Cat's in the Bag...

"Cat's in the Bag..."
Breaking Bad episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 2
Directed by Adam Bernstein
Written by Vince Gilligan
Original air date January 27, 2008
Running time 48 minutes
Guest actors

"Cat's in the Bag..." is the second episode of the American television drama series Breaking Bad. Written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Adam Bernstein, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on January 27, 2008.

Plot

Walt and Jesse return the RV to Jesse's house. The house, which was previously owned by Jesse's late aunt, is the perfect hideaway for them. When they open the RV to remove the two bodies, they notice that one of the bodies is still moving. Emilio is dead but Krazy-8 is still breathing.

They imprison the unconscious Krazy-8 in the basement of the house and secure him to a pole with a bicycle lock around his neck. Walt suggests that they should use hydrofluoric acid to dissolve Emilio's corpse, so it leaves no evidence behind.

Walt and Jesse must decide what to do now. One of them needs to dispose of the corpse, while the other must kill Krazy-8. They toss a coin to see who will do what. Jesse wins and chooses to dispose the corpse, so Walt is left to kill Krazy-8.

Walt instructs Jesse to buy a bin made from polyethylene, in which the corpse can be properly dissolved, but Jesse cannot find a polyethylene bin big enough to accommodate the corpse. Walt is thinking about suffocating Krazy-8, but ends up giving him a sandwich and toiletries instead.

Jesse returns home and asks Walt how the murder went and Walt promises to take care of Krazy-8 tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the pregnant Skyler begins to suspect that Walt is doing something secretly. When Skyler does some research, she arrives at Jesse's house. Walt does not know what to say, so he makes up a lie. He says that he smokes pot sometimes and that Jesse is his dealer. Later Skyler visits Jesse at an inopportune time. Skyler tells Jesse that her brother-in-law is a DEA agent and that this is his one and only warning to stop selling Walt marijuana. Jesse struggles to keep the corpse of Emilio hidden when Skyler tells him this.

Jesse does not find the specific plastic bin Walt instructed him to use, so he decides to dissolve the corpse in his bathtub. But the ceramic and metal bathtub also gets dissolved and soon the ceiling collapses followed by a flood of clumpy red fluid, presumably a mixture of the hydrofluoric acid and Emilio's half broken-down remains.

Walt tells Jesse that hydrofluoric acid will dissolve anything except plastic.

Two Native American children play out in the desert and one notices Walt's gas mask behind a rock, and puts it on her head.

Production

The episode was written by Vince Gilligan, and directed by Adam Bernstein; it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on January 27, 2008.

Critical reception

The episode was critically acclaimed. Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a rating of 9.6 out of 10 commenting: "It's strange, but there's a great chemistry between these three characters, like they're puzzle pieces and their jagged edges aren't even close to matching, but they fit somehow."[1] Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "A-", saying: "At the end of the powerhouse premiere last week, I thought: Well, it's all downhill from here... I found it hard to imagine that such an episode could maintain the premiere's edge-of-psychosis tone."[2]

Title meaning

The episode title is a part of a line from the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success, in which a character reports that he resolved an issue. It means that Walt and Jesse capture Krazy-8 and lock him in the basement.

J.J. Hunsecker: That means you've got a plan. Can you deliver?
Sidney Falco: Tonight, before you go to bed. The cat's in the bag and the bag's in the river.

References

  1. ↑ Amitin, Seth (January 28, 2008). "Breaking Bad: "Cat's in the Bag ..." Review". IGN. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  2. ↑ Bowman, Donna (January 27, 2008). "Breaking Bad: "Cat's In The Bag"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 4, 2014.

External links