Bit by a Dead Bee
Directed by Terry McDonough
Air date: March 22, 2009
With Tuco dead, Walt and Jesse bury his guns and devise a plan to explain their conspicuous disappearances. Walt catches a ride on a pick-up truck, then, once he's back in Albuquerque, walks into a grocery store and starts stripping off his clothes until he is standing naked with a vacant look upon his face.
Walt is admitted into a hospital, where he is reunited with Skyler and Junior, claiming to be unable to recall the events of the last few days: he was suffering from a fugue state.
Meanwhile, Jesse sits in a car with Badger near his house, which is under police surveillance. Once the police leave, Jesse and Badger sneak in to collect Jesse's cooking supplies and RV and have them kept in storage at a lot owned by Badger's cousin, Clovis. Clovis states that his fee for towing Jesse's RV is a thousand dollars. Jesse is short, but promises to pay him back in full. With a vote of confidence from Badger, Clovis agrees to keep Jesse's RV at his lot. Afterwards, he tells Badger to call the police from a pay phone.
While Walt is kept at the hospital to ensure he doesn't suffer from another fugue state, Jesse rents out a room with Wendy at a motel. The police barge in and apprehend Jesse. Hank interrogates Jesse, stating that he knew he was connected to Tuco, but Jesse claims to have been staying at the motel with Wendy the entire weekend. Wendy, who recognizes Hank from when he introduced her to Junior and thought he was trying to solicit her services for him, corroborates Jesse's story, mainly to spite Hank.
Back at the hospital, Walt is informed by his doctor once more that he can't be released until they are certain he won't have another episode. Annoyed, Walt asks how long that could take, and the doctor informs him that they need to keep him under observation for at least some weeks, maybe even months to make sure. Walt, taking advantage of doctor-patient confidentiality, admits that he made up the fugue state, claiming that he just wanted time to himself, away from his family.
At the police station, Hank and Gomez bring in an eyewitness who could implicate Jesse: Hector Salamanca. Even though he was present when Tuco had Jesse and Walt detained, Hector, an old-school cartel big-shot, refuses to cooperate with the authorities, going so far as to soil himself to spite Hank. With nothing to tie Jesse definitively to Tuco, the DEA has no choice but to release him.
Jesse calls Walt at his hospital room to inform him that the DEA bought his story, but Hank had taken his money and car, leaving him flat broke. Walt asks if Jesse can retrieve the RV so they can resume their operations, but Jesse hesitates. Walt mulls over his finances, then remembers that he had some cash stashed away. He sneaks back to his house to confirm that his cash is still there before catching a bus back to the hospital.
Back at the DEA, after looking over video of a methylamine heist (not realizing Walt was involved) and theorizing that the thieves cooked the blue meth for Tuco, Hank attends a party held to congratulate him for bring down Tuco Salamanca. His colleagues present him with a gift: Tuco's "grill", preserved in a cube of lucite.
Walt is finally released from the hospital and allowed to return home. His relationship with Skyler becomes tense, however, when she questions him on whether he has a second phone. Walt just, still feigning confusion about the events of the weekend, denies that this is the case. He leans in to kiss Skyler, but she turns away...
This episode provides examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: After Walt lists off all of the stressful things in his life, capping off with the fact that he'll be dead in 18 months, Walt asks the doctor "you ask why I ran?".
- Battle Trophy: The DEA preserve Tuco's dental grill in lucite and give it to Hank as a reward for killing him.
- Be as Unhelpful as Possible: When brought into the station as a witness against Jesse following Tuco's death, Hector refuses to respond to any questions except those regarding the current location and date, and that was just to make sure he wasn't senile. He finishes his interrogation by shitting on the station floor. As Gomez points out, an "OG Latino gangbanger" would never help the feds.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Hector was pretty much ignored for most of the prior episode, being a speechless stroke victim in a wheelchair. This episode reveals that, not only are his mental faculties intact, he's also an elder in the drug cartel, and certainly not a man to be taken lightly.
- Comically Missing the Point: Marie seems more focused on the fact that Walt was naked in the store than the fact that he was found at all and is currently in the hospital.
- Confess to a Lesser Crime: When it becomes clear that the "fugue state" excuse will cause more problems than it solves, Walt confesses to his psychiatrist that he made it up, and instead claims that he was just sick of his family and left.
- Continuity Nod: Wendy recognizes Hank from when he took Walt Jr. to meet her thinking that he was smoking pot.
- Enemy Mine: Of a sort. Hector hates Jesse and Walt for their involvement in Tuco's death and attempted poisoning of him, but he hates the feds more, and so refuses to rat out Jesse. This also means that Jesse is free and outside prison for the rest of Hector's family to take cartel-style vengeance on him and Walt for Tuco.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Hector doesn't rat out Jesse despite disliking him, because an old-school cartel member knows better than to cooperate with the authorities.
- Excrement Statement: Hector shows his contempt for the DEA's attempt to get information out of him by loudly shitting his pants.
- Fan Disservice: Once again, Bryan Cranston shows some skin, this time going fully naked (albeit from the back).
- Gross-Up Close-Up: Tio expresses his disdain for the DEA by soiling himself. Loudly and wetly. The camera shows the aftermath dripping on the floor.
- Hidden Depths: Hank is reasonably convinced that Wendy is the type who'll fold like a cheap suit and give the lie to Jesse's bullshit story, but she surprises both him and the audience with her dependability, sticking to Jesse's script and even grilling Hank for their previous run-in.
- Naked Nutter: Exploited by Walt when he needs an alibi for his absence after being kidnapped by Tuco. Having managed to hitch a lift back into town, he wanders into a supermarket, stripping naked with a vacant stare, and passes it off as a days-long fugue state brought on by stress over his terminal illness.
- Nobody Poops: Averted with a vengeance by Hector, just to underline how uncooperative he's willing to be, despite his disabilities.
- Oh, Crap!: Walt tries to figure out how much cash he has on hand, then abruptly sits up as he remembers the huge pile of money left out in plain sight when Tuco kidnapped him.
- Playing Sick: Walt's "fugue state."
- Pun: After stripping naked in front of Skyler, Walt says he's going to the gas station and asks if she wants a "big gulp" or a "slim Jim".
- Pyrrhic Victory: Jesse manages to successfully get himself an alibi for his whereabouts during Tuco's murder, but he forgot to remove his drug money from his car, leaving him penniless and broke. At the same time, Walt manages to reunite with his family, but Skyler has grown suspicious of him because of his potentially having a secret second phone.
- Retired Monster: Hector is mentioned to have been in the business himself and even did prison time. The former detail becomes important in later seasons.
- Rule of Symbolism: The picture in Walt's hospital room is of a man leaving his family in a boat, resembling both his growing distance from them and his impending death.
- Shout-Out:
- Badger says Jesse is "Willy Wonka and I've got the Golden Ticket!" upon seeing the lab in Jesse's basement.
- The title is a reference to To Have And Have Not: "Say, was you ever stung by a dead bee?" It refers to how bee stingers still work after they're dead, like Tuco still causing problems.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Following the shootout in the previous episode, Hank's use of force is immediately investigated as part of standard procedure to determine if the shooting was justified. Since Tuco approached Hank in a blood-covered shirt and visibly disheveled, before opening fire on Hank unprovoked with an M4 carbine, it clearly was justifiable self-defense, but Hank is still forced to embellish the truth a bit so he can claim he followed correct police procedure.
- Going into a fugue state is a serious medical condition requiring a lot of attention, you can't just fake it as a Hand Wave for a disappearance and expect to be able to get away with it very easily.
- An old-school cartel member, even one in a physically weakened state, is hardly likely to co-operate with the authorities.
- Wham Line: Skyler asks Walt: "Do you have a second cell phone?"
