Face Off

Season 4, Episode 13, Aired
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A showdown with Gus occurs but Jesse is held under suspicion that he has poisoned Brock. However, Jesse is able to suggest an ally for Walt through Saul's help.

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Fan Episode Reviews (25)

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  • Show of all time.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Dannyboy888, Mar 03, 2012
    Middle world of Walter's chemistry. Very good final of the season and all series. Death of Gus brillient, Jessie bring the peace to the galaxy. I will be missed of this great show. This episode shows should looks like end of TV series. All plot was resolved.

  • The evolution of Walt is complete

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Semyaza, Jan 26, 2012
    Gus Fring is dead. Long live Gus Fring!

    A truly amazing season finale! I can't wait for the remaining seasons.

    It is interesting to contrast the evolution of Walt and Jesse. Jesse originally came off as the badass drug dealer. However, the path that he has chosen (or, rather, that Walt has chosen for him) is taking its toll. Losing his girlfriend to a heroin overdose (which was fully preventable by Walt, let's not forget) nearly broke him. The scene in which he dialed her phone over and over just to hear her voice on the answering machine was heartbreaking. And then, having to kill Gayle seemed to push him over the edge - he develops a full-blown case of PTSD which still seems to haunt him.

    Walt, on the other hand, started out as a mild-mannered schoolteacher, the kind who would literally not be able to hurt a fly. His first killing (in self-defense) was awkward and amateurish. But it didn't end there. By the end of the fourth season, he is an accomplished killer. Note how he kills Jesse's guard without even a second thought. It seems that the more his body count rises, the less remorse he feels.

    Gus is now dead and gone (in a rather spectacular manner) - but it doesn't matter. For all intents and purposes, Walt has subsumed Gus and become the embodiment of ruthlessness, amorality and yes, true evil, that Gus possessed.

    Here's hoping that Walt finds some measure of redemption, and regains his humanity before "Heisenberg" corrupts him forever.moreless

  • Wow, TV at its best

    10
    "Perfect"
    By smhasnb, Jan 09, 2012
    This was the year of Breaking Bad. Previously living under the shadows of Mad Men, Breaking Bad took full advantage of M.M creator's salary dispute with AMC. It had been picking pace since season 2, and hit its peak this year. Season started with double barrel bangs in the premier and maintained the thrill through its 13 episodes. Walter White and Jesse Pinkman were the show runners for 3 previous seasons, but this year Gustavo Fring, Gus, made his mark as the most elegant and outstanding character in a cast of extremely talented characters/actors. Season 4 raised B.B from a very good TV Show to just about the league of The Wire and The Sopranos (Please tell me you've seen one of these at least). The penultimate episode of the show was the finest piece of art that ever blessed our TV/Computer screens. It was a battle between Walter and Gus in which Jesse was being used as a pawn. Both of the big shots knew that the town was big enough for only one of them and one of them had to go for good. Walter displayed his evil side which he had previously hinted at in the final scene of the episode. It confirmed that Walter had gone to the depths of poisoning a young boy to turn Jesse against Gus. Walter finally got his way and got one over Gus. He used every trick in the book and manipulated every character on the show to kill Gus. The one that finally worked was an unusual person, Tio Salamanca, the disabled rival of Gus. Walter crafted a master plan to kill Gus and it was beautifully picturized as well by the director. The scene when Gus dies, was one of the best scenes of all times in my opinion. It was quite literally (not metaphorically) jaw dropping.
    For more reviews please see my blog 'T.V et al' at
    http://syedhamzaali.tumblr.com
    moreless

  • The accumulated changes in Walter White bear fruit (actually, little berries). [SPOILERS]

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Bob_Scrivens, Nov 26, 2011
    The showdown between Walter and Gus takes center stage for this story, and just one or two subplots manage to nose their way in. The resolution of the season-long conflict was mostly satisfying. Mostly.
    First, a fond farewell to Giancarlo Esposito, whose dead-eyed Gus Fring will be missed. The show has done a good job of giving us progressively better villains -- from Krazy-8 to Tuco to the cousins to Gus -- and Mr. Esposito will be a hard act to follow. (Hey, we may well get more ... the many dead characters on this show tend to have flashback-related half-lives.) Season 5 will have some big shoes to fill coming up with a new villain. And they'll have a hard time topping the lastest in a series of over-the-top deaths. Thumbs-up for not relying entirely on the CGI to carry that scene; little touches like Gus straightening his tie (which I buy) and the shocked reaction from the nurses who know this patient is beyond help ... such touches make the scene.
    Jesse Pinkman didn't have a whole lot to do this episode: just some adroit cat-and-mouse with police detectives followed by playing the damsel-in-distress at the superlab. (Ironically, having proven that he can cook nearly as well as Walter, he was treated to the very fate that Walter had avoided, twice: being essentially a prisoner/slave of drug lords.) He got a happy ending with his nearly-family, which I didn't see coming.
    The family at Camp Schrader ... well, they might as well have had the week off for all the impact they had on the story.
    So that leaves Walter as the almost full focus of the episode, following a plan of action he formed an episode back when his spinning pistol pointed to the Lily of the Valley potted plant, and continuing a character transformation that began in that same exact spot, tossing lit matches into his pool before resolving to cook methamphetamine. (What IS it about that pool?) His list of crimes now includes sending the nice neighbor lady into harm's way to see if he could enter his house safely, bombing an old folk's home, and killing two henchmen in cold blood. Oh, and poisoning a child to manipulate his estranged partner.
    Wait, what was that? Yeah, it looks like he poisoned Brock. How, exactly? When did he get the opportunity? And HOW did he get that ricin cigarette away from Jesse? Did Saul Goodman's goon swap packs with Jesse during his patdown? (Looking at it frame-by-frame, no, he didn't.) And if so, then that means that Saul and Walter conspired in it ... so how come Walter has to go to such lengths to track down Saul early in the episode? There are holes here; I doubt they'll be filled, but, rather, papered-over early in Season 5.
    Unusually, things feel mostly resolved at the end of this season. There's no dangerous villain, no impending death, no exploding planes ... no immediate crisis of any sort. The story could move in many directions. It seems unlikely that Walter will retire (he tried that before in Season 2's "Over," and it didn't take). Once again, the field is clear for expansion of the business (with Gus AND the bulk of the Cartel dead). But the nature here is different from previous stories; in the deaths of Emilio, Krazy-8 and Tuco, Walter and Jesse essentially bumbled their way into success. This time, the take-down is big, the execution was cold-blooded calculation, and the hole in the local drug trade is bigger than ever. There are repurcussions coming -- locally from the DEA, and from the remaining Cartels in Mexico ... and Mike, who Jesse says is "gonne be pissed" -- but Walter has grown to the point that he is up to the challenge.
    And that's Walter, as in Walter alone. Previously, he had relied on his Heisenberg persona to do his dirty work. Not now. At the end of the episode, Walter calls Skyler and tells her that all is well with a two-word phrase: "I won." Walter White and Heisenberg are two very distinct characters as played by Bryan Cranston, and I honestly cannot discern, in that final line, which character said those words. The two have become one. Metastasization complete.moreless

  • Breaking Bad meets The Walking Dead!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By avatarsucks99, Nov 26, 2011
    Well once again Vince Gilligan did it again, made the show better then anything ontelevision. First i would like to say that this episode was the best Breaking Bad episode ever. Now that i got that out of my system, i have to talk about the episode. This episode was perfect because anything could happen, the way that Vince Gilligan set this episode up got everybody talking. Only one of mypredictioncame true was that Waltpoisoned Brock, my other twopredictionswas that Mike kills Gus and Jesse finds out that Waltpoisoned Brock. Now whathappened to each character, Walt was still trying to protect his family, except this time death was closer then ever. Walt has changed since the first episode, in this episode we see Walt (spoileralert)poisoned a child and risked his neighbor and the residents of the theretirementhome life. Jesse had an interestingstory linethis episode, Jesse was beinginterrogated by the FBI for being a suspect ofpoisoning Brock. A thought "couldJessego to prison?" "plot of season 5?". The final character i will talk about is Gus, (If youhaven'tseen this episode yet, whats wrong with you, and stop reading because i will mention a big spoiler) Gus finally got what was coming to him, that final scene with Gus was awesome, when he walked out of the room i was jumping out of my seat "can anything kill this man" i was thinking until the scene progressed and you see his face "HOLY S@#$". this episode proved to the world why this show will berememberedforever, its to bad Gus will absent for season 5, but idon'tthink that will be the last time we will see or hear about Gustavo Fring.moreless
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  • TRIVIA (7)

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    • For the burning of the lab, the crew rented a technocrane that is apparently very expensive because it can be controlled remotely. The crew put down water over everything that was going to be burned and then added white gas. This provided a fire but not necessarily damage to the set, which was made of wood and paneling.

    • The title of this episode came as the suggestion from AMC's Vice President of Production, Susan Goldberg, probably as a joke, but Vince actually went with it.

    • One of the writers pitched this line for Jesse at the end of the episode: "Mike is going to be pissed!" But it did not make it into the script.

    • In the episode podcast, Vince admitted that they were thinking of a "ding-boom" (a bomb connected to Tio's bell) between Tio and Gus since the middle of Season 3. But the writing team objected since they didn't want to kill off Gus in season 3.

    • Vince Gilligan felt guilty about the season finale synopsis, known several weeks in advance while in the writing stage. He phoned Giancarlo Esposito and Mark Margolis in advance and swore them to secrecy. In an interview, Vince said he had felt like he let Giancarlo down, but Giancarlo took the news in stride, saying whatever was necessary for the story was good enough for him.

    • In an interview with the New York Times, Vince admitted that there was help from The Walking Dead special effects' staff for the explosion scene.

    • The friendly neighbor that checked in on Walt's house to prevent a 'fire hazard' is actually Vince Gilligan's mom.

  • QUOTES (3)

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  • NOTES (3)

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    • Production: Vince stated that he and the other six writers will head back to the writing room in mid-November (2011).

    • When Walt listens to the radio after the explosion, Vince Gilligan actually phoned up one of the local radiostations (Coyote 102.5 in Albuquerque) and had them quickly improvise the lines regarding the parameters of the story.

    • "Casa Tranquila" means quiet house in Spanish. Ironically, with the explosion, it's anything but.

  • ALLUSIONS (1)

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    • Face Off:
      Also a title of a popular film, "Face/Off" (1997), in which an FBI agent (Nicolas Cage) agrees to alter his physical appearance via a face transplant to become a criminal mastermind (John Travolta) in order to infiltrate his crime organization.

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