So...Marie is gonna be a problem. That meddling relative trope always is, always gets the hero burned, and that Marie fills the role so well should surprise no one. We knew interference was coming when she tried to warm Skyler up (in characteristically annoying fashion) to telling her the truth in "No Mas," and now, with that wistful look over her shoulder and the "intuition" that "it's something more," the die's been cast, and there's only one way this can end: she's gonna die.
She has to die because the climate is getting ruthless, and the Cousins are proving too efficient not to be thrown into direct conflict with the White family again. Average shows (or Lost) would have teased the chase for at least two more episodes, but not Breaking Bad. "Caballo Sin Nombre" brings our impeccable hitmen straight to the most volatile loose end connecting Walt to Heisenberg, and then wastes no time in putting them literally in the man's bedroom -- which is where things get really intriguing.
What if Walt weren't there? Had Saul not enlisted his cleaner, Mike, to bug the White house to monitor Skyler, our disgruntled heroine and Walter Jr. would've surely met a horrible denouement at the end of an absurdly shiny axe. Thankfully, Mike calls a henchman with "something you should know," and passes off the intel to...Gus? It makes sense that the undercover kingpin would have some seriously scary enforcers to counter his saccharine Clark Kent routine, but if he's big enough to reign in the Cousins...then who put them on Walt in the first place?
This show has played with the timeline before, and if we read the events of the past two episodes linearly, then there's clearly another big bad out there gunning for Walt. Yet, if you treat the Cousins' introduction as a flashback in the vein of the plane crash flashforward's from last season, then Gus Frings is one cold motherfucker. Mike knows it, Saul knows it, and Walt should have known you can't just walk away from someone like that. He did imply, after all, that his family was his reason for getting out. In supervillain logic, no family = no problems. Its all about the money with these people, Saul's muttered "I'm jealous" at Jesse's duffel bag of cash proved that. Either possibility would make for good television, but shit could really hit the fan with the latter.
[UPDATE: ok, so while Gus is still cold, the Cousins don't work for him. Rather, they claim the Salamanca cartel, and their business with Walt is far from over. See here:]
Speaking of shits and fans, Jesse finally getting payback against his parents by buying the house they barred him entry to? Priceless. Using Saul to lowball them into paying less than half its market value? Even better. I'm still not quite sure where the "bad guy" lifestyle will take him, but he's embracing it as feverishly as Walt is running from it.
Two episodes in; so far, so good.
Take note, "No Mas" is a great example of how a season should begin: a few teases to get us interested in the drama to come, all of which paying service to the central moral quandary that will push us forward from here out: facing up to who and what you are. Its a dilemma bound for a messy epiphany riddled with plenty of red herrings and the occasional dead body, and of course we were presented two sides of the conflict: Walt, who's running from his problems, and Jesse, who's accepted his fate as "the bad guy." Slap me if I'm putting too much weight on the scene, but the darkly funny moment where Jesse notes Walt's debris-damaged windshield says everything we need to know about their new dynamic: Jesse will out the problem, while Walt will let it fester.
