Season 2 Episode 3

Continuing on from the last episode, Walter and Jessie have escaped without being seen. They are walking through the empty desert trying to find a way back, when they reach the road and start hitchhiking, as a truck pulls up, Walter gets in the truck but Jessie doesn't. At this point, they seem to have a plan in mind. The next scene, we see an employee at a grocery store picking up articles of clothing throughout the store and eventually we see that Walter is walking around the grocery store completely naked. As he is taken to the hospital, he is giving people the impression that he doesn't remember anything from the time he went missing up until that point. Through tests and examinations, the Doctor's can't find a diagnosis and refuse to let him go just in case it happens again. They make Walter stay for further care.
Next, we see Hank being questioned about the shooting with Tuco. There seems to be more questions arising about Jessie and why his car was at the scene of the shooting and where Tuco was. This causes more suspicion on Jessie so the cops scope out his house to see if there is anything suspicious while Jessie is just around the corner with Badger waiting for them to leave. When they finally do, they rush into the house and Jessie clears out the meth lab in the basement and moves all the equipment and supplies into the RV. To get rid of everything, Jessie has Badger's cousin tow away the RV so it isn't hanging around the house for the cops to see.
Jessie is hanging around the motel with Wendy, the prostitute. While they are hanging around the motel, the cops bust into the motel and Hank takes them both in for questioning. While Jessie lies and days that his car was stolen, Hank brings out his stash of money but Jessie refuses to admit that it is his or that he was even at the scene. They continue to accuse Jessie of knowing something about that day and who shot him.
While Walter is still at the hospital, he is required to see a psychiatrist for further observations. Due to confidentiality, Hank lies and says that he does remember everything that happened. He was just fed up with being at home and he just wanted to get away, so he just walked and used the grocery store incident to get out of admitting that he ran away.
Going back to Jessie being questioned, they decide to being in Tuco's uncle but he refuses to admit anything to the feds because they don't help the feds at all. So, due to lack of evidence, they let Jessie go. Jessie calls Walter to talk about what happened on both their parts. Walter still brings up the fact that he wants to cook. When they get off the phone, Walter is running numbers through his head and seems to realize something. He sneaks out of the hospital and into his house. He goes to the baby's room and retrieves the money he had left sitting there. He takes it out of the box and places it back in the vents. Before he gets ready to head back, his son and wife wake up and he notices how emotional drained they are because of all of this. While heading back, he sees his "missing persons" poster at the bus stop and it is noticeable that he feels a weight on his shoulders for what he is putting his family through.
The next morning, Walter is released from the hospital and taken home.  While arriving home, Skylar seems to be upset about something. Walter tries to reassure her that everything will be okay and then she asks about his second cell phone. He says he doesn't remember anything that happened the night he disappeared and that he doesn't have a second cell phone. She turns over to go to sleep, not seeming to believe it.
One of the theme's I noticed was the distance that grew the more he created more lies. I think he started to realize what he was doing when he noticed how emotionally drained his family was and then seeing the missing persons poster of him. A few times through out the episode, there was a painting that Walter kept glancing at while he was in the hospital. It was a painting of a man in a boat, rowing away while what seemed to be his family was waving bye to him as he was going further into the water. I am not too sure what this could have meant. Maybe he felt so alone through all of this or the fact that he knew he was dying soon and would have to face the goodbye, or it could have even meant the distance he was creating between him and his family because of all he was lying about and what he was putting them through.

Grilled.

The beginning of this episode starts with Hank talking to the DEA about finding Tuco. Hank goes over his background and record with drugs. They found one of his fingerprints at the scene of the junkyard crime where his men were found killed. After Hank leaves, he gets a phone call from Skylar about Hank missing. Hank, and his friend with the police department go over the house to find out anything they could about Hank missing. After Skylar says he was upset that night and received a phone call right before we went missing, in which Hank tried to look at Walter’s call history and didn’t find anything. Hank tells his friend, the detective, that Walter must have had a second phone.

Tuco is shown destroying Walter and Jessie’s phone in the desert while they are in the trunk of the car. Tuco pulls them both out and takes them into a house in the middle of nowhere.

Skylar and Marie are shown passing “missing person” posters all over; handing them out to everyone they see. Marie eventually brings up the stolen tiara issue but Skylar refuses to talk about it at that moment.

While Tuco, Walter, and Jessie enter the house, there is an older man in a wheel chair, who is Tuco’s uncle, seems to be unable to speak so he communicated by ringing a bell. Tuco proceeds to make Walter and Jessie empty out their pockets and when they do, we see the meth that Walter has poisoned, putting it on the table, hoping that Tuco would take a hit of it. Tuco gets upset about the DEA and mentions that he needs to get high. He sees the bag and smells it; he refuses to take it because the smell of it was repulsive so he takes his own. As Tuco is cooking, Walter and Jessie try to figure out how to take Tuco down (saying these things in front of his uncle). Walter thinking of putting the meth in Tuco’s food. When they sit down, Walter successfully places the meth in his food, but as he goes to eat, his uncle starting ringing his bell, distracting him from eating it. His uncle eventually knocked the food on the floor and the plan fails. Tuco beings up how his cousins are on their way to take them to Mexico to get away from the DEA and to cook in Mexico but they refuse to because of “their responsibilities.” His uncle communicates to Tuco that he doesn’t trust Walter or Jessie and Tuco finds out that they are up to something so he starts beating Jessie and while Walter is admitting that they were trying to poison him, Jessie knocks him over the head with a rock and shooting him. As they try to get away, he see a car pulling up (who they think is Tuco’s cousins) so they hide and it turns out to be Hank who tracked Jessie’s car to question him about Walter’s disappearance. As Hank gets out of the car, he finds Tuco and they begin to shoot at each other, eventually hank kills him. As Walter finally figuring out that it was Hank, Walter and Jessie both run off into the desert. 

One thing that stood out to me, that wasn't necessarily a theme was "the lost." The disappearance of Walter brought out an urgency in the family to find him. They all seems to do everything they could to figure out where Walter was and what happened to him. It reminded me of how God has the urgency to seek out the lost and how we are also apart of the family of God, which makes it our responsibility to have that urgency as well to find these people and "bring them home" so to speak. There are many passages in the bible when it is referring to "the lost" and its always talking about finding them or seeking them out. The importance and urgency is present in those passages, and that is what should be done while we seek the lost as well. 

s2e1

Season two, episode one begins with a replay of the last drug deal with Tuco. When it’s over, Walter is going over his financial plan for his family out loud, adding up everything and making sure there is enough if he dies. As Walter and Jessie try to leave the junk yard after the deal, Tuco is driving at a very fast speed, going head on to Walter and Jessie. One of his men that he beat badly was having a seizure and was angrily and panicking asking Walter and Jessie what was wrong with him but he ends up dying at that moment. Tuco then asks his other man to “get rid of him.” He ends up hiding him under a stack of cars in the junk yard. 
Later, Walter gets home and seems really out of it, searching the TV channels to see if there is anything on what just happened. At this time Skylar is trying to get Walter’s attention but he cant seem to hear her. When she finally gets his attention, Walter is forceful on Skylar and she has to fight him off in order for him to listen to her. Realizing what he had done, he runs outside, and she explains to him that she knows he is scared and frustrated, but he cant keep taking out on her. 
Jessie on the other hand buys a gun in fear of Tuco coming after him. Walter and Jessie talk about what happened at the junk yard and they both decide to kill Tuco before he kills them. 
While that is going on, Hank finds more evidence of Walter and Jessie’s business. They find the surveillance video of them stealing the barrel at the factory but Hank still doesn’t know that Walter is a part of it. 
After Walter and Jessie discuss what to do, Walter realizes he is being watched at home. He ends up spending the entire night watching over the house to make sure Tuco didn’t make a move to kill him or his family. 
Later, Walter comes up with an idea to kill Tuco without using a gun. He tells Jessie about caster beans which are very poisonous beans. They both decide to use this method to kill Tuco so they use the beans in the process of cooking and decide to give it to Tuco telling him “its a new product” that they want him to try out. 
Skylar tells hank that Marie has a stealing problem. Hank tells Marie that he knew about it and she is getting help but the family needs to “support her.” Skylar has a freak out telling Hank that she is the pregnant one with a husband who has cancer and Marie is the one needed support? 
Later, Hank calls Walter about the conversation between him and Skylar but makes a joke about the crime scene he found which happened to be at the junk yard. He found two of Tuco’s men dead. One under the car, and the other one that was trying to get rid of the body. His arms were smashed by the cars collapsing on him from hiding the body and bled out. 
Walter and Jessie get even more scared because they think Tuco killed the other guy too and they believe he is after them next. Walter runs home to protect his family and to hide the money in another spot and Jessie does the same with his money. 
Walter is at the point of so much fear, he is about to tell Skylar everything that has been going on but gets interrupted by a phone call that he ignores. He then walks to the living room and notices a car pulled up to his house. He goes outside without tell Skylar anything and it is Jessie and Tuco. Tuco has a gun on Jessie and tells Walter to get in the car then they drive away.
One of the small themes that I notices was how we react to anger or to situations that may throw us off guard in any way. One example being with Marie when she is leaving her house, she is arguing with Hank and the kid next door is playing with his remote control car and it keeps hitting Marie's tire of her car. When she leaves, she purposely runs over his car and destroys it. Another example would be when Jessie gets scared about Tuco killing his own men. Out of fear, Jessie buys a gun to keep himself safe and to kill if it came down to it. In James 1:19 is says "My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry." In Marie's case, she wasn't very good at listening to the care of her husband or sister, she refused to admit that she had a problem at all and everyone became angry at it. Skylar choose to attack her when she found out she has a problem instead of really try to figure out the "why" behind it. She became very angry at her and held it against her. We should always be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. 

A No-Rough-Stuff-Type Deal

This episode of breaking bad starts with the school staff meeting about the missing science equipment that was stolen for the meth lab. We soon find out that Jessie is putting his house up for sale. They start to talk over the cooking situation and the deal they made with Tuco. They begin to realize that cooking as much as they agreed to cook wouldn’t be as easy as they thought due to a lack of ingredience. Jessie and Walter meet Tuco at the junkyard for a drug meet. Tuco comes to find out that they didn’t provide as much meth as they said they would. Tuco is frustrated and angry with this but Walter pushes the limits again telling Tuco they will provide 4 pounds weekly, instead of two pounds.

Next, they show the family at Skylar’s baby shower and when she opens up the gift from Marie, she sees that she got the baby a white gold tiara that Skylar didn’t seem to fond of and while this is going on, Hank and Walter are outside talking about the possibilities of drugs being legalized.

After the baby shower, Walter lies to Skylar and tells her that is going to a sweat lodge for a ritual healing, specifically for his lungs (which Skylar suggested), and Skylar is happy to see Walter taking different approaches to his lung cancer. But, instead of going to this sweat lodge, Walter goes to Jessie’s house and begins to figure out how they are going to make 4 pounds of meth for Tuco. Jessie gets all the things they need except for one ingredient that he cant seem to get anywhere so they come up with a plan to steal it from a factory and they do just that.

While Walter is out, Skylar decides to return the tiara back to the store because she doesn’t like it and wont use it. While she is trying to return it, she soon discovers that it was stolen and the store is keeping her and are pressing charges, but while they are on the phone with the police, she pretends to be in labor and they let her go. Skylar confronts Marie about the tiara and Marie doesn’t own up to the fact that it was stolen and that she even stole it. She denies it and pretends she knows nothing about what Skylar is talking about.

When Jessie and Walter get everything they need, they try taking the RV to start cooking the 4 pounds they need but they can’t seem to start up the RV. With no time to waste or nowhere to go, they decide to move the meth lab into Jessie’s basement to cook.

Finally, they meet up with Tuco to give him the 4 (plus some) pounds that they promised but Tuco is confused when he sees that the produce was blue (because of the improvise they did while cooking). Tuco sniffs some of it and realizes that it’s still the same and wants to continue business with Walter and Jessie. After that, one of Tuco’s men makes a comment “just remember who you work for” and Tuco becomes angry defending himself and Walter and Jessie. He becomes so angry that Tuco beats his own man to death. Walter and Jessie stand there in shock of what just happened and then Tuco leaves. 

One of the themes I noticed is that as things get deeper into a mess that many of the characters are facing, even when it is lying to each other, the family seems to grow closer together. I notices this specifically with Marie and her problem with stealing. This problem just came up but its obvious that Skylar is concerned with it and wants to talk to Marie about it. The other thing is still trying to figure out how to help Walter with his lung cancer. Skylar is encouraging him to do all that he can (ritual cleansing). Things are getting harder and even though the family is lying to each other, they seem to be getting closer. 

When I think about this, I think about how God loves us no matter what. No matter how many times I mess up he is still there to give me correction and to point me in the right direction. God will never turn his back on me nor will be let me fall. In Hebrews it says, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." Which is funny in terms of the context of the show but no matter what he will not leave us nor will he forsake us. 

Season 1 - Episode 6

The beginning of episode 6 starts with Walter walking into the destroyed RV, giving Jessie a lecture about how their business is consisted of Jessie selling and Walter cooking, and that it is. Walter is then shown getting his cancer treatment with Skylar by his side, she asked Walter that she hadn’t seen any check in the mail from Elliot but Walter lies and tells her that he had already received it and put it in the bank account.

The next scene that is taking place is Walter teaching his chemistry class. While he is teaching about mercury and what causes explosives, he is forced to stop and go to the bathroom because the has to throw up. After he throws up, it shows the janitor (Hugo), insisting on cleaning up after Walter so that he can go back to teach his class.

Later that day, Walter and Jessie are back in the RV cooking when Walter starts coughing uncontrollably and Jessie finally realizes that Walter has cancer because Jessie saw the target spot they placed on his chest for the radiation. Jessie begins to talk about how he knew because that is what they placed on Jessie’s aunt who had died from cancer as well. In that moment, they seem to bond in a new way because of it. Jessie’s calls Walter out on the reason why he is even in the business – to financially take care of the family when Walter dies. At this point, Walter is in no condition to finish the batch he started and puts his trust in Jessie to finish it out for him. As Jessie is walking to the RV, he throws out a quick tip for his Chemotherapy treatment – he tells him to wear an icepack on his head to prevent hair lose.

We are the shown Hank getting results back from the lab about the mask he found at the scene. He discovers the mask belongs to the school Walter works at. This scene goes straight back into Jessie and Walter talking about how Jessie isn’t bringing enough money in from the meth. Walter comes up with the idea to sell to a distributor (Tuco) but Jessie says that it is too risky to just sell to him.

It shows Walter getting very low on money for his treatment as he continues to get sicker during school and Hugo still cleaning up after Walter, even offering him gun before he goes back to class. While at school, Walter gets a visit from Hank who asks to see his supply closet and realized that the closet is missing a lot more than just one mask but Hank is still not suspicious of Walter at all. While Hank is looking through the inventory, Jessie calls and says he has an “in” to get to Tuco, who is his friend skinny. Jessie and Skinny both attempt to talk to Tuco but tuco ends up stealing the meth and severely beating up Jessie. Next, we see Hank arresting Hugo outside the school and later that night as the family is playing cards together, Hank mentions that Hugo is a suspect of the stolen supplies because Hugo had a record of theft and also possession of weed.

Next day, while Walter is taking a shower, a bunch of his hair falls out and decides to just shave it all off. He calls Jessie, but Skinny answers and finds out Jessie is in the hospital. Walter visits and asks Skinny to tell him everything he knows about Tuco. Next, Walter is seen in front of Tuco’s place. He walks in and gives him the batch of “meth” and makes a deal. Then, when Tuco isn’t going for it. Walter picks up a pieces of the “meth” and throws it down on the floor which causes an explosion. He picks up the batch and threatens to throw the whole bag down unless Tuco gives him the money. Tuco not only gives him the money but tells him the meth Jessie brought sold quick, and he wanted them to bring more next week to sell. Walter takes the money and walks out of the building. 

One of the main themes I saw in this episode goes along with caring for one another but more than that it is, not just fighting for each other but having each other's back in times of need. There were a few instances where Hugo generously helped Walter when he was sick, not only cleaning up after him when he threw up, but even gave him gun before he went back to class. Another instance is Walter finding out what Tuco had done to Jessie, and Walter not letting it just happen. He went back and took what belonged to them and also "gave him what he deserved" in the eyes of Walter. 

This theme reminds me a lot about how we need to fight for the people that aren't strong enough to fight for themselves. It may be non christians who are battling with things in their own life or it may even be christians struggling as well. I think the importance of it is coming along side that person when they can't hold themselves us, and walk with them through tough times, through life, and through the storm till they are strong enough to get back up again. We are to fight for each other and have each other's back because that is what is required of us as a body of Christ, a community, and as us being created to be in relationship with one another. Most importantly, it is Christ who fights for us and will never let us get to the point where we are getting so beat down we are just left to die. He intervenes and fights the battles for us. 

Gray Matter

There are two different things happening in this episode of breaking bad that eventually come together at the end. One is what is going on with Walter and the other part is what is going on with Jessie.

The beginning of this episode is starting off with Jessie being interviewed for what he thought was a sales job but ended up being a job for a sign holder for the company. Leaving the building, he noticed that his friend Badger is one of the sign holders and they get to talking. They both realize they are in need of money and once Badger finds out that Jessie isn’t in business anymore, he asks him to be his partner and they both decide to cook together. When they try to cook, they can’t seem to the the results they want but Badger is willing to settle for anything. Jessie finally has enough of badger complaining and takes off without him in the RV.

Then the story goes to Walter and Skyler who are on their way to their friend Elliot’s (someone Walter went to school with and also started a business with) birthday party. During the party, Walter notices Skyler talking to Elliot, what seemed to be a serious conversation. After the party, while Elliot and Walter are catching up, Elliot offers Walter a job at his business where Walter knows he will make plenty of money and have a lot of success. Then Elliot brings up the cancer and offers to pay for Walter’s treatment. Walter turns down the opportunity and the money and later gets angry at Skyler because he knew Skyler told Elliot about the cancer. 
Next we see Walter Jr. and his friends trying to get someone at the liquor store to buy beer for them. Coincidentally, the person they ask is a cop and then are caught. Walter Jr. calls Hank, pretending he is Walter Jr’s dad and then he takes him home. While Skyler, Hank, and Marie are talking, the “pot” incident comes up and it was clear that Skyler wasn’t talking about Walter Jr. but was talking about Walt. They realize that he has been acting strange about everything going on so they decide to have a family meeting where everyone in the family can express and voice their feelings on Walter’s decisions, because they effect everyone and not just him.Once they finally get together, everyone expresses how they feel and tell him he should get treatment except for Marie who tells him he should do what ever he wants and he doesn't need people telling him how to live his life or what to do. Walter finally gets the chance to speak and tells them that he never felt like he had a choice and since the cancer came, he doesn’t want it to get to the point where he cant take care of himself because he doesn’t want to be remembered as “artificially alive, just marking time.” So he tells them that he isn’t doing the treatment. 
Walter wakes up the next morning, looks at everything on Skyler’s night stand and walks over to her telling her that he will do the treatment. Then we see them at the doctor’s starting the treatment. The Episode ends with Walter getting a call from Gretchen. She is telling him that he needs to take the money because its partially his anyway and then she brings up something about her and Walter but that isn’t explained. He lies and says that the insurance came through after all and he didn’t need the money. When he gets off the phone, he is actually at Jessie’s house and he approaches Jessie about being partners again. 

One of the themes in this episode that I came across in noticing was the theme of taking care of one another. This was shown specifically with Walter's situation and with the family. Walter was so set on not getting the treatment even though he had people willing to take care of all the medical payments for his treatment. Skyler took the inititive to bring the family together and have a meeting about how everyone felt. There had to be expression about the choices that Walter was making because his choices were affecting everyone in the family as well and that needed to be talked about. They had Walter's best interest at heart and wanted the very best for his life, as well as for themselves. 
There was also a theme that tied into caring for one another, and that was the theme of pride. Throughout this season so far, Walter has carried a lot of pride. This is shown a lot in this episode when he refuses to receive the money that was offered to him for his treatment. He even went as far as lying to get out of it because his pride was so strong. 

Proverbs 14:3 says, " a fool’s mouth lashes out with pride, but the lips of the wise protect them." I think in this case, Walter had the fool's mouth lashing out with pride, and then their was his family and friends who were his voice of wisdom which convinced him to change his mind in his treatment, but didn't change his mind in taking the money for his treatment. 

Breaking Bad - Episode Three.

Season three opens up with Walter and Jessie cleaning up the mess they made with the dead body and the acid. As they are cleaning, Walter gets a flashback with him and another women talking about chemistry, trying to figure out a problem and Walter makes a comment and says, “there has got to e more to a human being than that.” Walter seems to be getting close to this women, but then they show him snap back and them cleaning the mess again. This episode continues with the man in the basement who we find out is name is, Domingo. Walter and Domingo have conversations that may seem to make it harder for Walter to kill him. At one point, Walter gets upset at Jessie for giving Domingo all the information he knew about Walter but Walter continues to make sandwiches to him. 

This episode also shows that Skyler’s sister seems to be stealing from a women’s shoe department, while caller her husband telling him she thinks Walter Jr is smoking pot and asks him to scare him with a drive to the bad part of town where all the junkie’s hang out. So, hank takes him and finds a women who is on the pipe, asks her questions about how she got there (trying to get her to say she started off with the gateway drug; pot). It doesn’t seem to scare Walter Jr at all. As the women goes back to her hotel room, we find Jessie there, afraid they were looking for him. 

As Walter still struggles with the killing he has to face, we see him writing the pros and cons of killing Domingo. We find a list of reasons why he shouldn’t kill him, and one thing on the side to kill him, that is to keep his family safe. After this he takes a sandwich down to Domingo on a glass plate and as he walks down the stairs to the basement, he passes out and the glass shatters. When he wakes up, he confesses to Domingo that he has lung cancer, Domingo being the only one Walter has ever told. They talk and Walter decides he will let him go because he knows Domingo is another human being who deserves to live, as long as he promises not to hurt his family. When he goes upstairs to get they key, he realized that a piece of the plate was missing, that upsets him, so he goes downstairs and chokes Domingo. As he is killing him, he is crying and apologizing to Domingo. 

The next day we see Jessie go back home, Domingo is gone and so is Walter, the RV is empty and then we find out the DEA found the cook sight that they started out at. They find the head gear, and the car with the meth that Walter had made. We then see Walter sitting in his car on a bridge as he is having another flashback with the same women. He drives home and it ends with Walter telling Skyler that there is something he has to tell her. 

One of the themes I notices in this episode, that extends from episode two, has a lot to do with the value of life. The theme in episode three seems to be the focus on the soul. As we saw with the flashback, there was a comment that Walter made and he said, “there has got to be more to a human being than this.” This flashback that he had is the beginning of the episode and this is what is in his mind throughout the episode. We find Walter writing the pros and cons to killing Domingo. We see a numerous amount of reason why he shouldn’t, one of them being because he has a soul. As Walter gets to know Domingo, he gets to know him for who he is and not what he is known for. This makes Walter decided to let him go,until he realizes that he had the glass. At the end, the same flashback comes back to Walter after killing Domingo. This time Walter says, something’s missing...what about the soul?” 

Even as this episode displays a non christian based meaning, they still understand the meaning of the soul and how important it is for us as human beings to have the right to live. As Christians, we know the importance of the soul and we know that it was God himself that created us. The soul is the center of who we are, what we were created to live by. It is our souls that connect us with God and with one another; Christian or not. How can we not see that we were designed for relationship with one another and with God. Walter couldn't help but feel a connection to domingo, no matter what the situation was. There is importance to our souls connecting because that is when we build community with each other. That is when God works through us; when we can reach other people. "There has got to be more to a human being than this."