‘Breaking Bad’ Retro Recap: ‘One Minute’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

When we are going through tough and challenging times in life, the kind that puts us through incredible strain and strife… some strange part of our brains believes that the right to do… is to take all of our negative emotions and bury them deep down into the pits of our souls. Wherein we believe that they will somehow give us strength and propel us forward so that we overcome whatever is troubling us. Which is a course of action that we come to learn, is woefully incorrect. Because those emotions bubble up and force us and to say and do supremely stupid things in an effort to be purged from our minds and well… we tend to learn the hard way, that expressing them sooner is the key to truly overcoming our problems, since it allows for us to view our sour situation in an objective and healthy light. And that lesson is relevant to our discussion today, simply because it was on full display in the next episode of Breaking Bad.

For ‘One Minute’ saw several of the men in this tale, deal with this exact lesson in fascinating ways and it turns out that Hank is the one that had to face the most unfortunate aspect of burying one’s emotions. Because for weeks now, he’s been pushing his fear and his anger and shame down into the pits of his soul and having Jesse and Walt best him on the case, was that boiling over moment, one that motivated him to just beat the living hell out of Jesse and well… that put Hank at quite the crossroads for certain. One that helped him to realize that he had to deal with his emotions and that he was better than raw anger and that in turn, helped him to realize that his career was likely over and that he needed to face that like a man and well, this was quite the arc for Hank for certain. One that finally allowed for him to be honest about his feelings and grow before our eyes and well, lucky for him… another plot thread involving honesty with one’s feels, saved Hank’s career.

Because while he was pondering upon the finer points of opening up, Jesse Pinkman was swelling with anger. For he was sick of being a victim and sick of dealing with physical strife and that allowed for him to finally express his frustrations with Walter and his life situation and getting that out into the open allowed for Walter to realize that he’s been super hard and rude to Jesse. And to make up for that, he finally admitted that Jeese was doing a great job with cooking and that he should be back in the fold. To the point where he even decided to fire Gale so that he could have the smooth working environment that only Jesse can provide and well, cooling Jesse off with honesty and a job offer… motivated him to not press charges and well, this was quite the healthy segment for certain. One that genuinely helped us to understand how expressing our emotions does nothing but wonders for us since it gets bad blood out into the open and engenders trust and stability and open lines of communication for a brief moment there… it seemed as though we were about to be barreling toward a happy ending.

But that just wouldn’t be this show’s style. Because despite beating the rap, Hank was still in grave danger in this story. For the Salamanca cousins were now eager to exact revenge on Hank for harming Tuco and they spent a fair chunk of this episode, preparing for war in the creepiest manner possible and well… when the time came, they were ready to ambush Hank in the parking lot of a mini mall. But thanks to a warning call from a kind stranger, Hank was ready and able to fight back… at a great cost. Because despite being able to crush Leonel's legs with his car, Marco still got in some brutal shots. The kind that left Hank badly wounded and bleeding. But thanks to his training and some foolish thinking on Marco’s part, Hank was able to put his attacker down and end this madness. But despite Hank's violent victory over the cartel's star assassins, this episode leaves us in a rough place, with carnage on the streets and Hank in bad shape and that was quite the way to end this particular tale.

Simply because it reminds us that this is a crime drama through and through, one where the danger is real for all of the characters since the drug trade is no walk in the park and it will be interesting to see if Hank comes out of this attack in decent shape, or if there is some serious damage to his body and mind. But while we wait to see, we can bask in some fascinating and forward thinking character growth. Because having men speak to their feelings in a show about the crystal meth trade… was ahead of its time and quite frankly still is. And it just speaks to the wonder of this series and how it is always eager to go above and beyond to tell the most unique story possible and well, it definitely accomplished that particular goal and it set the stage for the future as well. Because an attack on a DEA Agent likely won’t go over well in Washington or in the ABQ for that matter as well, meaning that retribution is coming, something that will oddly benefit Mister Gus Fring, and that definitely motivates one to continue the journey, to see what this twisted game of chess yields for Gus in the long run. Until next time.   

---