Breaking Bad re-watch: Season 2, Episode 6: "Peekaboo"

Such a great episode. The storyline with Jesse (Aaron Paul) is what makes this one so memorable and resonant. But upon watching it over, I’d forgotten that Walt (Bryan Cranston) has a great moment, too.

I’ll get Walt’s out of the way first. As he returns to his teaching job, former colleague (and judging by the dialogue, possibly former flame) Gretchen Schwartz (Jessica Hecht) checks in on him, confused that Skyler (Anna Gunn) seems to think she and her husband are paying for Walt’s chemo.

It was clear when they last met that Walt still harbors some ill will toward the Schwartzes, which seemed to be why he refused their charity. But last time, Walt was still polite, and just lied his way out of accepting their help. Now, with Heisenberg having since emerged, he angrily airs his grievances and tells off Gretchen in a subdued but seething fury. The scene is more painful than triumphant, as this is one of the first times Walt looks like the bad guy. This will happen more often as he gets deeper into the drug underworld.

But the better part of this episode follows Jesse as he infiltrates the house of two junkies (David Ury and Dale Dickey) who robbed one of his dealers last time. Not only does this show that in spite of everything, Jesse isn’t a hardened criminal—the way he stalls before charging in, the way he sloppily brandishes the gun and less-than-convincingly spouts off threats, and how he lets his guard down enough to let the two turn the tables and attack him—but it's also probably the most frightening depiction of drug addiction ever seen on TV.

The two junkies aren’t sympathetic addict archetypes, good people with a weakness; they’re so far gone that they’re indifferent to anything except getting their next fix. They look like zombies, their flesh is so picked and scabbed. Their house is a picture of filth that looks like it’s been abandoned for years, or would if they weren’t living in it. They have a kid, who Jesse bonds with over pity, who’s basically left to wander the house and fend for himself as if it was abandoned. They even commit heinous act of violence (including on each other in the infamous ATM kill that horrifies Jesse) without much of a second thought.

Another clear sign that Jesse is not drug lord material is that he’s as disgusted as we are. Though it won’t be referred back to very long after this season, I think this episode is an important event in his development as a character.

The show, like many crime dramas from the criminals’ point of view, doesn’t spend a lot of time showing the effects their criminal enterprise have on the people they prey on. Walt barely sees anyone use his product, besides Jesse and Tuco. Jesse, however, starts as an addict himself, and also sees the effects of addiction on other people, in this episode and other times. These experiences, I believe, help him retain more of his humanity throughout the series, whereas Walt just becomes more and more evil.