Fly 

There is a fly loose in the lab. Walt and Jesse must do whatever they can to kill it before it contaminates the meth.

Director:

Rian Johnson

Writers:

Vince Gilligan (created by), Sam Catlin

Stars:

Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn, Aaron Paul

Cast

Episode cast overview:
Bryan Cranston	...	Walter White
Anna Gunn	...	Skyler White (voice)
Aaron Paul	...	Jesse Pinkman
Dean Norris	...	Hank Schrader (credit only)
Betsy Brandt	...	Marie Schrader (credit only)
RJ Mitte	...	Walter White, Jr. (credit only)

Storyline

Walt is suffering from insomnia, worried about the choices he has made and the direction his life has taken. Unaware that Jesse has been skimming a bit of their product, he also worried that the numbers in his formulas don't add up and that they always seem to somewhere between 4 and 8 ounces short of what the batch should have produced. The meticulous Walt is also concerned - to the point of paranoia - when he discovers a housefly in the lab. Worried about contamination, he goes to extreme lengths to kill it. Jesse comes to his rescue in an interesting way.

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Plot Keywords:

episode title spoken by character | smashing a lightbulb | overhead camera shot | tranquilizer in a drink | coffee | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 May 2010 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

High Bridge Productions, Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

47 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the DVD audio commentary of this episode, show creator Vince Gilligan mentioned having recently read director Rian Johnson's screenplay for the still-unmade film Looper (2012). Gilligan praised the screenplay repeatedly and said how excited he was to see it eventually brought to the screen.

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Goofs

Jesse talks about a TV show on hyenas that he saw. He says the head hyena was "the Man" and how gross it was that the other pack members had to "lick his junk" to show respect. Either Jesse or the script writer didn't realize that among hyenas the females are actually dominant, including the leader of the pack. They are larger than the males and have other marked masculine physical traits due to a naturally high level of testosterone. If Walter knew that, he didn't bother to correct Jesse's mistake.

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Quotes

Walter White: I've been to my oncologist, Jesse. Just last week. I'm still in remission. I'm healthy.
Jesse Pinkman: That's good. Great.
Walter White: No end in sight.
Jesse Pinkman: That's great.
Walter White: No. I missed it. There was some perfect moment that passed me right by, but I had to have enough to leave them. That was the whole point. None of this makes any sense if I didn't have enough. And it had to be before she found out. Skyler. It had to be before that.
Jesse Pinkman: Perfect moment? For what? To drop dead? Are you saying you want to die?
Walter White: I'm saying that I lived...
[...]

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Connections

Edited from Breaking Bad: Phoenix (2009)

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Soundtracks

Simplemente Amame
(uncredited)
Written by Cumbre Norteña
Performed by Cumbre Norteña

User Reviews

Best Episode of a Television Show

This is 45 minutes of Walt and Jesse trying to kill a fly. And it's pure brilliance.

I can see how fans of the show might not see this episode as furthering the plot, but this episode is more about the philosophy anyway. Walter White's character has, from episode 1, always had a disgust for "imperfection." In the first episode, he fixates on a speck of mustard on the doctor's coat. He's obsessed with creating the "purest" meth. So when a fly--one imperfection--infiltrates a supposedly sanity environment, he begins to psychologically fall apart, and it leads to a great amount of emotional intensity. But it also exhibits a prominent theme of the show overall--that the "perfect" standard may be unattainable, after all.

The simplicity of this one is what makes it so powerful. Breaking Bad is an incredibly insightful look at the problem of evil and how our search for control in an effort to make our own environments "sterile" negatively affects those around us. This episode amplifies that theme, and makes it one of the best episodes in the whole series. If you only watched it once and didn't feel it was worthwhile, I would suggest going back and re-watching it, especially when taking into account the series as a whole.