'Breaking Bad' Season 4 Episode 7 Review: 'Problem Dog' - BuzzFocus.com
Maybe we've been getting Breaking Bad all wrong. Maybe it isn't just about Walt's (Bryan Cranston) journey into the heart of darkness. Maybe it's about FOUR men's rise and fall in the world of organized crime and organized crime fighters. For most of Season Four, Walt has been acting out like a spoiled teenager with nothing to lose. More so now when he thinks Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) is planning to kill him than when he was told by his doctors that he had lung cancer. Popping wheelies with hot rods in an empty parking lot (an interesting call back to Jesse's go kart adventure) and then blowing them up doesn't make a well-adjusted adult. In the meantime, Jesse (Aaron Paul), Gus, and Hank (Dean Norris) have been dealing with the actual fallout from Gale's murder.
Let's focus on Jesse first because he's been the one who was the most damaged from the experience. He went from cold-blooded acceptance in the beginning of the season to becoming a full-time reckless meth addict again — throwing endless parties with strangers who used his home as a public bathroom — to Mike's (Jonathan Banks) sidekick. Now he's going through a painful inner turmoil, not that anyone cares. Walt doesn't seem to care. All he wants is for Jesse to get close enough to Gus to poison him with ricin (When has that plan ever come to fruition, Walt?). Mike doesn't care either. A shitstorm in the form of the cartel is coming so all he wants from Jesse is to keep his mouth shut and stay alert.
Jesse finally breaks in one of the more powerful scenes Breaking Bad has ever given us. He goes back to his old meth recovery group and talks about how he recently had to put down a dog (meaning Gale). The dog wasn't sick nor did it start attacking people. It was simply a "problem dog". He openly ponders why a moral sentence hasn't yet been passed on him. Bad things happen, everyone moves on with their lives yet he still feels like crap. And what's worse, he knows he might have to do it again (whether it's Walt doing the asking or Mike and Gus).
When the other members of the group jump on him for getting rid of the "problem dog", he lashes out and admits that the only reason he started going to the group was to sell them crystal meth. Jesse needs the world to pass judgment on him otherwise everything is meaningless.
Jesse may be right. Everything might be meaningless if the cartel has their way. They're not exactly on friendly terms with Gus anymore. The businessman sees the writing on the wall when an arranged sitdown with the Mexican drug dealers turns into an under-attended affair. (He even had his veggie plate with dip ready to be munched on by some baddies.) Only one man shows up, representing their interests, and demands that Gus give him an answer to a question we haven't yet heard: "yes or no?" From the look on Gus's face, either answer may spell disaster for him.
(Who else though that the unheard question was something along the lines of "Will you let Walter White work for the cartel?"?)
The only person who seems to have benefited from everything that has happened since the Season Three finale is good old Hank. And man, is he back in a big way.
Whenever an episode of Breaking Bad makes Hank the focus of its last scene, you know you'll be in for a doozy. And for a non-action sequence, the ending of "Problem Dog" was still exhilarating. The glee on Hank's face has when he relates his theory to his old DEA cohorts that Gus and Gale were connected in the meth-making trade was infectious but no more so when he started to present actual evidence:
-The numbers written on the Los Pollos Hermanos napkin from in Gale's apartment matched that of a serial number of an industrial air filtration system that was delivered to Gale (but no record of actual purchase could be found).
-The name of Los Pollos Hermanos' parent company, the extremely shady Madrigal Electromotive.
-Gus' fingerprints from off a Los Pollos Hermanos soda cup matched prints found in Gale's apartment.
Hank was able to connect the dots and minds were blown, both at the DEA and with viewers. For a loveable lug who likes to crack bad jokes, Hank is the smartest person in the room but he still hasn't discovered Walt's involvement in the whole meth-making trade. How long will it be before he makes that discovery?
30 Aug, 2011--
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