"Dead Freight" left audiences with mouths and eyes wide open and with "Buyout", the series gets back to a calmer state. However, the word 'calm' can only be used to describe this episode in comparison to one of Breaking Bad's most awesome yet devastating episodes, as there's tension increasing in so many relationships in "Buyout" and the atmosphere is thereby kept on an immensely uncomfortable level.
This becomes clearest in a dinner scene at the White household, marking the first encounter between Skyler and Jesse since Breaking Bad's very first season. As you could guess, the small talk they share is as awkward as it gets, especially once Mrs White feels the need to make her affair with Ted the subject of discussion, something she's discussed with her sister in a weird and protracted scene earlier on in the episode. Jesse is surprisingly similar to his pre-Walter-White self during that chat and is outstanding in his failing attempts to act normal. While less entertaining, the business talk is more important story-wise and in "Buyout", there's quite a difficulty arising for the three amigos in the wake of the preceding episode's finale. Seeing Walt, Jesse, and Mike deal with their assistant having killed an innocent boy in order to protect them from legal persecution is excellently showcasing their different states of mind – the top of that being Walt assuring Jesse that that murder has been keeping him awake for nights while looking as if much more interested in the creation of the next meth badge.
Besides a short Saw-reminiscing release operation, "Buyout" is really all about the story evolving and excludes action of any sort. That wouldn't be something I'd have a problem with, were it not for the fact that nearly every scene in the episode is stretched out for a tad too long and that I was checking on my watch more than once.
