Breaking Bad
Season 4, Episode 5
Air date	August 14, 2011
Written by	Thomas Schnauz
Directed by	Michelle MacLaren
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Images from "Shotgun"

"Shotgun" is the fifth episode of the fourth season of Breaking Bad and the thirty-eighth episode altogether.

Teaser

Walt races through busy Albuquerque streets, dodging traffic while shouting instructions to Saul on his cell phone. If Walt doesn't return within 24 hours, Saul is to deliver all of Walt's money to Skyler. Walt then calls Skyler and leaves a message, telling her he loves her: evidently, Walt is heading into some kind of showdown.

Summary

Armed with his .38, Walt storms into Los Pollos Hermanos and demands to speak with Gus. The manager insists that Gus isn't there, but Walt doesn't believe her, and pushes his way into his office, only to find it empty. Mike then calls Walt to say that Jesse will be with him for the day, and puts a blase Jesse on the phone. It's true. He's all right. But Walt will have to handle the cook alone.

Out in the desert, Mike drives up a long dirt road. Despite seeming not to care whether he lives or dies, Jesse positions his keys between his fingers to use as a weapon. He watches nervously as Mike exits the car and grabs a shovel from the trunk. Is this it? But Mike passes Jesse by and starts digging. After a few moments, Mike pulls a bag of money out of the ground and tosses it in the trunk. Mike tells Jesse that they have six more collections to make today.

At home, Hank jokes with Tim about the oddball personality that Gale's notebook evokes, it's "like Scarface had sex with Mr. Rogers." He then identifies Badger and Jesse as the only people directly tied to the blue meth . Hank admits to having "a history" with Jesse—meaning the savage beat down he delivered last season—but doubts that Jesse murdered Gale. Finding Gale dead, the man he now believes is his Heisenberg, "feels like closure," so he no longer wants to contribute to the investigation.

Mike makes his next pickup at an abandoned warehouse and finds Jesse standing guard when he returns to the car. If he's accompanying Mike "in a guard-type capacity," says Jesse, then he needs a gun. He doesn't, Mike replies, implying he's not going to guard anything here. So what is he doing here?

As the pickups continue, Jesse becomes increasingly bored and frustrated. If he's riding shotgun as "the guy" on this assignment, then Mike should tell him what they're doing and why.

Mike abruptly pulls the car over and barks that in no way is Jesse "the guy." There may be some reason Gus has for sending Jesse on this mission, but Mike does not know it. "Sit here, shut up, and stay in the car," Mike says.

In the lab, Walt has difficulty managing both his and Jesse's portions of the cook preparation. While the batch cooks, Walt returns home to sign papers finalizing the loan to buy the car wash. For them to succeed going forward, Skyler tells Walt, they have to be completely honest with each other. "I'm all for that," Walt assures her.

Skyler then plays her phone messages and hears Walt say that he loves her. The two stare at each other meaningfully for a moment, then rush into the bedroom in the heat of passion. Later, Walter Jr. arrives home and realizes that his parents are having (or just had) sex. Skyler frets over Walter Jr.'s reaction and suggests that Walt move back home "so it's easier to explain to everyone." Walt kisses Skyler in reply.

Later, back at the lab, Walt drops a barrel of chemicals while struggling with the forklift. Fed up, he screams at the security camera that the cook is a two-man job. He's not cooking anything until Jesse returns. A while later Tyrus arrives at the lab and operates the forklift for Walt. Jesse's not coming just because Walt asks for him.

Mike makes the final pickup of the evening at another abandoned warehouse. While he's inside, a second vehicle arrives, and Jesse notices one of its occupants approaching Mike's car with a shotgun. Jesse, convinced Mike is about to be robbed, shifts into reverse, floors it, knocks the guy to the ground, and slams into the other car. Then he peels out in an attempt to lose the gunman and his cohort.

A bit later, Jesse catches up with Mike elsewhere in town and tells him what went down outside the warehouse. "I saw," says Mike, impressed enough to finally let Jesse smoke in his car.

The next morning, over coffee in the White's kitchen, Walter Jr. tells Walt, "Mom said you're moving back in.” It's news to Walt, whose face tightens when he notices that Walter Jr. is drinking out of a Beneke mug.

Later at the lab, Jesse tells Walt that he spent the previous day guarding Mike and bristles when Walt makes light of the notion. Two dudes tried to rob them, Jesse retorts, and he took care of business.

Mike and Gus rendezvous outside Los Pollos Hermanos. Everything with Jesse went the way Gus planned, Mike reports. "The kid's a hero," he says. The gunman clearly was a plant, and Gus set it all up for Jesse's benefit.

At Hank and Marie's house for dinner, Walt anxiously swills wine in the kitchen as Skyler discusses the car wash. When Hank jokingly refers to Walt as famous card shark Nick the Greek, Marie criticizes him for enabling Walt's gambling addiction.

Walter Jr. changes the subject to the Boetticher case. Hank says that he's stopped working on it, but praises Gale as not merely a cook but a five-star meth "chef": a bona fide genius. Walt, by now a little tipsy, can't let someone else take credit for his work. He dismisses the "Lab Notes" journal as "simple rote copying, probably of someone else's work." Skyler looks on disbelievingly as Walt muses that "this genius" of Hank's might still be at large.

The next morning, Hank tells Marie that he's resumed looking into the Boetticher case. Looking through police photographs taken in Gale's apartment, Hank notices a napkin from Los Pollos Hermanos, with some letters and numbers—perhaps a serial or model number for some product—inked at the bottom.

Reflecting on Gale's dietary habits, Hank wonders aloud to Marie, "Since when do vegans eat fried chicken?"

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
• Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman
• Giancarlo Esposito as Gus

Supporting Cast

• Nigel Gibbs as Tim Roberts
• Ray Campbell as Tyrus Kitt

Trivia

• The episode title, "Shotgun" is a reference to both Jesse riding shotgun with Mike and to the shotgun the attacker is holding when approaching Jesse.

Featured Music

• "1977" by Ana Tijoux
• "Corrido de Tiburcio Calderon" by Arturo Salas

Breaking Bad Episodes