‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Bug’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Something we don’t acknowledge enough in our everyday world, is that bidding farewell to a close friend is a heartbreaking experience. And we don’t really acknowledge that fact, because we are taught from an early age that friends are a dime a dozen and if we don’t have enough, we can easily go out there and make them no problem. But that is the wrong way to view friendships, especially close ones. Because friends are the family that we do indeed outright choose and losing one that we have let in completely, is a great loss, one that will haunt us and leave us pondering upon exactly what went wrong because they did indeed mean the world to us. If anything, the difficulties that come about in regard to the end of a close friendship are top of mind today… simply because it served as one of the focal themes of the next episode of Breaking Bad.
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For ‘Bug’ saw Walter White and Jesse Pinkman’s friendship reach a breaking point of sorts, thanks to Gus Fring’s machinations and that should come as no surprise. Because for some time now, he has indeed been working toward creating a divide between the two of them in the hopes of shattering their close ties and he pushed that plan to a whole new level in this tale. Since he more or less made Jesse a confidant and trusted lieutenant, to the point where he even invited Jesse over for dinner to enjoy the same meal that Walter once did in the Fring abode and well… it turns out that his plans to make Jesse something more and appeal to his sense of worth to further pull him away from Walt, worked like a charm. Because he passed up on a perfect opportunity to poison Gus to hear the sales pitch instead and well, that laid the foundation down for the end of a grand friendship.

But before that could take place, this episode made a point to focus on a new problem brewing for Walt. In that… his corruption on a fundamental level is staring to spread to other members of his household. Because Skyler is starting to understand the power of money and knows that Walt makes so much cash that she can potentially use it to influence her own future. And that epiphany came about simply because Ted dropped by to inform her of the fact that IRS was finally coming after him and her fear of being caught and implicated, since that could in turn expose the White Empire, motivated her to step in and do whatever was necessary to get Ted off the hook. But alas, since he doesn’t have the money to settle, Skyler is clearly thinking about handing over some of that drug cash to clear his name and well… it will be quite interesting to see what comes out of Skyler’s power trip in this tale.

However, what’s wild, is that with a little bit of communication with Walter, the birth of that potential mess could have been avoided. But Walter was occupied otherwise. Since he needed to keep Hank off of the trail and of course, he needed to prove that Jesse was betraying him. Which is why he took the time to plant a tracker on Jesse’s car to see if all the discussions about not meeting Gus were true, and well… that decision led to the breaking point in question. Because once the truth was out about the tracker and the reality that Jesse didn’t take down Gus… these close friends traded blows and eventually it was made clear that they no longer needed to speak to one another. Making it obvious that Gus won the day, and this was heartbreaking to say the least.

Simply because it could have been avoided with communication and care and some semblance of trust. But in the end, what’s done is done and good friends are no more and that will undoubtedly lead to some tension and awkward moments at the plant and who knows where the story is going to go from here. Because Gus is truly in charge here and he’s winning this game of chess with every single move and that really is a bold direction to take this season in. For this was always supposed to be Walter’s journey toward the top and his subsequent fall, and there really is no clear way for that to happen right now and that really does compel one to continue to the journey. So, we can see how Walter claims his throne and whether or not a close friendship can be repaired. Until next time.

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