LogFAQs > #969880316

#91: Sunset
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/0/4/AAAG8cAAD8ls.jpg

Show: Breaking Bad
Original airdate: April 25, 2010

"This is my own private domicile, and I will not be harassed... bitch!"

This season 3 episode of Breaking Bad featured one of the tensest scenes in the entire series: Walt and Jesse, cornered by Hank and trapped in the RV they originally used to cook. They're saved only by the appearance of the lot's owner, Old Joe, who gives Hank and the viewers a lesson on the Fourth Amendment. There's so much at play here, with Walt just inches away from being caught, while Hank and Jesse taunt each other through the RV's locked door. Meanwhile, Gus is doing his best to keep his new cook Walt safe from the homicidal impulses of the Salamanca cousins, eventually pointing them toward a new target and leading into the events of the following episode. The RV scene is one of my favorite Breaking Bad scenes overall, the perfect mix of tension, high stakes, and just enough humor to relieve the overwhelming dread that pretty much everyone viewing the scene must have been feeling. Larry Hankin is incredible as Old Joe, providing one of the show's best cameos as he and Hank have a surprisingly articulate back and forth with one another, while Walt stews inside the RV. It seems like Walt and Jesse are well and truly screwed, and indeed, Vince Gilligan admitted that he and the writing team had to spend quite a while brainstorming ways that their protagonists could get out of the situation, eventually settling on a solution that had consequences that rippled through the entire rest of the series, just like so many other seemingly small things in Breaking Bad. While many viewers indeed prefer One Minute, the episode taking place after Sunset, I think this episode's mix of tension and humor puts it just barely over its follow-up, though both are incredible episodes that rank among my favorites.