The situation has been established, the characters have been introduced. Breaking Bad's second episode has our two drug chefs dealing with their separate tasks that revolve around getting rid of the two men the former attempted to kill in the last episode – an endeavor only semi- successful. In the meantime, Skylar is getting suspicious of what is going on with her husband Walt lately and gets acquainted with Jesse, his partner in crime.
After the splendid pilot, things calm down a bit in "Cat's in the Bag ", whose title is, in fact, only a metaphor – Breaking Bad does not star cats. Anyway, Walt and Jesse still are in a perilous position since everything got a little out of hand for them recently. This makes for lots of great dialog especially on Jesse's site and also for very nice character development as we get to know the characters and their relationships to each other better. Interestingly, the most awkward relationship in this episode isn't Walt-Jesse, but rather Walt-Skylar, as they at first start the episode with rough sex, then continue with Walt spending the night on the bathroom floor, then have an awkward breakfast talk about breasts and Wonderbras in front of their son, and then conclude with Walt telling his wife to get off his backside (quotation not verbatim). Those were all nice scenes, but the episode only got really great when Aaron Paul appeared on screen (luckily, that was very often). This man delivered Jesse's lines so perfectly that you can consider him a cult character just after seeing the first two episodes. His conversations with Walt also gave us first impressions of "Heisenbergness" – if you haven't yet seen further episodes of the show, you'll understand this by the end of the first season.
Furthermore, "Cat's in the Bag " again featured unconventional yet fantastic soundtrack choices and wonderful cinematography and editing, especially when our main characters (yes indeed, plural) are taking drugs. Therefore, this episode manages to be really great even though big plot revelations or surprises are missing and I'd say I like it just as much as the pilot. It may not be as thrilling as that was, but it instead brings the dialogs into focus, which are, thanks to Vince Gilligan's talent for screen writing, really hilarious.
After the splendid pilot, things calm down a bit in "Cat's in the Bag ", whose title is, in fact, only a metaphor – Breaking Bad does not star cats. Anyway, Walt and Jesse still are in a perilous position since everything got a little out of hand for them recently. This makes for lots of great dialog especially on Jesse's site and also for very nice character development as we get to know the characters and their relationships to each other better. Interestingly, the most awkward relationship in this episode isn't Walt-Jesse, but rather Walt-Skylar, as they at first start the episode with rough sex, then continue with Walt spending the night on the bathroom floor, then have an awkward breakfast talk about breasts and Wonderbras in front of their son, and then conclude with Walt telling his wife to get off his backside (quotation not verbatim). Those were all nice scenes, but the episode only got really great when Aaron Paul appeared on screen (luckily, that was very often). This man delivered Jesse's lines so perfectly that you can consider him a cult character just after seeing the first two episodes. His conversations with Walt also gave us first impressions of "Heisenbergness" – if you haven't yet seen further episodes of the show, you'll understand this by the end of the first season.
Furthermore, "Cat's in the Bag " again featured unconventional yet fantastic soundtrack choices and wonderful cinematography and editing, especially when our main characters (yes indeed, plural) are taking drugs. Therefore, this episode manages to be really great even though big plot revelations or surprises are missing and I'd say I like it just as much as the pilot. It may not be as thrilling as that was, but it instead brings the dialogs into focus, which are, thanks to Vince Gilligan's talent for screen writing, really hilarious.