Breaking Bad Season 3 Episode 9: Kafkaesque

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This episode opens with a Pollos Hermanos advertisement, with Gus' voiceover talking about his family legacy and the old ways. This helps reinforce Gus' role as a respectable, traditional male figure, which he uses to protect himself. The commercial fades into Walt and Jesse packaging their meth, drawing a connection between the two sides of Gus' life, and showing how Walt thinks of himself as a craftsman and family man. The scenes of the meth being weighed/packaged/analysed show how Gus has standardized and industrialized meth production and distribution, with the same business acumen he applies to chicken. And then, finally, we have the meth being hidden in buckets of LPH fry batter, showing Gus literally using his respectable business to disguise his drug business, as well as figuratively.

Jesse has done the math, and worked out that Gus is earning way, way more money than he's giving them. He thinks this is bullshit, but Walt thinks he should be happy with what he has.

Hank is out of his coma. Gomez tells him that the blue meth is back, and he was right. Hank said he didn;t see it coming, and that he only survived because of the warning call. Hank's attempt to make himself a man and succeed failed horribly

Jesse is back at his drug support group. He's talking about how his job at a laundromat is rigid, full of red tape, his boss and the owner are uptight dicks; all things that are true about his job making meth. The usual dangers of drug making have been replaced with a banal, typical capitalist experience. This makes the group leader's usage of the term Kafkaesque even more appropriate, since a lot of kafka's writings include dangerous or bizarre situations that everyone just treats as mildly inconvenient.

Hank is getting some motor function back, but it'll be a long time before he's able to walk again, if he ever can. In a society where masculinity is in many ways determined by action and physical standards, disabled men will always fall short of society's standards.

Saul offers to sell Jesse a nail salon he can use for money laundering. Jesse is too offended that Saul wants more of a cut than he wants from Walt to buy it, and that Saul's reasoning is "senority". Jesse went back to Walt because he thought he'd finally get respect out of it, and now he's realizing that isn't the case.

Walt meets with Gus, and Walt, without directly blaming Gus, says Gus didn;t just want Walt protected when he sent that message; he also wanted a shootout that would put pressure on the cartel. Walt says he respects Gus' strategy, and implies he wants to extend their deal. GUs says he could extend it indenfinitely. We don't see Walt's response, but we do see him, on his way home, driving faster and faster, and closing his eyes and swerving over the line. He swerves out of the way when a truck nearly hits him. I think this scene is easiest to read as Walt being passively suicidal: we know we saw his death from cancer as an escape without consequences from the drug trade, and now, when his best option is extending tha indefinitely, he might be tempted to end it all, but not so tempted he won;t snap back when he realizes what he's doing.

If Jesse didn;t have anything to worry about, he'd be making something. The last time Jesse really put effort into something and felt good about it was in highschool, when his woodworking teacher refused to let him get away with shoddy work. This was the only real time in Jesse's life someone genuinely treated him like he could do better, and it inspired him to make the best box he could. He also admits that he traded the box for weed. Jesse's biggest enemy is his own desire for self-gratification, and the fact that he doesn;t value his work as an end in and of itself. After he admits that, the camera pulls way back from the meeting, showing it as a tiny lighted space in darkness, heightening the feeling of isolation.

Jesse misses the RV, because as hard as cooking in it was, he preferred the freedom and danger to the, well, Kafkaesque, especially since he doesn;t get any benefit out of the latter. He does say he won;t do shoddy, home cooked meth, though, since he has "self-respect". He still wants to succeed in some ways Walt shares, because then he can feel like he's beating Walt.

Skyler says she and Walt should pay Hank's bills. She's aware that Hank was, in some ways, injured because of Walt's drug connections. She tells Marie the money comes from gambling, since that's at least legal. That's also a vice Walt doesn;t want to be associated with, since it has connotation of irresponsibility and doesn;t require skill, but Walt can't say that without revealing the truth. This also lets Skyler vent about Walt lying to her and get Marie on her side, without revealing the worst of it. When Walt asks where she got that lie from, she says "she learned from the best".