"No Más" is the first episode of the third season of Breaking Bad and the twenty-first episode altogether.
Men and women crawl on their bellies up a dusty, adobe-lined desert road. A Mercedes stops alongside the procession. Two men exit the car; both wear well-cut suits and cowboy boots tipped with silver skulls. They look so alike, they might be brothers, but we will come to know them as "the Cousins." They too begin to crawl with the others. The procession winds to a candlelit shrine to Santa Muerte, a Mexican deity representing death. The two men rise to their feet. One makes an offering; the other pins something to the shrine: a crude sketch of Heisenberg.
Summary
Back in Albuquerque, coverage of Wayfarer Flight 515's collision with a chartered plane dominates the television news. In the week since the collision, Donald Margolis has been identified as the air traffic controller who, distracted by grief over his daughter's recent drug overdose, misdirected the two aircrafts ("ABQ").
Behind the White family home, Walter White dumps his ill-gotten gains onto the grill and sets it ablaze. Seconds later, he doubts his decision and hurls the flaming grill into the pool.
Skyler White, meanwhile, meets with a divorce attorney who advises her that maintaining residence in the family home will strengthen her custody position. Skyler explains that Walt is moving out that day. Questioned about the family's finances, Skyler momentarily freezes. "You'd be amazed what I've seen partners hide from one another," the lawyer says.
Hank Schrader arrives to help with the move just as Walt fishes the last of the cash — and the eyeball belonging to the pink teddy bear from the crash — out of his pool. Wrestling a duffel bag full of drug money away from his brother-in-law, Hank asks, "What have you got in there? Cinder blocks?" "Half a million in cash," Walt replies. Hank laughs.
Jesse learning self-acceptance at rehab
Jesse Pinkman, still at the rehab facility, listens silently as the group leader describes self-acceptance as essential to transformation.
The next day, Walt calls home from his new apartment. Walter White Jr. picks up the phone. "Nobody's telling me jackshit around here," he complains. Over Skyler's objections, Walter Jr. arranges for Walt to drive him to school.
Later at his apartment, Walt receives a one-word text: "POLLOS."
At a school assembly, Walt fidgets while students and faculty talk about the crash. "Jesus H. Christ," he grumbles. Hearing this, Carmen encourages Walt to express himself. "Look on the bright side," he tells the incredulous audience: The death toll could have been much higher than it was. "People move on," he suggests.
The Cousins
Outside a dilapidated desert farmhouse, the Cousins approach a clothesline. A young girl and her parents watch as the men exchange their well-cut suits for worn work clothes, keeping only their guns and their distinctive boots. They deposit the keys to their Mercedes on a goat's horn, and walk away.
"Why don't you just come inside?" asks Walter Jr. when Walt drives him home. "It's your house." Walt declines.
Walt Jr. confronts his mom
Inside, Walter Jr. screams at Skyler, "Why do you gotta treat him like this?" Marie Schrader says Walter Jr. is probably "dying of curiosity" about the cause of his parents' separation. "I can't help you get through this," she adds, "if you won't tell me what it is that Walt did." Skyler tells her sister that she needs to be supportive without prying.
During a campfire rehab session, Jesse asks the group leader, "Have you ever really hurt anybody?" "I killed my daughter," the leader reveals. High on coke and booze, he accidentally struck his daughter with his car. "How do you not hate yourself?" asks Jesse. Guilt and self-hate, explains the group leader, stand in the way of true change.
Skyler visits Walt's apartment to discuss divorce. "We are happily married — I am happily married," contends Walt. "You're a drug dealer," Skyler accuses. Walter unthinkingly starts with "How...", but corrects himself and asks "What?". Drawing a connection with "that Pinkman kid," Skyler accuses Walt of dealing marijuana.
"Methamphetamine. I'm a manufacturer. I'm not a dealer, per se," Walt finally admits. "There are a lot of angles to this," he says, but Skyler refuses to hear him out. She promises not to tell Hank or anyone else what Walt is doing — but only if he grants the divorce and stays away from the kids. "Let me the hell out of here before I throw up," she says as she runs out the door.
A preoccupied Walt picks up Jesse at rehab
Walt picks up Jesse from rehab. "I'm done using," Jesse says. He intimates that the plane crash was his fault because grief distracted Jane's dad.
"You are not responsible for this," Walt insists. Radar malfunction was reported, he explains, and air-traffic control technology is antiquated. "You either run from things, or you face them," Jesse replies. He's learned to accept who he is: "I'm the bad guy."
Walt and Gus at Los Pollos Hermanos
Walt visits Los Pollos Hermanos and meets with Gustavo Fring. Despite his great respect for Gus, Walt has decided to stop cooking meth. "I am not a criminal," he explains. Gus offers Walt $3 million for three months of work. "I have money," Walt says, declining. "What I don't have is my family."
The Cousins, hidden amid a farm truck's bales of straw, sit with others sneaking across the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas. A young man brags to the Cousins about painting cars for Michoacan gangsters, but clams up when he notices the skulls on their boots.
Shots sound; the driver stops the truck to investigate, then flees. The Cousins emerge from the bales and shoot the driver. The two set the truck and its murdered passengers ablaze. They walk away as the vehicle is engulfed in flames.
Credits
Main Cast
- Bryan Cranston as Walter White
- Anna Gunn as Skyler White
- Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman
- Dean Norris as Hank Schrader
- Betsy Brandt as Marie Schrader
- RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr.
- Giancarlo Esposito as Gustavo Fring
Supporting Cast
- John de Lancie as Donald Margolis
- Jere Burns as Group Leader
- Julie Dretzin as Pamela
- Carmen Serano as Principal Carmen Molina
- Luis Moncada and Daniel Moncada as The Cousins
- Jonathan Ragsdale as Barry
- Taylor Cranston as Sad Faced Girl
- Robin Dearden as Emotional Woman
- Galen Hutchinson as Wide Eyed Boy
- Jesus Mayorga as Olive Oil
- Lorel Medina as Daughter
- Mario Moreno as Father
- Maria Bethke as Mother
- Cicelo Solano as Old Crawler
- Ashleigh Banfield as Herself
- Marla Tellez as Herself
- Jeff Maher as Himself
- Dana Cortez as Herself
Trivia
- This is the second premiere episode to be directed by Bryan Cranston. The first was "Seven Thirty-Seven."
- When Barry is referring to how colleges grant students an automatic A if their roommate commits suicide, he is making a reference to the film Dead Man on Campus.
- Taylor Cranston, who plays "Sad Faced Girl" in this episode, is Bryan Cranston's daughter.
- Also, the "Emotional Woman," Robin Dearden, is Bryan Cranston's wife.
- "No Más" is Spanish for "no more", Walt's current stance on the meth-cooking industry.
- In the scene in which Walt decides to burn his money, Bryan Cranston is literally on fire before he jumps in the pool.
- In the scene where the cousins blew up the truck, the footage of the explosion was filmed from far away using a long-focus lens. This had the effect of shallowing the perspective, and making the explosion appear much closer to the actors than it really was. They did it all in one take, and literally set the truck ablaze.
Featured Music
- "The Cousins" by Dave Porter (during the episode teaser and when the cousins change their clothes)
Template:Season3Nav