Breaking Bad Episode 44: Crawl Space

Walter White discovers that Gus Fring has replaced him as the meth cook by using Jesse Pinkman, leading Walt to realize his family is in immediate danger as Gus plans to kill his brother-in-law, Hank, due to Hank’s investigation.

The episode opens with Jesse driving the poisoned Gus and wounded Mike Ehrmantraut to a makeshift emergency room Gus had prepared in Mexico. Gus recovers quickly, but Mike is too injured to travel and must stay behind for a week. Gus and Jesse leave Mike and return to the U.S. Upon returning, Gus takes Jesse to Hector Salamanca’s nursing home, where he taunts the mute Hector by showing him Don Eladio’s medallion and parading Jesse in front of him as the man who killed Hector’s grandson.

Meanwhile, Hank asks Walt to drive him to the Pollos Hermanos chicken farm he intends to investigate. On the way, Hank reveals he also plans to investigate an industrial laundry owned by the same parent company as Pollos Hermanos—the very laundry where Walt’s secret lab is located. In a panic, Walt deliberately crashes his car to stop Hank from using him as a chauffeur, forcing Hank to abandon the plan temporarily.

Skyler White faces a crisis when Ted Beneke appears to blackmail her over the $617,000 needed to pay the IRS, implying he wants more money than she has already given. Skyler hires Saul Goodman’s men, Huell and Kuby, to extort Ted into paying the IRS. Ted signs the check but attempts to escape; he trips, hits his head, and knocks himself out, resulting in a serious injury.

Walt realizes Jesse has been cooking in the lab and pleads with him to stick together to thwart Gus. Jesse, still bitter after their earlier fight, turns his back on Walt. Gus then abducts Walt, taking him to the desert where he fires Walt, demands he never return to the laundry or speak with Jesse again, and warns that his crew will murder Hank due to the risk of Hank’s investigations. When Walt protests, Gus threatens to murder Walt’s entire family if he continues to interfere.

Desperate, Walt breaks into Saul Goodman’s office and accepts Saul’s previous offer to disappear, which will cost Walt and his family $500,000. He orders Saul to call the DEA to warn them about an attempt on Hank’s life. Walt returns home to retrieve the money from the crawl space under his house, but he frantically discovers there is not enough money. He yells at Skyler to explain, and she reveals she gave the money to Ted. The episode ends with Walt sitting in the crawl space, utterly confused and mentally snapping as he realizes he has lost everything.