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"Problem Dog" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Breaking Bad and the fortieth episode altogether.
Summary[]
[]
In his living room, Jesse plays a first-person-shooter video game in which he fires a gun at charging mutants, seeing flashes of Gale's murder. Distracted and disturbed, Jesse dies in the game. He catches his breath. The memory fades, and he restarts.
Act I[]
Walt looks at the explosion of the Challenger
At the car wash, Skyler explains her ordeal of convincing the dealership to take back the Dodge Challenger with only a $400 restocking fee. After Walt complains, Skyler pleads with him to return the car without making a scene. Instead, he drives to an empty parking lot and speeds around recklessly, burning donuts into the asphalt until the car runs aground on a parking block. Walt gets out, rolls up the dealership paperwork, inserts it into the fuel filler, and sets it ablaze. He then casually calls for a taxi as he sits down to watch it burn.
Later, Walt slumps in a chair in Saul's office while Saul handles the fallout from the "joy ride." Walt admits that the pressure of dealing with Gus is getting to him and asks whether Saul can put him in touch with hit men. Saul points out that any gun-for-hire would likely know Mike and have to outmaneuver him. Walt tells Saul that he tried to kill Gus himself but couldn't get near him.
As Jesse is repainting his graffitied/damaged walls, Walt visits his house and asks how close he has become to Gus. Jesse remarks, "He said he sees something in me." Walt reminds him that Gus tried to kill them both, killed Victor and lied about not targeting children the day Andrea's brother Tomás was shot. He is making a case for Jesse to take action. Annoyed with his pestering, Jesse tells Walt that he will kill Gus.
Act II[]
The next day, Marie visits the car wash and tells Skyler that Hank's therapy and spirits have improved. Walt brings in $274,000, hidden in flats of soda cans. After Marie leaves, Skyler and Walt regroup. Skyler is stunned to realize that Walt's annual income is more than $7 million, telling him that it's too much to launder with any car wash. Walt reminds her that this is a problem she wanted to solve; Skyler reminds him she wanted none of their present situation. She isn't pleased, but packs Walt's cash into the safe and mulls things over.
In the superlab, Walt has found a blind spot out of the surveillance camera's view. There, he cooks a batch of ricin. He visits Jesse's house that night and hands him the ricin in a glass vial, instructing Jesse to slip it into Gus' food or drink. Jesse conceals the slim vial inside a cigarette that he hides in his pack. The following day, Walt Jr. takes Skyler's car and drives Hank to Los Pollos Hermanos. There, Hank chats briefly with Gus, who recognizes him from his charity work with the DEA and refills Hank's soda free of charge. Hank slips the cup into an evidence bag and stashes it under his passenger seat.
Act III[]
Mike and Jesse at the factory farm
Mike and Jesse drive to the Pollos factory farm. Inside the office trailer, while Mike discusses security arrangements with Gus, an indecisive Jesse holds the pack containing the ricin cigarette. As Jesse ponders putting the poison into the coffee, Mike startles Jesse by offering him a loaded gun. Three Cartel members arrive at the farm, with only one, Gaff, talking to Gus personally. Gus offers $50 million to the Cartel in return for ending their partnership. Gaff replies that Gus knows what the Cartel wants and bluntly tells him that this is not a negotiation. As the Cartel members leave, Jesse contemplates shooting Gus in the back with the gun Mike gave him, but ultimately decides against it. On the drive back to town, he asks Mike what Gus sees in him. Mike tells him "loyalty, but to the wrong person."
Act IV[]
That evening, Jesse attends his Narcotics Anonymous support group meeting and indirectly bares his soul about killing Gale, telling a story about a "problem dog" he put down. Another addict criticizes Jesse for animal cruelty, but the group leader cautions the group not to judge. The dam finally breaking, Jesse asks why not, admitting that he's really at the meetings only to sell meth to the other members.
The following day, in the superlab, Walt secretly asks Jesse's progress of the assassination attempt. Jesse lies and says he hasn't seen Gus.
Gus Fring's fingerprints are found at Gale's apartment
Marie helps Hank walk to the DEA field office, where Gomez meets him at the door. The two meet with ASAC George Merkert where Hank hypothesizes that Gale was Heisenberg's former cook. The numbers scribbled on the Los Pollos Hermanos napkin from Gale's apartment, he explains, were for an industrial air-filtration system that Gale received. By coincidence, the system's manufacturer is owned by a German conglomerate called Madrigal Electromotive, which happens to be Pollos' parent company. Hank theorizes that a vegan like Gale wouldn't eat at a chicken restaurant, and further that he'd only go to Pollos for a meeting. When Hank theorizes Gale was meeting with Gus, Merkert and Gomez are skeptical of it until Hank reveals that the fingerprints found on the napkin match those on the soda cup.
Official Photos[]
Trivia[]
- In the teaser, Jesse is playing the video game, RAGE. In the game, Gale's name can be seen on a wall in reverse.
- RAGE was released two months after the episode aired (October 20,) and certainly after it was finished filming. The version of RAGE shown in the episode is a special version created to the specification of the Breaking Bad production staff.[1]
- The character Ben that was a student in Walt's class way back in Season 1 appears again in this episode at the support meeting.
- Steve Aoki features as an extra in this episode and Jesse Pinkman wears a shirt of his design.[2]
Production[]
Credits[]
Starring
Guest Starring
Co-Starring
Uncredited
Filming Locations[]
- Walt takes Walt Jr's car out for a joyride. In a large parking lot he does some doughnuts and burnouts. The lot is the Isleta Amphitheatre Parking Lot located at 5601 University Blvd, and is immediately south of the Albuquerque Airport (ABQ), just as Walt describes. Ironically, this parking lot is less than 500 yards from the actual DEA offices. (the in-universe DEA office is implied to be somewhere in Downtown Albuquerque)
Featured Music[]
- "Catch Me (I'm Falling)" by Pretty Poison (at the carwash)
- "Boots of Chinese Plastic" by The Pretenders (while Walt goofs around in the Challenger)
- "Saved by Zero" by The Fixx (at the carwash while Marie & Skyler talk)
Memorable Quotes[]
- Jesse: "So no matter what I do, hooray for me because I’m a great guy? It’s all good? No matter how many dogs I kill, I just what?–do an inventory and accept? I mean, you back your truck over your own kid and you, like, accept? What a load of crap!"
- Group Leader: "Hey, Jesse, I know you’re in pain."
- Jesse: "No, no. You know what–why I’m here in the first place? Is to sell you meth! You’re nothing to me but customers! I made you my bitch! You okay with that? Huh? You accept?"
- Group Leader: "No."
- Jesse: "About time."
- ―Jesse at his NA group meeting.
Notes[]
- ↑ Problem Dog commentary track
- ↑ Aaron Paul AMA, 13th August, 2013