The third season ends with a bang, quite literally, but we'll get to that. For running a vast organization, Gus takes even the low level players seriously as Walt's killing of the two dealers irritates him significantly. Even knowing that the two executed a child does little to alleviate the tension. To Gus' credit, he says he would have dealt with that and takes what appears to be sincere umbrage when Walt suggests that he could have been the one who ordered the hit.
Walt is able to convince Gus to just drop it by appealing to his pragmatic business sense. Walt can still cook and Jesse isn't worth the trouble of hunting down.
Ever the strategist, Gus agrees, though he keeps a closer eye on Walt and brings Gale back in to learn the tricks of Walt's trade.
On Gale's part, he is told about Walt's cancer and thinks that he is being molded to fill in the top spot after Walt passes on. It's technically true, and would be a sensible viewpoint for Gus to take as he does have a lot of costs that need to be covered (I guess the surplus Walt gave him didn't make that big a difference), but at the same time it's clear that Gus means to kill Walt once he gets what he needs. I'm kind of curious if Gale picked up on it. He was clearly uncomfortable, but at the same time, the fact that Walt is dying of cancer is heavy enough that you could see why he would act that way.
I also have to give credit to Gale for his singing skills. His voice is decent enough, but he is able to sing along with a fairly fast paced song in a foreign language with no trouble at all. That must have been a pain for David Costabile to get down.
Walt manages to read the writing on the wall and decides to take action. His biggest piece of leverage is that Walt is the only one who can cook as well as he can. As long as Gus has no other chemists, his execution can be delayed. As such, he and Jesse come up with a plan to kill Gale.
Gus really doesn't have any other chemists? I would think that he'd have several in his employ. Killing Gale would just result in another chemist being brought in, wouldn't it? Given how they deal with this problem, it's probably a good thing that that doesn't appear to be the case. At the same time, it seems like it would fit in this show, to have the characters cross that line only for it to prove to be for naught.
That almost proves to be the case as Gus has Walt picked up anyway and brought to the lab under the pretense of fixing a chemical leak. A part of me was thinking that it would be a fake out and that there really was a problem, but no, Mike means to kill Walt.
His pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears and even promising to cook for free doesn't seem to be persuasive. Giving up Jesse's location, on the other hand, proves to be a more effective lure.
Walt doesn't give up Jesse's location, exactly, but he does say he can arrange a meet. It seems like Walt is actually going to fink, but he instead warns Jesse about what's going on and tells him to take care of it.
I loved how Walt went from desperately pleading for his life to confidently boasting that he's untouchable once he lets the others know that they know where Gale lives. The turn was on a dime and Cranston pulled it off splendidly.
Thus, just as Walt closed the last episode by shooting a guy in the head, so too does this one end with Gale taking a bullet to the face courtesy of Jesse. See, I told you the season ended with a bang.
While the episode thrived on the tension between Walt and Gus, the episode did have its lighter moments. One of my favorite scenes of the episode is Mike when he visits his granddaughter. She was a good kid and it showed a much lighter side to the normally gruff and taciturn clean up man. It was kind of adorable.
I'm a little unclear about why we saw the flashback of Walt and Skyler buying the house. We see that Walt wasn't always so cautious as he wants to buy a bigger house, even if they can't necessarily afford it. It does give Skyler some screen time, so there's that, I guess.
I figured the relationship with Gus was going to sour, but I'm surprised that the fact that Jesse was skimming off the top never came up. It's safe to say that Gus knew, but if he's going to end the arrangement, you'd think he'd mention it in his list of grievances.
Of the three seasons, I'd mark this as my favorite. It really kicked things into high gear and we're at that point where each episode leaves you wanting more. The increased tension keeps you glued to your screen and the characters continue to shine. They're all very layered and it makes the show that much more effective.
I'm really looking forward to where things go in season 4.
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