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"Seven Thirty-Seven" is the first episode of the second season of Breaking Bad and the eighth episode altogether.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

Pink Teddy Bear

The episode opens on black and white shots of a backyard. The camera pans over to reveal what appears to be an eyeball bobbing in a swimming pool. The eyeball is then sucked into the drain of the pool while a pink teddy bear, missing its left eye and badly burned, floats underwater.

Act I[]

After buying meth from Walt and Jesse at the junkyard, Tuco violently attacks his henchman, No-Doze, for presuming to speak for him. Afterwards, he drives away, leaving Walt and Jesse to ponder the danger of their situation. In Jesse's car, Walt calculates that to provide for his family’s future, factoring in medical bills, his children's tuition, mortgage, and other variables, that he needs $737,000, eleven more meth deals, before he can leave the drug business.

Ep-1-9

Moments later, an enraged Tuco speeds back into the junkyard in his SUV, ordering Walt to resuscitate an unconscious No-Doze. Walt is unable to help No-Doze as he dies. Tuco's other henchman, Gonzo, says they should give his buddy a proper burial, but Tuco orders him to stash the body underneath a stack of old cars. Walt and Jesse begin to leave, but Tuco questions them, to which Walt says they thought they were done. Tuco tells them coldly they are done. The two begin to leave, but Jesse is grabbed by the neck and shoved to the ground. Tuco stares intently at the two as they depart.

Walt returns home, fearfully peeking through the drawn curtains. Skyler emerges from the back with an avocado mask on her face. She discovers him aimlessly clicking through television channels, and asks him what he’s doing. He sobs briefly before standing behind her and forcing himself on her, even after she asks him to slow down. Only when she screams "Stop it!" does he let up. Walt goes to the backyard, overlooking the pool. Skyler follows and says that while she understands his situation, he cannot take his anger out on her. As the two talk, Junior returns home and sees the smeared avocado on the refrigerator.

Act II[]

The Dog House

Jesse purchases an illegal gun at a local fast food joint, the Dog House, telling Walt that he thinks Tuco wants to kill both of them for witnessing No-Doze's murder. Jesse argues for pre-emptively killing Tuco before he kills them. Walt makes Jesse walk through how he would shoot Tuco and his crew, pointing out many problems with his ill-conceived plan. Walt also questions whether Jesse will have it in him. Jesse points out that Walt did, to which he grimly replies, "Yeah."

VolkswagenBeetle

Marie calls Skyler to invite her to accompany them for dinner, but Skyler doesn't answer the phone, leaving a long voicemail. Hank reminds Marie that she has a therapy appointment at the same time she was planning to eat out. Defensive, Marie tells him he’s mistaken and speeds away in her car, running over an RC toy belonging to a neighbor kid. Hank approaches the distraught kid, apologizes, and gives some cash.

Gomez shows Hank grainy surveillance footage of a recent break-in at a chemical warehouse. Hank, unaware that he's watching Walt and Jesse, laughingly gives them low marks as burglars but concedes that they know their chemistry, given the use of thermite and correctly deducing that they are using methylamine as part of their cooking process. They note the large amount of meth they will be able to cook and predict they're going to step on some toes. When Walt pulls into his driveway that evening, he notices a suspicious SUV parked down the street and watches it reverse away and turn around.

Act III[]

Skyler awakens to an empty bed, with Walt giving the excuse that he had an upset stomach while he spent the night watching the street outside and clutching a kitchen knife; he is startled when the phone rings. The call is from Marie, but Skyler picks up the receiver and immediately hangs up. Later, Walt confronts Jesse about the other night, and questions him on whether he had given information to Tuco about him. Jesse denies doing so and warns Walt that Tuco is about to make a move. Jesse wants Walt to get his own gun to increase their chances of survival, but Walt has another idea: use castor beans to create ricin, a poison they can slip to Tuco.

Hank visits Skyler; she questions if Marie sent him. He denies it, informing her that Marie is barely talking to him. When he asks Skyler to return Marie's phone calls, she tells him about Marie's shoplifting problem. Surprisingly, he is already aware of it and claims that Marie is getting help and needs their support. This angers Skyler, who explodes, citing her pregnancy, her absent, cancer-stricken husband, a moody son, an overdrawn checking account, and a malfunctioning water heater as problems more pressing than those of her "spoiled, kleptomaniac, bitch sister." When she breaks down sobbing, Hank sheepishly hugs her and offers to check out the water heater.

Ricinbeans

Over at Jesse's house, he and Walt cook up the ricin. Their plan is to offer the ricin to Tuco in a sample of their latest meth formula. Jesse wonders whether Tuco will question their latest meth formula, but Walt says that Tuco will snort anything he gets his hands on. Hank calls Walt from a crime scene to apologize for attempting to reconcile Skyler and Marie. Laughing, he sends Walt a cell-phone picture of both No-Doze and Gonzo, who's bodies have been found at the junkyard. Walt and Jesse stare at the photo in horror.

Act IV[]

Walt grabs Jesse's gun to protect his family. Jesse protests, saying he needs it, but Walt orders him to leave town. Jesse grabs a duffel bag full of money and flees, while Walt speeds home. There, he calls out for his family members but gets no response. He draws the gun and begins to search the house. Walt soon finds Skyler relaxing in the tub; she has had the whole house to herself as Junior is supposedly visiting his friend Louis for dinner. Skyler asks Walt where he has been, but instead of answering her, he goes to retrieve his stash of drug money from the vent, but suddenly decides to hide it and Jesse's gun in a box of diapers instead.

2x1 Gonzo dead

Back at the junkyard, police are at the scene inspecting the bodies of No-Doze and Gonzo, whom Hank recognizes. After the photographs, the officers decide to lay the bodies flat, but it is soon apparent that Gonzo wasn't murdered: a car crushed his left arm while he was attempting to move No-Doze’s body, and he bled to death from the injury.

Back at his house, Walt starts to answer Skyler's question but is interrupted when he sees Jesse's car out front. Walt asks Jesse what he's doing there as he approaches Jesse’s car only to discover that Tuco is in the back seat with a handgun. Tuco orders Walt to get in. After he reluctantly does so, Jesse drives off.

Official Photos[]

Trivia[]

  • The title of this episode initially refers to the amount of money Walt needs, but also foreshadows the Wayfarer 515 disaster, which involves a Boeing 737 airliner. When combined with all the episodes featuring the black-and-white flash-forwards, those titles reveal the message "Seven Thirty-Seven Down Over ABQ".
  • When Walt works out the amount of money he needs and says "seven thirty-seven", at that moment an airplane is audible in the background. (His full line is "Seven thirty-seven, seven hundred and thirty seven thousand dollars; that's what I need.")
  • This is the only season premiere not to be written by Vince Gilligan (excluding the Season 5 midseason premiere, "Blood Money".)
  • Ted Beneke is shown in a photograph Skyler looks at, foreshadowing his appearance in "Negro y Azul".
  • When Walter is flipping through the channels on the TV, a "Better Call Saul!" commercial can be heard, hinting at the appearance of the lawyer Saul Goodman later in the season.
  • While explaining the potency of Ricin, Walt mentions the assassination of Georgi Markov. Although the KGB was involved, the assassination itself was done by Bulgaria's Secret Service.

Errors[]

Continuity[]

When Hank calls Walt during a crime scene and sends him a picture, there is afternoon light coming through the windows in Walt and Jesse's shots, but it's night time where Hank is working at.

Production[]

Credits[]

Featured Music[]

  • "Any Way the Wind Blows" by J.J. Cale (while Jesse purchases a gun outside the diner)
  • "Skydance (a)" by Richard Myhill (when Marie calls Skyler)
  • "They're Gonne Take My Thumbs" by Holy Fuck (while Walt prepares the ricin)

Memorable Quotes[]

"Adjusting for inflation–good state college–adjusting for inflation, say $45,000 a year. Two kids, four years of college $360,000. Remaining mortgage on the home 107,000. Home equity line 30,000. That’s 137,000. Cost of living, food, clothing, utilities, say two grand a month, and that should put a dent in it, anyway... 24K a year, provide for say, 10 years; that’s $240,000. Plus 360, plus 1, 3, 7 — Seven Thirty Seven. $737,000 that's what I need. That is what I need. You and I both clear about 70 grand a week, that’s only ten-and-a-half more weeks; call it 11. Eleven more drug deals and always in a public place from now on. It’s do-able. Definitely do-able."
―Walter estimating how much he’ll need to provide for his family’s future

Jesse: "Alright, fine, facts in. Fact A: my phone rang like eight times last night. Dead air, hang-ups everytime. Second fact? Like three in the morning, I saw that black Caddy of his cruising my neighborhood. No headlights."
Walter: "No, if he wanted to kill us, he would have done it at the junkyard."
Jesse: "What is that? Conjecture? Are you basing that on that he's got a normal, healthy brain or something? Did you not see him beat a dude to death for like nothing? And that way, that way he just kept staring at us. Saying, "You're done." You're done?! You wanna know what that means? I will tell you what that means! That means exactly how it sounds, yo! Alright, we are witnesses, we are loose ends! Right now, Tuco's thinking, "Yeah, hey, they cook good meth, but can I trust them?" What happens when he decides "no"?"
―Jesse and Walt discuss Tuco's motives for killing them.

"I need support. Me, the almost 40-year old pregnant woman with the surprise baby on the way. And the husband with lung cancer who disappears for hours on end and I don't know where he goes and he barely even speaks to me anymore. With the moody son who does the same thing. And the overdrawn checking account. And the lukewarm water heater that leaks rusty looking crap and is rotting out the floor of the utility closet and we can't even afford to fix it! But OH, I see! Now I'm supposed to go, "Hank, please, what can I possibly do to further benefit my spoiled, kleptomaniac bitch sister who somehow always manages to be the center of attention?" 'Cause God knows she's the one with the really important problems!"
―Skyler talking to Hank Schrader.
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