Breaking Bad, "Rabid Dog"

**SPOILERS HEREIN!**

This wasn’t an episode. It was two distinct pieces edited together into a whole.

One of those parts was the end of last episode, in which we find that Jesse (Aaron Paul) was talked out of torching the White residence and agrees to help Hank (Dean Norris). But putting it later in this one was an ingenious move. I mean, how tense was the pre-credits scene where Walt (Bryan Cranston) slowly infiltrates his gasoline-soaked house, gun drawn, only to find it empty? It wouldn’t have been if we already knew Jesse was gone.

The other was an extended teaser. Or rather, it was like a few of those “minisodes”—which collectively tell a light narrative but act more as teasers instead of revealing much—edited together. The whole story sequence of Hank getting Jesse to wear a wire was a build-up to a non-event, just hints about what’s to come. But they were some juicy hints to ponder.

I don’t know what Jesse’s plan of action is, but with Walt calling Todd (Jesse Plemons) about another job for his uncle, I got a pretty good guess what he’s got planned. Only…I don’t think Jesse’s the target. How can he be? Walt doesn’t know where he is at the moment.

I think it’s Hank. Or maybe even Marie (Betsy Brandt). In Walt’s view (I’m guessing), killing within his own family won’t just end Hank’s investigation, but be an effective enough warning to scare Jesse and anyone else off. True, Walt’s avoided doing anything bad to his family up to this point…but getting the okay from Skyler (Anna Gunn) to commit murder—even backhandedly, and even though she meant Jesse—might be all the push he needs to cross that line.

Of all the things that happened in this one, that scene was my favorite. Skyler’s stand against her husband in the first half of this season didn’t hold up, and she’s once again sliding down the same slippery slope Walt did all series. On the bad meter, I’d say approving of killing, albeit reluctantly to keep her family safe, puts her somewhere between Walt letting Jane die in her sleep and Walt running over Gus’ two dealers. I’m not sure there’s enough time left in the show for her to become the Bride of Heisenberg (which is to say, sink as low as Walt), but we’ll see.

This wasn’t an episode. But it was damn good television.

P.S. I no longer think the neo-Nazis are going to be an antagonist for Walt. With Walt calling Todd, my guess is that what we’ve seen of them so far this half-season were expository scenes to remind us they’re still in the picture, and possibly show us how bloody things are going to get. If I'm right about that, once again I've underestimated just how bad Walt can break.


Update (09/02/13, 5:32 PM): After sleeping on it, and thinking about it some more, I've changed my mind about this episode. I'm standing by my assessment of the neo-Nazis and my prediction that Hank, not Jesse, will be Walt's target. But I'm reassessing my declaration that this episode was great television.

Going back to what I said about Hank stopping Jesse from burning the house down figuratively being the end of last episode, imagine if that scene had actually been tacked onto last week's closing scene instead of included here. Now, imagine if the last minute of so of this week's entry—Jesse telling Hank there's another way to get Walt, and Walt calling Todd for a job—weren't in the episode proper, but were instead the teaser for next week's (for me, it's not too hard to imagine). With these moments gone, what does that leave us with?

Not much. Yes, there's Skyler's great scene, and Walt's gas pump story made me laugh a little at its lame desperation. But other than that, it was a all a buildup to a potentially big moment, only for it to not happen at the last second. When you look at it this way, the placement of the scene with Jesse and Hank in the gas-soaked living room wasn't "ingenious," as I said previously; it was the only logical placement for this series of events to carry any tension.

I guess I should commend the show for building enough tension for my immediate reaction to be positive, but looking back, it's disappointing that so little happened. Last week's episode didn't resolve any plotlines, either, but it had some very good moments that further intensified Walt's battles of wills with both Jesse and Hank. And I was already plenty pumped for things to happen after last week, so just being toyed with again seems like a cheap shot.

This might have worked better as a series of minisodes, which are most often primers for the next episode that aren't necessary to the overall storyline. But being presented as a regular episode, especially in a series as good as this one, it was not up to snuff.