Crazy Handful of Nothin’

Episode Summary & Review

Summary

Walter, in the throes of his chemotherapy treatment and needing money more than ever, agrees to cook more crystal meth with Jesse; Skinny Pete hooks Jesse up with an important new contact, while the DEA intensifies its investigation of Albuquerque’s new drug kingpin.

Our Take

Walt starts chemo and lies about paying for it. He also starts chemo and keeps cooking — and the episode introduces Tuco Salamanca, a blood-crazed distributor who beats one of Jesse’s friends to death in his office. When their deal goes bad, Walt walks back into the lion’s den alone and throws a piece of fulminated mercury at the floor. “This is not meth.” The explosion that follows buys them a deal — and births Heisenberg, named by Walt himself in the moment he discovers he’s good at being feared. The shaved head in the mirror is the transformation made visual.