As if things in Walt's life weren't bad enough, he gets pulled over by a cop while driving. It's a little weird that Walt tried to play dumb considering the state of his windshield. We, the audience, don't see it until the cop points it out, but from his perspective, it was an odd tactic. Even explaining what happened doesn't seem to do much to help his case.
I can't exactly fault the cop for it. Driving with a windshield that damaged isn't safe and Walt's invoking of the plane crash comes off more as blatant emotional manipulation than it was a genuine plea for empathy. He might have had better luck had he cited his career and noted that repairs like this aren't friendly on the budget. It might not have worked, but it is a stronger argument.
Instead, he disobeys the cop's request to stay in the car and tries to put his relatively new found assertiveness to the test. Heisenburg loses this bout and ends up in jail. Also, glasses apparently offer no protection against pepper spray. At least he didn't get tasered?
A lot of the episode's focus is on Walt's attempts to patch things up with his family. He brings a pizza (and even dipping sticks) but Skyler won't have it. I'm not sure whether Walt should have tried to explain that he's out of the drug trade. On the one hand, he doesn't even try to bring up this fact, but at the same time, Skyler probably wouldn't have listened anyway.
You do feel bad for Skyler here. Her reaction is quite reasonable, but she can't explain her case and, as such, comes off as being really unreasonable to those around her. She did, after all, turn down the dipping sticks. She does seem to take it in stride, though. She even lets it slide when her own son (who has suddenly adapted his real name again) calls her a bitch.
While I understand Walt's frustration, throwing the pizza seemed out of line. Skyler chides him for throwing a temper tantrum, but it's just wasteful. It's also a fact that pizza makes great comfort food. It does lead to a bizarre moment where the pizza lands on the roof perfectly flat. One would expect the pieces to scatter, but it was more or less intact. Even the callous cleaner guy tilts his head in confusion after seeing that.
While Jesse plays a small part in this episode, he does steal the show to some extent as he recruits Saul to help him buy his old house from his parents. Not only does he buy it, but he uses his own activities to get the price dropped down to half of what it was worth. Granted, Saul gets the moment in the sun, but it was Jesse's plan and he does get a nice moment when he casually walks up to the house before informing them that he is the new owner. Anyone else probably would have added a bit of a taunt or snide resentment to the statement, but he's pretty nonchalant and casual about it. Props for that, I guess.
The episode's pretty quiet, but we do get some edge of your seat tension as the two scary men from last episode break into Walt's house after getting his real name from Tuco's Uncle. Walt remains oblivious as he is in the shower, not knowing that two men aim to kill him.
It's a great scene, though it does end in a bit of anticlimax. I do wonder why Gus still cares about Walt's fate. It is nice in its own way, but I assume he plans on roping Walt back into cooking for him. It also lets us know how much power he wields as the two seem to comply with his order despite the fact that I don't think that they work for him. Maybe Gus is a high ranking member of the cartel, but I was under the impression that he was his own operation.
Will Walt stay on the straight and narrow, or will he be pulled back in drug manufacturing? We'll have to wait and find out...but the answer is yes, he's going to be pulled back in.
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