4 Days Out

Walt arrives at the hospital with his family for a CT scan to learn how he has reacted to chemotherapy. He is told that the results of the test will not be ready for a week, but sees a scan of his lungs and notices a prominent growth. Believing that he has little time left, and realizing that recent expenses and Saul Goodman's fees for laundering his money leave him with little to give his family, Walt decides to spend several days doing nothing but cooking meth. Walt makes up a story about visiting his mother for an extended weekend to be able to explain his absence to Skyler. He convinces Jesse to help for the weekend; Jesse is initially reluctant but cancels his plans to go on a date in Santa Fe with Jane when Walt claims they need to use as much of their supply of methylamine as possible before it spoils.

After Jesse collects the additional supplies and picks Walter up from the Albuquerque International Sunport, they drive the RV out to the desert to cook. Walt tells Jesse to leave the keys in a safe spot, and Jesse leaves them in the ignition switch, unaware that it is draining the vehicle's battery. After a few days of cooking, Walt estimates they have nearly $1.2 million in meth. With their portable generator out of gasoline, Walt wants to get more gasoline and get right back to work, but Jesse convinces him they should take a break to find a hotel for the night. When they go to start the RV, they find the battery dead. They attempt to siphon off gasoline from the RV to the generator to jump start the vehicle, but gas spilled in the process causes the generator to catch fire, and Jesse uses all of their drinking water to douse it.

Jesse suggests they call Skinny Pete for help using Walt's cell phone; despite knowing that Skyler will likely discover this in his cell phone records, Walt allows Jesse to make the call. Jesse tries to give directions to Skinny Pete, but they are unsure if he got them all. When Skinny Pete does not arrive, they call him again, and discover he is far off the directions before the phone dies.

Walter tears down the generator to allow him to try to trickle charge the RV's battery by manually turning the generator's crank. Though this briefly enables the engine to turn over, the battery quickly dies. Walt becomes depressed and starts suffering from heat exhaustion. Jesse realizes that Walt believes he is going to die, evidenced later when Walt coughs up blood. Walt believes he deserves to die as he has constantly lied to his family. Jesse tries to cheer Walt from his slump, and this inspires Walt to construct their own battery from the materials they have on hand. The makeshift battery provides enough power to jump-start the RV, and they are able to return to Albuquerque. Jesse drops Walt off at the airport, assuring Walt that if Walt dies, his family will get their share of the money.

Walt and his family return to the doctor the next week, and learn that Walt's cancer is in remission; the "growth" Walt spotted was simply inflamed tissue in his lung, and a resulting tear in his esophagus caused him to cough up blood, but will heal in time. Walt's family is ecstatic, but Walt, privately, has a violent outburst realizing that death will not put an end to his web of lies or his drug dealing.

The episode was directed by Michelle MacLaren and written by Sam Catlin. It aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on May 3, 2009.

The episode received critical acclaim. Emily VanDerWerff, writing for Slant, praised the episode for its cinematography: "It's also staggeringly beautiful, drinking in the desert landscape that dominates its running time with a wide-eyed sense for the beauty of the wilderness." She added that the episode continued the series' world-building, comparing it to the likes of The Wire and The Sopranos, stating "the best television series are full of the breadth and depth of the panoply of human life."[1] Alan Sepinwall felt similarly, writing "image after image—the glowing orange light of the desert, the cool blues of the chemicals mixing together, the tableaux of the RV resting in the tall grass or Walt and Jesse enjoying the night air after a hard day's work—looked absolutely gorgeous."[2] Donna Bowman, of The A.V. Club, gave the episode an A. She praised the episode for highlighting the characters' ability to act under pressure.[3]

The Ringer ranked "4 Days Out" as the 27th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[4]

• "4 Days Out" at the official Breaking Bad site
• "4 Days Out" at IMDb
• "4 Days Out" at TV.com