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‘Breaking Bad’: BABY COMING!

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It’s finally happening. Everything. Skyler’s in labor and Walt’s racing toward a giant drug deal that could net him and Jesse $1.2 million. And that’s when the door closed, “Breaking Bad” cutting to a painful black on Sunday night. Until next week, ladies and gents. My, oh, my does it appear that we could be in for a doozy of a final two episodes.

All this -- and much, much more -- occurred only a week after we spent a whole show basically fixing a water heater and some rotting wood. See how the writers set us up? It’s borderline cruelty, but it makes for such great stop-and-go television.

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As for next week, who knows? Will this baby actually pop out? At this point, the mere idea of Skyler (Anna Gunn) without the baby bump seems almost inconceivable. And secondly, could this drug deal actually go down smoothly? Note the exit Walt (Bryan Cranston) is supposed to take off the freeway: Exit 13. That can’t be good. And let us use this opportunity to recall yet another classic Saul Goodman quote, though seeing it in print doesn’t in any way do justice to the masterful way Bob Odenkirk actually delivered it to our drug-dealing duo.

“Look, let’s start with some tough love, all right? Ready for this? Here goes. You two suck at peddling meth. Period.”

Lucky for them, though, Saul is beginning to resemble a Walmart; he isn’t fancy, but he’s got everything you need. In this case, he happens to also know a kingpin of a dealer who may buy up all 38 pounds of the blue stuff. Well, sort of. “Let’s just say I know a guy who knows a guy. Who knows another guy.”

Some thoughts about Sunday’s episode, after the jump:

Favorite moment: The conversation between Walt and Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) was epic once it finally arrived, though I will admit that when the Pollos Hermanos manager first came by the table where Walt and Jesse sat, awaiting their kingpin, I called it. “That’s the guy,” I said, because nothing on this show is ever wasted, and so when they cut to the store manager asking Walt if everything was to their satisfaction, I knew there had to be a reason. So the payoff of his eventual reveal didn’t work for me, but the conversation that followed between Gus and Walt was electric, Gus telling Walt that he should never, ever be in business with a drug addict. “Forget he exists,” Walt said.

And speaking of …: Jesse is going down and taking Jane with him. Aaron Paul has been superb this season, bringing a vulnerability to Jesse’s character that makes his dark descent all the more tragic. Watching him tie that chord around his arm was so, so painful, because as an audience we’ve come to feel so protective of the guy, have we not? Though I have to say that the visual of his heroin high -- Jesse floating up from his bed -- was one of the coolest images we’ve seen. Kudos to two people here: director of photography Michael Slovis for creating yet another great visual, and also to music supervisor Thomas Golubic for selecting another great song to enhance the moment. The tune: “Enchanted” by the Platters. However, here is your Show Tracker Fun Fact for today: To get into the right mindset for the floating shot, Aaron Paul actually listened to Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To The Moon” as the cameras rolled.

This is random, but …: Every time I see Skyler’s Jeep Grand Wagoneer, I think to myself: how perfect of a car choice is that for her, for the White family? It just evokes this feeling of family, of safety, of suburbia. While someone like Skyler’s sister, Marie, drives around in her fancy new Beetle, Skyler has the wood-paneled Wagoneer. It’s a car stuck in the past. Kind of like the Whites.

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And about that past: Skyler continues to warm up to Beneke. That birthday serenade was just … awkward. Kind of hot, yes, but awkward. This continues to be a very uncomfortable road.

And finally, the beginning: While I saw the fast-food-manager-as-the-kingpin reveal coming, I was absolutely shocked -- and horrified -- at the opening teaser with the kid pulling out the gun and killing Jesse’s distributor. With that long follow of the boy riding the bicycle through the streets, I figured he was just there to up the ante, to make an already dangerous situation seem to us even more dangerous with a kid around. I had no idea that the kid was the danger. Just plain horrifying, the look on the boy’s face as he fired away. Innocence lost.

-- Josh Gajewski

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