Breaking Bad Season 5, Episode 6: “Buyout”

“When it comes down to it, are we in the meth business, or the money business?” Jesse asks Walt midway through this episode. It’s an apt question, one that points to a larger issue the show has dealt with from time to time: what is Walter White’s motivation to cook meth? On the surface, the answer to this question seems to keep changing: he wants to make enough money to pay for his cancer treatments; he wants to make enough money to provide for his family; he wants to cook because he takes pleasure in the excellence he brings to the craft; in Gus Fring’s steady employ, he’s able to make more money than he’s ever dreamed possible; he enjoys being Heisenberg too much to let go of it, and so on. However, as we’ve gotten to know Walt over the years, the answer is actually much more consistent: Walter White is a prideful man, and both his failures in his previous life and successes in this current one have stoked the fires of his pride into megalomania.


Walt’s motivation comes up again in this episode, as the show provides Walt with yet another way out of the meth business, one far more lucrative than any other he’s been presented in the past. Mike and Jesse both want out, and have found a buyer for their stolen methylamine that will leave them each $5 million in the black. However, Walt will have none of it, steadfastly refusing to “sell out” to his “competitors.” Jesse asks some very pointed questions about Walt’s motivation, reminding him that his original goal was to make around $700,000, enough to cover his cancer treatment and college tuition for his kids. As a way of explaining himself, Walt reveals to Jesse his aborted history with Gray Matter, the company Walt co-founded but left in its infancy, selling out for $5,000 before its worth rose to the billions. It’s a history with which we’re already familiar, but its repetition is important here as a reminder to us, as a revelation to Jesse, and as a progression in Walt and Jesse’s relationship. Rather than attempting to bowl Jesse over with the force of his convictions, as he has so often done in the past, instead Walt attempts to give Jesse insight into his reasoning, and into the lessons he’s learned in the past about shortchanging your future. Walt concludes this history with an answer to Jesse’s earlier question about which business he’s in, one that very well encapsulates exactly what we’ve learned about Walt’s pride, his ego, and his ambition: “Neither. I’m in the empire business.”

However, it’s an answer that fails to convince Jesse, who responds by asking “Is a meth empire really something to be that proud of?” Before Walt can respond, Skyler comes home, and intrudes on their conversation. Then, both as a means of sticking it to Skyler, and as a means of further revealing to Jesse that a meth empire is practically the only thing he has to proud of, he invites Jesse to stay for dinner. Both Jesse and Skyler reluctantly agree, and the next thing Jesse knows, he’s entered into his own personal version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This scene is as hilarious for us as it is mortifyingly awkward for Jesse. It's one of the funniest scenes of the entire series, for many reasons: the silences; Jesse’s fumbling for conversation to fill those silences; Jesse stuffing his face as his wide eyes scream “Get me out of here!”; Jesse complimenting Skyler’s cooking, which she then reveals is from a grocery deli; Skyler flamboyantly filling her gigantic wine glass with practically an entire bottle, and Sklyer asking Walt if he told Jesse about her affair (doubtless her way of getting back at Walt for telling Marie about it).

A+ for comedy, but the scene also serves a dramatic point. It’s a living example to Jesse of the dysfunctional state of the White household (which Walt elaborates further after Skyler leaves the dinner table: the kids are gone, and Skyler is simply waiting for Walt’s cancer to return and for Walt to die). This dysfunction then serves as yet another reason Walt refuses to quit cooking meth: “This business is all I have left now.” It’s a powerful moment, because Walt is letting Jesse into his personal life much more intimately than ever before, and it provides Jesse and viewers with yet another motivation for Walt’s convictions.

In other developments, the episode begins with an appropriately solemn cold open, as Walt, Mike, and Todd dispose first of the mountain bike, and then of the biker boy himself (whom we later learn is named Drew), in the same way as they always dispose of bodies and evidence on this show: acid baths in giant vats. As went Victor, so goes Drew and his bike. Although the scene elides their disposal of Drew, one can’t help but be haunted by thinking about the three applying to Drew the same emotionless precision with which they disassemble the bike (even though it’s clearly bothering Walt, and Jesse can’t even bring himself to be present). The eeriness of the scene is also enhanced by the incongruity of the musical accompaniment. Excellent work here.

Sepinwall really nailed Todd’s motivation for shooting the boy: his actions were a result of Walt impressing upon him the necessity of secrecy, but also of his eagerness to show Walt, Jesse, and Mike how capable, resourceful, and dedicated he is to their business. However, in their giddiness over being thought of as hardened criminals, Walt and Jesse failed to realize that they might not have the stomach for what such an image entails.

The episode indulges in a little cat and mouse between Mike and the DEA. The surveillance Hank referred to two episodes ago finally comes home to roost here (and has apparently been going on since before I even wondered about it a few episodes ago). As soon as I saw Mike write something on a piece of paper and stick it under the garbage in the park, I instantly knew it was a message for his tail. However, as much as Mike might like sticking it to the DEA, what he overhears from the bug in Hank’s office strikes a chord. “Even pros make mistakes.” Hank is right, and Mike knows it, as he nods knowingly at Hank’s remarks. Nobody’s perfect, and the DEA needs only to be patient. This scene is one of quiet introspection and revelation, one that nicely establishes Mike’s motivation to get out of the business.

As for Jesse, he was only hanging onto the meth business by a thread anyway. I strongly suspected it would be next to impossible for him to abide Drew’s murder, but Walt’s rationalization for keeping Todd on the crew (sound as it is), and then Walt’s apparent ability to shrug off Drew’s murder without much difficulty gives Jesse the push he needs to realize that he’s probably better off quitting while he’s ahead. Moreover, he might also get his first inkling of how manipulative Walt is. During their latest cook, Walt and Jesse catch a glimpse of the local news’s missing persons report on Drew. Walt realizes he needs to coax Jesse back to the vision he has for their business, and in an attempt to show empathy, claims to have not been able to sleep for the past few nights. He sounds sincere, and shows Jesse sympathy by offering to finish the latest batch of meth himself, but then starts whistling a jaunty tune as he suits up, before Jesse’s even made his way out the door. A dim lightbulb momentarily flickers to life over Jesse’s head here, one that pays dividends in the next scene, when he reveals to Walt that he wants out.

Finally, in addition to explicitly addressing Walt’s motivation and providing us with the hilarious awkwardness of the Skyler-Walt-Jesse dinner, this episode also provided a bona fide “Holy shit!” moment: Walt burns through his wrist tie with an electrical fire, burning himself in the process. Holy shit!

Other thoughts:

- Great ending to the episode. Walt has yet another plan, one we’ll have to wait until next week to learn. Restricted narration! Suspense!

- It was weird to see Mike's “Fuck you” message pixilated. The show often gets away with a lot of swearing, so it’s jarring whenever something is bleeped or censored like this.

- The inanity of Hank’s recorded conversations is pretty funny, especially Hank’s frustration with Miracle Whip’s inability to satisfactorily replace mayonnaise. Perhaps he should watch “Lady Lazarus” from this past season of Mad Men.

- I don’t have much to say about Skyler and Marie’s scene in this episode, other than that it was nice to watch Skyler’s need to talk to someone – anyone – about what’s she’s going through with Walt diminish once Marie reveals she thinks Skyler’s affair with Ted is motivating her behavior. Or perhaps it isn't that her need diminished, but that she realized how impossible it would be, if Marie thought it plausible that Skyler would be this distraught over a mere affair. Or perhaps it is that her need to speak is overshadowed by her shock and anger over Walt telling Marie about Ted in the first place.

- Okay, two things about that scene: Little Holly eating Skyler’s jewelry was pretty adorable. The show has gotten a lot of great acting business out of Holly clutching at things, most memorably, Walt’s glasses from last season. Gobble up that bracelet, little one. She’s the Breaking Bad equivalent of Brando’s cat in the The Godfather.

- Walt, rationalizing to Jesse the benefits of preserving in their meth business: “We run our business our way, and make sure that this never happens again.” Oh, right, Drew’s murder was something you had under control, Walt. Gotta love Walt’s rationalizations.

- Mike: “I would never come to the headquarters of our illegal meth operation dragging a bunch of cops, Walter.” There are many reasons I like Mike, not the least of which is his frequent condescension to Walt. His redundant use of “illegal” here is priceless.

- This week in beautiful Breaking Bad imagery: Mike and Jesse’s meeting with the men from Phoenix. Also, two of the shots surrounding Walt's delivery of the “empire business” line make it look as though he’s sitting in a throne.

- Weird lighting in the interrogation room when Saul defends Mike against Hank and Gomez. The lighting kept drawing my attention to everyone’s eyelashes.

- How to make your protagonist seem defeated through style: make him the tiniest object in the frame, even smaller than office furniture.

- “I eat a lot of frozen stuff. It’s usually pretty bad, but the pictures are always so awesome. It’s like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m stoked for this lasagna!’ And then you nuke it, and the cheese gets all scabby on top, and it’s like you’re eating a scab.” Jesse should be a food critic.

- I like Walt and Jesse’s respective body language in the scene where Jesse tries to convince Walt to sell his share of the methylamine. Walt is relaxed, practically melting into his recliner, whereas Jesse is so unsettled his butt is barely touching the seat of the chair.