This episode may not be the greatest episode to date, but I would certainly rank it up there. It's chock full of great scenes and there are so many highlights to talk about that I'm not even sure where to start.
I guess we'll start with Hank, who is starting to recover. Alas, the cost of treatment is high. I think the writers wanted to try to bring the show back to its roots by having the money go to medical treatments and used this as a way to do it. There are differences, Hank has a decent health plan, so unlike Walt's HMO, he won't be left in the lurch, but from Marie's perspective, good treatment doesn't cut it. She wants the best treatment. You can't fault her position, but it doesn't quite pack the same punch as Walt's case, where you could argue that he fell through the cracks in the system.
But much like how Walt happened to know a millionaire who was willing to cover the costs, so too does Marie (albeit unknowingly). Luckily for Marie, Skyler is willing to offer Walt's fortune for the cause.
As a way to explain how they can pay for it, Skyler comes up with a story about how Walt has a gambling problem. It fills in the gaps surprisingly well and makes for a "shocking revelation" as far as Marie is concerned without ratting him out completely. While it was a great scene for Skyler, and Anna Gunn delivered it with aplomb, I found myself more captivated by Walt as the scene played out. He hardly says a word, but the look on his face is kind of priceless. It's this odd mix of surprised, confused, and impressed.
Walt gets another highlight when he confronts Gus after learning that Hank was warned about the attack. Oddly enough, he's not mad. Walt admits that the strategy (to cripple the opposing cartel) was brilliant and he would have done the same thing were he in Gus' position.
On the one hand, it's nice to have a concrete statement on where Gus stands, but at the same time, now his conversation from last episode makes no sense. If Gus was competing with them, why was the cartel head confused when Gus executed the stratagem? Wouldn't his reasons for doing it be obvious? Were Gus in league with them, the reasons become more obfuscated and you can see why he'd call Gus to see what was up. More than that, Gus' playing dumb by repeating the question makes more sense were he affiliated with them to an extent.
Speaking of affiliations, Jesse isn't too pleased with the arrangement and feels that they should be paid more money. Walt scoffs this as they are millionaires, but it doesn't quell the frustration. Jesse points out that Gus is set to make $96 million off their product and wants to know why they're only getting three.
Does Jesse not know about overhead? I mean, Gus is running a large operation that covers several states. That costs money. Heck, he needs to only look at the lab to see where all the money goes. More than that, he and Walt kept hitting financial roadblocks when they were operating on their own, so it isn't like he has no idea about it. Now, if he knew how much Gus was keeping (and that number was much bigger) than maybe he might have a better case.
To be fair, though. His point about giving Gus more product than he asked for at no extra charge is perfectly legitimate. At the very least, Gus should take that into account when paying them. It wouldn't be like they're asking for a larger cut, but the dollar figure they get should be adjusted accordingly.
Or, I don't know, take the excess out and put that towards the next batch so that you don't have to make as much for that set? In any event, Jesse comes up with a plan of his own to under report the surplus and skim it off the top so that he, Badger, and Skinny Pete can sell it. Heck, Jesse even has a potential consumer pool in his rehab group.
Said rehab group leads to not one, but two episode highlights (I told you there were a lot) as Jesse gets a well executed monologue about what he could be and we later see the trio not so subtly pitch their product to a group of people who are struggling to avoid the stuff. It was a great bit of dark comedy, but the actors also did a great job to sell the scene.
As always, Saul was a blast to watch in his scene. It seems like the show isn't sure what to do with him. The role he served has more or less been phased out, which is a shame. He does buy Jesse a nail salon to use as a front to explain his income, but Jesse isn't interested.
You could chalk part of this up to being a business that Jesse has no interest in, but he also hates the idea of paying taxes. Even the correct point that doing this will make it a lot harder to put Jesse in jail doesn't do anything to change his mind.
This show has really been in the zone and, as we come ever closer to the end of the season, it makes me more excited to see how things play out.
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