Breaking Bad Episode 29: Kafkaesque

Walter White and Jesse Pinkman resume full production in Gus Fring’s new lab, easily hitting their 200-pound weekly quota of blue meth, but Jesse becomes resentful when Walt refuses to let him remove the extra pounds they overproduce, arguing that Gus will net $96 million while they receive only $3 million combined. Jesse, feeling alienated from his labor and dissatisfied with being a wage slave, decides to steal the leftover meth to sell separately to members of his rehab support group. At his NA group, Jesse lies about working in a corporate laundromat with oppressive employers, prompting the group leader to call the situation “kind of Kafkaesque”.

Jesse visits Saul Goodman, who suggests buying a nail salon to launder their illegal income, but Jesse rejects the idea, refusing to own a nail boutique. Meanwhile, Hank Schrader wakes from his coma in the hospital; Steve Gomez informs him that blue meth has reappeared in several states, confirming Hank’s suspicion that Heisenberg is still active. Hank reveals he received a mysterious warning call one minute before the assassins attacked him, making him instantly suspicious.

Skyler White, now deeply worried, asks Walt if their family is safe and whether Walt himself is safe; Walt weakly assures her they are. As Hank’s medical bills mount and his insurance denies coverage for his expensive rehabilitation, Marie vows to fight the insurer, while Skyler watches and devises a plan to pay the uninsured expenses. When Marie presses Skyler about the money’s source, Skyler claims Walt won a fortune gambling, and Walt listens uncomfortably as she tells this fictional story.

Walt meets Gus at his distribution center to “clear the air,” confessing that he now understands Gus’s strategy: Gus diverted the Cartel cousins away from Walt and directed them toward Hank, knowing an attempted hit on a DEA agent would trigger government crackdowns on the Cartel and grant Gus complete market control. Walt admits he admires Gus’s mastermind strategy, and the two reach tentative common ground, with Walt verbally agreeing to an indefinite long-term arrangement that will net him millions more than originally promised.

In a surreal moment at the episode’s end, Walt leans forward, entranced, as Skyler weaves her fictional version of his life, his mouth dropping open as he can’t wait to find out who she’s making him out to be.