Something tells me when Walter
White started this insane scheme to cook meth to get enough to support his
family after he died from the cancer that was ravaging him, the one thing he
didn’t think would happen was he would have to kill someone. He already did that in the pilot with the
mustard gassing of Emilio, although that he could likely pass off as
self-defense. Emilio’s cousin, Crazy-8
did survive the gassing though, and now is hooked to a pole by a bike lock
across his neck, with Walt being the chosen one to put him out of his
misery. Walt has been dodging this since
the previous episode (and Jesse’s shitty handling of Emilio’s “chemical
disincorporation”/ ending up as sludge on the floor of Jesse’s house did get a
slight respite from that job), and that’s where the majority of “And The Bag’s
In The River” leaves us with.
After mopping up and flushing
Emilio’s remains (a gnarly job if there ever was one), Jesse decides to smoke
some crystal to take the edge off (after all, his place now has a hole burned
through it). Walt continues to tend to Crazy-8 by cleaning his piss bucket, who
flat out says he knows who Walt is, thanks inadvertently to Jesse wanting to
keep breathing during the events of the pilot.
Walt confronts Jesse, which leads to Jesse leaving the house, saying he
won’t come back until Walt does what he’s been putting off: getting rid of the
man in the basement. It is Walter’s
mess, and he has to clean it up, but that means physically killing Crazy-8, and that’s not something Walt wants to
do.
Like I said, the majority of this
episode is Walt finding ways to avoid what he knows he’ll have to do. And the longer he waits, the longer it seems
to be eating away at his life. Skyler
admits over the phone she discovered he left the car wash job weeks ago, and
plus her encounter with Jesse and Walt’s odd behavior last episode, don’t make
the White home a good place to be heading home to right now. And that long night is where we spend the
rest of the episode, alone in a house with a chained up drug dealer who Walt
needs to deal with.
In the meanwhile, Skyler is still
rattled by Walt’s odd behavior of late, so much so she tries to talk to Marie
(although she fails to hide that she’s talking about Walt) about her
concerns. But, Marie reads this as not
about Walt, but about Walt, Jr. falling into the wrong crowd. This leads to Hank taking Junior on a “scared
straight” drive (and talking to a meth addict hooker who afterwards, goes up to
the hotel room Jesse is laying low in!), which is awkward to say the least. Marie is not an innocent herself when it
comes to doing bad things, especially when she slyly steals a pair of fancy shoes
(and way too easily for it to be just the first time she’s done it), but even
she doesn’t have to do what Walt is having to face doing.
Walt is a rational man, but
unfortunately to a fault, and even his reasoning isn’t working in his favor
here. He puts together a “do or don’t
kill him” list, which comes down in the “do” part as “killing is wrong”, it’s
against my religious upbringing”, and a multitude of excuses that gets less
cohesive as it goes. The “don’t” part is
one point and pretty clear: “if you don’t, he will kill you and your family”. And its that need to be convinced not to kill
him that leads to the centerpiece of the episode: an entire act where Walt
tries to bond with Crazy-8.
After collapsing briefly in front
of Crazy-8 while giving him a sandwich, Walter later returns to talk to him,
and through this conversation, learn a lot about Crazy-8, among other things,
that Crazy-8 obviously isn’t his real name.
It’s Domingo, and he’s the son of a family owned local superstore
business, who in the need to prove himself, went into the drug trade with his
cousin Emilio. Both men seem to bond,
but as Domingo admits he can’t guarantee Walt will suffer his wrath if he’s let
go. It’s a reveal that shows despite
both men’s reveals about themselves, it doesn’t change what will probably end
up happening.
When I mentioned Walt’s reasoning,
that part of him leads to his discovery of a missing piece of plate from his
collapse earlier, almost to his anger.
He needed to be convinced he should let Domingo go, and now he has proof
that it will end with Walt dead. This
all culminates with Walt having to choke Domingo to death with the pole and
bike lock, and revealing that Domingo was planning to kill Walt with the broken
plate piece (even stabbing Walt in the leg with it during the struggle). It’s a brutal and messy scene as could be expected
for such a thing, and surprising moreso for not letting Walt off the hook for
what he has to do. Its pretty early in
the series’ run, and to let its main character be involved in such an act that
early showed some serious stones for not wimping out at the last minute.
The next day when Jesse returns
to his house, he discovers the RV cleaned thoroughly, the basement empty save
one bike lock, and Walt and Crazy-8/Domingo gone. That the episode (let alone the series to
this point) has never explained what happened after Crazy-8’s death is a creepy
footnote for the series going forward.
Did Walt dissolve Crazy-8 too and spend all night cleaning up? I keep thinking of that really good Sopranos
episode where Tony and Christopher spend half of it disposing of one person,
and realize how opposite this resolution of this episode of Breaking Bad is,
but still as effective. We know Walt did
something in the time between the murder and when we see him parked on that highway
overpass, but it seems unimportant as the result: Walt is shaken by it. So much so that Walt returns home and says he
needs to tell Skyler something important.
Of course, we fans know what that is, but that uncertainty of that
climax is enough to propel us out of the Crazy-8/Emilio encounter and into uncertain
territory going into the rest of the season.
And now, some notes for newbies:
--Besides this and the last two
episodes being written by series creator Vince Gilligan, the last two episodes
are directed by Adam Bernstein, a regular director for the show and a veteran
director on many TV shows.
--The titles of the last two eps combined
are a quote from the classic Sweet Smell of Success, all about another
cutthroat industry: the media. Although
I doubt Burt Lancaster has ever dissolved bodies before, even with his acid
tongue.
--Wonderful clean-up / slash Walt flashback to open the
episode.
--Strange that Jesse remembers
something as specific as Walt once teaching about carbon dioxide by making
grape soda in one of his classes.
--Quite comical and pathetic how
both Walt and Jesse fight over a bag of meth that isn’t even a part of the
actual argument.
--“There’s got to be more to a human being than that.”
--“My arches happen to be extremely arch-y.”
--“Coin flip is sacred.”
--“Shit, I left my root beer.”
--“You people used to be
conquistadors, for Christ’s sake.”
--“There’s something I have to
tell you.”
--“He’ll kill your entire family
if you let him go”. Yes, Domingo
probably would.
--Oh yeah, apparently Hank had a
snitch in Crazy-8’s organization. Well,
better he explain that next episode…
Now for some spoilery-series wide
notes for you vets:
--First discovery of Marie’s,
ahem, problem.
--Wendy the meth hooker appears
for the first time. Great, now I got
that song from that montage in season 3 stuck in my head.
--First appearance of Gretchen,
albeit at this point, we don’t know from the flashback who she is, but do know
both her and Walt know each other very well.
--Clean RV. Might be the only time on this show that happens.
Rating: 4 ½ out of 5 stars
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