The Televangelist: ‘Breaking Bad’ Season 4, Ep. 11

• AMC.com
• “Both cannot live while the other survives”

Let’s save everybody some trouble and not have the Emmys next year. Why bother? We got the message this past time that “Modern Family” will win all of the comedy awards (and based on its Season 3 opener last week, I don’t see that changing any time soon). As for dramas, sure there will be some good contenders: “Mad Men,” “Downton Abbey,” maybe even “Sons of Anarchy” and perhaps a newcomer like “Hell on Wheels.” But what chance would they - would anyone? - stand against this season of “Breaking Bad?” The intricacies of the narratives, the high-strung emotions, the fact that there will never be enough Xanax in the world to make me calm down after last night’s episode … “Breaking Bad,” for all the awards!

?”Crawl Space” would have made for one incredible season finale. But there are still two more episodes left! How is this possible? I’m asking because I will probably need to have a defibrillator on hand next week if the action ramps up any more. Even the stormy background music to Walt coming home and searching for the money was like a pounding heartbeat … or that sound that signaled the coming of the smoke monster on “Lost.” And as Walt laughed maniacally from the floorboards and Skyler shakingly reassures a sobbing Marie, we somehow stumbled into a David Lynch production, where one’s nerves end up firmly placed several feet outside one’s body. Wow!

?It’s hard to rip oneself away from the last minutes of the episode, so I will stick with the desert scenes and leave the rest to the stray thoughts at the end. We begin then with Gus’ masterful orchestration of a “just in case of emergency” scene, with doctors and blood on hand for Gus, Mike and Jesse should things take an unfortunate turn. Gus recovered almost instantly, though - enough to walk six miles, anyway. The walk gave us an opportunity for Jesse to once again defend Walt to Gus. Jesse’s word means something now - he’s worth too much to be ignored. As Walt rightly guesses when he himself is in the desert with Gus (under fantastic skies), Gus cannot kill Walt and keep Jesse. Is this something Walt is just now figuring out? Because the only justification for his awful behavior towards Jesse was the fact that Walt could not have known that Jesse had been loyal to him, sticking up for him, all this time. Yet in the desert he seemed arrogantly aware of this fact. “Nothing can break our bond” - well you did almost everything you could to do that yourself, Walt. Gus’ proclamation that Jesse “will come around” is possible, but unlikely to be true. Even though Jesse is sick and tired of Walt and all of his shit, he knows deep down he owes the man his life.