"Breaking Bad: Half Measures (#3.12)"
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Synopsis for
"Breaking Bad" Half Measures (2010)

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Open with a vignette of Wendy the prostitute's weekly routine. Johns, drugs, meals, repeat. Towards the end we see that she buys drugs from (and brings food to) the two dealers who oversee Tomas. From afar, Jesse witnesses the relationship between Wendy and the dealers.

Walter gives Walter Jr. a driving lesson. Walt is frustrated at teaching Junior, but is also very patient with his son, who has difficulty learning how to work the accelerator and brake smoothly.

Skyler is at home looking at the Wikipedia entry for "money laundering" and taking care of little Holly. Walter and Walter Jr. return home and Skyler asks Walter if he's given more thought to her being the 'Danny' for the car wash front. He thinks the biggest problem with the plan is that an estranged husband wouldn't want his wife helping out with his new business. The two work out a deal where Walter can be at home several days each week.

While cooking meth Jesse asks Walter to have a beer with him after work. Walter politely refuses at first, but Jesse is insistent, slyly pointing out the surveillance equipment in the room with the slightest gesture. At the bar he hands Walter the bag of blue meth he bought at the end of the previous episode. After Walter confirms it is their product, Jesse angrily tells him what he's learned: two dealers who work for Gus had Tomas kill his friend Combo for dealing on their turf. Jesse wants to kill them with ricin but Walter thinks it is a terrible idea. Jesse reminds Walter of his plan having to do with Tuco. Walter tries to talk Jesse out of taking any drastic action but Jesse isn't budging. He's doing this with Walter or without him.

Hank, Marie and Walter Jr. sit in Hank's hospital room and play cards. Hank asks about Walter and Skyler. When Walter Jr. mentions his parents aren't working Marie changes the subject. Eventually the conversation turns to Hank being cleared by his doctors but not wanting to leave the hospital until he can walk, suggesting that there's no place outside the hospital for crippled people. Walt Jr counters, referring to his own disability, and asks his uncle if all people on crutches need to be hospitalized. Hank is moved by his nephew's wisdom.

Walter waits in Saul's office for what is supposed to be a meeting with Jesse. Jesse doesn't show. Walter asks whether there is a way to get Jesse put in jail for a month or so until he cools off. Saul says he should be able to have Mike put something together.

We see Jesse and Wendy sitting in a motel room. He has bought some slow-acting poison, ricin, online and is going to put it in the burgers she brings to the dealers. Wendy is hesitant but Jesse reminds her of how they treat children and that she has a son herself.

Mike pays a visit to Walter at home while Skyler is out, a meeting that neither Saul or Gus know about. Mike tells Walter he will not help put Jesse in jail, that it is a terrible idea of which their mutual employer (Gus) won't approve. He tells Walter a lengthy story about his days as a police officer: there was a man who continually beat on his much smaller and weaker wife. Mike and his partner would continually arrest the man, but his terrified wife never pressed charges. Eventually Mike decided to take matters into his own hands: one night while his partner was off-duty, Mike brings the man to a desolate area and puts his gun in his mouth. The man begs for his life and Mike lets him live under the condition that if he ever touches his wife again Mike would kill him. Two weeks later the man beat his wife to death. Mike says he "chose a half measure, when I should have gone all the way." He tells Walter he'll never make that mistake again. Mike leaves without a further word.

Jesse and Wendy sit in his car waiting for the dealers to show. Mike and Victor approach and take Jesse away. They bring him to a remote trailer where Gus, Walter and the two dealers are sitting around a table. Gus tells Jesse he understands why Jesse is upset, but that the two dealers are trusted employees and had a valid turf rationale for killing Combo. Gus has the dealers wait outside and then tells Jesse the only reason he is alive is out of respect for Walter's wishes. Gus wants Jesse to shake their hands and make peace. Jesse flatly refuses, informing Gus and Walter how the dealers use children in their business. Gus brings the dealers back into the room and tells them "no more children" which they both wordlessly agree to. Gus has Jesse and the dealers shake hands and makes Jesse promise he will keep the peace.

On the drive home from the meeting Jesse refuses to even look at Walter.

While giving Hank a sponge bath, Marie begins touching him, trying to stimulate him sexually. He insists that nothing will happen. She has him agree that if she can help him get an erection he will leave the hospital. A minute later she achieves her goal, and we see Hank being wheeled out of his room with his belongings in his lap, a defeated look on his face.

Jesse and Andrea lie in bed together after sex. She gets a call from her grandmother and begins to cry. Jesse and Andrea go to a police crime scene and see that Tomas has been killed.

Jesse does not show up for work the next day.

Before dinner at home with the family, Walter tries calling Jesse on his cell phone several times. Just before sitting down at the table with Skyler and Walter Jr., Walter sees on the news that Tomas was murdered in an apparent gang-style execution. A few seconds into dinner Walter excuses himself and leaves.

Jesse sits in his car crushing up some meth. He snorts a line and grabs a pistol from underneath his seat. He is staring at the two dealers who are a block away making a transaction. Jesse puts the gun in his pocket and begins walking towards their car. The dealers get out of the car and wait for Jesse, each cocking pistols of their own and bringing them to bear on the approaching Jesse.

Jesse is almost upon the dealers and removes the handgun from his pocket.

A split second before shots are exchanged, Walter's car enters the scene at a high rate of speed, crosses the curb and smashes into the drug dealers. One of them is thrown over the roof of Walt's car, the other is crushed under the wheels.

As the car stops on top of one of them, Walter exits the driver's seat and sees the other is still moving. He picks up the man's gun and shoots him through the head.

Walter turns and looks at the stunned Jesse and tells him "RUN!"

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