As this episode was winding to a close, as Jesse and Todd were waiting for what seemed like an eternity for Walt to give the okay to unhook the hoses and jump off (or stay under) the train, I was starting to write this blog post in my head. I was thinking about how, while the train heist was fun and beautiful to watch and agonizingly slow in its full execution, it ultimately was part of a larger season in which not much has happened. After Gus’ death, there was bound to be a few episodes of explanation, of set up, of establishing the new ground rules after Walt blew the others into oblivion, but I was waiting for the old Breaking Bad, which had full episodes where you didn’t dare to look away, and barely dared to breathe because something terrible was about to happen (we just didn’t know what). As tense and heart-pounding as the train heist was, there wasn’t really a doubt in my mind that they would pull it off. The suspense was a testament to the filming and the pacing, not to the scenario itself.
And then the dirtbike kid shows up.
And Todd – eager-to-please Todd who apparently takes everything absolutely literally – waves, pulls out his gun, and shoots him. He doesn’t need permission from his bosses, because they’ve told him explicitly that “no one other than us can ever know that this robbery went down.” Todd’s just following orders, but, as Hank tells Walt at the beginning of the episode “Being the boss can be kind of a grind,” and it’s going to be up to Walt to figure out how to deal with this colossal fuck-up.
I think he’ll probably have to kill Todd now too. Yes, he proved himself to be a loyal henchman, but a loyal henchman with no foresight is a liability. I don’t think there was any reason to kill that kid. Let’s say he did go home and tell his parents – what would he have told them? He saw some guys working on the train tracks? He saw some people climb on a train when it stopped? And the people were three generic white men? Even if the parents told the cops, and the cops were able to find the spot where the robbery took place, presumably Walt and Co. would have removed the barrels and any evidence would have been gone. It would definitely have presented the problem of figuring out a new way to get the precursor, but that’s hardly insurmountable (as they’ve shown in the past). Plus, the kid telling his parents is a big “if.” He’s probably more interested in his spider than what some grownups are doing by the train, and who’s to say his parents even believe him/take it seriously if he does tell him?
Of course, there’s no time for Walt or Jesse or Mike to think about these different scenarios because Todd made the split second decision. All that they can do now is deal with the fallout. First, they’re going to have to get rid of the body, but even if they dissolve the kid (which they’re probably going to have to do, since you can’t exactly make bullet wounds look like a dirtbike accident), his disappearance will inevitably set off a search party to comb over every inch of desert. So that’s not good. On top of the practical fallout, Walt’s going to have to deal with Jesse’s emotions again. If Walt doesn’t kill Todd, it’s going to look like he tacitly approves of kid-killing, which is something that we’ve seen that Jesse will absolutely not stand for. With only 3 episodes left in this shortened season, I think we’ll finally see the rift between Walt and Jesse building again. Jesse might not make the connection between Dirtbike Kid and Brock, but he won’t be able to work with someone who shoots kids in cold blood. Mike will also have a difficult time working with Walt after this – not because he cares one way or another about the kid, but because of the complications it brings. It’s true that he’s the one who says “there are only two kinds of heists: those where the guys get away with it, and those that leave witnesses,” but I don’t think even Mike would have advocated killing the kid. Hell, as much as they’re making Walt into the new Jesse James this season (or is he the new Robert Ford?), I don’t think even those guys would have killed the kid.
The rest of the episode, even before the kid’s death was revealed, was a bit bland for me. Sure Walt has now bugged Hank’s office (thanks to some great acting and quick thinking), but it appears they only wanted to do that to find out if Lydia was telling the truth about not planting the GPS devices (turns out, those idiots in Houston planted them on all the barrels, thereby necessitating the train heist in the first place). Skyler’s also decided that she’ll be whoever Walt wants her to be as long as the kids stay at Hank and Marie’s, and Hank and Marie love having the kids (well, Holly anyway). The only other hiccup might be Walt Jr., who’s becoming more and more angsty as his forced exile drags on. His refusal to cede to Walt’s orders might prove to be problematic.
But, then again, we saw tonight that obeying Walt’s every command can also lead to death and destruction. No matter how much planning goes in to everything Walt does, he’s still in a dangerous business with moving parts and unpredictable people. He can’t control everything, he can only clean up the messes after the fact.
phdtv 