Breaking Bad S5E5: "We're Robbing a Freight Train"
The fifth episode in season 5 of Breaking Bad is a great one. It has 3 extended scenes with great action and tension. And a tragedy at the end. In these scenes we see Walt at his manipulative and coldly calculating worst (or best, if you think of it that way), Jesse as the conscience of the outfit, and Mike as an eye-rolling aging criminal who really just wants to retire but needs one last big score. Frankly Mike as the been-there, done-that, don't-really-want-another-t-shirt reluctant criminal is more entertaining than the Mike who took out a gang four cartel shooters single-handedly. Together the three of them are now The Odd Throuple. Oh, and in the middle of the episode Walt deals an amusing verbal backhand to Skyler, who asks what crime he's committing this evening- which she really should not do but does only to be annoying. (Rule #1 of Breaking the Rules is Don't break the rules and be a jerk about it.) He tells her the truth: "We're robbing a freight train!"
The first big scene in the episode has Walt visiting Hank and work and breaking down in his office. Hank knows things are really strained between Walt and Skyler. Walt has told him already, though not the truth about the reason why. And Walt and Skyler's kids are already staying with them. But in this scene Walt breaks down, blubbering. He really seems to be letting his emotions out... but we quickly learn it's a ruse.
Hank, who's always careful to project a macho image, can't handle Walt's crying. He offers to get Walt a cup of coffee and excuses himself to the breakroom.
Once Hank is out of his office, Walt dries his eyes and pulls out some electronics from his pockets. He connects a transmitter of some kind to one of the cables on Hank's DEA computer and hides a radio microphone inside a framed photograph on his desk. The tension rises in the scene as Walt races to finish his spycraft before Hank returns and catches him red-handed.
The second big scene starts with The Odd Throuple having just kidnapped Lydia. Lydia is a new character in the series, having only been introduced this season. She's a corrupt executive at the international conglomerate that was supplying Gus Fring his equipment and materials for manufacturing meth. She's prissy and a drama queen, which is funny in someone who's got their hands dirty (but not literally!) with drug cartels. And by funny I mean she's annoying. So it's enjoyable just to watch her get thrown down in a chair in a basement somewhere and subjected to harsh questioning.
Last time Jesse went to fetch a barrel of chemicals from her warehouse, Lydia spotted that a GPS tracker had been attached to it. Mike thinks that she did that herself to try to get out of their arrangement as a supplier, and wants to kill her. Jesse doesn't want to kill her. Walt just wants to keep supply flowing. The Odd Throuple, indeed.
Mike has concocted a plan to find the truth. With Walt's bugs planted in Hank's office, Mike forces Lydia (at gunpoint) to call Hank and read a script explaining that she found the GPS trackers and wanted to understand if Hank's team planted them so she could avoid interfering with a DEA investigation. Hank says No, they're not his. Mike grabs the phone to end the call, and Lydia looks terrified. She expects Mike will shoot her even as she maintains her innocence.
But Mike holds his fire to observe what happens next. Through the bugs they hear Hank call over to his DEA counterparts in another city (where Lydia's corporate office/warehouse are) and ask if they planted the GPS trackers. They did! Hank scolds them for being so clumsy.
While Lydia breathes a sigh of relief that it's proven she didn't screw the drug gang, Mike- or is it Walt?- growls that with all her chemicals being tracked she's now useless to them. ...Useless and knows too much. "Wait, I have leverage!" she pipes up, showing that she learned a lesson from her previous meeting with Walt, where he snarled at her that she had none. She proposes that the gang rob chemicals from a freight train. The freigth is being shipped to her company, and as the company freight manager she has all kinds of details about the shipment, the train, and where it's vulnerable.
The Odd Throuple discuss how to rob the train. Mike shines as the too-tired-for-this criminal pointing out that they'll have to kill all the crew on the train to avoid being caught. This upsets Jesse, now clearly the voice of morality for the gang, who doesn't want any innocent people killed. Mike also allows that even if they kill the crew, a train robbery like this nowadays (it's 2009 in the story) will have the feds swarming the area quickly. Then Jesse comes up with an idea for how they can rob the train without being detected.
The third big scene, probably about half the episode in length, is the setup for and execution of the train robbery. Jesse's idea, which Walt quickly computes the details for, is to create a diversion to stop the train. They'll then drain a reasonable quantity of chemical out of the tanker car and then pump water back into the tanker so the weight matches when the shipment arrives at its destination and nobody even knows a robbery has occurred.
The team uses equipment and staff from the pest control company to bury two plastic tanks beneath a railroad overpass. On the day of the heist, Mike supervises from hiding while a driver parks a "broken down" dump truck full of dirt on the tracks. The train operators see the truck and stop the train. The truck driver distracts the engineers asking for help troubleshooting his engine to get the truck off the tracks. Meanwhile Walt, Jesse, and Todd- one of the burglars from the pest control company- connect hoses and pumps between the train tanker and the buried storage tanks.
Tension builds as the heist becomes a race against time. The players all hit their marks. The plan is unfolding like clockwork. Victory seems to be theirs.... But then fate throws a wrench in the gears. A good Samaritan in a big pickup truck happens by the railroad crossing and offers to push the stalled dump truck off the tracks. The dump truck driver tries to delay him but really can't; the train engineers are upset about the time already lost from their schedule. Mike radios Walt to unplug the hoses, but Walt insists on holding on to try to get his full goal of 1,000 gallons. He's so close... but the train is starting to roll! He gives the disconnect signal almost too late. Jesse and Todd get their valves sealed back up, but Jesse has to lie down on the tracks under the train to let it clear him, and Todd has to climb down a ladder from the top and jump off onto a steep embankment.
Just when it seems like the team has snatched total victory from the jaws of near defeat another wildcard appears.
The episode started out with an in media res scene of a child riding a dirt bike through the desert. It wasn't explained where the child was, who he was, or what he was doing- other than marveling at a tarantula he found and captured. Now, in the main narrative of the episode, we see how that scene relates. The kid on the dirtbike is there, having just watched part of the action of Walt, Jesse, and Todd robbing the freight train.
The three stare at each other, unsure what to do about the unexpected witness. The kid waves at them while they stare. Todd waves back with a goofy smile on his face... then pulls a gun from under his jacket and shoots the kid, dead.
The first big scene in the episode has Walt visiting Hank and work and breaking down in his office. Hank knows things are really strained between Walt and Skyler. Walt has told him already, though not the truth about the reason why. And Walt and Skyler's kids are already staying with them. But in this scene Walt breaks down, blubbering. He really seems to be letting his emotions out... but we quickly learn it's a ruse.
Hank, who's always careful to project a macho image, can't handle Walt's crying. He offers to get Walt a cup of coffee and excuses himself to the breakroom.
Once Hank is out of his office, Walt dries his eyes and pulls out some electronics from his pockets. He connects a transmitter of some kind to one of the cables on Hank's DEA computer and hides a radio microphone inside a framed photograph on his desk. The tension rises in the scene as Walt races to finish his spycraft before Hank returns and catches him red-handed.
The second big scene starts with The Odd Throuple having just kidnapped Lydia. Lydia is a new character in the series, having only been introduced this season. She's a corrupt executive at the international conglomerate that was supplying Gus Fring his equipment and materials for manufacturing meth. She's prissy and a drama queen, which is funny in someone who's got their hands dirty (but not literally!) with drug cartels. And by funny I mean she's annoying. So it's enjoyable just to watch her get thrown down in a chair in a basement somewhere and subjected to harsh questioning.
Last time Jesse went to fetch a barrel of chemicals from her warehouse, Lydia spotted that a GPS tracker had been attached to it. Mike thinks that she did that herself to try to get out of their arrangement as a supplier, and wants to kill her. Jesse doesn't want to kill her. Walt just wants to keep supply flowing. The Odd Throuple, indeed.
Mike has concocted a plan to find the truth. With Walt's bugs planted in Hank's office, Mike forces Lydia (at gunpoint) to call Hank and read a script explaining that she found the GPS trackers and wanted to understand if Hank's team planted them so she could avoid interfering with a DEA investigation. Hank says No, they're not his. Mike grabs the phone to end the call, and Lydia looks terrified. She expects Mike will shoot her even as she maintains her innocence.
But Mike holds his fire to observe what happens next. Through the bugs they hear Hank call over to his DEA counterparts in another city (where Lydia's corporate office/warehouse are) and ask if they planted the GPS trackers. They did! Hank scolds them for being so clumsy.
While Lydia breathes a sigh of relief that it's proven she didn't screw the drug gang, Mike- or is it Walt?- growls that with all her chemicals being tracked she's now useless to them. ...Useless and knows too much. "Wait, I have leverage!" she pipes up, showing that she learned a lesson from her previous meeting with Walt, where he snarled at her that she had none. She proposes that the gang rob chemicals from a freight train. The freigth is being shipped to her company, and as the company freight manager she has all kinds of details about the shipment, the train, and where it's vulnerable.
The Odd Throuple discuss how to rob the train. Mike shines as the too-tired-for-this criminal pointing out that they'll have to kill all the crew on the train to avoid being caught. This upsets Jesse, now clearly the voice of morality for the gang, who doesn't want any innocent people killed. Mike also allows that even if they kill the crew, a train robbery like this nowadays (it's 2009 in the story) will have the feds swarming the area quickly. Then Jesse comes up with an idea for how they can rob the train without being detected.
The third big scene, probably about half the episode in length, is the setup for and execution of the train robbery. Jesse's idea, which Walt quickly computes the details for, is to create a diversion to stop the train. They'll then drain a reasonable quantity of chemical out of the tanker car and then pump water back into the tanker so the weight matches when the shipment arrives at its destination and nobody even knows a robbery has occurred.
The team uses equipment and staff from the pest control company to bury two plastic tanks beneath a railroad overpass. On the day of the heist, Mike supervises from hiding while a driver parks a "broken down" dump truck full of dirt on the tracks. The train operators see the truck and stop the train. The truck driver distracts the engineers asking for help troubleshooting his engine to get the truck off the tracks. Meanwhile Walt, Jesse, and Todd- one of the burglars from the pest control company- connect hoses and pumps between the train tanker and the buried storage tanks.
Tension builds as the heist becomes a race against time. The players all hit their marks. The plan is unfolding like clockwork. Victory seems to be theirs.... But then fate throws a wrench in the gears. A good Samaritan in a big pickup truck happens by the railroad crossing and offers to push the stalled dump truck off the tracks. The dump truck driver tries to delay him but really can't; the train engineers are upset about the time already lost from their schedule. Mike radios Walt to unplug the hoses, but Walt insists on holding on to try to get his full goal of 1,000 gallons. He's so close... but the train is starting to roll! He gives the disconnect signal almost too late. Jesse and Todd get their valves sealed back up, but Jesse has to lie down on the tracks under the train to let it clear him, and Todd has to climb down a ladder from the top and jump off onto a steep embankment.
Just when it seems like the team has snatched total victory from the jaws of near defeat another wildcard appears.
The episode started out with an in media res scene of a child riding a dirt bike through the desert. It wasn't explained where the child was, who he was, or what he was doing- other than marveling at a tarantula he found and captured. Now, in the main narrative of the episode, we see how that scene relates. The kid on the dirtbike is there, having just watched part of the action of Walt, Jesse, and Todd robbing the freight train.
The three stare at each other, unsure what to do about the unexpected witness. The kid waves at them while they stare. Todd waves back with a goofy smile on his face... then pulls a gun from under his jacket and shoots the kid, dead.