Breaking Bad
 
Breaking Bad

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Joe R: N/A | 2065 USERS: B+
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One Minute

The "adult themes and violent content" warning at the top of the episode should be all you need to know to get you fired up. Your "advisement" is noted, AMC. I'll be using my "viewer discretion" to watch the shit out of this episode.

So we start things off in Mexico (we know because everything is red) and in the past (we know because these two identical, shaved-headed little Mexican kids are obviously the Cousins from way back when). One is up in a tree, holding the other's toy just out of his reach. Across the yard sits a young(er), less disabled Don Salamanca (clue #2), who picks up a brick of a mobile phone (clue #3) to take a call. It's interesting to see Mark Margolis, who usually plays Tio a good bit older than he is, now play Tio as a bit younger than he is. Not sure who he's on the phone with, but the context clues tell us he's discussing whether or not to allow Gus (the "Chicken Man") to run their operation in the States. Interestingly, Tio does not like nor respect Gus, though he realizes the decision is out of his hands.

By this point, one Cousin has now ripped the head off his brother's toy. The other -- look, they've got names now, so there's no point in waiting for them to be actually spoken on the show -- Leonel comes crying to Tio that his brother broke his toy. Tio tells him to get over it, but he won't. He wants his brother, Marco, dead. A typical childish rant from, at this point, a typical child. Tio calls Marco over to him ... no, closer ... and asks him to fetch a beer from the tub of icy water sitting at his feet. When he does, Tio grabs him by the back of the neck and holds him underwater. "This is what you wanted," Tio tells Leonel, calm as you please. Leonel struggles to break Tio's grip. "You're going to have to try harder than that," Tio scolds. After a few weak punches to Tio's chest, Leonel finally slaps him across the face. Tio lets Marco up. Leonel goes to Marco as Tio stands up, towering above them, to give them a message. "La familia es todo."

We dissolve into the present, where Les Cousines Dangereuses are back in front of Santa Muerte. Lighting another candle. Praying for swift death to visit an enemy. Only this time, it's not the Heisenberg sketch that sits at Santa Muerte's feet. It's a photo of Hank Schrader.

After the credits (where you can't spell "Hellacious Parking Lot Showdown" without "NaCl"!), we see Jesse returning home from last episode's RV crunchening. He's barely inside his front door when he sees Hank's SUV pull up in front of the house. From the second Hank gets out of the car, you know exactly what happens. Jesse doesn't, not yet. He's got all sorts of barriers he thinks Hanks can't cross. "You can call my lawyer, Saul Goodman," Jesse says. Hank keeps advancing. Jesse backs himself across his threshold, like maybe Hank is the world's only fat vampire and can't come in unless he's invited. Nope, that doesn't work either. Hank bounds inside the house and proceeds to deliver an absolutely vicious beating to Jesse. This is no calculated message, either. It's hot, boiling anger. Fear, too. "YOU HAD MY CELL NUMBER!" Hank screams, "YOU HAD MY WIFE'S NAME! HOW'D YOU DO IT?" Hank operating from fury, sure, but he also knows that whoever called him off knows officially too much about him and his family. Hank keeps pummeling Jesse's face, which makes it awful hard for Jesse to respond to Hank's repeated demands that he give him some answers.

Breaking Bad

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