Breaking Bad 2.02 - Grilled

Pre-Credits Sequence

Chaos. That's what Walt brings to the table throughout the series. When it comes down to it, Walt's position as an agent of chaos is probably his most surprising trait given what we know about him early on in the series. He seems to be the type who prefers things neat and orderly, yet he's constantly the one throwing things into complete disarray.

Now, most of the disarray in the pre-credit sequence isn't caused by Walt. Apparently Tuco is a hoarder of some really weird stuff. But there's the bouncing car with the bullet holes, and that's the true symbol of what happened here. Interestingly, even though we don't see any people in this scene, Hank, Walt, Jesse and dead Tuco are still around, as the end of the episode shows the car stops bouncing before anyone leaves.

Review

Breaking Bad is the best show I have ever seen at creating tension, and making that tension stick. A lot of the time, shows can have very tense moments while you are watching, but afterwards, when the more rational part of your brain kicks in and the more emotional part of your brain kicks out, the tension you felt fades away. "Grilled" shows the template Breaking Bad uses throughout the series to create that tension. They use memorable images and sounds, so you always have that reminder of the tension you felt. But most importantly, Breaking Bad understands that tension comes from unpredictability.

Most shows simply don't give themselves much room for possible resolutions to the conflicts created. The stakes are often life or death for the main characters, and since the show has to continue, there's no doubt which way things are going to go. The brilliant thing about this episode is that there is a possibility of a third option, an option which would allow the show to keep its actors employed, but is still enough of a deterrent to the characters that the viewers don't want to see it happen. The threat from Tuco is not to kill Walt and Jesse, or at least that's not the direct threat, the threat is to ship them off to Mexico so they can cook in a lab they have built there. What makes it terrifying for the viewer is that there is no reason that the show can't go there, as it is always a possibility that the show can do two or three episodes with Walt and Jesse kidnapped, working for a mad man who could kill them at any time, and looking for a way to escape. The threat is real, which is more than can be said for what passes as tension on most TV shows these days.

Further, the show has gotten to the point where it can endanger some of its cast members. It's become well known now that if the writer's strike that shortened season 1 did not occur, Vince Gilligan and company had planned to kill off Jesse. The viewer may not have known it at the time, but the threat to Jesse's life in this episode was real, and it was always a potential scenario for the show. There's another instance where Tuco is going through Walt's wallet and pulls out a picture of his family. No real threat is made, but the tone of Tuco's voice and the menace he has makes it clear that Walt's family is not safe either. These are real potential results, and though the show doesn't follow through with any of them here, it will eventually make it clear that it's not fooling around, no one is safe. And establishing that in the back half of season 5 is what makes the home stretch of the show so fascinating.

The scene that makes this episode in particular, though, is Uncle Tio's bell. It seems like it's something played as a joke first. Tuco has his decrepit uncle hanging out at his hideout who communicates with a bell. But does the show ever use that. It soon becomes clear that Tio has more control of his faculties than previously realized, and the only thing that stands between Walt and Jesse and a swift death is Tuco's ability to translate the ding of the bell. The most terrifying scene in the episode is right when the viewer realizes that Tuco and Tio have a system for communicating, and the effort to slip Tuco the ricin cannot stay a secret for long. Further, you don't only have the bell, you have Tio's face. I could really mention almost every actor who plays a minor character in this series, but holy crap does Mark Margolis ever make a meal out of a role with strict limitations. He has no way of speaking, he only has a narrow range of expressions he can use due to Tio's inability to really move his face, but he makes the most out of those expressions. His death stare to Walt and Jesse here is something to behold. It conveys pure hatred, yet he still leaves something in reserve to top that expression when Gus declares that he has killed his last remaining male heir in "Crawl Space." It's masterful work from one of the most memorable characters in the series.

As far as convoluted Walt and Jesse escapes go, this is one of the more straight forward ones in the series. Like always, they manage to dig their own hole by screwing up royally. Jesse can be such an idiot at times, and this episode he may be at his most idiotic. He tries way too hard to get Tuco to try the poisoned meth, mentioning chili powder as a secret ingredient. The whole reason Tuco liked their meth in the first place was the purity of the high, did he really think putting chili powder in it would make him more likely to try it right there? It put Walt and Jesse into scramble mode immediately. Poisoning the burrito was a good plan, but of course Tio was there to screw that up. After all that it is kind of amazing that they were eventually able to scramble their way into getting the upper hand, mostly through the pure craziness of just trying to attack him.

But in getting that upper hand, Walt and Jesse show us something else, something that shows it's still early days in the series for Walt, but establishes a continuing pattern for Jesse. They have Tuco writhing on the ground, bleeding out, and neither of them is able to shoot him. Walt has killed previously, but it's clear that this isn't something that comes easy to him. However, forcing himself to watch Jane die in "Phoenix" and killing Gus's henchmen in "Half Measures" shows that circumstances can force him to get over that bridge. And while he very seldom pulls the trigger himself, Walt  has no qualms about someone dying if they need to die. Jesse has those qualms. He can't shoot Tuco either, and when he does have to finally shoot Gale in "Full Measures" it sends him into a complete tailspin. Jesse is just not the person who is cut out for the stuff that being in business with Walt forces him to do.

The structure of this episode is something to behold. After the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode, where Jesse and Walt are kidnapped by Tuco, we don't see either of them for 10 minutes. We spend the early portion of the episode with Skylar and her attempts to find Walt. Then, we finally see Tuco, but he's by himself. He's smoking a cigarette and overlooking the scenery. Then finally, he moves over to the trunk, opens it, and we finally see Walt and Jesse shoved in there before cutting to a commercial break. From that point on, the only time we spend away from the action at Tuco's hangout is to lead us to the finale, all the other scenes are about how Hank comes to find Jesse's car and end up in the shootout with Tuco.

There's something to be said for an episode that's perfectly structured but doesn't call attention to itself. There's nothing special or extraordinary about the structure of this episode; this isn't a very special episode of Breaking Bad. Instead it just does a fair job of building tension, starting the episode off with Skylar's search, a place with no danger or real stakes, and slowly building towards the confrontation at the end.

Skylar herself has possibly her best episode of the series to this point. We desperately needed to see Skylar competent at something, to give her character more depth than being the nagging wife who tries to override her husband's wishes. And this episode gives us that. Skylar does a really good job searching for Walt. She checks the credit cards, she gets the posters ready. She covers pretty much all the bases, and throughout it all she's able to maintain a calm demeanor and keep her mind on the task at hand. Skylar is a competent person, and her business acumen and attention to detail makes her valuable to Walt's organization throughout seasons 3 through 5.  It would have been nice if we could have seen this side of her sooner, but better late than never.

Hank and Marie keep trending in the same direction they were previous to this episode. Hank gets to be non-confrontational again, trying to ease Skylar into the idea of the Walt's second cellphone in a way that won't make Skylar blow up in his face. But for all his bluster, he actually proves to be good at his job, tracking down Jesse's car, and then not being too surprised to stumble onto Tuco to compromise his ability to deal with him. Marie is obnoxious this episode, just blurting out the grenade about the second cellphone, and using "at least Walt hasn't turned up dead" as her form of consolation to Skylar. Marie has a long way to go in the series, and she takes her time getting there. It basically takes Hank's injury in season 3 to put Marie in a sympathetic enough role that the viewer can finally start to tolerate her. Fortunately, she grows as a character from that point forward.

"Grilled" shows Breaking Bad to be a masterclass at tension. It has real stakes and unpredictability, and it creates images to make the tension stick. It is structured perfectly to build the tension over the episode, but it doesn't skimp on giving any of the characters development, whether it be Jesse, Walt or Skylar. This episode is really the start of Breaking Bad as we know it, and all the foundations of greatness are clearly visible.

Other Notes:

-Tuco's reference to the Mexican cartel and specifically "his cousins" is a nice setup for the start of Season 3
- I'm not a big fan of Walt having to lay out to Jesse exactly why they are in trouble if Tuco finds out that Gonzo is dead. The viewers are smart enough to figure that out on their own.
- The music over the closing credits is fantastic. You have a Mexican style version of the Breaking Bad theme, with Tio's bell intermixing in. It leaves the viewer with that sense of terror that Tio's bell had begun to conjure up by the end of the episode.