Man. Every character in Breaking Bad gives a little something new, a new angle that we hadn't seen before, or maybe just another thing that sticks in our minds. Give credit to actor Mark Margolis for his portrayal of Tio, a man who appears to be afflicted with ALS (what Stephen Hawking has), and is limited to a wheelchair. His only means of communication, given that he's poor and can't afford a voice synthesizer, is a single bell, with which to ding for other people's attention. That ding nearly got Walt and Pinkman killed.
Tio's "ding" didn't stick in my mind so much the day after as the image of the bell and his bony finger tapping it repeatedly while Tuco in the background fired off an assault rifle at a cow. I feel like I could paint a picture of that.
In "Grilled," Pinkman and Walt have been kidnapped by Tuco after No-Doze has gone missing--No-Doze was killed when his arm was caught at the junkyard between two stacked cars and he bled to death. But no one knows that, everyone thinks he's been murdered or disappeared because he's an informant.
After a gruesome fight between the three of them, it ends with Hank showing up at Tuco's hidden location and shooting Tuco in the face.
Each characters feelings were jostling and Pinkman's paranoia since the start of the series, from the first deals with Krazy 8 to buying the gun that he eventually hoped to shoot Tuco with, won outright. He and Walt indirectly got Tuco killed and burned yet another bridge in the process. Now Tuco and Gonzo and No-Doze are all dead and they have no means of dealing.
It sucks that Walt's only connection is a paranoid meth head and Walt doesn't see him for that. Pinkman's approach is all wrong. When he first came to Tuco, asking to help with distribution, he stood there, shoulders slumped, almost like he knew he was going to get the crap kicked out of him. Tuco told him he would take his product and then kicked the crap of him and ever since then, Tuco has pushed him around. Even in this episode, when Tuco finds out they tried to kill him, who does he go after first? Who does he point the gun at first? Who does he push to the ground? Who's arm does he slam in the trunk of the car car? And who does he respect after Walt stormed into his office and explodes the side of his building?
Pinkman's selfishness was a big part of this episode. Pinkman was more worried about himself than he was about both him and Walt, even asking Walt to sacrifice himself because he's already dying. Had Tuco been wrestling with Walt and Pinkman had the assault rifle, I wonder if Jesse would have run instead. I think the joy in Pinkman is that he's as scared for himself as we are for both of them. He's us in his situation. He's scared, rattled at times, constantly worrying that someone's going to kill him.
Such is the life of a dealer.
"Grilled" didn't have to end with Tuco getting killed (well, up until the point that Tuco found out that they were trying to kill him), but would any ending where Tuco wasn't killed have been a copout? I'm hoping that part of this series becomes their learning process; how to get into the drug culture and learning how to deal with psychos like Tuco as they go on—although, maybe murdering one is how to get respect from other ones.
For a show that usually covers its bases and solves problems swiftly, Breaking Bad has been flopping since the beginning (OK, well, it has only been 10 episodes) about how Walt and Pinkman are going to deal. They killed Crazy 8, then Pinkman's deals were too slow. They created a relationship with Tuco, albeit tumultuous, and it lasted only five episodes. Now that that's over, they're back to square one and without any leads. I thought having an extremely volatile relationship with Tuco would work well for at least the season, maybe culminating in his (or someone else's death) by the end, but that's out the window. And so what's next? Where do they go from here? We haven't even been introduced to any rivals of Tuco's or any other ways that they can get this done. And so the build up to this point is all for naught. It feels like we're starting the series over again.
We've seen the ups and downs, we've seen Walt's awesome and scary moments. I don't think there needs to be a calming period or anything, his life in the drug business can still be extremely volatile, but I want to see something where he finds his place in that business and I'm hoping that comes soon.
