Breaking Bad Episode 32: Half Measures

Jesse Pinkman begins plotting revenge against the drug dealers who killed his friend Combo Ortega. After buying blue meth from the rival gang and confirming they work for Gus Fring, Jesse asks Walter White to make ricin poison so he can have Wendy deliver poisoned hamburgers to the dealers. Walt refuses, calling the plan ridiculous and arguing that killing the dealers won’t achieve anything, but Jesse insists he will kill them regardless of Walt’s help.

Concerned Jesse will act rashly, Walt visits lawyer Saul Goodman to arrange for Jesse to be briefly jailed on a minor charge to cool him down. Mike Ehrmantraut then visits Walt at home, revealing he also works for Gus and warning that Gus would see Jesse’s imprisonment as a problem. Mike delivers a speech about “no more half measures,” implying Walt must take decisive action to protect their operation.

Jesse plants ricin in hamburgers meant for Gus’s dealers but can’t find them at their usual spot. He is stopped by Mike and Victor, who bring him to a meeting with Gus, Walt, and the two targeted dealers. Gus orders the dealers to stop using children in their operations and forces Jesse to shake hands with them, establishing a temporary truce.

Later, Jesse watches the dealers from afar and snorts meth for the first time since rehab, breaking his sobriety. He draws his gun and approaches the two dealers, who also draw their guns and prepare for a confrontation. Suddenly, Walt plows into both dealers with his car, killing one instantly and badly injuring the other. Walt exits the car, takes the injured dealer’s gun, and shoots him in the head, killing him. Walt then tells the utterly shocked Jesse one word: “Run.”

Meanwhile, Skyler pressures Walt about their car wash money-laundering scheme, and Walt eventually agrees to her main demands: buying the car wash, using it as a front, and installing Skyler as the bookkeeper. At the hospital, Marie convinces Hank to leave by making a deal: if she can get him to achieve an erection, he must come home. She succeeds, and Hank leaves the hospital humiliated while Marie looks triumphant.

That night, an 11-year-old boy named Tomás, who was dealing drugs for the rival gang, is killed. His sister Andrea rushes to the scene with Jesse, who realizes the two street dealers executed Tomás because he was no longer useful to them. The next day, Jesse doesn’t show up for a cooking session with Walt, who starts without him. During dinner with his family, Walt learns about Tomás’s murder on TV and abruptly leaves the house. Jesse watches the dealers from afar, breaks his sobriety by snorting meth, and prepares to kill them—only for Walt to intervene and kill both dealers instead.