Breaking Bad Episode 49: Hazard Pay

Walter White, Jesse Pinkman, and Mike Ehrmantraut launch a new meth operation with Saul Goodman acting as their intermediary, initially searching for a warehouse before Walt proposes cooking in homes being fumigated by a pest control company. They partner with **Vamonos Pest**, a local extermination firm owned by criminals, to secretly cook meth in clients' homes while the houses are tented and before the poison is pumped in.

Mike visits **Dennis Markowski**, the manager of Gus Fring's former laundry operation, at the Metropolitan Detention Center posing as a paralegal to reassure him that his deal for silence is still active and that he will be compensated despite the FBI seizing his previous "hazard pay". Mike spends the day visiting his other former henchmen in prison to guarantee they will all be paid to prevent them from talking to the feds.

The first cook at the new mobile site is a **success**, producing high-quality crystal. During the drive back, Walt feigns enthusiasm for Jesse's relationship with **Andrea Cantillo** but subtly hints that Jesse should break up with her, warning that her discovering his secret life would cause major problems if they planned to live together.

At the car wash, **Skyler White** suffers a **nervous breakdown** while talking to her sister **Marie Schrader** about Walt's upcoming 51st birthday; when Marie confronts Skyler about her smoking, Skyler repeatedly shouts "shut up". Marie later confronts Walt at home about the incident, demanding the truth, and Walt lies by claiming Skyler's breakdown was caused by stress over her ex-lover **Ted Beneke**'s recent car accident and revealing Skyler's past affair with Ted.

When Mike allocates the money from the first cook, Walt becomes **upset** that a large portion is distributed to dealers, mules, Saul, and Vamonos Pest, and he is further angered by the ongoing "hazard pay" for Mike's old men, though he eventually relents. Walt calculates that the partners' final take is less than what he earned working for Gus, but Jesse counters that they are now **owners** rather than employees and are making more due to the higher volume of output. Jesse reveals he has **broken off** his relationship with Andrea, and Walt hints that they may need to remove some other members of the team to increase their profits.