'Breaking Bad' Season 4, Episode 10 Recap - 'Salud'

After last week's altercation between Walt and Jesse, it's looking like we won't be seeing a resolution anytime soon: the episode opens with Jesse, Mike and Gus waiting to board a plane that will take them to Mexico so Jesse can teach the Cartel chemists how to cook. Two interesting things here: one, both the plane and Jesse's shirt are red (usually a color that signifies trouble in this show), and two, since we saw Gus' backstory in that flashback he's being presented to us in a whole new light. As Jesse frets on the plane, Gus looks at him and, in an almost fatherlike way, reassures him: "You can do this."

And he's right, too. Later on, when they arrive at the facility, Jesse picks up on the head chemist's tone (despite not speaking any Spanish) and starts telling him what's what. There's still a real feeling of joy when the usually put-upon Jesse stands up for himself and manages a win. This is a big one, too: not only does he put that chemist in his place, but he sounds even more at home in this lab that Walt would, telling everyone to clean the equipment and rid the place of "contamination." This elicits a proud smile from Gus, and we can't help feeling good about it.

But that good feeling is quickly squashed: Jesse is supposed to stay in Mexico permanently. "You belong to the Cartel now."

As we come back to Walt (ow ow ow that sheet ouch) we're reminded just how little we know about his life. We know the now and we've had some flashbacks to his days with Gretchen, but we don't know much about his childhood. We get a taste of it, though, when Walter Jr. shows up and finds his father beaten up, drugged up, and crying. Like a good son, he sticks around...even after his groggy father calls him "Jesse." That's simultaneously pretty sweet and pretty despicable.

Anyway, Walt tells Junior a story about his father, who died when Walt was only about 6 years old. He had Huntington's disease, and Walt notes that his only real memory of his father is seeing him in a hospital bed, twisted up and wasting away, before he died. That's interesting...Walt grew up without a father. Could this be part of his desire to be a father figure to Jesse? Could it contribute to his problem with authority?

He tells Junior that he doesn't want him to remember him like that when he's gone, bruised up and crying. But Junior responds: "To remember you that way wouldn't be so bad...you were real, you know?"

And that's about all we see of Walt this episode. We have bigger fish to fry. And one of those fish is Ted Beneke, who is still a major problem for poor in-over-her-head Skyler. But Skyler has another brilliant (and in true Skyler fashion, a little naive) plan: use Saul to bestow a hefty sum of over $600,000 to Ted from his deceased great aunt from Luxembourg so that Ted can pay the IRS.

But Ted, as it turns out, is kind of an asshole, and decides to use the money to instead lease himself a Mercedes and start his business back up. Skyler confronts him in an effort to convince him otherwise, but it doesn't work and she ends up having to reveal that she gave him the money. Now, here's the problem: we've just seen what a money-grubbing jerk Ted can be...will he use this new info on Skyler to blackmail her?

That's something we'll have to find out another week. For now, it's back to Mexico, where Gus finds himself standing in front of the same pool at Don Eladio's that his "hermano" bled into all those years ago. This time, though, he's with Mike and Jesse, and he must be planning some kind of revenge, right? As Mike puts it, "Either we're all leaving here or none of us are."

Gus is forced to play nice and even hug Don Eladio, but he only has to play nice for so long: soon enough Don Eladio opens his gift: a bottle of añejo tequila that he immediately breaks into. But like any smart mob boss, he has Gus drink his shot first. A round for everyone! But here's the giveaway: when Don Eladio hands one to Jesse, Gus notes that he's "an addict" and can't have any. Smooth.

It seems this season has been one badass Gus moment after another. This one, though much calmer than the "Terminator shit" from last week, is still pretty awesome, and it's vintage Gus: he excuses himself to go to the bathroom, gently folds his jacket on the sink, folds up a towel for his knees, then promptly shoves his finger down his throat and throws up. Once again, you have to love Giancarlo Esposito's attention to detail here. The towel is an especially nice touch.

He comes back out just in time to see Mike strangling a goon with a garrotte while Don Eladio succumbs to the poison. But the trio isn't out of the woods yet: Gus is clearly weak (you can't just puke up poison without some side effects, I suppose) and Mike takes a bullet as they leave. Some wonderful editing as Jesse takes down the shooter...looks like all that time playing "Rage" has really done something for him, eh? So now Jesse is a hero for real, and not just in a set-up.

For a moment, I thought we were going to lose Gus and he was going to sacrifice himself to take Eladio down. While that would have been pretty badass, I'm thrilled that's not the case...I want Gus and Mike to stick around as long as possible.