Line #20 Recap/BreakingBadS1E4CancerMan


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3	'''Season 1, Episode 4:'''
4	!Cancer Man
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cancer_man.jpg]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:[[EvilIsPetty Ken loses.]]]]
7	->Written by Creator/VinceGilligan\
8	Directed by Creator/JimMcKay\
9	Air date: February 17, 2008
10
11	->''"So be on notice. We got new players in town. We don't know who they are, where they come from, but they possess an extremely high skill-set. Me personally? I'm thinking Albuquerque just might have a new kingpin."''
12	-->--'''Hank Schrader'''
13
14	Walt, Hank, Skyler, Marie, and Walt Junior enjoy a family barbecue. The fun times are interrupted when Skyler bursts into tears, and Walt reluctantly reveals to everyone the secret he had been hiding: he has cancer.
15
16	Meanwhile, Jesse brags to his friends Combo and Skinny Pete about the meth he had cooked up. He shares some samples with them and enjoys some, himself, but suffers a hallucination that causes him to see a pair of Mormon missionaries as bikers come to kill him, compelling him to flee in a hurry.
17
18	Skyler arranges to have Walt visit an oncologist to have his cancer treated. The price of the visit gives Walt pause, but he agrees to borrow money from his pension to pay for the visit. As he gathers some of the money he hid away in the AC vent of the baby's room, Junior sees him. Walt deflects suspicion by claiming he was looking for mice, Junior asks him "What the hell is wrong with you?!", disturbed by his nonchalance in the face of cancer.
19
20	Walt goes to the bank the next day. After having his parking space taken by a blowhard named Ken and waiting in line as Ken bragged loudly into his Bluetooth headset, he gives the bank teller a wad of cash and asks to have a cashier's check made out to the oncology office.
21
22	Elsewhere, Jesse is caught trying to sneak back into his parents' home. Jesse's mother and father debate whether to let him stay, worried about whether he was still using and what influence he would have on his younger brother, an honor student named Jake. Jesse tries awkwardly to reconnect with Jake before going back to his old room and looking back on drawings he made when he was in high school, including a doodle he made mocking Walt on the back of a test he had failed.
23
24	The next day, Jesse meets an angry Walt at the latter's house. Jesse tries to convince Walt to make more meth, but Walt is adamantly against a repeat performance of their last debacle. In a huff, Jesse gives Walt his share of the batch they had sold: $4,000.
25
26	As Walt meets with the oncologist to discuss possible treatment for his cancer, Jesse returns back to his parents' house, only to learn that they had found a joint of weed in his room and are kicking him out. In truth, the weed was Jake's. Jake thanks Jesse for covering for him, and asks for the joint back, but Jesse disposes of it, claiming that it was "skunk-weed".
27
28	When Walt returns home, he and Skyler debate the treatment the oncologist offered. At $90,000 dollars, Walt is reluctant to commit to treatment that, with his cancer being so advanced, is a long-shot. Junior, overhearing the conversation, interjects, saying "Why don't you just fucking die, already?"
29
30	Some time after, Walt is driving to a gas station when he encounters Ken again. Holding a grudge against the blowhard for earlier, he pops the hood of Ken's convertible, lays a wet squeegee on the battery's terminals, and walks away with a smug satisfaction as the car catches fire and explodes.
31	----
32	!!This episode provides examples of:
33	* AssholeVictim: Walt blowing up someone's car would be morally reprehensible if the victim wasn't Ken, an obnoxious and odious stock broker, who engages in behavior like cutting off someone to steal their parking spot, having loud, inappropriate, and sexist conversations in his earpiece, and yelling at an old lady to move faster to get out of his way.
34	* BigBrotherInstinct: This is the first episode to show one of Jesse's most consistently noble traits; he hates seeing children getting in trouble and helps them whenever he can. His parents accuse Jesse of relapsing because of weed joint hidden in the house. It was actually Jesse's brother's weed, but Jesse keeps quiet and lets himself get kicked out of the house so Jake won't get in trouble. Then he stomps on the joint to discourage Jake from getting into drugs.
35	* BloodFromTheMouth: When Walt is pulling up to a gas station at the end, he has another coughing fit at the wheel and is dismayed to see specks of blood in his hand this time.
36	* CuttingBackToReality: A paranoid and hopelessly methed-up Jesse Pinkman flees through the back yard after seeing two menacing-looking bikers approaching his house with machetes and grenades. A cut to outside the house reveals that they were just Mormon missionaries.
37	* DisproportionateRetribution: Walt setting the yuppie's car on fire just for stealing his parking spot (and being a jerk) does seem a bit extreme (and dangerous as well, as he does it while the car is parked at a gas pump).
38	* EveryCarIsAPinto: Walt's shorting out the battery on Ken's car doesn't just cause it to catch fire, it causes it to explode spectacularly.
39	* {{Foreshadowing}}: Walter Jr. tells his father, dismissing his fatalist attitude, "Why don't you just fucking die already!?"
40	* HiddenDepths: Jesse made some really good drawings when he was younger.
41	* HiddenWire: Walt accuses Jesse of wearing one when he shows up at the White household. Jesse looks appropriately confused and outraged and angrily denies it.
42	* InnocentlyInsensitive: After learning about Walt’s cancer, Hank promises him that should the worst come about, he wants Walt to know that he’ll always take care of his family. It’s meant to be a kind gesture, but it clearly hits Walt’s pride right in the throat.
43	* InspirationalInsult: Jesse finds an old test paper marked by Walt, on which he's written, "Ridiculous - apply yourself." Jesse takes the advice and applies himself to making meth.
44	* InternalReveal: After the indication that he finally told Skyler after the last episode ends, Walt comes clean and reveals to his whole family that he has cancer. None of them take it lightly.
45	* {{Irony}}: In the opening scene, it's revealed that Krazy-8 was the one who ratted his cousin Emilio out to the DEA. In the first episode, Emilio blamed Jesse for ratting him out and Krazy-8 went along with it (likely to place the blame on an easy target). This eventually led to the death of both of them.
46	* {{Jerkass}}: Ken, the smarmy stock broker Walt keeps encountering who steals parking spaces and has loud inappropriate conversations on his headset.
47	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jesse [[TakingTheHeat takes the blame]] for Jake's weed. Then he crushes it with his foot.
48	* LamePunReaction: Hank tries to name the new DEA investigation "Icebreaker." Gomez points out that it's a breath mint.
49	* NotSoAboveItAll: Jake Pinkman on the surface is a polite straight-edged child prodigy who excels in school and extracurricular activities and is thought highly of by his parents. But he also has been sneaking weed into the house, not unlike his older brother when he used to live with them.
50	* ParkingPayback: Walt circles a parking lot in order to cash a check at the credit union for his cancer treatment. When one finally becomes available, he is about to pull in to it when a red BMW with the license plate "KEN WINS" races into the spot before him. Walt rages indignantly, but the suit wearing driver ignores him completely while obnoxiously talking into his headset. When Walt finally finds a spot, he walks into the bank only to find "Ken" there, still loudly yakking on his phone, to the intense annoyance of everyone there. Later in the same episode, Walt sees the same car parked outside a gas station. He shoves a wet squeegee in between the battery terminals of the BMW and nonchalantly walks away while the car bursts into flames.
51	* PayEvilUntoEvil: Walt blows up Ken's car with a squeegee.
52	* SideEffectsInclude: The oncologist only explains the side effects of the treatment after asked and, at first, is very vague. He then starts with the more moderate side-effects (loss of hair, loss of appetite), and as he progresses through the more drastic ones, Walter is on the verge of a HeroicBSOD.
53	* TheUnfavorite: Jesse feels this way compared to his overachieving younger brother Jake. Jake feels the same way: according to him, Jesse is all their parents ever talk about.
54	* UnflinchingWalk: Walt pulls one of these when he loses his patience with Ken and puts a squeegee on his car battery, shorting it out. At first the viewer is amazed at how much White's morals have slipped as he walks away, AND THEN THE CAR EXPLODES. Mr. White, of course, does not flinch.
55	* VanityLicensePlate: "KEN WINS"
56	* WhatTheHellHero: Walt's whole family is heartbroken and angry that he's been hiding his cancer diagnosis, questioning why'd he even hide it in the first place.
57	----

Context Recap / BreakingBadS1E4CancerMan