Face Off
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| Breaking Bad | |
| Season 4, Episode 13 | |
 | |
| Air date | October 9, 2011 |
| Written by | Vince Gilligan |
| Directed by | Vince Gilligan |
| Episode Guide | |
| previous End Times | next Live Free or Die |
| Images from "Face Off" | |
"Face Off" is the thirteenth episode of the fourth season of Breaking Bad and the forty-sixth episode altogether. It is also the season finale.
Contents |
After Gus turns from his car and leaves the parking garage, Walt rushes to disarm the bomb and remove it from the vehicle. He then enters the hospital and talks with Jesse, asking if he can think of any other place to catch Gus off guard. As they talk, two detectives approach Jesse and take him to interrogate him about the ricin hint.
Summary
The policemen interrogate Jesse and he asks to call his lawyer, Saul Goodman. At the same time, Walt breaks into Saul's office to try and find a way to contact him since he fled. Saul's secretary extorts him for $25,000 for the information. He returns to his house to get the money but, realizing that Gus may have staked the place out, parks down the street and sends his unwitting neighbor to check the house for him (he tells her that the family is on vacation and Walt, Jr. thinks he left the stove on). His suspicions were right; shortly after she enters the house, a pair of gunman quietly sneak out through the back gate. After a few brief minutes, the neighbour leaves, and Walt sneaks in the backdoor into the crawl space to get the $25,000 and narrowly avoids the hitman pair who enter shortly after him.
Back at the police station, Saul enters the interrogation room and confers with Jesse. Jesse gives information to Saul to pass on to Walt—that Gus visits Hector Salamanca at the Casa Tranquila nursing home. Walt ponders this information and decides to use Hector's hatred of Gus to his advantage. He meets with Hector.
After Walt has left, Hector calls a nurse and spells out a message: "Need DEA". Later, Steven Gomez visits Hank, who is still under heavy DEA protection, and informs him that Hector has important cartel information and will only speak with Hank. At the DEA office, Hector spells out "S-U-C-K-M-Y" and "F-U-C-" before Hank calls it off and sends Hector back to the nursing home. Tyrus, who is keeping an eye on Hank, sees Hector being loaded into the van at the police headquarters. Tyrus then informs Gus that Hector was acting as an informant to the DEA, playing into his and Walt's trap.
After Hector is returned to the nursing home, Tyrus enters and sweeps the place for bugs and cameras. The police inform Jesse that ricin was not found in Brock's blood and that he is free to go. On the sidewalk, Jesse is abducted by two of Gus's men. Tyrus calls Gus to report both Jesse's kidnapping and Hector's ratting, and suggests that he take care of the situation with Hector himself. However, Gus says that he'll handle it personally and leaves Los Pollos Hermanos for the nursing home.
In Hector's nursing home room, Gus insults him for calling the DEA. Tyrus prepares a syringe and hands it to Gus. As Gus brings the needle closer to Hector's arm, for the first time in many years Hector looks directly at Gus with a gaze of remorse. This suddenly changes to an expression of pure wrath. He begins furiously ringing his bell and Gus notices it's rigged to a bomb. As Gus stands up and yells, the bomb detonates, blowing down the door and sending debris into the hallway of the nursing home. Suprisingly, Gus calmly walks out of the destroyed room and adjusts his tie, seemingly unharmed. As Nurses run up, shocked, the camera pans to reveal that half of his face has been blown off by the bomb, leaving skull, jaw, and brain exposed. He falls to the floor, dead.
Added by TheNarratorIn a parking lot, Walt listens to the radio. He hears a news broadcast about the explosion and smiles.
Down in the Superlab, Jesse cooks meth under heavy guard. The guard receives a buzz for the elevator and handcuffs Jesse to a machine. As the guard unlocks the elevator door, he sees Walt holding the other thug at gunpoint. Jesse hears three gun shots and Walt walks around the corner, informing him that "Gus is dead" and "We have work to do." The two then open every chemical container in the lab, flooding the floor with a dangerous mix, then rig a Christmas light timer to a frayed wire and leave the lab. They wipe down the machinery for prints and pull the fire alarm as the chemicals ignite downstairs.
Walt and Jesse meet on the roof of the hospital's parking garage. Jesse tells Walt that Brock is going to recover, and that it was not ricin, but Lily of the Valley that poisoned Brock - a flower with poisonous berries that children sometimes think to be edible. Walt reassures him that Gus needed to die nonetheless. Walt calls Skyler, who has learned about the nursing home explosion on TV and asks if he had anything to do with it. He tells her that he has won.
Walt hangs up the phone and drives away. As he passes Gus' Volvo which is still parked in the hospital parking lot, he smiles.
In Walt's backyard, a flower pot with a white flower growing inside is seen. The label reads "Lily of the Valley."
Credits
Main Cast
- Bryan Cranston as Walter White
- Anna Gunn as Skyler White
- Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman
- Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring
- RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr.
- Dean Norris as Hank Schrader
- Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader
Supporting Cast
Trivia
- The old lady who plays The White's neighbor is Vince Gilligan's mother.
- The episode was a few minutes too long, and the clip of Gilligan's mother was cut to shorten the time. It was only seen on the original premiere of the episode. The scene was restored on the DVD release and the episode was titled "Face Off (The Extended Version)".
- The episode's title refers to final showdown between Walt and Gus, but can also be seen as a play on words regarding Gus' demise.
- The scene where Walter drops his gun after killing the men in the lab mirrors the scene where Gus drops the boxcutter in Box Cutter.
- While evacuating the laundromat, Walt yells "Vámonos!" which is Spanish for "Let's go!" Vámonos will later be employed for their pest control operation in Season 5.
Featured Music
- "Here is Fritz's Polka Band" by Fritz and His Polka Band
- "Monaco" from APM Music Library
- "I Wonder" from Crucial Music Library
- "Goodbye (instrumental)" by Apparat
- "Fourth Floor: Women's Shoes" from Firstcom Music Library
- "Freestyle" by The Taalbi Brothers
- "Black" by Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi, feat. Norah Jones
Breaking Bad Episodes
| Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5 |
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Start a Discussion Discussions about Face Off
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There is no evidence for Walt poisoning Brock
6 messages-
Walter has psychopathic tendencies, so I agree, he poisoned Brock like a baws. -
In season 5 episode 1 Saul says "you left me to deal with this." Reffering to the cigerette with the ricen in it.This is evidence that Walt t...
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