt returns the other half of Jesse's first batch profits then drops the bomb. He tells his former partner that the money he has just given him will be the last Jesse will ever make in the meth business. "I'm in. You're out," Walt tells him. To which Saul reacts by immediately offering Walt a money laundering deal for the three million he is scheduled to make and Jesse reacts by throwing a large rock through Walt's car windshield.