A review of tonight's "Breaking Bad" coming up just as soon as I leave recorded proof of my intention to buy a car wash..."Do yourself a favor and learn to take yes for an answer." -MikeWhat do you do the day after your world stops making sense? What do you do the day after you've lost big? What do you do the day after you thought you were going to die but didn't? What do you do the day after you killed a man for the first time?Five men entered the Super Lab in the season premiere. Four went out the front door, and one went out decomposing in a barrel alongside the rest of the chemical waste. And in "Thirty-Eight Snub," the four survivors are all trying to move on from what they saw, and what they did, on that crazy night.For all we know, Gus is doing fine with it. But we can only guess, because in the wake of being badly outplayed by Walter White, Gus has removed himself from the board, realizing (probably much too late) that he's better off not being in the same room with his unpredictable chemist.The other three, though, are clearly struggling with it. Mike sits in his favorite bar, drinking his coffee, trying to out-out the damn spot of Victor on his jacket, and the man who usually has all the answers for the moment has none. He had thought himself invulnerable, the most essential component of Gus's operation other than Gus himself. But if Gus would murder Mike's number two and let Walter White live, then maybe Walt is right and he's the only truly irreplaceable part of the machine. And yet for all his doubts, he understandably trusts Walt even less than Gus, and lays a pretty rough beating on Walt for daring to suggest they conspire to kill the Chicken Man.Walt does what he's done so often, and usually so well, ever since he made the decision to get into the drug game: he scrambles to find a way out of what seems to be an inescapable death trap. But even though Walt has successfully handled a gun before ("Run!"), he's no Wild West gunslinger - even if the show itself often takes on the airs of a 21st century Western - and he's fooling himself if he thinks he can kill Gus at the lab, or at his home. And though Walt's had success in physical confrontations in the past, they've tended to involve opponents who aren't ready for him, and Mike will never not be ready for him after all they've been through over these last few months.And Jesse? Well, whatever brief inspiration he got from seeing Gus's bloody demonstration has faded, and now all that's left is the knowledge that he killed a man in cold blood, that he's never escaping this life Walt pulled him so deeply into - and he can't deal with any of that. He killed Gale to keep the two of them alive, but now seems to view life itself as a burden that can only be endured by blotting it out with drugs, loud music and a non-stop party. He has some hope for Andrea, who returns to confront him about the cash he gave her out of guilt over her brother, but he has no hope for himself.At this point, it shouldn't be the least bit surprising how incredible Aaron Paul is, and yet he keeps finding new layers of Jesse, and new talents to show them with. Like last week, this is an episode where Jesse is largely silent, and yet Paul shows you just how badly Jesse needs to have people around him, how hard he's trying to force all memory of Gale and Victor and Walt and the rest out of his mind whenever he's not at work. That final shot of Jesse sitting in front of the speaker, the red glow washing over him, his neck vibrating from the bass, was just haunting.Mike tells Walt that he won, and should accept his victory, but at least for this terrific, unsettling hour, all of the key players we see are feeling very much like losers.Some other thoughts:• That was friend of the blog (technically, friend of the internet/fandom/etc. at large) Jim Beaver making an impression simply by being quiet and patient as the illegal gun salesman, which gives me a good excuse to remind you about my summer-long revisit of "Deadwood" season 1, where Jim's comments each week (on the veterans-only versions) have easily been the highlight of the project. And whether Beaver was hired for the "Deadwood" connection or just for his general awesomeness, his presence does add to that Western vibe I was talking about. Of course this is the man Walt would buy a gun from.• With Walt's safety secured (for now), Skyler gets back to investigating the car wash, which brings us back to a setting and characters we haven't seen since the series pilot. I can't find my notes from the set visit, but I believe one of the producers told us that the man who plays car wash owner Bogdan, Marius Stan, wasn't really an actor, and only appeared in the pilot as a favor to his aspiring actor son. And now, many years later, he's back on the show.• Things remain thoroughly unpleasant at Casa Schrader, where Hank is getting along with his therapist and using Marie as a punching bag - and hauler of rocks (sorry, "minerals") - to vent all his frustration with his condition.• Surprised it took Gus and Mike this long to realize they should weigh the batches a second time, which should theoretically put the kibosh on any plans Jesse might have to revive his skimming operation.• Love that Saul is finding ways to cash in on the airplane crash Walt caused. Wonder if he has any idea if this is yet another windfall from his biggest client.
I think you guys are watching a different show than I am.
The conversation Jesse's buds were having while coked up were hysterical.I could literally "feel" Hank's pain as he was struggling to walk. I can't be the only one.Saul's commercial with the exploding airplane was so perfect. 
