Breaking Bad: I.F.T.   Rewatch 
October 19, 2014 9:28 AM - Season 3, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Walt ignores Skyler's demands, furthering the rift between them and pushing her to break bad. Still suffering from panic and anxiety attacks, Hank crosses a line at work.

AMC content: Marie's Blog: Desperate Measures | Hank's Blog: In Which I Kick Some Ass.

AV Club review: "'I.F.T.' is all about control."

The episode is dedicated "to our friend Shari Rhodes." Rhodes was Breaking Bad's location casting director, and died during production of Season 3. Variety news article; ABQ Journal obituary. She cameos in this episode, in her only on-screen role, as the wheelchair-bound bingo player whose minivan is stolen by the Cousins.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle (4 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This was the first episode where I had a visceral nopenopenope reaction to Walt - I could barely sit through his conversations with Skyler, I was so uncomfortable.

It's not like I thought he was fine before, but this was the tipping point for me.
posted by minsies at 10:03 AM on October 19, 2014 [1 favorite]


God Walt is so awful in this episode, and Skyler so desperate. She manages to find a way to hurt him, and collect a little piece of her life for herself, but sadly Ted isn't a very good alternate partner either.
posted by Cannon Fodder at 11:19 AM on October 19, 2014 [2 favorites]


I watched this episode with a friend when it first aired. It always bothered me that he had so much more of a horrified reaction to Skyler's IFT than he did to all of Walt's behavior up to that point. I think his parents marriage went bad in Skyler's way and this may have had a small part to do with the reaction. I never could convince him that Walt was hurting her just as much, but Walt just couldn't see it. This is such a good season!
posted by LizBoBiz at 8:20 AM on October 20, 2014


I love Gus as a character (not as a person; knowing what I know about him, if I had to talk with him I'd be super polite and get the hell away as soon as possible) but Esposito's Spanish is painful to listen to. I know he learned the lines phonetically, and not everyone can be Ron Perlman--according to someone I knew who spoke French natively, Perlman's accent in City of Lost Children is excellent--but still it's just one of those details that grates on me. I'd rank it as the second-worst thing in Breaking Bad, after the plane crash.

Aside from that this was a really good episode, and even though it wasn't flashy there was still a lot going on and it felt like a lot of things were being put into place for later.

I remember feeling perversely happy about Skyler's bombshell revelation--that even though she hadn't turned Walt in she'd still found a way to hurt him and push him away. I honestly can't remember when I started to hate Walt the first time I watched the series, but he's just vile. This rewatch feels like a really different experience to me.
posted by johnofjack at 5:54 PM on October 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


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