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"Sunset" is the sixth episode of the third season of Breaking Bad and the twenty-sixth episode altogether.

Summary[]

Teaser[]

On a Tohajiilee Indian Reservation outside of Albuquerque, a tribal police officer is dispatched to investigate the possible disappearance of an elderly woman. Investigating the woman's property, the officer finds her body behind the outhouse and evidence that someone else has taken up residence inside the house. At the officer's command, Leonel Salamanca comes out of the house and slowly complies with the instructions. While the officer is distracted, Marco Salamanca sneaks up from behind and slaughters him with an axe.

Act I[]

3x06 Sunset

Walter watching a model condo for purchase.

Skyler calls Walt to discuss the signed divorce papers she found in Holly's crib. Skyler objects to the idea of Walt using his drug money to pay child support, only to contend that Walt has been using that money to pay their bills for the last six months. Walt is looking at a model condo, which he offers to buy with its furnishings. Meanwhile, the Cousins enter Los Pollos Hermanos, where Gus watches as they sit down in a booth without ordering or saying anything.

At Jesse's house, the blue meth Jesse has made without Walt dazzles Badger. Jesse invites Badger and Skinny Pete to rejoin him in the business, but in a much more cautious manner. Jesse has Badger get Clovis to fix up the RV while Skinny Pete procures supplies. As Skinny Pete and Badger depart, they have no idea that Hank is watching the house from his SUV parked down the street and that he recognizes Badger from the official Heisenberg arrest.

Act II[]

Walt drives Walt Jr., who is sullen about the impending divorce, to school. Elsewhere, Gus arrives at Los Pollos Hermanos and sees the Cousins sitting at a booth again. Gus assures his manager that the Cousins are doing nothing wrong, instructing to leave them be. Nonetheless, he does seem annoyed by their persistence.

On his first day of work at the superlab, Walt meets his new assistant, Gale Boetticher, a specialist in X-ray crystallography with a libertarian attitude regarding the use of drugs by consenting adults. Gale is enthused about cooking with Walt and working in the superlab. Prompted by Walt, he recites "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," Walt Whitman's poem about the exhilaration of experiencing scientific wonders first-hand.

Meanwhile, Hank, still staking out Jesse's house and accumulating a pile of fast food wrappers, receives a call from Marie and is asked when he's coming home. Hank insists that he must stay where he is until Jesse leads him to the RV or does something illegal. Remembering that Jesse was once alleged to have sold marijuana to Walt, Marie suggests Hank talk to him on the grounds that he might know something. When Hank calls Walt and asks if Jesse owned an RV, which he believes is being used as a mobile meth lab, leading Walt to realize that Hank is closing in on Jesse and thus by extension Walt himself.

Act III[]

Walt calls Jesse, but hangs up before speaking out of fear of the line being tapped. He then calls Saul and tells him that Hank knows about the RV, which is covered in physical evidence, including Walt's fingerprints. Saul tells Walt to get rid of the RV and Walt races to the repair yard and orders Clovis and Badger to destroy the RV. Clovis agrees and knows of someone who owns a junkyard and will destroy the RV entirely. Badger informs Jesse that Walt is taking the RV to the junkyard, who rushes out of his house to drive to the RV, believing that Walt is trying to halt his meth business while unaware he's being trailed by Hank. Meanwhile, Gus, frustrated with the Cousins lurking in his restaurant once more, approaches them and arranges an off-site meeting: "Sunset."

At the junkyard, Walt pays Old Joe $10,000 and discusses the demolition of the RV, to which Old Joe assures Walt the vehicle will be destroyed and the pieces shipped overseas to be recycled. Walt is alone in the RV when Jesse barges in, confronting him over attempting to get rid of the RV behind his back. Seconds later, Hank drives up to the junkyard, and Walt reprimands Jesse for leading Hank right to them.

Act IV[]

After Hank pounds on the door of the RV, Walt strains to hold the door shut as Hank tries to pry it open with a lug wrench. Old Joe confronts Hank, challenging him on whether he has a warrant or probable cause to search the RV, and how the law protects Jesse from having his RV broken into by a federal officer. Old Joe mentions that the parked RV is legally considered a domicile, and its residents would be constitutionally protected against unlawful search and seizure.

3x06 Sunset 2

Walt and Jesse inside the RV as Hank is investigating outside.

Hank attempts to refute Old Joe's claim by removing the duct tape patches that cover the bullet holes in the RV's door, reasoning that a firearm was discharged inside the RV and that gives him probable cause to search it. Thinking quickly, Walt asks Jesse to repeat the words he's whispering: Jesse then asks out loud how Hank could have known that the bullet holes were there before Hank removed the tape. When Jesse parrots that the RV is his domicile and that he cannot be harassed, Hank walks back to his car and calls ASAC Merkert to obtain a search warrant. However, Hank chooses to stay parked by the RV and wait for another agent to bring the warrant to him. In order to get rid of Hank, Walt calls Saul and asks him for help.

Saul has his secretary, Francesca, pose as an Albuquerque police officer and dials Hank's number, telling him that Marie has been involved in a car accident and is being airlifted to a hospital. Fearing the worst, Hank gets into his SUV and drives away from the junkyard. When he reaches the hospital, he realizes he has been tricked when Marie, alive and well, calls him on his cell phone to make plans for dinner. Back at the junkyard, a front loader crumples the RV and loads its remains into a crusher while Jesse and Walt watch.

At sunset, Gus and the Cousins meet in the desert. Gus reiterates they must not touch Walt until his business with him is concluded. He reasons that while Walt may have betrayed their cousin Tuco, it was a DEA agent who killed him. The Cousins notify Gus that Juan Bolsa has declared that DEA agents are not to be killed by cartel members. Gus replies that north of the border (the United States) is his territory, and that he gives them permission to kill the DEA agent, disclosing to the Cousins that the agent's name is Hank Schrader.

Official Photos[]

Trivia[]

  • This episode is the first appearance of Gale Boetticher.
  • The painting on the wall of the model apartment has been seen before: it was on the wall of the doctor's office in the "Pilot".
  • When Jesse asks Badger to get the RV in shape, he specifically asks for a buzzer that buzzes when the key is placed in the ignition, a reference to his mistake in "4 Days Out".
  • In a phone conversation with Walter, Skyler sarcastically refers to her unhappiness as "completely out of the clear blue sky unhappiness." Blue Sky is the name given by the DEA to Walt's meth.
  • The call sign for the tribal police officer in the episode's teaser is "KDK-12", the same call sign for the radio at the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining.
  • This is the last appearance of the RV before its return via a flashback in "Ozymandias". 
  • This episode has several continuity errors:
    • Saul doesn't seem to recall the RV, even though he was kidnapped in it in the episode "Better Call Saul", and afterwards was driven back in it, as seen in "Breaking Bad (episode)".
    • In shots of Old Joe's junkyard, Jesse's 1986 Toyota Tercel is not shown even though he drove there.
    • Walt was not previously made aware that Jesse had stored the RV with Clovis, yet when informed that Hank is looking for the RV, he immediately drives to Clovis' yard.
  • Dean Norris said that, in filming the scene where he's trying to use a lug wrench to force his way into the RV, it was at Bryan Cranston's suggestion that he run the lug wrench along the outside of the RV to further amp up Hank's intimidation tactic.
  • Larry Hankin (Old Joe), like Bryan Cranston, Anna Gunn and Bob Odenkirk, is also a Seinfeld alum. Hankin's character auditions for and is cast in the role of "Kramer" in the fourth-season episodes "The Pilot, Part 1" & "Part 2".

Production[]

Credits[]

Filming Locations[]

  • Walt purchases the display model apartment. The apartment/condos are located at 3932 Silver Ave SE.

Featured Music[]

  • "Sun Shine On Me" by Buddy Stuart (as Walt prepares for his first day in the superlab)
  • "Ginza Samba" by Vince Guaraldi & Bola Sete (as Walt and Gale first cook together)
  • "He Venido (Bolero)" by Los Zafiros (as the RV is crushed)
  • "Breaking Bad Sunset End Credits" by Dave Porter (end credits)

Memorable Quotes[]

"This is my own private domicile and I will not be harassed...bitch!"
―Jesse to Hank.

"The agent's name is Hank Schrader. May his death satisfy you."
―Gus to the Cousins.


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