‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘Hermanos’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

One of the most difficult tasks that the creative team behind a television show will ever face, is providing every character on the series with proper growth and screen time. And this challenge exists simply because of how television is designed. For there is a limited window in which to tell a story and grow the characters and because of that, some side characters in some shows go the wayside in an effort to develop the main characters in a thorough manner. But what’s fascinating about this somewhat unfortunate aspect to the world of T.V., is that some shows actually manage to figure out how to give everyone their day in the sun and one series that excelled at this was Breaking Bad. Because everyone in this ensemble series, managed to receive a complete and fleshed out arc.
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A feat that the series accomplished by outright choosing to set episodes aside that would allow for a side character to stand in the spotlight and grow accordingly by way of developmental moments or by outright showcasing their backstory, and most important of all… the series would pull this off in an organic manner. And it just so happens, that the next episode of this storied series, did just that. For ‘Hermanos’ put the mysterious and furious Gustavo Fring in the spotlight at last and the easiest way to help us learn about what makes him tick… was to have the DEA and the Albuquerque Police Department interrogate Gus regarding the appearance of his fingerprints in Gale’s apartment and to ask him about his relationship to the deceased. 

An act that helped us to learn just how cunning and intelligent Gus truly is and how prepared he is for any situation. Because every attempt by the ABQ PD and Hank for that matter as well, to get him to slip up or crack under the pressure, outright failed. In fact, Gus was able to offer law enforcement a wonderful cover story, one that made him look like an utter hero and that left the investigation at a standstill.  So much in fact, that Hank turned up the heat on his own, by bringing Walter into this, to help in planting a tracking device on Mister Fring’s ride. All in the hopes of gathering some kind of dirt on Gus. But even then, Gus was still prepared for this possibility and even encouraged Walt to help out in the matter, to not arouse suspicion and because he knew how to avoid the tracker at every turn and keep the heat off of his back. 

But while that definitely gave us great insight into Gus’ current mental state and skill set, someone doesn’t become that cunning overnight. It takes years of practice and developmental moments to be able to look that far ahead and thankfully, the story took the time to show us how Gus came to acquire those skills and unfortunately, he came to learn them in the most painful way imaginable. For back in the day, when he and Max were getting their empire started, they were invited to a meeting with Don Eladio and Hector Salamanca and despite their best efforts to impress, Eladio dropped the hammer on Gus and had Max killed at Hector’s hands. All in the hopes of teaching Gus a lesson to never cross the boss and to learn his place and well, Gus most certainly did. Since that formative moment taught him to work from the shadows and observe and calculate and execute accordingly.

If anything, this was nothing more than a powerful character study, one that gave us just enough in regard to Gus… since it did keep his past life in Chile a secret to keep an air of mystery surrounding him. But what we learned was powerful and impactful and it made it clear that Walt and Jesse are indeed in over their heads since this man has seen it and done it all and knows their every move and the only way, they can defeat him… is through unity and planning. But while we wait to see if that is going to be the case, we can celebrate another amazing episode from this series. Because this particular tale was also incredibly compelling and engaging and it really did help us to understand that Gus is incredibly ambitious and dangerous and will stop at nothing to get what he wants and that’s bad news for Walter… since he wants what Gus has and that likely means the forthcoming showdown between these two men will be bloody and ugly since it never goes well when an immovable object slams into an unstoppable force. Until next time.   

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