Breaking Bad
Season 2, Episode 1
Air date	March 9, 2009
Written by	J Roberts
Directed by	Bryan Cranston
Episode Guide
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Images from "Seven Thirty-Seven"

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

Teaser

We open on black & white shots of a backyard. We pan over to reveal what appears to be a bobber in a pool of water. The bobber is then sucked into the drain of the pool as we go under the water to find a floating pink teddy bear. As the face of bear slowly turns to face us, we see that half of its body is burned, and what we thought was a bobber was actually the doll's left eye.

Summary

Right where we left off last season, after buying meth from Walt and Jesse at an auto 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. “$737,000,” Walt says, estimating how much he’ll need to provide for his family’s future. In other words: “Eleven more drug deals.”

Moments later, Tuco roars back to the junkyard, ordering Walt to perform CPR on an unconscious No-Doze – who dies as a result of the brutal attack. 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 returns home where his very pregnant wife is applying an avocado mask. 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.

Jesse purchases a gun and tells Walt that he thinks Tuco is stalking him. “We are loose ends,” he says, arguing they should kill Tuco before he kills them. Walt makes Jesse walk through how he would shoot Tuco and his crew. He points out the many problems with Jesse’s ill-conceived plan, including how he can’t open the revolver to see how many bullets it holds.

Marie calls Skyler with a dinner invitation, but Skyler doesn't answer the phone. Hank reminds Marie that she has a therapy appointment at the same time she was planning to eat out. Defensive, she tells him he’s mistaken and speeds away in her car, intentionally running over a neighborhood kid's remote-controlled car.

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. If these bandits need a barrel of methylamine they must be planning to cook an awful lot of meth. Hank suspects they're going to step on some toes, saying, “They better pray it’s us who catches up with ‘em... and not those boys from Juarez.”

After Walt pulls into his driveway that evening, a suspicious SUV parked down the street eases away. He spends the night watching the street, bolting upright when the phone rings the next morning. It's Marie calling Skyler, who picks up the receiver and immediately hangs up.

Jesse warns Walt that Tuco is closing in. Jesse wants Walt to get his own gun to double 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, asking her to return Marie's phone calls. "We gotta support the shit out of her," he says of his wife, admitting he is aware of her shoplifting problem.

“I need support! ME!” exclaims Skyler, citing her pregnancy, a husband with lung cancer, a moody son, an overdrawn checking account and a defective water heater as problems more pressing than those of her "spoiled, kleptomaniac, bitch sister."

Over at Jesse's house, he and Walt cook up the ricin. The plan is to offer it to Tuco in a sample of their latest meth formula. "That degenerate snorts anything he gets his hands on," Walt says.

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 Gonzo and No-Doze, both dead at the junkyard. Walt grabs Jesse's gun, tells Jesse to get out of town ("Tuco killing Gonzo means he's coming after us next," he reasons).

At home, Walt finds Skyler relaxing in the tub. She asks where he's been, but instead of answering her, he goes to stash his drug cash and Jesse's gun in a box of diapers.

"Hey, someone call Jay Leno," laughs Hank back at the crime scene. "We got the world's dumbest criminals." Gonzo wasn't murdered, Hank deduces. A car fell on him while he was moving 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 his cell phone rings. Jesse is outside his house. "What the hell are you doing here?" Walt says as he approaches Jesse’s car. Then he realizes Tuco is crouched in the back seat with a handgun.

"Get in," Tuco orders. Walt does what he's told, and we watch as Jesse's car rolls off silently down the street.

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.

Guest Stars

• Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca
• Steven Michael Quezada as Steven Gomez
• Cesar Garcia as Gonzo
• Jesus Payan as No-Doze
• Isaac Kappy as Rowdy Prisoner
• Ryan W. Lee as Neighborhood Kid
• Vic Browder as Detective

Trivia

• The title of this episode not only quotes Walt regarding how much money he needs, but also foreshadows the Wayfarer 515 disaster, which involves a Boeing 737 airliner.

Featured Music

• "Any Way the Wind Blows" by J.J. Cale
• "They're Gonne Take My Thumbs" by Holy Fuck

See also

• Seven Thirty-Seven subtitles

Breaking Bad Episodes