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Breaking Bad Season 1 Episode 6.1

Crazy Handful of Nothin'

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Episode Summary

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AIRED: 3/2/08

The side effects of chemo begin to plague Walt, who is also cooking meth again. Jesse's friend, Skinny Pete, introduces him to a distributor named Tuco, but things go awry and Jesse ends up hospitalised.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (12)

Bad physics and morrally objectionable.

7.5

By ronatola, Oct 22, 2011

I can't overlook the exploding mercury crystals. 1. From the blast of the explosion and fire that we see coming out of the windows - it tells us that realistically anyone withing 30 feet of that blast would have been killed. Yet the people at ground-zero and unharmed.

2. the first time the distributer is broght the crystal he smashes it up to snort it. He didn't do it this time, and would have died in an explosion if he did.

And morally speaking, I believe that putting one's pride ahead of ruining hundreds of lives is despicable. I lost respect for the character in this episode because now he has an option of taking the job with his ex-partner to get some $ to leave behind for his family and his treatment costs. But he puts his pride above that option and decides to cook meth and ruin lives.

I still love the twisted dark style of the show tho - and will continue to watch.

Where else can you see someone continually vomitting and see a chemo-tainted-pee action shot.moreless
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Walt is forced to take charge after Jesse has trouble with a new distributor.

9.5

By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Oct 22, 2011

Has there been anything more awesome in the show than Walt walking into Tuco's apartment with some Fulminated (?) mercury, asking him for 50,000 dollars and then blowing up the entire apartment when he doesn't follow through? Okay, maybe there has been, but I think this was the first time I was watching the show and thinking to myself, "Walter White is one of the best characters I've ever seen on television."

We get our first glimpse at Tuco, the absolutely insane distributor of meth in the South. Vince Gilligan and the writers do an incredible job of letting us slowly learn how crazy Tuco is. However, it's also nice to see the respect he has for Walt, who seems to be just as insane as Tuco, just in a different way. Also, we have a pretty great symbol of Walt's further descent into the criminal world: the shaving of his head. So far, three seasons into the show, the shaved head has remained and with good reason; it gives Walt the look that he has the ability to do anything at all. Also, this is our first glimpse at the Heisenberg identity. Heisenberg will become more prevalent in his life over time, but boy.. it was just amazing the way we were introduced here.

Unlike the previous two episodes, this episode had nothing in the way of filler. Every moment was great, and we even get some tense moments between Walt and Hank as over a poker game. Overall, everything was amazing and a great way to lead into the Season 1 finale.moreless
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Man, I like this show ...

10

By skidoo369, Apr 06, 2011

Breaking Bad is definitely the best show on TV since Dexter. Yep, it's that simple. I see it pretty much as a combination of 'The Riches' and 'Weeds', with some sparks of Californication (the very realistic atmosphere and camera shots), 3 of my favorites shows as well. It's brilliantly scripted and acted. This episode really impressed me, and man, the twist at the drug dealer's office was really stunning. I like how this show treats mid-life crisis( combined with cancer fight), a bit like Michael Douglas performance in 1993 movie "Falling Down". I'm 39 and sometimes feel the same and think I could easily cross the line.moreless
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Walter takes another step on the path of Chemistry-Fu and enters the ranks of the death-warrior. Metaphorically, of course.

10

By kreniigh, Dec 10, 2010

Wow. Best episode of any show I've seen this year!

It made me think of a quote from a Frank Miller comic called Ronin: "If you intend to die, you can do anything." There's something uniquely fascinating about a character who has lost the fear of death because he has accepted its inevitability; the far inferior movie "Falling Down" from 1993 gave us a similarly meek modern-day hero pushed past the point of fear into becoming an unstoppable force of nature.

Bryan Cranston's Walter is tremendously vulnerable and mortal but at the same time as frighteningly badass as any action hero... This show is what you'd get if Lifetime made a kung fu movie. Cancer drama meets Scarface. Sheer grim death-warrior determination plus Chemistry-Fu steamrollering over gangsta cliche. Beautiful stuff.

The writers' strike derailed a lot of shows this season, so it's early to be saying this, but I think Breaking Bad is my favorite this year. If AMC doesn't renew it, they're dumber than rocks.moreless
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9.5

By Canogaparkcindy, Oct 17, 2010

After watching the past few episodes, I was beginning to think that this show was losing it's way, it's edge, but this episode just proved me so very wrong. The premise of this show is just absolutely amazing and we got a lot of plot elements here that helped the episode. Hank, Walt's brother in law, a DEA, starts to become suspicious of Walt's school when he finds out where the mask came from. Walt has to walk around eggshells, man, you can cut the tension with a knife when they were playing poker.

Meanwhile Walt continues with his chemotherapy and loses all his hair, he wants to continue cooking meth while Jesse sells. Once he gets beaten by a distributor, Tuco, Walt decides to take things in his own hands even though he didn't want to .

I think this episode showed Walt's true care for Jesse, and their interactions were amazing. The ensemble of this show is just amazing, terrific acting. The beginning of this episode was perfection, from cutting back and forth to the end of the episode.

The explosion was quite a surprise and when Walt went to go see Tuco, I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. This episode just proves what an amazing drama this show really is. A great penultimate episode, keep it coming Breaking Bad!moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

Bryan Cranston	Walter White
Anna Gunn	Skyler White
Aaron Paul	Jesse Pinkman
Dean Norris	Hank Schrader
Betsy Brandt	Marie Schrader
RJ Mitte	Walter White Jr.

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Pierre Barrera	Hugo Archilleya	Guest Star
Jesus Payan	No-Doze	Guest Star
Vivian Nesbitt	Mrs. Pope	Guest Star
Charles Baker	Skinny Pete	Recurring Role
Raymond Cruz	Tuco Salamanca	Recurring Role
Steven Michael Quezada	Steven Gomez	Recurring Role

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) was a German physicist who is best known for his uncertainty principle in quantum theory. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle states that certain pairs of physical properties, like position and momentum, cannot both be known to arbitrary precision. That is, the more precisely one property is known, the less precisely the other can be known. This is, perhaps, a metaphor for Walt. The more we see the bad Walt, the less we know about the good Walt.
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- Walt says he used mercury fulminate as a decoy for meth in this episode. However, several sources report that mercury fulminate is highly explosive and agitating it as seen when Walt gets frisked and when Tuco is opening the bag with his knife would have most certainly set it off.
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QUOTES (6)
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- Tuco: What's your name?
  Walt: Heisenberg.
  Tuco: Have a seat Heisenberg.
  Walt: I don't imagine I'll be here very long.
  Tuco: No, al'ght. It's your meeting. Why don't you start talking and tell me what you want.
  Walt: $50,000.
  Tuco: (Laughs) 50 g's! How do you figure that?
  Walt: 35 for the pound of meth you stole and 15 for my partner's pain and suffering.
  Tuco: Oh yeah. I remember that little bitch. So you must be daddy. Let me get this straight. I steal your dope, I beat the piss out of your mule boy, and you bring me more meth? That's brilliant.
  Walt: You got one part of that wrong. This is not meth. (Throws a piece to the opposite side of the room. An explosion blows out the windows on the second floor, glass shattering down to the street).
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- Tuco: (Sampling the meth) Woo, this kicks like a mule with his balls wrapped with duct tape. Where'd you get it.
  Jesse: I cooked it.
  Tuco: Bullshit. Who you working for.
  Jesse: No one. I have a partner I cook with but that's it.
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- (Heading over to Tuco's "headoffice")
  Jesse: Are you sure you're tight with this guy?
  Skinny Pete: Two nuts in a ballsac, bro!
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- Walt: What we need is a distributor. Do you know anybody like that?
  Jesse: Yeah… I mean until you killed him.
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- Jesse: Hey man I've been out there all night moving crystal. You think it's cake moving it out a bit at a time.
  Walt: So why are you selling it in such small quantities. Why don't you just sell the whole pound at once.
  Jesse: To who? What do I look like, Scarface?...
  Walt: … I thought you'd be ready for another pound today.
  Jesse: You may know a lot about chemistry man but you don't know jack about slinging dope.
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- Jesse: When were you going to tell me?
  Walt: Tell you what.
  Jesse: Cancer. You got it right?
  Walt: How did you know?
  Jesse: My aunt had one of those dots on her…(Points to Walt's chest) to target the radiation. I'm your partner man, you should have told me. What stage are you in?
  Walt: 3A.
  Jesse: It got into your lymph nodes…
  Walt: Your aunt, how bad was she when they caught it?
  Jesse: Pretty bad, she didn't last long.
  Walt: How long?
  Jesse: Seven months. I get it now, all of this. You wanna make some cash for your people before you cash out.
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NOTES (2)
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Czech Republic: February 18, 2011 on Nova Cinema
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- Featured Music:
  
  "Scoobidoo Love" by Paul Rothman
  "Good Times" by That Click Gang
  "Te Rompo" by Max One
  "Suntan Lotion" by Bernie Leadon
  "Los Pistoleros" by Jonaty Garcia
  "Catch Yer Own Train" by The Silver Seas
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Jesse: What do I look like, Scarface?
  
  Jesse, arguing that he cannot sell off large quantities of meth, makes reference to Scarface (1983), in which Al Pacino starred as Tony Montana - a man from Cuba who became the biggest drug trafficker in Miami.
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