I’m going to start out by saying that I enjoyed “Rabid Dog”, but I feel like it is the weakest episode of the season so far. I don’t have a good reason for saying that, it just felt like it focused on a lot of the same character beats as the last episode. I’m not saying it was a bad episode, but it definitely felt like they pumped the brakes a little bit and slowed things down. The way “Confessions” ended it felt like we might be getting things rolling and I was ready for a frantic pace to the finish.
We start out the episode with Walt breaking into his own house looking for Jesse. There is a very tense sequence as Walt stalks through the house checking all the rooms, only to find out Jesse isn’t there. We don’t know where he is until act two of the episode when we see Hank come in and take Jesse away right before Walt shows up. It was a little strange to go back in time; something Breaking Bad hasn’t done very often, but in this scenario it worked well.
Jesse decides to spill the beans to Hank, which he just said he would never do in the last episode… but now he is desperate. Walt somehow has no clue Jesse is going to roll over on him, but he also doesn’t know that Jesse found out about the ricin. The Walt/Jesse relationship has been at the center of this entire series, and that relationship reaches its lowest point. For some reason Walt still thinks he can sweet talk Jesse while Jesse is scared to death of Walt. We don’t get to see the showdown between the two because Jesse gets scared and doesn’t go through with the meeting. Instead he calls Walt from a payphone and threatens to “… get you where you really live.” I have no clue what epiphany Jesse had or what plan he is putting together to “get” Walt. I can’t wait to find out. Whatever the outcome is, Jesse screwed Hank and left him still without solid evidence. I kind of liked seeing that, especially after Hank made the comment about how disposable Jesse is.
The one thing that stuck out to me in this episode is the extended scene with Marie and her therapist. I’m not sure what significance that scene will have later, but it felt extremely strange. Why dedicate that much time to a conversation between Marie and some doctor we have never met before? We don’t even get to see Hank explain to Gomez what is going on with Walt. To me, that would have been a much more interesting interaction to put on screen.
“Confessions” left me feeling like everything was about to blow up, but “Rabid Dog” didn’t follow through on that promise. The unexpected slow down felt strange. We are running out of time with this show and I feel like we need to be going 100mph from here to the finish, but apparently the writers and directors had other plans. That being said, I cannot wait for the new episode tomorrow. I have a feeling it is going to be amazing.
It is crunch time and it feels like a lot has to happen in the next 4 episodes. We still have to get to the flash-forward time and figure out what Walt does after he gets the gun and ricin. Still, I am confident it is going to all work well and provide us with an excellent ending to this story.
At the end of “Rabid Dog” we hear Walt make a call to Todd and it would imply that Walt might be calling for a hit on Jesse. I think we are purposefully led to believe that, but I don’t think that is what will happen. As much as Walt has done for Jesse, I just don’t see him having Jesse killed by Todd and Uncle Jack. But I have no better explanation of what that call was for. I guess we will find out.
Filed Under: AMC, Breaking Bad, Television