Nothing like an awkward dinner scene. This plot tool has been utilized countless times in both comedies and dramas, so you could call it a cliché. But it’s well-used here because it’s not exactly introducing any new plot elements. Rather, it’s a measuring stick to show where all the characters are at this point.
Jesse (Aaron Paul) tries to start small talk with Skyler (Anna Gunn), and fails pretty badly. It’s clear that Jesse’s just going along with the uncomfortable meal to appease Walt (Bryan Cranston), and is desperately trying to be polite and cordial to avoid setting him off. He's become afraid of his old teacher. Skyler, on the other hand, is past the point of fear and on to acceptance of any fate Walt might bring upon her, and doesn’t even think twice about spurning the whole idea and insulting her husband in front of his business partner. It’s a pretty funny scene, and a very uneasy one at the same time.
Walt obviously only invited Jesse to punish Skyler, which shows how much what he does is for his family anymore (he also openly admits to Jesse that he’s now in the drug business for the money and pride, though that much was obvious a while ago). But he didn’t need the dinner to show us where he’s at. He did that already with his almost non-reaction to the murdered kid. True, Walt already poisoned a child, but he was desperate at that point and only used a nonfatal agent that didn’t kill him (doesn’t make it any less heinous, but in his mind that might make it justifiable). This time a kid did die, and Walt just brushed it off as a minor inconvenience.
The show kind of tackles this a little too obviously (I mean, Walt actually whistles while cooking right after consoling Jesse). Or maybe it’s just that Walt’s reached a level so bad that being so outwardly cold and callous is now normal. Either way, this is the point where Walter becomes almost completely unlikable. Notice there’s no real villain this season; it’s because Walt doesn’t need one.
Another element I liked is the pre-credits scene, where Walt, Mike (Jonathan Banks), and Todd (Jesse Plemons) efficiently and methodically (and silently, with a dreary musical piece the only thing we hear) disassemble the kid’s dirt bike to dispose of it in an acid barrel. When it’s done, the body starts to peek out of the truck they drove up in, and they get a second barrel to repeat the process (which thankfully, they don’t show). Kind of says it all about the drug world: human life, even a child’s, is just as disposable as any piece of trash.
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