Breaking Bad re-watch: Season 3, Episode 7: "One Minute"

This is the one where Hank (Dean Norris) gets shot at the end. It’s an exciting sequence for sure, if a little action movie farfetched the way the wounded Hanks manages to subdue the Cousins (Luis and Daniel Moncada). The anonymous warning he receives builds some effective instantaneous tension before the scene unfolds. This is the part that sticks out most, but watching this episode a second time with the knowledge of exactly what happens, I picked up several great elements leading up to that scene I had forgotten about the first time around.

For one, the scenes with the Cousins are pretty badass, both the opening flashback to a gritty childhood moment with Tio (Mark Margolis), and their dealings with an overly-excited arms dealer. These scenes are straight out of a great gangster picture, and yet are just thrown in as mere anecdotes. It’s like the show knows it’s above the average crime drama and is flaunting it. No argument from me.

More than that, however, the whole subplot of Hank’s shooting establishes some major elements of the main characters. Other characters will have revealing moments after this episode, but in this one, it’s Hank and Jesse (Aaron Paul).

The episode starts with Hank beating Jesse to a pulp after last episode’s RV incident. Hank realizes he’s done wrong, and insists he face the consequences for his actions. His colleagues, as well as Marie (Betsy Brandt), try to get him to stretch the truth to avoid punishment, because Jesse’s clearly a criminal anyway. Doing so wouldn’t put Hank outside the morality of your typical TV or movie cop, and he’d certainly still have the moral high ground on this show. But he still refuses. This small act subtly establishes Hank as the white knight of the series, so to speak, incorruptible and by-the-book instead of another antihero character.

As for Jesse, things are a little less subtle. I’ve spoken before how his relationship with Walt (Bryan Cranston) is like an addiction from his angle, and this episode kind of hammers the point home. He blatantly says to Walt that their partnership has destroyed everything he had. But he accepts Walt’s offer to work at the superlab, because ironically what ruined his life is all he has left. Just like an addict whose life was ruined eventually only has the substance that caused all the problems in the first place. Jesse may not be using drugs anymore, but he’s still addicted to them.