A humming laptop struggles to life on a scotch-bonnet hot day.Free Download Video Breaking Bad Hazard Pay Episode On AMC Tv Online Tv Live Streaming Video. Online Watch Breaking Bad Full Episode Watch Stream HD Video on Internet TV.While the media player chugs in to life a glance at a window provides an instant snapshot of over-exposed bright blues, oranges and greens, one nice enough to be filed away in the self-pitying folder of the weary reviewer for the foreseeable future. He knows, though: tired, disheveled and disoriented by the tail-end of a ten-minute coffee comedown, there’s nothing for him out there. All the same, he can’t help but allow a fleeting look of longing to flash across his fuzzy, squinting face, even if the sunny scene makes it feel like it’s on the receiving end of a metaphorical slap: here, finally, is a grant of meteorological clemency after being sentenced to unrelenting sogginess without trial for two months, and he has an episode of Breaking Bad to review.Seriously, how do they do it? How are these ‘cold opens’ always so incredibly satisfying? Time and again, and as recently as last week, Breaking Bad will show a pre-credits so playfully weird and obtuse that the eventual credits splash comes as a relief, so you can finally turn to your BB companion and breathily say What. The. Hell.Lots of other shows have done this. Lost used to do it all the time, but they grew so overtly “dun-dun-DERRRRRRR!” in their execution that the effect was numbed a little as the show went on – also, there was never any guarantee that it would lead anywhere. With Breaking Bad, they just seem to be getting better and better. Messing with our heads and keeping us on our toes is certainly a good way of keeping the show fresh. Then again, it might be a trust thing - Vince Gilligan and co. have proven so adept at manoeuvring their way out of seemingly narrative dead ends and paying off their promises that by this point, most of us viewers would follow them anywhere.
Even to Germany, which is where we find ourselves at the beginning of Madrigal. Deep in the bowels of the titular corporation, a dead-eyed suit dips anonymous nuggets into and assortment of condiments, while a lab technician enthusiastically relays all of the kooky names they have come up with for the American market. Said suit is told the police are paying him a visit – when he sees that the ‘Los Pollos Hermanos’ logo is being disposed of and that the Polizei are poring over photos of him cosying up to Gus and he walks to the bathroom and commits suicide via defibrillator.
It’s an engrossing little self-contained movie, with the trademark Breaking Bad contrast between the mundane and the grotesque mined expertly for none-more-black humour, while the scene’s languorous pace serves to wring the maximum amount of suspense and tension out of its peculiar scenario.
Kudos must go to director Michelle McLaren, who regularly makes television episodes that look better that most movies – her episodes of Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead count as some of the most visually striking examples of the medium.
After this brilliant opening, the rest of the episode largely centers around the hard-bitten hero with a heart of gold: Mike. Confirming what I suggested in last week’s recap, Mike has no interest in dealing with a volatile element like Walt, so Madrigal is all about how Mike will be forced into coming back into the fold – he’s too good a character to just cast aside.
One of the brilliant things about Madrigal’s plotting is that Mike’s re-introduction isn’t a result of one of Walt’s increasingly complex and Machiavellian schemes – when Mike refuses Walt, Walt stand up, shakes his hand, and leaves. While it’s obvious that Walt isn’t going to give up on the World’s Greatest Drug Enforcer that easy, it seems that Walt knows either consciously or sub-consciously he doesn’t have to do anything to force him: for one thing, Walt is on a ridiculous roll right now, and his self-belief is such that he believes things will just gravitate towards him – hence his assertion that the missing ingredient of the meth puzzle, methylene, will show up if they just have faith, which of course it eventually does.
And so it proves, in this wonderful showcase for Jonathan Banks’ Mike, a truly great anti-heroic gun-for-hire in the mold of Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson. Mike is the definition of old-school – while a horrifyingly violent man by any standard he’s also got a strict code of ethics and a no-nonsense attitude.
It’s why we love him as a character, and it allows for some cracking noir set-pieces here, including his wonderful interrogation duel with Hank, another student of the old school, where they exchange probing grimly sardonic barbs (we also got a delicious tease of a potential Mike backstory episode here – please make this happen); and Mike’s weary, resigned execution of a fellow soldier that has betrayed him.
There’s also some wonderfully hard-boiled dialogue from Mike throughout, worthy of a Dashiell Hammett or James M Cain novel (“You are a time bomb, and I have no intention of being around for the boom” “I don’t know what movies you’ve been watching but in the real world we don’t kill 11 people as some kind of prophylactic measure”).
However, Mike’s commitment to the old school may prove to be his undoing. His decision to spare irritating go-between Lydia could be construed as a ‘half-measure’ – by not killing her and getting back into bed with Walt he is certainly going against his principles and instincts. Probably not as much as if he had killed her, though – we’ve seen throughout the series that Mike has a potential blind spot when it comes to young women (his own grand-daughter, and the woman in the memorable monologue he delivers in Half Measures), and it seems like he doesn’t have it in him to effectively destroy two women’s lives with one bullet.
Alternatively, maybe he realized that the faith he had in his men - the ones he personally selected for their fortitude - isn’t as strong as he thought it was, and they ultimately aren’t as invested in the same values of loyalty and stoicism that he is.
The sequence at Madrigal serves to not only enhance the breadth of the situation Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) and his array of Los Pollos Hermanos locations were involved in, but also to illustrate just how in the dark Walter White (Bryan Cranston) remains. With a major company like Madrigal somehow involved in (or facilitating) Fring’s meth dealings, the amount of interest from the legal side of things increases exponentially. That means Walter’s quest to succeed Gus in the Southwestern meth arena is likely going to run headlong into some very intrigued DEA agents.
While Walt rests comfortably in the ignorance of just how much the authorities know – thanks largely to his computer-wiping stunt from the premiere – his next step is to secure his partnership with Jesse (Aaron Paul). That means assuaging Jesse’s guilt over the lost ricin cigarette by searching his house with a fine-toothed comb, and then letting him find a planted, salt-filled duplicate in his Roomba’s collection bin. (The original vile of ricin being hidden away in Walt’s house for later use, no doubt.)
As much as the pieces of Los Pollos Hermanos and the meth ring are still being sifted through by the authorities, Walt also picks through the remnants of Fring, grabbing those elements that will help transition the fallen empire into the one he plans to see rise again. And with Jesse backing him wholeheartedly (being played into an overwhelming guilt for nearly killing Walt last season), the next thing on Walt’s to-do list is to recruit the reluctant Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) to essentially do what he does best, but for the guy who killed his former employer.
Lydia has it in her head that the world is crumbling down around her, and the only way out is through a sufficient amount of bloodshed. So she does what any nervous executive would do and lets the plan come to fruition, with the other guy hired to do the same job. After a suspicious call from Chow (James Ning), Mike heads over for what we assume will be a tête-à-tête about the hush money Chow was paid that’s now in the possession of the DEA. The thing about Mike is he’s already worked out that it’s a double-cross and makes his way inside through a clever use of a stuffed animal, elminating the guy who would be $30k richer for getting rid of the ol’ Ehrmantraut. That leads Mike back to Lydia, who – knowing she’s going to die – pleads with her killer not make her body disappear, preferring instead that her daughter find a corpse than believe she has been abandoned. Mike, not really excited about either possibility, offers Lydia a stay of execution, as long as she can still procure some methylamine for Walt’s upcoming shot at the title of meth king.