'Breaking Bad' Season 4, Episode 5 Recap - 'Shotgun'

Of course, on the day that we get news that "Breaking Bad" will have just 16 more episodes after the end of this season, we get one of the best episodes yet. Of course. I've stated my case about seeing this show come to an end, but man will I hate to see it go.

We saw our characters change considerably this week, at least in their roles within this mess that they're all in. It all starts with Walt careening through the streets in his trusty Aztek, trying to get in contact with Jesse, Mike, Gus...anyone he can call to find out where Jesse is, or if in fact he's still alive.

Notice the close-up of the unbuckled seatbelt in this scene? Or the fact that Walt is speeding with an illegal firearm on the set next to him? Walt is getting reckless...and that's going to play out later. He's even more reckless when he barges in to Los Pollos Hermanos with the gun very obviously sitting in his pocket, demands to see Gus and states his first and last name to the girl working the counter. For such a smart guy, Walt can be really dumb sometimes. At least he made sure to call Skyler and tell her that he loved her.

But having given up on the search when Mike contacts him, Walt heads back to cook alone, then goes home to sign the papers for the car wash...and get frisky with Skyler. Hot damn! They're back, folks!

But all of his fuss is unneccessary: Jesse is fine, at least for now. The scene at the windmill for the first pick-up is yet another shining example of why this show is so good. The clanking sound adds tension to the silence that fills the scene. The creatives behind the show love giving us quiet scenes, and I think this scene illustrates why: it gives us time to think. Just as Jesse must be thinking "what the &$^% is he going to do?" we're thinking the exact same thing.

Fortunately for Jesse, Mike's plan seems to be simple. When Jesse finally gets on his last nerve, he explains to him that he "used to have a guy" and now he doesn't, and Jesse is there to essentially be his backup while he uncovers all the dropped bags of money.

Soon enough, we see the second reason for the title of this episode, "Shotgun," besides the fact that Jesse has been riding in the passenger seat all this time: as the car is parked at one of the drop points, another car pulls up and a guy with a shotgun heads toward the car. Jesse runs him down in reverse and takes off, meeting up with Mike later to pick him up. Mike approves, and lets him "smoke up." Is Jesse training to be a fixer? Are they trying to keep him busy?

Neither. Or maybe both. But the main reason, as revealed when Mike meets with Gus, is this: they wanted to fix Jesse. Gus set up the attack so that Jesse could run the guys down and save Mike. As Mike puts it, "Just like you wanted, the kid's a hero." Jesse took a life, but now he's saved one. And now he seems okay...at least he does when Walt comes into the lab to find him nonchalantly breaking up the meth.

Hank, meanwhile, takes himself off the case, thinking that his Heisenberg has already been killed. Bonus irony points to the show for putting poor Hank in the "DEA Fun Run" t-shirt with the legs on it. I felt bad for finding that funny.

But when Walt and Skyler come over for dinner and Walt gets too drunk (uh oh...we've seen what happens when Walt gets too drunk around Hank), things take a turn. Hank starts going off about how Gale was a genius, and Walt, ever the victim of his own hubris, plants the idea in Hank's head that he thinks Gale just copied the work. That look from Skyler says everything. Bad move, Walt.

It gets even worse when Hank, renewed in his search, sees a picture of an Los Pollos Hermanos napkin from the crime scene. The very same Los Pollos Hermanos where Walt has been multiple times, and very clearly just walked into today with a gun.

Uh oh.