"Dead Freight" is the fifth episode of the fifth season of Breaking Bad and the fifty-first episode altogether.
Summary[]
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A young boy rides through the empty desert on a dirtbike. He stops to play with a tarantula, which he then puts into a jar that he has inside his jacket pocket. When he gets back on his motorcycle, Drew hears a freight train in the distance and rides off to follow it.
Act I[]
Walt visits Hank in his new office at the DEA, where Hank remarks on Walt's expensive new watch. As they talk, Walt breaks down in crocodile tears, stating that Skyler no longer loves him and thinks he's a bad father. Uncomfortable with displays of emotion, Hank quickly excuses himself to fetch coffee for the two of them. With Hank gone as he had intended, Walt plants an inline transmitter into the ethernet port of Hank's computer and a receiver inside a picture frame of Hank and Marie that Hank had put on his desk just before Walt entered. Walt is still holding the picture when Hank returns, so Walt feigns to be coveting the loving relationship depicted in the photo of Hank and Marie.
Mike giving Lydia instructions
Walt then heads to Houston, Texas, where Lydia is taken into the basement of an abandoned building by himself, Jesse and Mike. Under threat of death, Mike forces her to call Hank to sort out the origins of the tracker, supplying her with a prepared script. Listening in to Hank's phone communications, the trackers are revealed to have not come from the DEA's Albuquerque office. Intentionally within earshot, Mike and Walt vote to kill Lydia, despite her insisting that she was not responsible for placing the trackers. Jesse wishes to spare her, but seems to change his mind when Mike discloses that Lydia put out a hit on him. Just as Mike approaches her, the bug picks up a call from the DEA's Houston office confirming to Hank that they placed the trackers, vindicating Lydia, with the Houston office also revealing that they placed trackers on all of Madrigal Houston's methylamine barrels. Mike still wishes to kill her, since he only spared her life if she could provide methylamine, which she no longer can due to all the barrels being tracked.
Eager to survive, she tells them that she can direct them towards an "ocean" of methylamine, Walt then ushers Mike and Jesse out of the room so he can talk to Lydia alone. Lydia asks Walt to promise that he will spare her life if she cooperates; Walt agrees but asks her if she truly placed a hit on Mike. When she confirms it, he asks why, and she divulges that there are nine men who are aware of her illegal dealings with Gus and are also aware of Walt, and that she wanted these nine men killed because if she were implicated, her daughter would grow up within the system with no parent. She tells him that she initially asked Mike to kill them, but when Mike refused, she was forced to add Mike to the kill list. Walt then asks her exactly how much is the "ocean" of methylamine she spoke of, and she responds that it is 24,000 gallons.
Act II[]
Now freed from her handcuffs, Lydia explains to Walt, Mike and Jesse that once a week, a freight train carrying 24,000 gallons of methylamine imported from Guangzhou, China passes through New Mexico and that part of the area it passes through is a "dead zone" when there is no signal, thereby preventing cellular calls or distress signals from being sent, and the lack of cameras in the area would make it the perfect place for a train heist. Lydia demands a percentage of the trio's profit after providing key transport details for stealing the methylamine, which will include the exact position of the tanker car carrying it in the freight train's configuration. The men discuss the plan, and inquire about the crew on board, which Lydia confirms is just two men. Walt is okay with killing them, not wanting to leave witnesses behind, although Jesse is adamant that they not kill innocent men. Mike is skeptical of their ability to pull off the heist without killing them, as he believes it is the only viable way to get away "clean."
At the Schrader house, Hank and Marie play with Holly; Walt Jr., again calling himself "Flynn," sullenly refuses to socialize with them. Meanwhile, at Jesse's house, Mike and Walt argue about the train heist; Mike believes it is reckless and unfruitful and that they should hire low-level criminals to acquire pseudo from cold pills, thereby switching back to a pseudo-based cook. Walt refuses, and brings up that they already spent about $80,000 on equipment specifically designed for a P2P methylamine cook, and that going the pseudo route would net them very little money. Mike retorts that making some money is better than none, which triggers a heated discussion where Walt claims that Mike is only wanting to scrape together money to pay off his jailed associates so that they don't snitch on them while Mike fires back that Walt is fine with pulling a train heist where innocent men would need to be killed. Jesse then declares a plan to rob the train, not only without killing the men onboard, but without them even realizing they had been robbed.
Act III[]
In a remote area of McKinley County, Mike, Jesse, Walt and Todd measure an 800-foot stretch of railroad track, the length to reach the tanker car carrying the methylamine. They discover that the length aligns perfectly with a small trestle; the operation can be completed and be well-hidden from the locomotive crew. The four excavate the ground and bury two 1,000-gallon chemical tanks near the trestle. Todd fills one with water, its weight approximately 90% of the weight of the methylamine they intend to steal, and the other remains empty. The plan is to replace the methylamine with water as the tanker drains, since the tanker will be weighed after its next stop and the theft would not be noticed if the tanker's listed weight remains the same. Walt and Jesse stress to Todd that no one is to ever know that the heist occurred, which Todd agrees to. Since they are not stealing all 24,000 gallons of methylamine, Todd inquires as to what would happen when it is delivered and the recipient takes notice of the water in the tank, although Walter merely replies that since the methylamine came from China, the recipient would just assume that the Chinese supplier watered down the product. Todd is impressed and praises them for "thinking of everything," prompting Walt and Jesse to smile.
Back at the White residence, Walt comes home to find that Junior has returned and is refusing to come out of his room until he is told what is going on. Wanting to win Skyler over, Walt curtly tells Junior to return to the Schraders' since he and Skyler need space. When Walt Jr. yells that he will not leave until they tell him exactly what is wrong, Walt refuses to give a reason, simply stating that Walt Jr. should listen to them "because we are your parents, and you are our child." After Junior leaves, Skyler insists that she will never change her mind about Walt. Walt scoffs, replying that he does not accept that since she is his wife, although she retorts that she is not his wife but his hostage. She then proposes a deal: if he agrees to have the children stay with Hank and Marie, she'll continue to launder his proceeds and be whatever kind of partner he wants her to be. Walt is adamant that neither she nor the children are in danger, but Skyler reminds him that it was just the other night that he told her that someone held a gun to his head. She says that at some point, someone may visit the house to kill him, and when that happens, she does not want the children to be home and get caught in the crossfire. Walt seems to accept this, and as he gets up, tells her that the cover story is that she is seeing a therapist. Noticing the dirt on his pants, she asks him if he was out burying bodies, to which he truthfully replies "Out robbing a train."
Act IV[]
Jesse during the train heist
On the day of the heist, Kuby blocks the railroad crossing with a dump truck full of dirt, forcing the locomotive crew to halt the train. Mike signals to Walt as the crew assist Kuby. With Walt operating a pump, Jesse scrambles under the tanker car with a hose, attaches it to the lower spout and begins draining methylamine into the empty tank, while at the same time Todd climbs atop the car with another hose. When Walt's meter indicates that over 300 gallons of methylamine has been siphoned into the first tank, Walt turns on a pump to transfer the water from the second tank up to Todd's position.
Jesse, Todd and Walt moments before Todd shoots Drew Sharp
The plan appears to be working until a good samaritan offers to push Kuby's truck off the tracks; Mike warns Walt to wrap things up. Walt refuses to listen, forcing Jesse and Todd to keep at it even as the locomotive crew return to the train and start moving it. Only when the meter reads 1,000 gallons does Walt tell them to disconnect. The two manage to do so, although Todd is forced to jump off the moving tanker car while Jesse has no choice but to lay down flat on the tracks as the train passes over him. As the train leaves, Walt, Jesse and Todd celebrate their successful heist. However, the mood dampens when the three see the boy on the dirtbike, who has witnessed everything. The boy waves at them, and Todd waves back. Todd then pulls at his gun and Jesse yells at him, but before Jesse can stop him, Todd shoots the boy, killing him.
Official Photos[]
Trivia[]
- Writer and director George Mastras explained that the term "dead freight", used for the name of the episode, refers to wasted space on a vessel that has been paid for in full.
- At one point during Lydia's interrogation, she mentions the train will be travelling through an area of poor reception, referred to in the train industry as "dark territory". The episode was originally titled "Dark Territory," but was changed to avoid confusion with the film Under Siege 2: Dark Territory, which features Jonathan Banks in a similar role he has during the methylamine heist, showing a team of terrorists hijacking a train. Raymond Cruz appeared in the first Under Siege film.
- A deleted scene of Walter calculating the gain from the heist (nearly 300 million USD), compared to all historical train robberies is available on the Blu-ray edition and the Italian version.
- Jesse James is once again mentioned in this episode, this time by Jesse Pinkman when he says that boosting the methylamine from a train is just like "Jesse James." Jesse James was previously brought up when Mike Ehrmantraut compared Walter White's murder of Gustavo Fring to Robert Ford, Jesse James' assassin, saying "Just because you shot Jesse James, don't make you Jesse James." ("Hazard Pay")
- The movie Hank says he has on Blu-ray, Michael Mann's Heat (1995) is a heist film. During the opening heist in which Neil McCauley's crew stages an armored car robbery, one of the thieves, Waingro, executes a guard unnecessarily, and is subsequently dumped by the gang. This parallels the ending of this episode when after the train heist, Todd Alquist shoots the boy, much to the dismay of Mike and Jesse.
- The scene where Mike, Jesse and Walt are interrogating Lydia is very similar to the scene in the Season 3 episode, "Half Measures" when Gus has the meeting with Jesse and the two drug dealers that Walt ends up running over. In that scene, Gus tells Jesse that Walt is his only friend in the room, and when Jesse turns to look at Walt, Gus tells him: "You don't look at him, you look at me." In the scene with Lydia, Mike tells her that Jesse and Walt are being kind to spare her, and when she turns to look at them Mike tells her: "Look at me, not them."
- The shot of Jesse underneath the train was achieved by visual effects, with two separate shots combined: the train moving and revealing the tracks, and Jesse on the tracks.
- Many crew members working on the episode have said it was very tough to film. According to Mastras, the episode was logistically complicated to film because many cameras were needed to capture the lengthy train heist sequence. One of the troubles included the train breaking down on the first day of filming the sequence, which according to Vince Gilligan ended up taking four days to shoot.
Production[]
Credits[]
Starring
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Guest Starring
Co-Starring
Filming Locations[]
- The train heist was filmed at a location just off US-285 & Spur Ranch Rd. This location is probably one of the furthest from Albuquerque other than the 4 Corners scene (excluding stock footage). The train bridge is located at 35.498818, -105.916618 and the train crossing where they stall the truck is a few hundred feet away.
Featured Music[]
- "Dead Freight" by Dave Porter (as the gang rob the train)
Memorable Quotes[]
- Jesse: "I hate to say it, but she's right, Mike. She saved our asses by finding that thing."
- Mike: "She's saving herself. She's a loose cannon. I am telling you, she will turn a gun or a badge on us the first chance she gets. The woman put a hit out on me."
- Walter: "Seriously?"
- ―Jesse, Walter and Mike discussing the captured Lydia.
- Lydia: "Hey! You still need methylamine, don't you? Right? You wanna talk methylamine? Then tell your partner to stop threatening me, and let's talk."
- Walter: "Talk about what? You heard. You can't even get us a single barrel."
- Lydia: "Who said anything about barrels? I'm talking about an ocean of the stuff."
- ―Lydia bartering with methylamine for her life.