Breaking Bad re-watch: Season 4, Episode 3: "Open House"

The theme of this episode seems to be “unraveling,” as the characters’ lives fall apart in some way. Walt’s (Bryan Cranston) been unraveling since the end of last season when his conflict with Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) began, but aside from expressing his displeasure at the new video cameras in the superlab, he somewhat takes a back seat to the supporting characters’ unravelings.

For Jesse (Aaron Paul), his whole psyche is deteriorating. The episode makes that clear in one very strong scene. Jesse returns home, where his extended house parties have turned his living room into a drug den. But his deplorable surroundings—drugs, open sex, vandalism—doesn’t even elicit a reaction. Perfectly scored to Fever Ray’s chilling “If I Had a Heart,” the sequence is almost spooky, as Jesse moves through the debauchery around him like a ghost. Seems like murdering Gale also killed a little bit of his soul.

Marie’s (Betsy Brandt) psyche is also unraveling, though not to the same degree as Jesse’s. Hank’s (Dean Norris) cantankerous attitude in recovery causes her to clumsily relapse into kleptomania, and get caught for it. Thus eventually brings to an end this small subplot between Hank and Marie, and not a moment too soon because it did nothing but make Hank look like a jerk. There wasn’t any exploration of the dynamic between him and Marie, and it seemed inconsistent with their portrayal because they always seemed to have a strong marriage. Maybe this was the point, to be some insignificant hardship that they move on from and forget, like one of those small rough patches couples have in real life. But it didn’t make for a compelling subplot.

On the reverse end of this theme, Skyler (Anna Gunn) kind of unraveled already last season, and is now piecing herself back together as a knowing, willing accomplice in Walt’s criminal activities. The way she uses fraudulent tactics to get Bogdan (Marius Stan) to sell the carwash shows how her nature’s changed since last season. But she’s still relatively oblivious to the extent of Walt’s deeds, and his situation, and still at arm’s length. In other words, she’s at a place more redeemable than Walt.