Breaking Bad | 3x13 | Full Measure

This shattering finale to Breaking Bad’s third outing is a tense, moving study of loyalties, and how far they can be stretched. It’s a fitting culmination to a season that’s focused very heavily on alliances being forged, bridges being burned and rebuilt.  

We saw Skyler sever ties with Walt, but come to gradually renegotiate their relationship so that they are now business partners, and only nominally husband and wife. Walt and Gus forged a business alliance that seemed to have the makings of a match made in heaven, to the point where Walt sat at his right hand in last week’s episode.  Most crucially, we saw Walt and Jesse’s partnership break down, and reform itself into something that now appears stronger than ever; dangerously so, if this episode is anything to go on.

In Full Measure itself, relations between Walt and Gus fell apart as a direct result of Walt’s loyalty to Jesse – one alliance sacrificed for another. Saul was surprisingly loyal to his alliance with Walt and Jesse by refusing to sell them out. Most significantly, Jesse’s loyalty to (and love for?) Walt ultimately forced him to take his first life. I know it was left somewhat open to interpretation, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he did shoot and kill Gale, because this is not a show that pulls its punches. 

But I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

We begin with a younger Walt and Skyler purchasing their house, some sixteen or so years ago based on Skyler’s heavy pregnancy. It’s clear that Walt is very much not teaching high school at this point; the realtor mentions something about the “fascinating work” he’s doing at the lab, and there’s a sense of youthful hope and ambition about the couple as they playfully argue over the house. Skyler, ever the realist, likes it because it’s within their price range, while Walt doesn’t see the point in buying a “starter home” which they’ll only live in for a year or so. There’s something powerfully sad about his “We’ve got nowhere to go but up,” given what we know the future holds for them.

Post credits, Walt (in full Heisenberg get-up) heads out into the desert and, in a scene straight out of a revisionist western, makes his slow way across the dusty plains to meet Mike and Gus in a Mexican stand-off of sorts. We see a return to the cold, furious Gus witnessed last week with Jesse as he demands that Walt explain himself, and Walt assures him that he and Jesse are done. Reasoning that Jesse is now “a couple of time zones away, at least” and out of the picture, Walt proposes that he continue cooking for Gus with a new assistant, and they both forget about Jesse. 

It’s interesting to note in this scene that even as Walt verbally “denies” Jesse, he subtly takes his side in the discussion of Tomas’s murder, almost accusing Gus outright of ordering the hit. And as magnetic as Giancarlo Esposito is in this role, there is something loathsome in the way he describes Jesse as “a contemptible junkie”, given that Jesse has more moral fibre in his pinkie finger than Gus has likely ever conceived of.

In any case, Walt persuades Gus that his plan is preferable to option A (i.e. he and Jesse being killed) and returns to the lab to find Gale waiting for him. Apparently eager to please, Gale says that he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes as last time, and asks Walt to teach him exactly how he likes things done. Walt accepts, with a strangely haunted look on his face.

Meanwhile Mike – caring grandpa by day, badass fixer by night – drops off his granddaughter after an afternoon at the zoo, before heading off to Gus’s chemical supply company to thwart an attempted raid from the cartel. Great work from Jonathan Banks in the first scene especially, he switches seamlessly from being so convincingly sweet to a stone-cold professional. 

Clearly feeling the heat from the cartel activity, Gus pays a visit to Gale and, with chilling lightness, asks how soon he would feel able to take over running the lab, explaining that Walt’s cancer may mean he’s unable to continue. “I don’t know that he’s fully accepted the reality of it,” he murmurs, and it couldn’t possibly be clearer that the demise he’s talking about has nothing to do with Walt’s health. Gale, off Gus’s meaningful stare, eventually concedes that one more cook with Walt should be enough.

I don’t know how much we’re meant to believe Gale knows in this scene, but all I’ll say is that he’s clearly an intelligent man and he became involved with Gus independently of Walt. I don’t buy that he’s in any way ignorant of the type of people he’s in business with, and Gus’s body language left very little room for ambiguity. Ironically, even if he’s consciously signing Walt’s death warrant, he has no way of knowing that he’s in fact signing his own.

Gus isn’t the only one making visits: Mike turns up at Saul’s office and demands, in no uncertain terms, Jesse’s location. Saul shows a surprising level of backbone as he reasons that he can’t violate attorney-client privilege, but appears to back down pretty quickly under pressure and gives Mike an address for Jesse in Virginia.

Later Walt and Saul go to the laser tag place from Abiquiu, ostensibly for Saul to try and persuade him of its merits once again, but actually so that they can talk without being overheard. Saul’s fuming: his car’s now bugged, he’s being followed, and he swears that if they make it out of this alive, he’ll be rethinking his pricing.

“That goes double for you, Hip Hop,” Saul snarks, and as the shot changes we see Jesse! JESSE! Who’s evidently been holed up at the laser tag all along, and not in any way in Virginia. Saul’s got balls, yo. This is the first of two great fake-out double cross moments this episode, where you think a character has sold out another when they’ve actually done something far cleverer.

Saul heads off to “see if they got Tetris or something” and leaves Walt and Jesse alone to talk, which is strangely reminiscent of the realtor giving Walt and Skyler privacy to look around the house.

Walt and Jesse share a sympathetic “how you holding up?” moment, and both seem palpably relieved to be reunited. Walt reveals that he knows exactly what Gus has planned; “So he’s their boy, huh?” Jesse says grimly. He asks what they do, and Walt answers “You know what we do.” Boom.

Jesse is adamant that there has to be another way, trying to persuade Walt that the best option for he and his family is to go to the police, and give them his extensive insider knowledge in exchange for witness protection. It’s endearing how little self-interest he shows here, vaguely saying that he’ll “hit the road” and make his own way provided Walt is covered. “We had a good run…but it’s over,” he says, a little shaky. Walt dismisses this – he knows Gus needs a cook, and with Gale out of the picture he’ll have no choice to let Walt (and by extension, Jesse) live.

Jesse quietly says that he can’t do it – as Walt said, he isn’t a murderer – and Walt replies that he’ll do the bloody deed himself, but he needs Jesse’s help to track Gale down. After that, he thinks he can “make it look like an accident.” Jesus. As a final resort, Walt pulls out the sucker-punch: “I saved your life, Jesse. Are you gonna save mine?” Ouch. Bye, Gale.

Next, a gorgeous silent moment: Walt sitting with Holly in his arms, her playing adorably with his glasses (seriously, how cute was this?) with Skyler and Walt Jr in the background. It’s shot in this warm, honey glow and there’s something so idyllic and sad about it, Walt relishing what feels like one last moment with his family. He knows he’s about to go somewhere they can’t follow.

Jesse calls with Gale’s address, and there’s a great beat from Bryan Cranston as he visibly wilts when asked when he’s going to do it. The reality of it sinking in like a physical weight. Jesse implores him one more time to reconsider, and Walt hangs up on him.

As Walt heads out to his car, Victor the ever-watchful lab attendant rolls up, saying there’s been a chemical leak at the lab and Walt needs to come with him. And there’s an absolutely gut-wrenching sense of dread here, with Walt knowing very well that this is it. This was very reminiscent of Seven Thirty Seven’s end, when Tuco pulled up with a gun to Jesse’s head and ordered Walt to “get in”. 

At the laundry, Mike opens the door to the lab and also orders Walt to get in, though with a more cordial “You first”, approach. Walt, knowing he’s out of options, starts to panic and desperately tells Mike he doesn’t have to do this (echoing Jesse’s words to him earlier). After a few minutes of Walt effectively begging for his life, Mike tells him to shut up, there’s nothing he can do.

“I’ll give you Jesse Pinkman,” Walt gasps, and this viewer’s heart leaps into her throat. Not to go on about how great Cranston is (because, duh) but he really pulls off this totally undignified moment where Walt is absolutely coming apart, and apparently resorting to every cowardly measure to save his own skin. He persuades Mike to let him call Jesse and get him to meet.

Still at the laser tag and about to smoke up a pipe of somethin’ (I’m assuming meth, but who knows), Jesse answers Walt’s call and asks if he did it. Walt answers in the negative, and before Mike can react he tells Jesse “It’s going to have to be you…They’ve got me at the laundry and they’re going to kill me.” As the phone is snatched away Walt screams out to Jesse to do it quickly, and Jesse runs for the door without a moment’s hesitation. OH. YES. That’s more like it, Walt. Awesome bluff. So that’s the second faux double-cross moment, and thank god. I didn’t want to live in a fictional world where Walter White would ever sell out Jesse Pinkman.

Although what happened next was unbearable, I was cheering hard for Walt and his badassery here. He recites Gale’s address and watches the colour drain from Mike’s face with a steely “Yeah.” Victor dashes out, but we know it’s way too late.

Cut to Gale at his apartment, dorkily singing along to more dorky music and making a dorky cup of tea with his laser thermometer. Poor Gale. Upon opening the door to a shaking, gun-toting Jesse, he tries to offer him money before begging for his life. “Please don’t do this,” he says, marking the third and most wrenching use of the phrase. “You don’t have to do this.” Crying, gun trembling violently in his hand, Jesse pulls the trigger and fires.

Fade to black.

Oh, god.

And so we’ve come full circle from last week, when Walt prevented Jesse from becoming a murderer. He didn’t just save his life, he also saved his soul. Which makes it all the more tragic that it was Walt, or Jesse’s feelings of loyalty and love for Walt, that drove him to finally become a murderer and compromise his soul this week.  

When this show began, it was about the lengths one man will go to to save his family. To a great extent, it’s now a show about the lengths two men will go to to save each other. Theirs is the most destructive, co-dependent bond on television, and yet there’s something so absolutely moving about it that I just can’t root for Jesse to run far, far away from Walt, much as I know it would be best for him. As damaging as their relationship is, this season’s closing arc has cemented the fact that these two love each other, and would do anything for each other. As Walt said: “When it comes down to you and me versus him, I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. But it’s gonna be him.” 

Other thoughts:
-       Even if Jesse doesn’t get away from Gale’s before Victor arrives, I’m not worried for him – the whole point is that with Gale dead, they need Walt, and they know they don’t have Walt unless Jesse is alive. I’m way more worried about Jesse’s mental state following that ending. Just…oh. Jesse.
-       “I trust the hole in the desert I’d leave you in.” “Yeah, that’s…an argument.” Gotta love Saul.
-       Being pragmatic a la Gus for a second here: exactly how much leverage has Gale’s death really bought Walt? I know Walt is now their only chemist, and he can refuse to teach anyone besides Jesse his methods, but how long before Gus starts threatening Walt’s family to make him comply? It’s amazing they’ve escaped for this long, IMO.
-       One last thought on the “what lengths they’ll go to save each other” thing. This has always been there, right from the moment when Walt half blew up Tuco’s den in retribution for beating up Jesse. But Jane’s death is the most powerful example up to this point; Walt let her die almost solely because she posed too great a risk to Jesse. It was only a matter of time before these two killed for each other.
-       Now we know why Jesse was the one holding the gun in this promo image.