Breaking Bad Season Three Episode Three Review

The Calm Before the Storm

Well, if you watched Episode Two, then you know that Walt (Bryan Cranston) was spared the ax, literally. A last minute text message from Gus with the simple word of “Pollo”, let the brothers from Juarez know that hey must call off their plans of vengeance, at least for the moment. Walt has worked his way back in this home without Skyler’s (Anna Gunn) permission and Jesse (Aaron Paul) straight out bought back his aunt’s house. Everything has seemed to get back to some sense of normalcy as we wait to see where the rest of the season is heading.

Spoiler Warning for Episode Three “I.F.T.”

So what does I.F.T. stand for? We all know the writer’s of Breaking Bad love to have some hidden tricks in the name and this episode is no different.  for those watching, they will probably miss the significance of these letters even when they are finally revealed at the end of the episode. Walt is now scraping the pizza off the roof in an attempt at domestic bliss while he waits to drop the bomb on Skyler.  Jesse lays on the floor of his aunt’s phone and calls his dead girlfriend’s cell phone number over and over again to listen to her voicemail. We see this image over and over again throughout the episode while we focus on the White family. Hank has been given the word that he is going back to El Paso, but the post traumatic stress from Tortuga’s head blowing up has left him shaking under his macho veneer. In a flashback, we see how Tortuga’s head ended up on the tortoise as the Cousins from Juarez were instrumental in the beheading. A meeting between the Salamanca cartel and Gus has been set up with Uncle Tio showing up with his bell and wheelchair. Everything goes polite, but Gus is warned that Salamanca has very little control over the Cousins and he needs to get business over with Heisenberg soon.

Skyler is not to happy to find Walt in her home and makes good on her threat to call the cops. Well, this doesn’t go as planned, as Walt plays the cards that Saul advised him on, knowing that Skyler won’t spill the beans to the police on his illegal activity. Since he hasn’t beat her, since there is no legal separation, and no restraining order, the police can’t do a damn thing about Walt being home.

Hank still wrestles with the thoughts of going to El Paso and ends up in a biker bar with his partner. He sees a meth deal going down, but his partner tells him to leave it alone. While on the way out, he does a double turn and goes back in and starts a fight with the dope dealers. This action puts him up for investigation.

Skyler, not to happy with her domestic situation, decides to change things between her and her boss and asks him, “Is anybody at his place?”. When she arrives back home, Walt has cooked dinner for Walt Jr. and his friend. Skyler comes into the kitchen and tells Walt that she “I.F.T.”

(Figure it out…. the first part is I, the third the boss’s name, and the second can be done in so many different ways!)

Walt does not look to happy with this news.

Meanwhile, Jesse still calls the cell phone and finally gets a disconnect. His last connection with his dead girlfriend is gone.

The Fate Of Jesse Pinkman and the Rule of the Third Season

Jesse, having mentored under Walt, will now start making the infamous “Blue Meth” that Gus wants and Hank wants to catch. Unlike Walt, Jesse doesn’t have the general instinct to watch his back and he is going to fall under the radar of Hank’s DEA posse. I believe that Walt is going to have no choice but to get back in the game. Also, Skyler is being watched by Saul’s pet detective who will eventually bring the dirt to the surface. Another issue that everyone has seen coming is Walt’s eventual involvement with the sexy principal at his school. How can anyone resist that fine piece of tail, lol.

With shows like Breaking Bad, we have to follow the models of shows before them. The ante has to increase and somebody major has to die. In Sopranos, that seemed to happen every year and Dexter, it happened majorly at the end of Season Four with the shocking death of Rita. Since Breaking bad might only go four seasons according to Vince Gilligan, then this is the season where somebody dies. I have bets that it will either be Walt Jr. (an easy one considering he is almost useless to the storyline) or Jesse (which would be one of those holy crap moments).

Whoever it is, somebody is going to die.

Sneak Preview for Breaking Bad Season Three Episode Four “Green Light”

Breaking Bad Cast of Characters

Main Characters of Breaking Bad

Skyler White (Anna Gunn)

Skyler White is the moral compass missing in her husband, Walter White (Bryan Cranston). As Walt sinks deeper and deeper into the monster he is becoming, Skyler can no longer lie to herself and think everything is alright with her husband.

In the beginning, we are introduced to Skyler as a soon-to-be mother who learns that her husband is starting to keep things from her. She tracks down a mysterious phone which leads her to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), a former student of Walt’s who she learns sells drugs to her husband. At least this is what he tells her.

As Walt gets deeper into his world of making crystal meth, Skyler finds herself more and more isolated from her husband. She is constantly worried about the mounting medical bills and at the same time is curious at how they keep getting paid. She eventually learns that Walt has a second cell phone which he keeps denying right up until his surgery where he lets slip that he has two phones.

No longer blind to her husband actions, Skyler wakes up from the web of lies thrown over her and begins to piece together all the holes in his stories, from his disappearances to where all the money is coming from. She confronts Walt with everything and he finally admits that he has been lying. Skyler decides to leave him and Walt asks her if he tells her the truth will she stay.

“Whatever it is,” she says. “I’m afraid to know.” Skyler drives away with the baby.

About the Actress

Growing up in Sante Fe, New Mexico, Anna Gunn is right at home working in the ABQ. She has had a very successful career which has traveled between television, film, and theater. Her first breakout performance came when she played Martha Bullock on HBO’s hit show Deadwood. Her extensive television credits include The Practice, Six Feet Under, ER, and Seinfeld.

Gunn has also appeared in several movies, including Nobody’s Baby, Without Evidence, and Enemy of the State. While she is known as the tough mother Skyler White, Anna Gunn is highly regarded stage actress where she has starred and created several roles for the theater. Her theater credits include Chicago, Peacekeeper, Measure for Measure, and The Beggar’s Opera.

Breaking Bad Cast of Characters

Main Characters of Breaking Bad

Walter White (Bryan Cranston)

As the main character of this hit AMC series, Walter White starts out as a middle-aged high-school chemistry teacher who learns that he has terminal lung cancer. This diagnosis changes the way Walt views his life. Once, a mild mannered guy who took whatever life dealt him, now he ponders how he will take care of his family after death. Now burdened with a new baby girl named Holly, his wife Skyler, and a teenage son named Walt Jr., he decides to use his knowledge of chemistry to manufacture and distribute a very pure from of crystal methamphetamine.

Allying himself with Jesse, a former student and junkie, they quickly embark in a career in the drug making business. Soon, they become known for having the highest-quality dope in the area which leads Walter downward in an ever spiraling world of harden criminals and crime.

Throughout Season One and Two of Breaking Bad, we get a glimpse at Walt’s world from the lies and deceptions he has to put on his family from his whereabouts to how he is funding his cancer treatment. Also, he has to deal with an ever increasing DEA investigation led by his wife’s sister’s husband Hank.

After dealing with several setbacks including an attempted blackmailing from Jesse’s drug-addicted girlfriend, Jane, Walt ends Season Two with his cancer in remission and enough cash to handle his expenses. But Skyler is tired of his lies and announces that she will leave him.

About the Actor

A California native, Bryan Lee Cranston has had a tremendous career as an actor, writer and director. He has won two Emmy awards for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad, and will probably be nominated again come the end of Season Three. Previously, he was known as the head patriarch, Hal, on the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle. Over the years, he has appeared in Seinfeld, King of Queens, and on How I Met Your Mother.

Cranston has also written and directed episodes of Breaking Bad.

Breaking Bad Season Three Episode Twelve Review

Revenge Is A Dish Served Cold

With a quick demise of the Cousins from Juarez earlier in the season, many were wondering what direction the rest of the season would go. Well, as the final episodes approach for Season Three of Breaking Bad, we are offered a look back at Combo’s death and the revelation that Gus’s soldiers had an involvement in the dirty deed. Jesse (Aaron Paul) now seeks revenge for the death of Combo and goes to Walt (Bryan Cranston) for approval. Throughout this season, underneath the surface of drug deals and DEA shootouts, we have seen a quiet evolution in the relationship between Walt and Jesse. Despite Walt’s multimillion dollar deal and a chance to leave the troublesome drug addict behind, Walt has this sense of guilt/father figure hold on his damaged protege and refuses to let him go despite how Gus and Saul feel about this which leads to the deadly conclusion of this weeks episode.

Skyler is Breaking Bad

Why is it that when women in movies and series tend to draw more and more to their dark side do they get sexier and sexier? this is no different in Skyler (Anna Gunn) as she gets more and more involved in Walt’s business, she becomes a more sexy and attractive woman to the doting and pregnant mother of season One. Skyler is now breaking bad in her own way and Walt is once again just a passenger to the events around him. It is not until the end of the episode that we see the return of Heisenberg to the show.

Heisenberg To The Rescue

After Walt refuses to help Jesse with his plans for revenge, Jesse decides to take matters into his own hands by poisoning the dealers with tainted hamburgers. He enlists the aid of his favorite hooker, Wendy, to deliver the ricin-laced patties, but the plan is diverted as Gus’s henchman abduct Pinkman and take him to a summit between Walt, Gus, and the dealers. Jesse is ordered to shake hands with the dealers but not before he mentions that they stop using kids. Gus gives the orders to stop using kids and this settles matters.

Not exactly.

Jesse learns that young Tomas has been gunned down by the very dealers who had used the young boy in the first place. Now, enraged even more, Jesse ignores his safety and the truth and heads off to face the dealers himself. As they stand in the street ready to shoot each other, Walt arrives and runs over both dealers. He proceeds to pick up a gun off the ground and finishes the job he started.

As Jesse looks over, Walt tells his young protege to run.

The Season Finale

Season Three has been a mixed bag of tricks, some good, some bad, but overall disappointing to fans of the series. This seems like a year where there is no clear vision to the series future and the writers are not sure what direction to go. The fact that Walt has entered the high end of drug dealing leaves a lot of interpretation when things fall off with Gus. Will the series end next year? Will he go back to making meth out of an RV?

The fact that Gus and Walt’s relationship are now strained due to Jesse’s actions is now evident. With one episode to wrap this up, will we see a showdown between these characters are is everything going to be left hanging until next season, as we saw in Season One. AMC’s hit series Breaking Bad likes to keep a few cards hidden up their sleeve and it will be interesting to see just what happens in next week’s season finale. I still think Jesse is going to die, but the show will not be the same without him.

Let me know what you think.

Sneak Peek at the Season Finale “Full Measure”

Review of Breaking Bad Season Three Episode Two

The Fallout Continues in Episode Two “Caballo Sin Nombre”

If Season Three of Breaking Bad is feeling a lot different than the previous two seasons to you, then you probably have a good sense of why this is happening. While in the past, Breaking Bad came on like a derailed freight train, this year its slithers in like the way the cousins from Juarez did on their bellies. Season Three is a season of consequences and these have to be laid out like a ling winding trail on a road map for us to guess where it is going. While the first two episodes lack the overall bang, they do deliver a serious layer of dark overtones for what is to come.

Spoiler Warning for Episode Two

Let’s face it, Walt (Bryan Cranston) is in a lot of trouble. His wife is leaving him, his drug dealing has hit a plateau, and the brothers form Juarez are hot on his heels for vengeance. Also, Walt’s mental health is slipping into a delusions of grandeur and entitlement. This is seen in the opening moment when Walt confronts a police officer who pulls him over. Walt demands respect for the plane disaster that happened over his house and instead gets a nice dose of tear gas in his eyes. Meanwhile, his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) has become a tough shell, neither bending to her husband’s demands, her boss’s attempts to doctor the books, and her sister’s constant questioning of what is going on with her and Walt.

While things are going bad for Walt, Jesse (Aaron Paul) sees life through a new perspective. Now clean for over 45 days, he goes to visit his family who is selling his aunt’s house. He tries to connect with his father, but his family refuses to have anything to do with him. Over at Saul’s office, the lawyer tries to persuade Jesse to help him convince Walt to start manufacturing crystal meth again, but Jesse has other ideas as he hires Saul to help him get back his aunt’s house.

In the supreme sheisty nature of Saul, he gathers a meeting with Jesse’s parents and offers them about half what they want for the house without exposing it is Jesse who is making the offer. When they refuse, he mentions the fact that they didn’t give full disclosure that the house was used as a meth lab and this fact seals the deal.

Meanwhile, Saul has other plans for dealing with Walt that involve trying to get some dirt on his wife. He sends his private eye, Mike, over to the house to set up some bugs, but while he is there, Walt decides he is entitled to come back into his own house. Walt breaks in and moves all his bags back in. Mike watches from across the street and noticed as the brothers from Juarez pull up to the house with an ax to bear. Literally.

Mike quickly gets on the phone with Saul and lets him know there is a problem. Walt, while taking a shower, is unaware that the cousins sit on his bed and wait for him to come out. As they sit there, their phone rings and it is a single text message, “Pollo”.

When Walt exits the shower, the boys from Juarez are gone, but he notices his “eyeball” has been moved.

Meanwhile, Jesse’s parents await for the new owners at his aunt’s house and are not happy when Jesse shows up. Telling him to stay away from the house because the new owners are coming, he produces the keys and lets himself in the house.

Who Saw The Cousins from Juarez Coming?

When we were introduced to the cousins in the first episode, I was really worried about their impact on the show. They seemed “too over the top” for the overall feel for Breaking Bad. I thought they were going to be a slow roll until the end of the season. But when i saw them show up at Walt’s door at the end of episode two, I was in shock. Are these super villains just a one shot storyline? Is Mike gonna come in all gangbusters and save Walt?

When they received the one word text message, it was a powerful moment, and it also let us know just how much trouble Walt is really in. Gus, the Chicken King, seems to be more powerful than anyone realized. To have the pull to stop a vengeance kill from the maniacs from Juarez is an impressive feat. It also rings as another blade that Gus can swing over Walt’s neck to get what he wants from him. However Walt feels about being a drug dealer, there will be no escape from Gus without a little bloodshed being spilled. Even if Walt redeems himself this season, it will probably at the cost of some family members (I believe Walt Jr. is gonna get it.)

Sneak Peek of Breaking Bad Season Three Episode Three “I.F.T”

For comments about this season of Breaking Bad, place them below.

Breaking Bad Season Three Premiere Episode Review

Breaking Bad Season Opener “No Mas”

Season Three of AMC’s hit series Breaking Bad offers no clever hints that foreshadow where the season is heading like the teddy bear from Season Two. Instead, we are left dealing with the aftermath, not only of the deadly plane crash but of Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) life and the fallout of the decisions he has made as Skyler (Anna Gunn) has now left him and is filling for divorce and Jesse (Aaron Paul) is in rehab dealing with the death of his girlfriend.

Walt now lives in a run down apartment and spends time with a little introspection. When Skyler shows up with the divorce papers, he confesses to her that he manufactures crystal meth and she makes an ultimatum: if he signs the divorce, she will keep his secret. She leaves him in his new lonely life where Jesse is now a roommate on his couch. Walt tries to console Jesse about the responsibility of Jane’s death and her father’s actions in the airline crash. Jesse tells walt that he needs to stop running from who he is and just accept himself.

“I know who I am, ” Jesse says. “I’m the bad guy.”

Walt decides that he is out of the game and turns down a 3 million dollar deal from Gus.

Meanwhile, the cousins of Tuco come up from Mexico to seeking vengeance and leave a trail of dead bodies behind.

What Season Three of Breaking Bad Has To Offer

This Season might be the most rewarding and the hardest to pull off for the cast and crew of Breaking Bad. It is feeling like a series finale and the writers have to tread carefully because where Walter White is no mentally, there is no going back once he makes the decision to continue down the same path. Walt has no more excuses to hide behind to rationalize that he is a criminal and a killer. If he chooses to continue to make meth, there can be no redemption for this character.

Walt admits and knows he is at the crossroads, and he still believes he can control the people and things around him. But, I feel Walt is soon going to learn that you can swim with sharks and get away so easy. Saul and Gus are not going to just let Walt stop. Jesse will be used as a pawn in the same way Walt used Jesse in Season Two. Plus, let’s not forget about the boys from Jaurez.

These skull-tipped boot wearing bad asses are the first real villains of Breaking Bad. Whereas Krazy-8 and Tuco has some semblance of humanity, the cousins from Jaurez are mythic boogeymen and they are coming for Walt.

While I like these villains, they might be the infamous “jumping of the shark” that affects a lot of shows. Breaking bad worked on a lot of levels because it was a cast of characters that could be found in any neighborhood in America. The cousins from Jaurez bring a darker, more sinister approach to the season and might be an element that can derail what makes Breaking Bad so different from other shows.

I got to admit that I can’t wait to see what happens though and I still think Breaking Bad is the best show on television today.

Sneak Peek at Breaking Bad Season 3 Episode 2 “Caballo Sin Nombre”

Any Comments About The New Season, place them below.

Breaking Bad Cast of Characters

Main Characters of Breaking Bad

Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul)

If Walter White is the straight man of this duo, then Jesse Pinkman would be considered the jester. This drug addict is a completely incompetent lucky bastard in the fact that he has Walt as a mentor and the criminal genius between the two.

At the beginning, we learn that Jesse is a former student of Walt’s who never ever lived up to any potential that was saw in him from teachers and family. Jesse has become a forgotten mess of society, a wasted loser who ends up forming a partnership with his former chemistry teacher to smart making crystal meth. At first, this is a one time deal but after Walt’s need for cash increases due to expensive chemotherapy, these two enter a permanent partnership where Walt is the silent partner and Jesse is the “street.”

As the street component, Jesse is a constant failure that requires Walt’s constant intervention. Eventually, Jesse earns some street credibility when a rumor spreads that he killed a junkie for robbing on of his dealers, but this fame is short lived once the truth gets out.

Jesse eventually gets kicked out of his aunt’s house and ends up renting an apartment from Jane, a recovering drug addict. Eventually, the two fall in love and she relapses and ends up turning Jesse on to heroin.

With Jesse on a brand new bag, Walt has to handle the street part of the operation, but Jane is not happy and blackmails Walt for Jesse’s share of the deal.

Walt goes to confront them and finds Jane choking on her own vomit. He watches as she dies and leaves. Jesse wakes up and finds her dead. Thinking it is his fault, he calls Walt fro help and he checks his young protege into rehab.

About the Actor

Aaron Paul just might be one of the busiest young actors in Hollywood today. While nominated for a 2009 Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in A Drama Series for his role as Jesse Pinkman on AMC’s series Breaking Bad, he will not only be reprising the role for a third season but also appears in Season 4 of HBO acclaimed series Big Love. He has also had guest appearances in Bones, Ghost Whisperer, Sleeper Cell, Veronica Mars, CSI, and X-Files.

Paul made his film debut with James Franco in Whatever It Takes. His film credits include K-Pax, Mission: Impossible lll, Last House on the Left, and Say Goodnight.