Open House

Pros:

• First appearance of Bill Burr as Kuby
• Hank is brought back into the Heisenberg investigation
• Huell's awkward introduction to Walt and Skyler

Cons:

• This is Marie at her most obnoxious
• Jesse's increasingly sketchier parties get a little repetitive

It is a slow episode, one of the slowest of the series, but it's easy to overlook the extremely important piece that is moved into place: Hank is moved much closer to Heisenberg

I think how much you take from this one depends how much you either care about or are interested in the portrayed suffering of certain characters.

Personally I find the "open house" related scenes involving Marie and Jesse to be pretty powerful and quite harrowing. Marie's behaviour is depicted as deteriorating, but I think you lack a certain degree of compassion not to sympathise with the character's situation. When you compare what she does wrong to other characters in Breaking Bad it is negligible and an understandable escape from Hank's abuse. The writers and filmmakers do a great job of conveying her suffering through behaviour and not obvious explanation. Betsy Brandt is outstanding.

Jesse's scenes are a spiral from the previous episode and include some very dark moments. However, the most effective moment for me was the scene of dialogue with Walt at the lab. The acting is so convincing I was willing Walt to answer his plea regarding the go-karting or at least do something with him.

The writers lay foundations well for what is to come in certain moments involving Skyler, Hank, and Saul.

Bob Odenkirk is on top humorous form as always and his presence helps to relieve the general bleakness.

For me it's an 8.5/10, but I round upwards.

Great episode. Only thing that has managed to make Go Karting sad

Significant events. Marie is picked up for stealing from real estate open houses. This takes her back to her shoplifting days. Only Hank's connections keep her out of jail. Meanwhile, Skyler uses shady means to get the carwash guy to sell to them. She goes practical on Walter. They now are richer than rich but have to watch themselves constantly. At the end, one of Hank's former colleagues brings him something that is certainly going to bring about trouble.

Two characters fans hate have a chance to shine here while the male leads ride shotgun: As pathetically guilty Jesse begins squandering his money, Hank begins a case that will grow and Walt is Mr Mom, Skylar has her best episode conning the eyebrows guy from the car wash business, and her scenes with Saul right from when they first met, are wonderful... I think she compliments his sleazy nature better than anyone (mind you, in Better Call Saul he becomes a leading man, so perfect girl Kim doesn't count because he's NOT the same character on that series)...

And best yet Marie and her stealing has always been fun; especially when she calls the realtor lady "Fatty" that was hilarious...

Kudos to the lady's of Breaking Bad despite the fact they get no respect otherwise.