ABQ (Breaking Bad)

Numerous investigators from the NTSB collect and catalog debris, including a half-burnt pink teddy bear, that had fallen around the Whites' neighborhood. In the distance, two columns of smoke can be seen.

Jesse Pinkman wakes from his heroin-induced sleep to find Jane Margolis dead, having choked on her own vomit.[lower-alpha 1] After a frenzied attempt at CPR, Jesse contacts Walter White for help. Feigning ignorance of Jane's death, Walt calls Saul Goodman. Saul sends Mike Ehrmantraut, a cleaner, to remove all evidence of drugs from Jesse's apartment and to coach him on how to interact with authorities. Jane's father Donald arrives at the apartment to find that his daughter has died, with Jesse being interviewed by the medical examiner. Jesse is unable to look Donald in the eyes, and, believing himself to be responsible for Jane's death, runs off to a crack house. Walt locates Jesse and takes him to rehab.

Meanwhile, Walt is preparing to undergo surgery to remove his cancer. The website that Walt Jr. made to bring in anonymous donations—in reality being used by Saul to launder Walt's drug money—has gained media attention due to its apparent success; Walt is uncomfortable in the spotlight. On the day of Walt's operation, as he is put under anesthetics, he accidentally reveals the existence of a second cell phone he uses, making Skyler White suspicious of his activities again.

Six weeks later, after Walt is released from the hospital, Skyler reveals to him that she has investigated his behavior of the past several months and found out he has lied to her many times. Walt offers to tell her everything if she stays, but she is too afraid to know and decides to leave him. By this time, Donald has returned to work as an air traffic controller. While on the job, his mind wanders back to Jane's death; in his emotional state, he inadvertently allows the flight paths of two commercial airliners to cross over Albuquerque.

Walt is sitting beside his swimming pool when he is startled by an explosion overhead. He looks up to see a fireball in the sky above his house, the result of an apparent midair collision. Moments later, a charred pink teddy bear lands in the pool.

The episode was written by Vince Gilligan, and directed by Adam Bernstein. It aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on May 31, 2009. The plane crash at the end of the episode was inspired by the 1986 Cerritos mid-air collision. Coincidentally, Walter White, Breaking Bad's protagonist, shares his name with an air traffic controller involved in the Cerritos collision.

This episode introduced the character of Mike as played by Jonathan Banks.[1] The role of the cleaner to help Jesse prepare to deal with the police was originally meant to be handled by Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, but due to commitments to How I Met Your Mother, he was not available for filming of this episode, so Vince Gilligan created Mike for that episode and into the next season as a cleaner.[2]

The episode received critical acclaim. Donna Bowman, writing for The A.V. Club, commented that the episode "was horrific perfection".[3]

In 2019 The Ringer ranked "ABQ" as the 28th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[4]

• "ABQ" at the official Breaking Bad site
• "ABQ" at IMDb
• "ABQ" at TV.com