This episode adds several new things to the mix—Walt (Bryan Cranston) bringing the ricin back into the picture, Gus’ (Giancarlo Esposito) tension with the Cartel, Hank (Dean Norris) correctly surmising that Gus is distributing the blue meth—priming us for the latter half of the season. And a good primer it is. While it doesn’t really raise the tension in the immediate (though there’s an undercurrent of dread to Gus’ meeting with the Cartel liaison), it’s clear to the viewer that all these plot turns at once won’t let things remain stable for long.
But what’s very, very good in the now is the revelation about Jesse (Aaron Paul).
The opening scene, with flashbacks to Gale’s (David Costabile) murder briefly, near subliminally intercut into Jesse’s shooter game, are haunting and effective. Later, Jesse’s partial confession at his group therapy meeting is a powerful scene, one of Paul’s best pieces of acting on the show. He shows Jesse’s raw anguish at what he’s done, compounded by the fact he must lie (Gale becomes a dog in his story, hence the title) because what he's done is that bad. But he has to share it this way because he only ones he can be honest with probably would see his remorse as weakness.
Jesse’s still far from healed, and letting it out doesn’t change that. But this episode makes one thing clear: despite all he’s been through, he’s still not bad person. I mean, he's still a drug dealer/maker, so he's bad. But he's not completely evil. And Gus and Mike’s (Jonathan Banks) efforts to rebuild him as their goon are failing.
In one scene, Jesse lies to Walt about having the chance to slip Gus the ricin. At first it might seem like Jesse’s loyalty to Walt is deteriorating, but I didn’t see it that way. Rather, Jesse doesn’t want to kill. He can’t bring himself to do it again, even to someone who might kill him.
Even though his refusal to kill could result in his own demise, you almost want to applaud Jesse fro not letting darkness overtake him.
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