Breaking Bad: Hazard Pay Rewatch

January 9, 2015 9:17 AM - Season 5, Episode 3

Walt and Jesse put a business plan into action. Walt confesses a secret to Marie.

"Have you thought about what your plan is? You know, vis-a-vis honesty?"

Walt, Junior, and baby Holly watch Scarface. Vince Gilligan interviewed by HuffPo: Walt's line "everyone dies in this movie" was improvised by Bryan Cranston.

Andy Greenwald, Grantland:

“Hazard Pay” provided a creepy showcase for Bryan Cranston’s perfectly calibrated prevarications: his slow, manipulative pauses in the above-mentioned convo with Jesse; his shit-eating silence when Mike big-times him. And, wildest of all, his heartfelt “confession” to Marie. If Anna Gunn’s slow psychological breakdown is finally providing us with evidence that Heisenberg’s infestation has taken root in the family home, Cranston’s mannered precision in this scene proved how utterly oblivious he is to it — or how little he cares. The pause, the heavy, breathy sigh, then the practiced fluttering of the hands; he touches his head (conveying deep thought!) instead of his mouth (which implies guilt!). But the most devious part was how completely natural it was for him not only to lie, but to treat his wife’s emotional trauma with all the respect and delicacy of a Nerf football.

James Poniewozik, TIME:

Walt has lied to Skyler, manipulated her, endangered her and terrified her. Now he’s essentially gaslighting her, making her seem, in her sister’s eyes, unstable and the villain in this situation, unable even to celebrate the birthday of the decent husband she nearly lost to cancer. And Skyler, of course, can say nothing.

"Just because you shot Jesse James don't make you Jesse James."

posted by We had a deal, Kyle (4 comments total)

It's not strictly necessary, but I like it that they go through the trouble of showing the different possible cook spots and pointing out why they wouldn't work. I also like it that Jesse has the idea of cooking inside a plastic tent, like the one the doctor's team set up in Mexico; between this and the magnets it seems like he's developing a skill for problem-solving. It makes me wonder what he might have done with his life if he hadn't devoted so much of it to getting high and cooking meth.

This scene with Walt manipulating Jesse into leaving Andrea ... God but I hate Walt, for so many different reasons. (Another one in this episode: throwing Skyler under the bus by explaining her breakdown to Marie as being caused by her distress at what happened to Ted, pretending to let it slip that she and Ted had an affair.)
posted by johnofjack at 11:53 AM on January 11, 2015 [1 favorite]

Skyler is like a one-woman #whyIstayed campaign.
posted by psoas at 12:09 PM on January 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Walt and Jesse conversation at the end, about Victor flying too close to the sun: Walt is starting to adopt Gus's perspective, that workers must be kept strictly in line, and Jesse is quietly horrified by it.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:50 AM on January 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'm rewatching the season before watching the netflix movie, and wow, I'd forgotten how awful and unpleasant Walt is. Like, I knew he was terrible and abusive, but it's a lot more visceral watching it again.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 11:34 PM on November 14, 2019