Now that Walt’s cancer is in remission, he tries to go straight — since he has more time left with his family, he doesn’t need to continue selling drugs, right? Well, as we see, the further Walt drifts from the drug-dealing life, the more unhappy he gets.
Walt and His Family
At his cancer-remission celebration, Walt’s family gets an closeup of his alter ego: Something sets him off during the party, and he forces Walt Jr. to drink too many shots and threatens to fight Hank. Poor Walt Jr. ends up puking in the pool, and Skylar is furious, rightly, at Walt. She takes comfort in her touchy-feely boss, holding his hand for a few moments too long.
More generally, without the meth to distract him, Walt becomes obsessed with home renovations, convinced that his house is filled with rot. “I’ve got to cut it out, and start fresh,†Walt says. To the annoyance of Walt Jr. and Skylar, he drills and saws and generally makes a racket, focusing on the project with a disturbing intensity. It’s clearly a metaphor for Walt’s own life — as much as he tries to rid himself of the base urge to make and deal drugs, he just can’t get it all out.
Walt and the Drugs
With this break in drug-related action, we focus on Jesse’s growing connection with Jane. He’s smitten with his landlord, showing her his comic-book drawings depicting him with various superpowers. Aw. Jane also seems quite into him — until her father shows up and she pretends she doesn’t even know who Jesse is. His drowns his sorrow in meth (just when he was doing so well!). In the end, though, Jane redeems herself by drawing Jesse a picture of herself as a superhero called Apology Girl. We’re pulling for these two crazy kids!
What’s Next
On Walt’s last trip to the home-improvement store, he notices a shady-looking guy buying ingredients for meth. “Stay out of my territory!†Walt snarls at him. And with that, folks, Walt’s back in the game! His character is almost more comfortable at this point as drug-dealing Heisenberg than mild-mannered Walt. Jesse, meanwhile, is showing promise in the other direction — getting clean and going straight. But his drug habit still lurks.