(S03E06) The word "pivotal" doesn't even begin to describe this episode. When it was over, I let out a "Jimmy H. Carter!" so loud that it freaked out my fiancee -- imagine another name with the initials "J.C." instead of "Jimmy Carter" and you'll get the idea.
So much stuff went on in this episode that it might be good for us to go in reverse order. Let's start by mourning the loss of a friend, one that's been with us from the very beginning of the series, back when Walt and Jesse were just two crazy kids trying to cook blue meth in the middle of the desert...

Friends, it's time to mourn the passing of the RV. After all that happened this week, it was necessary that it had to go, but it was still sad to see it get crushed.

The scenes when Jesse and Walt were watching their meth factory get picked apart and crushed were actually a little bit moving; they both could and should have gotten the hell away from that scrap yard as quickly as possible after Saul lured Hank away, but they a) wanted to make sure the job was done, and b) pay their respects to the RV itself. That respect, accompanied by the Mexican elegy used as music for the scene, made it feel more like a funeral than the mere crushing of a vehicle.

Of course, how they got to that point was about as tense a scene as there has been in the show's three seasons. It's the closest Hank has gotten to Walt, even though he still has no clue his brother-in-law is the infamous Heisenberg. And, while watching Hank try to bust his way into the RV with Jesse and Walt cowering inside, I had no idea if this was going to be the moment of truth or not.

Were the legal musings of the junkyard guy (played by the wonderfully creepy Larry Hankin) a bit of a convenient way to unravel this plot tangle? Maybe. But the guy's business is to make evidence disappear. This is probably not the first time he's had to deal with the feds on his property. I was just surprised that Hank actually listened to him and waited for the warrant. I guess as hyped up as he was, Hank still wants to do things the right way.

Of course, no one could count on Walt bailing everyone out by leveraging his personal knowledge of Hank and Marie. But, as we've been saying all along, Walt is more evil than even he realizes.

As soon as Jeese ran out of the house after the call from Badger, by the way, I actually shouted "Idiots!" in disgust. That's the twisted thing about this show; I'm rooting for the friggin' criminals. From the viewer's vantage point, you think that it should have been obvious to Jesse that the heat was on him. But, aside from Walt's aborted phone call, how was he supposed to know?

There was an ingeniousness to how Vince Gilligan and company were able to close the loop, with the RV leading Hank to Combo's mom, which lead him to Jesse, which led to Marie reminding him that Jesse knew Walt. But it was also good that he opened the loop back up again; it was too soon for Hank and Walt to cross paths in this fashion. Walt's not done being evil yet.

Notice I didn't mention the very last scene just yet, with Gus telling the Cousins that the person they really want revenge on is Hank, not Walt. It's a clever move on Gus' part, because he wants Walt to keep cooking, and he pretty much knows he can outsmart the Cousins at the drop of a hat. The Cousins want blood-- as the cop in the cold open found out, they're not subtle when it comes to killing -- so Gus gave them someone. Which means that not only is Hank still after Walt and Jesse, but the Cousins are now after him. That's when the "J.H.C.!" came out of my mouth, as the layers keep on being added.

Some random thoughts:

-- Interesting how the intensity of the junkyard scene followed the relative mundanity of Walt in Gus' meth factory. He's got a fantastic assistant in Gale -- I want to try his coffee! -- and he brings a lunch bag with his name written across it, as if he still thinks it's going in the fridge in the teacher's lounge.

-- Where's Skyler's head at now with Walt? She still seems to be struggling not only with Walt agreeing to the divorce but the fact that she and Walt Jr. have technically been accessories all along, because as soon as Walt paid a bill with the meth money, they were implicated.

-- Saul's always good for comic relief, as we saw with the massage table he was on when Walt called him about the RV. But damn if he's not the most heinous person in the bunch. At least Jesse and Walt have some redeeming qualities; Saul's just oozes corruption.

Where this show succeeds is bringing out the complexities of the story without making things confusing. You can envision the Venn diagram of this show in your head, who is going after whom, and who knows what's going on. And, things are only going to get more complex from here.

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