The Televangelist: 'Breaking Bad' Season 4, Ep. 5

• AMC.com
• ... Are we there yet?

Let's start with the breaking news: "Breaking Bad" has been renewed for 16 more episodes that will conclude the series. As much as I love this show, I think we all know that to keep it good it can't go on forever (or for much longer). "Breaking Bad" has had a bizarre fluctuation of episodes per season, starting with seven in the inaugural season before expanding to thirteen for seasons two and three. This year we get nine … and next year we get sixteen. Well whatever gets it done - personally I prefer the shorter seasons.

?Now on to last night's "Shotgun," a road trip episode staring Mike and Jesse, making their way to "every anal recess in the state." At the start, "Shotgun" played out like a high-stakes divorce battle. Mother Bear Walt is frantic as Jesse suddenly spends the day with Papa Mike. "I've got Jesse today," Mike tells Walt in a fantastic cell phone exchange in which Jesse plays the part of the petulant child being shuffled between two parents brilliantly. "Shotgun" was all about the bait and switch, or at least a subversion of expectations. Mike didn't kill Jesse with a shovel in the desert, but he did help set up a potentially fatal situation which Jesse misread (or read correctly, if that was the point of the ruse) as a ripoff and saved the day. This, is turns out, was all part of a masterplan engineered by Gus for … reasons unknown. But I suspect it has something to do with bringing Jesse back into the fold by reminding him of his self worth. Meanwhile, Gus punishes Walt by making him attend to the cook alone … yet also forces him to trust someone other than Jesse by making Victor 2.0 his assistant for the day.