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canyonwalkerThe season finale of Breaking Bad's season 4 was an epic episode. It was full of drama, tension, suspense, action, and— most importantly— plot resolution.
Several episode back main character Walt decided he'd have to kill drug lord Gus, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Walt had crossed Gus too many times (even once was too many) and figured out, accurately, that Gus would kill him as soon as he could do so without jeopardizing his business. Now, Gus is a stone-cold killer, so you know that as a matter of narrative art, Gus's death at Walt's hands would have to be dramatic.
Walt, the chemistry wiz, builds a pipe bomb in his kitchen. He conspires with Jesse to lure Gus into a face-to-face meeting and places the bomb under Gus's car while Gus is in the meeting. Gus somehow senses that something is amiss when he returns to his car, pauses to look around, and leaves the area before getting within 50' of the car.
BTW, while this scene makes for great tension, it seems too artificial that Gus sensed something wrong. Did Walt screw up and leave a clue? The episode does not show that he did. This tension would have been better if it were revealed that there was something there there, instead it just being Gus getting a magical spidey sense tingling.
The failure of bombing Gus's car leads Walt to an even more dastardly plan. He finds out that Hector Salamanca, a former drug cartel capo, is in a nursing home in town and that Gus goes to visit him occasionally... to taunt him, as the two men are enemies. Hector is no friend of Walt's, as he considers Walt to have betrayed his nephew, resulting in his death. But Walt figures that Hector hates Gus even more, as Gus orchestrated the deaths of everyone in his family. Walt approaches Hector with a murder-suicide offer, and Hector agrees.
To bait Gus into coming to the nursing home in person again, Hector puts on a show of becoming a DEA informant. He comically wastes the DEA's time, but Gus doesn't know that; al he knows is that Hector appears to have turned into a cooperating witness. Gus decides he will kill Hector, personally. And the trap is set!
Walt has wired the pipe bomb to Hector's wheelchair. Hector can trigger it by ringing the bell on the chair's arm. Recall that Hector, survivor of a major stroke, cannot talk and instead uses the bell to communicate. It's been his character signature across multiple seasons as surely as Homer Simpson's "D'oh!"
Hector stares down Gus and his henchman as they come to kill him via fatal injection. He starts ringing the bell as Gus steps close. Instead of ringing loudly and clearly, though, the bell's sound is muffled— presumably because the ringer has been replaced with an electric switch to trigger the detonator. Gus can tell that something's wrong, but it's too late. BOOM! 💥
The camera cuts to a view from outside the room. BOOM! The door explodes outward. And... Gus saunters out! It's like, "OMG, did he somehow survive??" But then the camera pans around to his other side, showing that half his face has been blown off by the explosion.
Gus, ever the stone-cold killer, straightens his tie one last time before he falls to the floor, dead.
Several episode back main character Walt decided he'd have to kill drug lord Gus, played by Giancarlo Esposito. Walt had crossed Gus too many times (even once was too many) and figured out, accurately, that Gus would kill him as soon as he could do so without jeopardizing his business. Now, Gus is a stone-cold killer, so you know that as a matter of narrative art, Gus's death at Walt's hands would have to be dramatic.
Walt, the chemistry wiz, builds a pipe bomb in his kitchen. He conspires with Jesse to lure Gus into a face-to-face meeting and places the bomb under Gus's car while Gus is in the meeting. Gus somehow senses that something is amiss when he returns to his car, pauses to look around, and leaves the area before getting within 50' of the car.
BTW, while this scene makes for great tension, it seems too artificial that Gus sensed something wrong. Did Walt screw up and leave a clue? The episode does not show that he did. This tension would have been better if it were revealed that there was something there there, instead it just being Gus getting a magical spidey sense tingling.
The failure of bombing Gus's car leads Walt to an even more dastardly plan. He finds out that Hector Salamanca, a former drug cartel capo, is in a nursing home in town and that Gus goes to visit him occasionally... to taunt him, as the two men are enemies. Hector is no friend of Walt's, as he considers Walt to have betrayed his nephew, resulting in his death. But Walt figures that Hector hates Gus even more, as Gus orchestrated the deaths of everyone in his family. Walt approaches Hector with a murder-suicide offer, and Hector agrees.
To bait Gus into coming to the nursing home in person again, Hector puts on a show of becoming a DEA informant. He comically wastes the DEA's time, but Gus doesn't know that; al he knows is that Hector appears to have turned into a cooperating witness. Gus decides he will kill Hector, personally. And the trap is set!
Walt has wired the pipe bomb to Hector's wheelchair. Hector can trigger it by ringing the bell on the chair's arm. Recall that Hector, survivor of a major stroke, cannot talk and instead uses the bell to communicate. It's been his character signature across multiple seasons as surely as Homer Simpson's "D'oh!"
Hector stares down Gus and his henchman as they come to kill him via fatal injection. He starts ringing the bell as Gus steps close. Instead of ringing loudly and clearly, though, the bell's sound is muffled— presumably because the ringer has been replaced with an electric switch to trigger the detonator. Gus can tell that something's wrong, but it's too late. BOOM! 💥
The camera cuts to a view from outside the room. BOOM! The door explodes outward. And... Gus saunters out! It's like, "OMG, did he somehow survive??" But then the camera pans around to his other side, showing that half his face has been blown off by the explosion.
Gus, ever the stone-cold killer, straightens his tie one last time before he falls to the floor, dead.
