"Murder is not part of your 12 Step Program."

It's been a hell of a week, so I will spare everyone a full review/recap of the episode. Instead, I offer a quick list of pros and cons on the episode and the direction the show is taking.

Things I liked:

The opening montage with Meth-Mouth Wendy blowing a precession of guys. As gay as it sounds, the Association's "Windy" always puts me in a good mood.

Skylar researching money laundering on Wikipedia.

Mike The Cleaner's "Half-measures" monologue. This scene is a testament to the show's greatness. Even a bit player in the series is able to deliver an astonishingly captivating performance if called upon.

Marie's bet with Hank.

The scene with both Walts watching Jeopardy together. As a kid I watched countless hours of the game-show with my dad, each of us trying to shout out the answer (or question, in this case) before the other.

Jesse getting high again. It seems that every great drama features a character that battles a substance problem and when the character falls of the wagon it is a cue to the audience that shit is about to hit the fan. Think Chrissy (Sopranos), McNulty (The Wire), Tommy (Rescue Me).

The most gruesomely bad-ass vehicular homicide committed to film. You got the guy flying ass-over-elbows into the air as well as the guy mangled in under the tires. I guess Walt is going to need yet another new windshield.

Things I didn't like so much:

This season has been a bit ADD in regards to the plots. Case and point: The Cousins. They arrived on the scene with a bang and everyone anticipated that as the season unfolded they would get closer and closer to Walt, leading to a late-season show down. Instead, they arrived at Walt's doorstep just an episode or two later and their entire story was wrapped up mid-season. Also, they brought back Combo's murder and the ramifications of it up out of nowhere. Don't get me wrong, I love tie-ins to prior seasons, but these two street level dealers that Jesse and Walt are faced with are nowhere near as cool as the Cousins.

As intense as the sit-down between Gus, Walt, Jesse and the two dealers was, I just wasn't buying it. Gus is a smart guy and the head of a multi-state, multi-million dollar drug empire. If The Wire has taught us anything it is that the top guys in a drug organization would never, ever be caught in the same room as the street level dealers.