This week’s “Breaking Bad” essentially divided the majority of the cast into sides. Hank is trying to draft as many as he can in his battle against Walter, but he doesn’t count on Mrs. Heisenberg choosing to stand by her husband. Jesse remains the wild card, and that may ultimately be a big mystery for the season.
But before we look ahead, there were a number of sly, clever references to past episodes of “Breaking Bad” and pop culture in general hidden in this week’s episode, so let’s take a look at the Easter eggs you might have missed from “Buried.”
Scrooge McDuck
Walter’s big move after Hank confronts him is to hide the money in the storage locker, the mountain of cash that was too large for even Skylar to launder. That money was the point of all of this, remember? (Oh, well, and building an empire.) So Saul sends Huell and Kuby to retrieve it, and they do exactly what anyone would do. They lie on top of it. But before Kuby decides to play along he chastises Huell, saying “We are here to do a job, not channel Scrooge McDuck,” of course a reference to Disney’s greediest cartoon character. It might also be worth noting that Scrooge was an uncle to three ducklings named Huey, Dewey, and Louie, so start factoring in the Huell-Huey connection into your “Breaking Bad” conspiracy theories.
The Cook Site
Once Walter has his precious fortune back in his possession, it met its destiny of disappearing into one of Heisenberg’s dreaded barrels, but its fate might not be as dark as Mike’s or that poor kid with the dirt bike. Walter heads into the New Mexico desert to bury his money, pirate style, and he knows just the spot for it. As described in the making-of video, Walter buries the money in the same spot where he and Jesse originally cooked in the pilot episode, but that’s not the only special about the burial site.
+34° 59′ 20.00″, -106° 36′ 52″
“Breaking Bad” officially has its own version of “4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42” from “Lost.” To make sure that he doesn’t lose his money in the vast stretches of desert, Walter records the coordinates of the spot with a GPS device before smashing it to pieces and writing the numbers down via a lottery ticket. Those coordinates do lead somewhere in real life, but you won’t find any buried millions. The numbers refer to the location of ABQ Studios, the Albuquerque lot where they shoot things like “Breaking Bad” and “Marvel’s The Avengers.”
Jesse’s Silence
Here’s a fun fact that might not have occurred to you. Aaron Paul didn’t have a single line in the episode. Though Jesse essentially spends the entire episode moving to his mark, placing him where he needs to be before the finale ultimately decides what becomes of him. It’s still odd for such a major character to be present in the episode and not say a thing, but there’s reason to believe things won’t stay that way for long.
The Next Episode
With Jesse in police custody, at least for now, he has his best opportunity yet to turn in Walter and potentially get out for good. That’s probably what Vince Gilligan and the rest of the writers were thinking when they titled the next episode “Confessions,” but the plural should be noted. What else will come out during next week’s hour?
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