Breaking Bad Episode 24: Green Light

After learning from Skyler that she slept with her boss Ted Beneke, Walter White loses control and makes a scene at Ted’s workplace, confronting him before being thrown out by security. Immediately after, Mike Ehrmantraut intercepts Walt and drives him to Saul Goodman’s office. At Saul’s, Saul reveals they recorded Walt and Skyler’s conversation about the affair, confirming they bugged Walt’s house; enraged by this and Saul’s crude remarks about Skyler, Walt tackles Saul, fires him on the spot, and demands the bugs be removed, losing Saul’s help laundering his money.

As a result of his reckless behavior, Walt becomes absent-minded at school. The vice principal, Carmen Molina, confronts him; in a desperate attempt to charm her, Walt tries to kiss her, but she rejects him and places him on indefinite leave. While leaving the school, Walt is intercepted by Jesse Pinkman, who has cooked a new batch of meth on his own. Walt rejects Jesse’s product as substandard, but Jesse resolves to sell it directly to Gus Fring, using Saul and Mike as mediators. Gus reluctantly agrees to buy the batch, anticipating that Walt’s pride and financial need may eventually bring him back.

Meanwhile, Jesse attempts his first independent sale at a gas station. When he lacks cash to pay the cashier, he offers blue meth as payment; after pressure from Jesse and the arrival of a New Mexico State Trooper, the cashier accepts the meth. Later, Jesse delivers a batch to Gus’s employee Victor at an isolated overpass but is outraged to receive only half the money owed.

Hank Schrader, originally scheduled to return to El Paso, abandons his trip after receiving a new lead on the infamous blue meth. He investigates a gas station where a young man paid for gas with drugs, retrieves an image of the man’s vehicle from an ATM, and convinces his boss to let him continue his Albuquerque investigation, insisting he is “close to something big”. ASAC Merkert later tells Hank he must decide immediately whether to go to El Paso, but Hank declines, claiming his work in Albuquerque is too important.

At the end of the episode, while driving through the desert, Walt stops at a red light and hears a radio report that Donald Margolis, Jane Margolis’s father, has been rushed to the hospital after a self-inflicted gunshot wound following his involvement in the Wayfarer 515 air disaster. Shortly after, Walt receives his half of the money for Jesse’s inferior product, which visibly distresses him.