Thoughts and observations on “Salud.”
When we last left Breaking Bad, Jesse and Walt had gotten in a huge fight, with Jesse also apparently headed down to Mexico to show the cartel how to cook meth using the proprietary Walter White method.
In “Salud,” we follow Jesse’s trip south of the border, and we deal with Walt dealing with the aftermath of his fight. It was, as many of us have come to expect, another great episode of Breaking Bad. I don’t know if it was quite as good as “Hermanos” but it is a fitting partner to that episode.
Score One for Gus
You may recall that in “Hermanos” we saw a flashback in which Don Eladio and company kill Gus’ partner Max. Well, Don Eladio is back this week, but in the present. After Jesse’s successful cook at the cartel’s lab, he, Mike, and Gus gather at Eladio’s house for a party to celebrate the occasion. There, Gus stares into the pool where Max’s blood once spilled, but he remains calm on the outside. Of course, we now know Gus isn’t quite as focused purely on business as was once perceived.
Yes, when Don Eladio opened Gus’ present, some sort of high quality alcohol, I had a good idea of what was about to unfold. And when Gus came up with an excuse for Jesse not to drink it, I know what was going to happen, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t excellently executed. The drink was poisoned, but Gus still had to drink it to convince Eladio and the cartel muscle to imbibe. Then, a party starts, and Gus excuses himself to go to the bathroom. There, he proceeds to vomit in the toilet, and I thought it was a fantastic touch that even when he is throwing up to avoid dying of poison, he still took off his jacket, folded it neatly, and then placed a towel on the ground to kneel on.
The cartel men start dropping like flies, and then Mike strangles who I like to think was cartel Mike since, like Mike, he didn’t drink any of the poison. Don Eladio looks at Gus one last time before falling in the pool, dead. Gus waited 20 years, but he finally got his revenge on Don Eladio, and he struck a major blow against the cartel. It had seemed like Gus was finally behind the eight ball for the first time in years, but now it appears that he was still two steps ahead of everybody else. Of course, it wasn’t all good news for our intrepid trio.
Jesse Steps Up
Since Jesse’s story bleeds into Gus’ at the end of the episode, I’ll discuss his travails a bit before getting to the very end of this great episode. Jesse is treated with derision and disbelief by the cartel’s chemists, but he ends up showing them, and cooks a batch that is 96.2% pure. However, his happiness slowly fades, as he finds out that he is going to be staying in Mexico as the cartel’s lead chemist. Naturally, he’s surprised by this, and for a moment it looked like Gus sold him out. However, as we learned in the end, it was all part of the plan. Gus starts to succumb to the poison to a degree, and the guys have to try and get out of Eladio’s place alive. There is apparently one guy left, and he shoots Mike, leaving Jesse to square off with him. Jesse succeeds in shooting him repeatedly and killing him, saving all of their lives. He then drives off, clearly in charge of the situation.
There are now some really interesting questions about Jesse, Mike, and Gus now. Once, it looked like they were just trying to keep Jesse busy and attempting to drive a wedge between him and Walt. Now, he’s shown himself to be quite valuable, and if Mike and Gus survive this ordeal it will be in no small part due to him. Once, Gus was ready to kill Jesse. That doesn’t seem likely now. Plus, after his fight with Walt, Jesse’s loyalties have to lie with Gus now, right? With Jesse’s clear cooking prowess, could Walt possibly be expendable now? This is the most interesting element going forward for me now.
Walt Wallows
Speaking of Walt, he’s not doing so well. He doesn’t answer Skyler’s phone calls, so he isn’t there when Walter Jr. gets his present, a used PT Cruiser. Every teenaged boy’s dream. Walter Jr. heads over to Walt’s place to see him, and finds him beaten up and loopy, evidently from painkillers and booze as we later find out. In this state, he has enough of a clear head to tie in his injuries to a fight over gambling, but his emotions behind it are real. He starts crying over the fight, and talking about how it’s all his fault, and it certainly didn’t appear to be an act. By the end of it, he’s quite out of it, and while talking to Walter Jr, who has put him to bed, he accidentally calls him Jesse. So clearly Walt is feeling remorse over his actions last week. Will Jesse ever forgive him?
The next morning, Walt gives his son a long speech about his memories of his own father, and how he doesn’t want Walter Jr. to remember him as he was the night prior. It was a long monologue, well written and delivered with perfection by Bryan Cranston. After this part of the episode, I thought to myself that when he is assuredly up for Best Actor at next year’s Emmy Awards, he should consider submitting this episode. Then, he wasn’t in the rest of the episode and Gus’ plan took over and was thoroughly awesome. So, while this might not end up a Cranston submission, it certainly will be submitted as part of the Outstanding Drama package.
Skyler’s Plan
Meanwhile, Skyler is dealing with Ted Beneke’s financial issues, trying to keep the government out of her monetary situation. She enlists Saul Goodman to help her, even though he doesn’t like the plan. Saul tells Ted that he’s inherited a ton of money from a great aunt in Luxembourg. Ted buys it, but he then proceeds to buy a Mercedes instead of paying off his back taxes. As such, Skyler goes to visit him, and tries to implore him to pay his taxes, but he’s having none of it. In the end, she has to tell Ted the money is from her.
This issue isn’t resolved, but obviously this could spiral even further out of control. What lie will she tell Ted? Will it be the gambling one? If Marie gets wind of that, will she start to get suspicious? Of course, I think it will probably be easier to keep Ted quiet, although the government might be interested about where he suddenly got the money if they’ve been monitoring his finances.
One More Quick Thing
If you happened to watch the Emmy’s, you may have seen a comedy piece taking place in the world of The Office in which Jesse shows up to give Creed some crystal meth. It was really funny, but it was the only presence the show had this year. Next year will, of course, be different.
There are only three more episodes left. The stuff with the cartel seems to be more or less finished. That just leaves Hank’s inquiry into Gus, and whatever happens between Gus, Jesse, and Walt, which will likely not end well at all for at least one of them. Breaking Bad has been in top form.
Some stats and info about Breaking Bad, “Salud”
TV SHOW – Breaking Bad
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 4, Episode 10
AIRED ON – September 18th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – AMC
GENRE – Drama, Crime Dramas
CREATED BY – Vince Gilligan
CAST – Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte, Dean Morris, Bob Odenkirk, Steven Michael Quezada, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Charles Baker, Jesse Plemons
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.