libraryseraph

This episode opens with two Mexican boys playing, and the huge cell phone establishes this as a flashback. The man on the phone is established as Hector, which is reinforced by the fact that the arms of the chair he's sitting in look like wheels. The presence of Hector means that these two kids, who are having a sibling fight, over one breaking the other's toy, are the Cousins. For all of their other appearances, the Cousins have been portrayed more like forces of nature than human villains, who can;t be stopped, only redirected. This scene establishes that they're people, who had childhoods, which has the dual effect of humanizing them to the audience, and making us remember that people who do bad things are people, not unstoppable forces.

This scene also establishes part of why the Cousins are ike that. When one says he wants the other dead, in a fit of childish anger, Hector starts drowning the latter until the former physically stops him, because "family is everything". This reinforces that a) violence is the only way either of them will get anything and b) that they're the only people they have to care about, and everyone else is nothing.

Hank attacks Jesse over the Marie thing from last episode. Right up until Hank starts hitting him, Jesse is talking about his lawyer. Jesse is expecting Hank to play by the rules, and Hank would have, if he hadn;t thought Jesse broke the rules.

Hank basically shuts down after attacking Jesse because he realized Jesse had nothing to do with it, and he can;t deal with that.

Walt was the one who did the Marie thing, and he's still jsutifying it even after Jesse got put in hospital, saying he "had to lure hank away" and "he never thought this would happen". The worst part is, he probably is honest with the last one, since Walt doesn't percieve Jesse as important enough to warrant that kind of retaliation.

Jesse just wants revenge right now, and he points out he can give up Walt if the cops catch him. Walt still thinks Jesse is bluffing, because he can't comprehend Jesse not being an extension of him.

Jesse is even refusing his painkillers so he can be clean. WHile part of this is a thing recovering addicts do, part of it might be that he doesn;t want to give the courts any reason to doubt his accusations towards Hank.

Hank is awkward at work. Noone else knows what he did, but he does, and he's got that weight on him.

The theme of elevators being the only place Hank really expresses emotion show up again. He breaks down crying in Marie's arms in the elevator, but they're both perfectly calm by the time they get out. Hank can't let himself express emotion in public.

Walt is working with Gale in the lab, and they're obviously bonding.

The weapns merchant reveals he's wearing one of the bulletproof vests he wants to sell, ane one of the COusins shoots him to test it. There's no malice, it's just a thing that happens, just because violence is so natural to them.

When Gale makes a mistake, Walt takes it out on him angrily. Whenever Walt gets angry, he takes it out on others and tries to exert power over them. Even though he seems to get along well with Gale, that doesn't stop him.

Marie tells Hank to claim he was operating on muscle memory, or under self defense, and Hank says he;s not going to lie. He knows what he did was wrong, no matter what crimes Jesse has committed. After the last scene, with Walt rubbing Gale's failures in his face, this serves to contrast them more. For all his bluster, Hank is capable of admitting when he's done wrong, which Walt can't. As he continues talking, Hank finally opens up to Marie about his PTSD,, and how bad it's getting. He finally has to admit he might not be able to be a cop anymore, despite building his whole self-image and masculinity around it, since trying to live up to that image is hurting him, and making him hurt others. Compare this to Walt, who just keeps digging himself deeper and deeper trying to maintain his provider/family man image.

Walt is forced to ask Gus to rehire Jesse, despite everything, since he at least knows how jesse works. This is obviously humiliating for him, especially when he basically has to beg Jesse to come back. Jesse doesn't take Walt's request as flattery, since he knows how Walt works on some level, and knows Walt doesn;t have enough respect for him to simply make that request. Even when Walt offers partnership, Jesse refuses, and calls Walt out for blatantly nto caring about him and hurting him when he doesn;t need something.

Later, Jesse agrees. Even when Jesse realizes Walt is full of shit, he still needs that validation.

When one of the Cousins is badly injured in the attack on Hank, the only is obviously concerned, but all the first one says is "finish him". At this point, their care and their relationship to each other is expressed entirely in violence

Hank shoots the other Cousin with the hollowpoint bullet they were given earlier. Their own need for violence is what unmakes them.

It's significant that the Cousin's past is revealed in the same episode they die, since it makes them not villains or obstacles to be defeated, but victims, in a way. It keeps the viewer from uncritically viewing violence as triumph