Breaking Bad: Negro y Azul
(S02E07) The episode opened with a video by Mexican cousins Los Cuates de Sinaloa; the song is our episode title. It looks like the boys were hired to pen a tune that explains exactly what is going on in the drug community now that White and Pinkman are peddling their blue meth. The video is produced like something you'd see on Latin MTV (sort of) in Spanish with English subtitles. It also goes on to tell us that White, as "Heisenberg," has gained notoriety of the not-so-great sort in the drug cartel world further south. It was a unique if strange way to open the episode, as well as provide exposition on White's growing infamy.As for Walt, one of the benefits of his newfound career in drugs is that he's a much more aggressive taskmaster in the classroom. No more timid Mr. White; Walt's apparently becoming a badass in all walks of his life. Or at least much bolder than he was. Meanwhile. Jesse is finding out that it's a lot tougher to be the badass everyone thinks he is when he doesn't have the self-confidence to be as hardcore as his image.
Jesse is still reeling from what he witnessed in the crackhouse from hell last week. He's locked himself in his house with his drugs and the sick mental images of a poor kid's father getting his face smashed under an ATM machine by his own wife. As it turns out, though, the story of how that shit went down got altered in the schoolyard. and now word has Jesse taking the man down to collect his stolen money. And suddenly everybody wants to pay up and nobody wants to mess with him or White. Great result with minimal effort; that's sound business.
Hank, meanwhile, is trying to settle into his new digs with the DEA. This is a much more white-collared crew than he's used to, and his gruff around the exterior demeanor doesn't lead to him fitting in very well. He's the only guy on the team who doesn't speak Spanish, which isn't very good when you're dealing with Mexican drug cartels day in and day out.
The reversal in Dean Norris' portrayal of this character perfectly captures just how out of sorts he is. Up until now we've seen him as loud and borderline obnoxious in every aspect of his life. Suddenly he's meek and looking around like he doesn't know where he is half the time. And when old Hank bursts out, it just makes him look like an ass.
It'll be interesting to see if he can make this transition successfully. Maybe they need someone a little rough around the edges and that's what he's there for. I'd almost forgotten about his panic attacks until the severed-head-tortoise incident. The attack sent him back to the cars, which turned out to be the best thing that could have happened as things quickly blew out of control, quite literally.
Closer to home, Skyler finds that being aggressive at her former employer actually pays off as she manages to upgrade an application for an entry-level data entry position into getting her old job back in Accounting. This may be more of a double-edged sword, as it looks like her old boss, now running the company, may be interested in a little more than just her math skills.
Final note: can I just say that Jesse Pinkman knows how to set up a helluva first date. Come hang out in my lawn chairs and watch my new flatscreen television try to acquire a signal from the satellite. Even better, it actually worked. Aw yeah, boyeee!

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