Hello and welcome back to the deep dive. Glad
to be here. Yeah. Today we are really turning
up the heat. Literally. Literally, yes. We are
stripping away the layers of one of the most
intense and claustrophobic chapters in television
history. Oh yeah. We're looking at the Breaking
Bad episode titled Grilled. Grilled, just the
title alone gives you a sense of the pressure
cooker we are about to step into. Right. I mean
it evokes heat interrogation and... Just this
overwhelming sense of being trapped. Exactly.
It is highly visceral. And just to set the coordinates
for everyone listening so you know exactly where
we are. Right. The context is important. Yeah.
This is season two, episode two. Which makes
it the ninth episode of the entire series. Yeah,
only the ninth episode. So the show is still
relatively young. Still finding its footing in
a way. Exactly. But this specific hour of television
is where... A lot of people argue the Breaking
Bad universe really starts to solidify. I would
definitely agree with that. Because if you look
at the narrative arc, this isn't just a monster
of the week situation. No, not at all. It is
a bridge. It connects the initial sort of chaos
of Walt's decision to cook meth. Which, let's
be honest, was almost a dark comedy in season
one. It really was. Stumbling around in the RV.
Yeah. But this connects that to the much darker
cartel level consequences that define the rest
of the season. Yeah, the real stakes. Exactly.
This is where the genre shifts from stumbling
criminals to basically survival horror. Survival
horror is the perfect way to describe it. And
our mission today is to unpack that exact narrative
tension. We are going to look at how the writers
trap our protagonists and introduce a villain
who is going to haunt the show for seasons to
come. Oh, man, yes. And we'll also look at how
the critics receive this high -stakes standoff.
We have a great stack of sources here today.
We do. We are pulling primarily from the extensive
breakdown of the episode, which includes the
plot summaries and production credits. And the
critical reception. metrics too. We will get
into all of that. And we really should mention
the creative team behind this specific material
we're deep diving into. Oh absolutely. The episode
was written by George Mastras and directed by
Charles Haid. Those names are so important because
they crafted a very specific atmosphere here.
I mean Charles Haid in particular has a background
in gritty police procedurals like Hill Street
Blues. Right. And you can really feel that grounded
dirty realism in every single frame of these
desert sequences. You really can't. It's grimy.
So let's set the scene in front of guys. If you
recall the end of the previous episode, things
were bad. They're very bad. But here they are
catastrophic. We have our two protagonists, Walter
White and Jesse Pinkman. And they are in the
RV. They aren't in the lab. They have been kidnapped.
Right. The stakes are immediately life or death.
Yeah. This isn't a negotiation. It is a straight
up abduction. They are trunk bound, staring into
the dark, completely disoriented. And here is
the hook for this deep dive. This is why this
episode is so legendary in the lore of the show.
It's a huge turning point. It really is. These
48 minutes feature a major exit and a major entrance.
Right. We see the end of the road for the erratic
Tuco Salamanca. And we see the very first appearance
of a character who becomes an absolute icon.
Hector Salamanca. Hector Salamanca. It is a changing
of the guard, in a way. It really is. One antagonist
falls, but another, perhaps even more formidable
in the long run, arrives. Yeah, it's a perfect
relay race of villainy. That's a great way to
put it. So let's unpack this. We're going to
jump into our first segment here, which is the
hostage situation. Out in the desert hideout.
Right. We open in a location that is basically
the middle of nowhere. It is a desert hideout,
just scrub brush and sand and a rundown shack.
And the isolation is the key factor here. Totally.
It removes all of Walt and Jesse's resources.
They can't call for help. No cell service, I'm
sure. Right. And they can't run because there
is literally nowhere to run to. Just miles of
dirt. They are completely at the mercy of Tuko
Salamanca. And the geography really emphasizes
their smallness. Yeah, the wide shots. Exactly.
The wide shots show this massive desert and then
this tiny house. It makes their plight feel totally
insignificant to the rest of the world, which
really amps up the dread. It's so isolating.
And let's talk about Tuco's headspace right now,
because mercy is definitely not a word I would
associate with him. Not at all. Based on the
plot summary we have, Tuco is just spiraling.
He is... incredibly paranoid. He was vibrating
with this nervous energy. Paranoid is putting
it lightly honestly. He is convinced that his
associate Gonzo has ratted him out to the authorities.
Right. Tuco believes the DEA is creating this
net that is closing in on him all because of
Gonzo's betrayal. He thinks everyone is listening.
He thinks everyone is watching him. Exactly.
But here's where it gets really interesting and
tragic in a very dark comedy sort of way. Right.
We know based on the previous events that Gonzo
didn't rat on anyone. No he didn't. Gonzo is
dead. Precisely. It is pure dramatic irony. You
know as the audience watching this that Tuco's
paranoia is completely baseless. Because Gonzo
died in a freak accident. Right. Moving a body
in a junkyard. A stack of cars fell on him. Which
is almost slapstick if it wasn't so gruesome.
It really is. But Tuco doesn't know that. This
misplaced fear is the entire engine driving the
kidnapping. He is acting on false information.
Which makes him even more dangerous because he
is completely irrational. You cannot reason with
someone whose premise for reality is factually
incorrect. You can't. So because he thinks the
feds are coming, he kidnaps Walt and Jesse, and
he lays out his grand plan. A very bad plan for
them. Yeah. I have to say, as career moves go,
this is a terrible offer for Walt. It is forced
labor. Pure and simple. Tuco reveals that he
intends to keep them in this desert compound
just until sunset. Sunset. And that is the first
layer of the ticking clock mechanism in the script.
He is waiting for his cousins to arrive. Ah,
yes, the famous cousins. Or infamous, depending
on how far you have followed the story. Right,
right. So the plan is for the cousins to transport
all three of them, Tuco, Walt, and Jesse, across
the border into Mexico. And once they are there,
the job description is very simple. Oh yeah.
They will be cooking methamphetamine for Tuco
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That is a terrifying
prospect. Locked in a super lab in Mexico under
the thumb of a guy who literally beats his subordinates
to death for fun. It is essentially slavery.
Yeah. And this is what shifts the genre of the
show, essentially. We go from a crime drama to
a survival horror scenario. Because Walt started
this whole thing to make money for his family
before he dies of cancer. Exactly. But now the
prospect is that he vanishes into a Mexican cartel
dungeon and never sees his family ever again.
the money becomes totally irrelevant if you have
no freedom. Right. You can't spend it in a bunker.
Exactly. And the atmosphere creates this incredible
trap. I want to highlight the analysis of the
setting we have from the sources here. Yeah,
let's look at that. It is so claustrophobic.
Even though they are out in the wide open desert,
the walls are closing in. Because they are trapped
in this tiny small house with a highly unstable
captor. And that ticking clock element you mentioned
is crucial for the pacing. The expert perspective
here on the pacing is really interesting. If
Tuco just planned to keep some there, indefinitely,
the tension would sag. Right, because there's
no rush. Exactly. But because the cousins are
coming at sunset, Walt and Jesse have a hard
deadline. They have to escape before the sun
goes down or they are gone forever. And every
time the camera cuts to the sun dipping lower
in the sky, your pulse just speeds up. It's masterful.
They can't just wait it out. They have to act.
But they aren't alone in the house with Tuco.
No, they are not. And this brings us nicely to
segment two of our deep dive. Enter Hector Salamanca.
This is such a significant moment in the source
material. We are officially introduced to Tuco's
uncle. Hector Salamanca played brilliantly by
Mark Margolis. Absolutely brilliantly. Now for
anyone listening who maybe hasn't seen the image
of him in this episode, let's describe him. Sure.
He is an elderly man sitting in a wheelchair
and he looks incredibly frail. Very frail. The
source notes describe him as completely paralyzed
from the neck down and mute. He cannot speak
a single word. Not a word. His face is slack
on one side. He looks, for all intents and purposes,
entirely helpless. Which, you know, in an audio
-visual medium, like TV usually means a character
is passive. Right. You see a guy in a chair like
that, and you just assume he's part of the scenery.
But Hector is anything but passive. No, definitely
not. They give him a tool, a specific communication
method that becomes absolutely iconic. The desk
bell. The desk bell attached to the arm of his
wheelchair. Ding. Exactly. Ding. That bell becomes
his voice. One ring for yes, no ring for no.
It is primitive, but it is so effective. And
what is really amazing is how much absolute menace
Mark Margolis conveys, just with his eyes and
that tiny bell. It's chilling. He doesn't have
a single line of dialogue, yet he completely
dominates scenes. And in the context of this
specific episode, Grilled, he is introduced almost
as a burden to Tuco. Yeah, Tuco is taking care
of him in his hideout, cooking him burritos,
feeding him. It is a strange little glimpse into
Tuco's family life. He humanizes Tuco slightly
right. It shows his familial loyalty. He genuinely
cares for his T .O. He's wiping his mouth, making
sure he's comfortable. But it also perfectly
sets up the obstacle. Hector is always watching.
Always. He is the silent observer in the room.
He is not watching the TV. He's watching Walt
and Jesse. Now I want to dive into the really
deep part of our notes here because looking at
the source material there is a fascinating cross
-reference in the notes section regarding Hector's
condition. Oh this is great for the listeners
who love the wider lore of the universe. Yeah
this is fascinating. The source material explicitly
links Hector's paralysis to the prequel series
Better Call Saul. It really does. So we actually
find out why he is in that chair because if you
just watch Breaking Bad you just assume it's
a stroke from old age or maybe high blood pressure
or something. Yes. The notes reveal that his
condition is indeed the result of a stroke, but
it wasn't a natural occurrence at all. No, it
wasn't. The stroke was intentionally caused by
a character named Nacho Varga. Nacho. That is
a name that looms very large in the prequel.
Specifically, the note references the Better
Call Saul episode titled lantern, it clarifies
that Nacho tampered with Hector's heart medication.
He swapped the pills, right? Exactly. He swapped
the pills for placebos, specifically ibuprofen,
to induce the stroke. That is just wild. So when
we are watching Grilled and we see this invalid
old man, there is this whole other layer of betrayal
and history that led him to that exact moment.
He is trapped in his own body because one of
his own subordinates betrayed him to stop his
cruelty. It connects the two series timelines
so beautifully. It shows that actions in the
past, Nacho's actions, created the very specific
set of variables that Walt and Jesse are dealing
with right now in the desert. Wow, yeah. Because
if Hector wasn't paralyzed, he could just tell
Tuco what Walt and Jesse are doing. He could
just say, hey, they're plotting against you.
But because of Nacho, he can only ding the little
bell. That is a great point. His disability is
basically a plot device that allows Walt and
Jesse to almost get away with things. It balances
the scales for our protagonists. Almost get away
with it. Almost. But as we see that, Belle is
more than enough to ruin everything. More than
enough. So while Walt and Jesse are sweating
it out in the desert, wondering if they're going
to end up in a Mexican meth dungeon, life is
actually going on back in Albuquerque. Right.
Let's move to segment three, the search party.
This is the B -plot of the episode. And it serves
as a really necessary breather from the intense
claustrophobia of the desert. But it also ratchets
up the tension because we see how close rescue
actually might be. Yeah, we need that contrast.
We need the contrast between the dusty, yellow
-filtered desert and the blue, sterile world
of the suburbs. So we check in on Skyler White,
and she's not just sitting around waiting by
the phone. No. This isn't the grieving widow
phase at all. This is the action phase. The summary
describes her as sick with worry. But she is
actively distributing handbills with Walt's photo
on them. She is mobilizing the whole neighborhood.
She is leveraging absolutely every contact she
has. And then there's Hank Schrader. Now usually
we see Hank as this boisterous DEA agent, right?
Cracking jokes being the alpha male at the family
barbecue. Exactly. But here the tone shifts dramatically
for him. He takes time off work specifically
to look for Walt. Which says a lot. It establishes
his deep loyalty to his family. He isn't looking
for Heisenberg. He is looking for his brother
-in -law. It is so important to remember that
Hank, at this stage, has zero suspicion of Walt's
criminal life. None. He thinks Walt is having
a breakdown or maybe a fugue state from the cancer.
Right. But the investigation takes a huge turn,
and it comes from a really unlikely source. A
Marshalter. Yes, Marie. She operates on a theory
here. She tells Hank she genuinely believes Jesse
Pinkman is Walt's marijuana dealer. Which is,
I mean, it's half true. Jesse is involved with
Walt, but it is definitely not pot. It is incorrect
in the specifics because Jesse isn't selling
Walt weed, but it is completely correct in the
connection. It connects Walt directly to Jesse.
And she convinces Hank to question Jesse. It
is really funny how Marie, who is often portrayed
as flighty or kleptomaniacal, actually provides
the crucial lead here. This is the major breakthrough.
Hank realizes he needs to find Jesse to find
Walt. Right. But Jesse is also missing. So where
does Hank go? He can't just call Jesse's cell.
He approaches Jesse's mother, Diane Pinkman,
played by Tess Harper. I love how this brings
the parents into the narrative. It really grounds
these criminals. It does. They have moms who
worry about them. It reminds us that Jesse is
barely an adult himself in a lot of ways. And
Mrs. Pinkman provides the absolute key piece
of data for the whole episode. She gives Hank
information that allows him to access the LoJack
tracking system on Jesse's car. The LoJack. That
little piece of technology basically saves the
entire series. It really does. Just for our listeners
who might not know, LoJack is a stolen vehicle
recovery system that emits a radio signal police
can track. Right. And it is the narrative thread
that ties these two vastly different worlds together.
Exactly. Without that LoJack signal, Hank never
ever finds the desert hideout. The worlds of
law enforcement and the violent cartel are on
a direct collision course, all guided by this
little tracking beacon. It is a very tactical,
procedural way to solve the problem, which fits
Hank's character perfectly. Perfectly. So Hank
is on the way, following the beep. But Walt and
Jesse obviously don't know that. No, they think
they're entirely on their own. And the sun is
getting lower. The shadows in the desert are
getting long. The ticking clock. They decide
they have to take matters into their own hands
right now. Which brings us to segment four, the
failed escape. the ricin. The ricin. This is
a weapon we hear about a lot in the show. Walt
has prepared it and they decide the absolute
only way out is to assassinate Tuco. It really
highlights their desperation. They aren't murderers
by nature at this point in the story. Well, they
are struggling with it anyway but they view this
as pure self -defense. Kill or be killed. Right.
They plan to poison Tuco's food. It is the chemist's
solution. Yes. It is non -confrontational. It
is quiet. The classic poison in the burrito trick.
It is simple and it's quiet. Walt slips the ricin
into the food while Tuco isn't looking. He hides
it in the ingredients while Tuco is distracted
with his own cooking. But someone is looking.
Hector. This is exactly where the character introduction
we talked about earlier pays off instantly. Read
that. Hector Salamanca, despite being physically
paralyzed, is mentally incredibly sharp. He misses
nothing. He sees what Walt does. He sees the
sleight of hand with the poison. And this leads
to one of the most tense dinner scenes in television
history. Tuco is eating. He is literally about
to take a bite of the poisoned food. The tension
is unbearable. But Hector intervenes. He knocks
the plate right off the table. He saves Tuco's
life. And Tuco... He's confused at first, right?
Yeah. He doesn't get it. He thinks his uncle
is just being difficult. He thinks, oh, Tio doesn't
like the burrito. Maybe it's too spicy. Right.
But then he realizes something is very wrong.
Hector is ringing the bell frantically. Ding
ding ding. He's staring right at Walt. He is
pointing with his eyes. And Tuco, for all his
crazy erratic behavior, has incredible survival
instincts. He is an apex predator. He really
is. He realizes he is being played. And the switch
just flips. The whole host demeanor is gone.
The let's have dinner before the cousins get
here vibe completely vanishes. He holds a gun
directly to Jesse's head. This is the brutal
interrogation. What did you do? What did you
put in it? It is a total catastrophic failure
of their plan. Complete failure. They tried to
be smart to use chemistry, the ricin, to solve
the physical problem, but brute force Tuco with
a gun wins in that specific moment. It creates
a situation where intelligence just fails. Walt's
giant brain couldn't save them. made it worse.
In fact his attempt to be clever just made things
infinitely worse. Now Tuco knows for a fact they
are trying to kill him. They are on their knees
in the dirt waiting to be executed or dragged
to Mexico. The intellectual superiority Walt
feels he always has over Tuco completely evaporates
when there's an assault rifle shoved in his face.
And that brings us right to the climax of the
episode, segment five, the shootout. The turn
of events here. is intensely physical. It is
primal. It stops being a quiet chess match and
starts being a desperate street brawl. Tuco is
distracted for a second. He is raging. He is
looking at the horizon, maybe checking to see
if the cousins are finally arriving. And Jesse
Pinkman finds something deep inside himself.
He spots a rock, just a jagged rock sitting in
the dirt. And he uses it. Jesse actually manages
to overpower Tuco by hitting him in the side
of the head with the rock. And it is not just
the rock. In the desperate scramble, Jesse gets
a hold of his own pistol, the one Tuco confiscated
from him earlier, and he shoots Tuco right in
the abdomen. It is a messy, chaotic fight. It
is not a beautifully choreographed martial arts
scene like you would see in an action movie.
No, it's ugly. It is two desperate people fighting
for their actual lives in the dirt. They're rolling
around biting, scratching. It feels terrifyingly
real. So Tuco is down. He is shot in the gut.
He falls backward into the excavation pit next
to the house. He is bleeding badly. Walt and
Jesse think, OK, we won. Let's get out of here.
But then they see a car. A vehicle approaches
in the distance. We see the dust trail kicking
up. And because of the set up earlier, that ticking
clock we talked about, they assume the absolute
worst. They think it is the Cousins. Exactly.
They think we took out the boss, but the reinforcements
are here. Their victory turns into immediate,
absolute panic. So they crawl into hiding in
the brush, they leave the car, they leave the
gun, they just hide in the dirt. But it is not
the Cousins at all. It is the B plot colliding
beautifully with the A plot. It is Hank Schrader.
Hank Trader following the low jack signal. He
steps out of his SUV, probably expecting to find
a stolen vehicle or maybe Jesse Pinkman getting
high with some friends. Yeah, he thinks it's
a routine grab. He is completely unprepared for
what he was walking into. Instead, he finds a
literal war zone. He confronts Tuco. Now Tuco
is injured, he's bleeding out, he's climbing
out of that pit, but he is still incredibly dangerous.
He sees Hank. Tuco doesn't know who Hank is really,
he just sees a cop. or maybe just an enemy standing
in his way. He just starts shooting. Tuco opens
fire on Hank with an assault rifle. And this
is a hugely defining moment for Hank. Up until
now, we have seen him posturing, talking big,
maybe a bit of a loudmouth. A desk jockey who
talks tough. But here, he is in a real shootout.
He is under heavy fire. And he handles it. He
really does. He takes cover behind his SUV. He
doesn't panic at all. He returns fire. It is
a very quick very brutal exchange. Hank creates
a distraction, pops up and fatally shoots Tuco.
A clean headshot. Tuco Salamanca is dead. And
the resolution of this is ruled as self -defense
back at the station. Hank didn't go out there
to execute him. He was fired upon first. Right.
He was literally just checking a LOJAC signal
for his missing brother -in -law. But think about
the position of Walt and Jesse in this exact
moment. Oh, man. This is the irony that makes
the show so incredibly good. They are hiding
in the bushes maybe 20 yards away. Watching this
whole thing unfold. Watching Walt's DEA brother
-in -law kill their cartel kidnapper. It is the
ultimate close call. If Hank had just looked
to the left or if Walt had sneezed or if Jesse
had panicked and run it, the entire series would
end right there in episode nine. Walt would be
arrested on the spot. Instead, Hank is occupied.
He is... Checking the body he is calling it in
on the radio. He is dealing with the massive
adrenaline dump of a lethal shootout. He begins
investigating the scene. And Walt and Jesse,
they silently escape. They slip away into the
desert. They survive. But the dynamic of the
show has shifted permanently. Hank is now a hero
who took down a cartel boss. He actually gets
a promotion later because of this very shootout.
And Walt and Jesse are traumatized fugitives
who barely made it out with their lives. And
we have to note... A major cast departure here.
Yes. This episode marks the final appearance
of Raymond Cruz as Tuco Salamanca in the present
Breaking Bad timeline. He was such a force of
nature. It is hard to believe he was only in
a handful of episodes. It feels like he dominated
two entire seasons. He burned bright and fast.
And here's a fun fact from the production notes.
Raymond Cruz actually asked to be killed off.
Really? I didn't know that. Yeah, the role of
Tuco was so high energy and so physically demanding,
all that screaming and constant tension, that
he said it was physically exhausting him. He
felt he couldn't keep that level of intensity
up for a long multi -season arc. That makes total
sense when you think about it. You watch him
and his veins are popping out of his neck in
literally every scene. But his exit paved the
way for very different kinds of villains later
on in the show. villains who are much quieter,
much more calculated. Tuco is the fire. Later
villains are the ice. Exactly. So the dust settles.
Tuco is dead. Walt and Jesse are free, technically.
Let's talk about how the world reacted to this
episode. Segment six, critical reception and
legacy. It is really interesting to look back
at the reviews from 2009 versus the retrospective
rankings from years later. Because watching it
week to week hits differently than when you binge
it all at once. Absolutely. Let's look at the
rankings first. The Ringer ranked Grilled as
the 25th best episode out of the 62 total episodes.
That puts it firmly in the top half. It is a
very solid ranking considering how many absolute
masterpiece episodes are in the later seasons.
Like Ozymandias or Face Off. Exactly. Competing
with those is tough. And Vulture ranked it 30th
overall, so solidly in the middle to high tier.
Which is deeply respectable given the incredible
quality of the show overall. It acknowledges
that this is a truly foundational episode. But
at the time it aired, there was some specific
criticism. We have a review here from Seth Amitin
of IGN. Yes. He gave the episode an 8 .9 out
of 10. Which is a very high score still. It is,
but the critique inside the review is fascinating.
It brings up a great debate about storytelling
structure. What was his main issue with it? He
felt the episode prolonged Walt and Jesse's entrance
into the drug trade. Prolonged it. Yeah, the
argument was that the kidnapping was basically
a detour, that it delayed the business of cooking
and selling meth. The reviewer seemed to want
to see the empire building aspect and viewed
being trapped in a shack as a stall tactic by
the writers. That is such an interesting take
because looking back now, the business seems
completely secondary to the survival aspect.
I think that is the modern consensus for sure.
The kidnapping isn't a delay. It is vital character
development. It shows us that they are absolutely
not ready for the drug trade. It exposes their
extreme vulnerability. Right. If they just started
selling meth smoothly and making millions, there's
no drama. The fact that they get kidnapped by
their very first distributor shows how deeply
over their heads they are. It is a massive reality
check for them. It really is. Exactly. The delay
is the entire point. It strips away the illusion
that Walt is some kind of criminal mastermind.
In this episode, he is literally just a terrified
chemistry teacher hiding in the bushes. It establishes
that the criminal world is chaotic and doesn't
follow a neat business plan. If the show had
just skipped this trauma and gone straight to
them making millions, it wouldn't have earned
the later darker moments. It also establishes
the physical danger early on. It is not just
about getting caught by the cops, it is about
getting murdered by your own partners. Precisely.
It raises the stakes from prison to death. So
what does this all mean for the listener? Let's
wrap this deep dive up with our outro and summarize
what we've learned from the sources. If we summarize
the key takeaways, Grilled is pivotal for three
main reasons. Okay, let's hear them. First, the
introduction of Hector Salamanca and his bell.
That specific sound effect becomes a signature
of the show's tension. It is an absolute master
class in sound design. Second, the death of Tuco
Salamanca, but specifically the fact that he
died at the hands of Hank, not Walt, not Jesse.
Which sets Hank on his own trajectory as a super
cop. It gives him confidence, but it also...
deeply haunts him moving forward. And it keeps
the two main characters, Walt and Hank, on parallel
lines that are destined to eventually intersect.
And third, the narrow escape. The secret identity
is safe for another day. But the psychological
toll is immense. It changes them fundamentally.
They aren't just partners in crime anymore. They're
survivors of a severe shared trauma. They have
seen the devil together. That bonds them in a
way that goes so much deeper than just making
money. I want to leave you, the listener, with
a final thought to mull over. Building on that
IGN review about prolonging the story, think
about the sound of that bell. It is just a cheap
piece of hotel reception equipment. You see them
at front desks literally everywhere. But in this
episode, the writers turned it into a deadly
weapon. They turned a paralyzed mute man into
the biggest threat in the room. And they show
that in this world, danger doesn't always look
like a screaming guy with a gun. Sometimes it
looks like a frail old man in a wheelchair watching
you secretly poison his nephew. So the real question
is in a show about transformation, are these
detours, these moments where the business stops
and raw survival begins, are they frustrations?
Or are they the exact moments where the characters
actually become who they are meant to be? I would
argue they are the essential fire that forges
them. Hence the title, Grilled. You don't get
cooked without the heat. Absolutely beautifully
said. If you want to dig deeper, check out the
source notes on the Better Call Saul connections
we discussed. It adds a whole new layer to Hector's
hate -filled stare when you rewatch it. There
is always more to find in the details. Watching
the prequel really changes how you view Hector's
immense frustration in this episode. He knows
exactly what is happening, but he is powerless
to stop it himself. Thanks for diving in with
us today. We will catch you on the next deep
dive. Until then.