Breaking Bad Season 5 Episode 12 Recap: Old Yeller and the Rabid Dog

Another week down for Breaking Bad and this time we start to wonder if Jesse really is the catalyst that will bring Walt down?

By Curt Heinrichs — Staff Writer

It’s Labor Day weekend in Cleveland (and presumably most other places in the US), which means college football kicks off, Oktoberfests are aplenty, and I have my Fantasy Football draft. More importantly, it’s yet another episode of Breaking Bad.

The episode begins with Walt returning home to find Saul’s car askew in Walt’s driveway. He knows that Jesse is in the house and is cutting the corners like a SWAT team would. Apparently Walt has seen as many action flicks as I have. After searching the home, Walt finds a discarded gas can in the middle of the floor and leaves the home. He finds a DVD covered with drugs in the front seat of Saul’s Cadillac.

Walt has a company clean his home and remove the gas as well as replace the doors. He enlists Saul’s goons to keep an eye on Walt Jr. and Skyler at the car wash to protect them from Jesse. When told the carpets can’t ever be fully rid of the gasoline smell, Walt douses his clothes and car seat in gas as well. In an elaborate ruse to pull the wool over Skyler’s eyes, Walt invents a pump malfunction at the gas station. Walt Jr. asks his dad to tell the truth, thinking Walt fainted from the fumes due to his cancer returning. Walt decides to put the family up in a hotel rather than Flynn’s suggestion of staying at Hank and Marie’s house.

Walt meets with Saul and Kuby (Bill Burr) to try and track down Jesse. Saul presents a plan to “Old Yeller” Jesse in which Old Yeller was loyal then got rabies and had to, in Saul’s words, “you know, you saw the movie.” Walt waves off the plan and tells Saul never to bring up that suggestion again.

Skyler calls for Walt to cut to the chase. She saw through the “pump malfunction” story and tells Walt to come clean. Walt explains that Jesse put the gas in their home but changed his mind before he could ignite the home. Walt explains that they’re trying to track Jesse down to talk to him and make him see reason. Of course, Skyler doesn’t take Walt’s side and implies that Walt should “deal with the situation.” Walt remembers Jesse as a person and not some rabid dog (a nice reference to Saul’s “Old Yeller” metaphor), but Skyler won’t hear it. She wants Walt to deal with any and all threats to the family.

We see a flashback of Jesse dumping the gas around Casa de White and just when he’s about to light the gas, Hank stops him and convinces Jesse to talk about Walt. Jesse gets in Hank’s car and off they go. Just as Hank pulls out of the driveway, Walt’s car appears at the end of the street. So close!

Marie is in therapy, talking to her shrink about keeping secrets of someone close to her. The shrink presses her for details on her secrets, but Marie resists. She calls herself “an idiotic, stupid idiot,” which I think applies to a woman who stole a diamond tiara for a baby gift. Marie whispers to herself some sort of toxin that can cause paralysis and says it’s clearly an option.

Upon returning home, Marie finds that Hank has packed her bags and wants her out of the house for a few days. He comes clean and tells her that Jesse is staying there as a way to break the Walt case while keeping Jesse off of the grid.

Hank hears a voicemail on Jesse’s phone from Walt while Jesse is passed out from sleeping pills. In the voicemail, Walt implores Jesse to stay safe and sleep it off.

Walt and Walt Jr. share a moment by the hotel pool in which Walt tells his son that it’ll take more than lung cancer to finish him off (foreshadowing?).

Marie is serving Jesse coffee in a DEA coffee cup while Hank and Agent Gomez expect Jesse to record a confession about Walt. Jesse starts to spill his guts, but seems conflicted about the entire situation. Gomez and Hank are discussing what they heard and stated that they don’t have much hard evidence on which to nail Walt. No bodies, no lab, no evidence. Hank plays the voicemail for Jesse, in which Walt tells him that he’s going to be at a specific location. Hank wants to bug Jesse and try to get Walt to implicate himself. Jesse tells Hank that Walt is the devil and that he’s always 2 moves ahead. Jesse smells a trap and he feels that Hank is sacrificing him to drag Walt down.

Apparently Hank gets his way and Jesse is bugged for the meet with Walt. A paranoid Jesse walks to the meeting place, where he seems to want to jump out of his skin. Jesse is hesitant to talk to Walt and takes off after getting within a few yards of Walt. Jesse bolts to a payphone, where he calls Walt and tells him “nice try.” Jesse tells him that instead of burning down Walt’s house, he’s going to get Walt where he really lives. Jesse meets back up with Hank and tells Hank that there’s a better way to get at Walt.

Walt returns to his car where he makes a phone call to Todd. Walt tells him that he may have another job for Todd’s Uncle Jack. Was his previous job for Todd’s uncle shooting up the underground meth lab?

Thanks again for reading my recap of Breaking Bad. If you’ve got any new theories as to how the show ends, let me know in the comments.