Box Cutter (Breaking Bad)

During a pre-credits flashback sequence, methamphetamine manufacturer Gale Boetticher excitedly sets up equipment in an underground meth superlab for drug kingpin Gus Fring. Gale asks Gus about the blue meth being produced by chemist Walter White, who is not yet working for Gus. Gus explains he has reservations about hiring Walter, but Gale insists Gus hire him because of his superior product.

In the present day, Walt's partner Jesse Pinkman has just shot Gale to death[lower-alpha 1] on orders from Walt to foil Gus' plot to kill and replace them. Gus' henchman Victor arrives at Gale's apartment and finds him dead, surrounded by neighbors who have just called police. Victor finds a stunned Jesse sitting in his car and forces him to return to the lab, where Gus' employee Mike Ehrmantraut is holding Walt hostage. Mike, who is concerned that Victor was seen at Gale's apartment, calls to inform Gus. Victor, who realizes his own position is precarious because witnesses saw him at Gale's, has watched Walt work and starts cooking meth himself to prove that he has value to Gus, and that Gus does not need Walt or Jesse. Walt grows concerned when Victor proves better at the process than he expected.

Meanwhile, Walt's wife Skyler observes his car in her driveway and, not wishing her son Walter Jr. to see it, parks it a few blocks away to conceal it. Concerned about Walt's apparent disappearance, she calls their lawyer Saul Goodman, but he has become paranoid because of Walt's falling out with Gus and is too busy checking his office for listening devices. Skyler hires a locksmith to break into Walt's condo, claiming she lives there. When he hesitates to do so without verifying her address, Skyler claims her purse was stolen and fakes a panic attack until he lets her in, but she finds little of interest. Elsewhere, Skyler's sister Marie struggles to maintain her composure while caring for her belligerent husband Hank, who is still bedridden after the attempt on his life.

Gus arrives at the lab but says nothing. Walt launches into a nervous, rambling monologue of excuses and justifications, trying to convince Gus he needs him and Jesse alive. He claims it is Gus who is ultimately responsible for Gale's death, not them, and insists Victor cannot produce the high-quality meth Gus needs. Gus maintains his silence, even while changing into hazmat gear and selecting a box cutter from a storage shelf, while Victor grins in anticipation. Never changing his demeanor, Gus suddenly slices Victor's throat, startling the others. Through the killing, Gus simultaneously punishes Victor while delivering a stern message to Walt and Jesse. Gus drops the body to the floor and coldly eyes the duo to ensure his message was received. He quietly returns to his street clothes, then walks out of the lab, pausing only to say, "Well, get back to work."

Later, Walt and Jesse dispose of Victor's body, the gun that killed Gale, and the box cutter in a barrel of hydrofluoric acid. During breakfast, Walt insists that Gale's death was necessary, but expresses concern that Gus will kill them at his next opportunity. Jesse doubts this, believing it will be too much trouble for Gus to find another drug manufacturer, and that both they and Gus understand the situation: neither can kill the other, so Gus might as well make them wish they were dead. The episode ends with police investigating Gale's apartment with the camera focusing on his lab notes, which have yet to be discovered.

"Box Cutter" was written by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan.

"Box Cutter", the fourth season premiere of Breaking Bad, was directed by Adam Bernstein and written by series creator Vince Gilligan.[1] Filmed in January 2011,[2] the episode was edited by Skip MacDonald, one of a handful of editors who have regularly worked on the series.[3] It was broadcast on July 17, 2011, and was the first original Breaking Bad episode in 13 months, since the third season finale episode "Full Measure" aired in June 2010.[4] AMC officials delayed the fourth-season premiere until July because they felt the Nielsen ratings would be better during the summer.[5][6] While Breaking Bad scripts are generally 50 pages long, the screenplay to "Box Cutter" was 43 pages long, and Gilligan was originally concerned because he did not want to stretch out the episode simply to pad the running time.[7] "Full Measure" ended with Jesse's pulling a gun on Gale and firing directly into the screen, with Gale's death not visibly revealed on-screen. This led to wide speculation among fans and reviewers that Jesse did not actually kill Gale, but rather aimed away from him and fired the gun. This speculation continued up until the original broadcast of "Box Cutter", which confirmed Jesse indeed killed Gale.[8][9] Gilligan said he never intended for that scene to be a cliffhanger and he thought it clearly conveyed that Gale had died.[1][10][11]

"Box Cutter" featured the final regular appearances of recurring Breaking Bad actors David Costabile and Jeremiah Bitsui who, respectively, played Gale Boetticher and Victor.[9][12] Stand-up comedian Lavell Crawford also made his first of several guest appearances in "Box Cutter" as Huell, Saul's new bodyguard.[13] Gilligan stated that he named the episode "Box Cutter" mainly because "it just sounded like a cool title", but also because he was concerned that the climax of the episode took so long to build to that, by calling it "Box Cutter", "Perhaps I was thinking on some level, 'We'd better let the audience know that there's something at the end of this.'"[7] Although the Breaking Bad staff always intended for Gale to be killed, the audience reaction to "Full Measure" made Gilligan and the Breaking Bad writing staff reconsider whether their plans were the best ones. However, Gilligan said they instead decided to follow their original plan,[14][15] saying "At the end of the day, the choice we made for how to press forward was the choice we felt was the most honest, and the one that would best continue the story."[14]

Giancarlo Esposito said that when he first read the script for "Box Cutter", he was so shocked that he had to put it down and walk away from it.[12][16] Esposito said he did not want to "take any of [the scene] home with me" and had "some deep concern about being able to do it and coming out of it unscathed, without really hurting my spirit and my soul".[16] He worked through these concerns by justifying Gus' actions in that, by killing Victor, he was protecting everyone else who works for him. Nevertheless, he said it was "a difficult moment for me" to slit Victor's throat, and that during one take he tried to hush the character to make him die more calmly. That scene took two days to film, and Esposito remained silent and focused during filming, rarely speaking to the others on set. The boots he was originally given were too large and he was concerned that he would slip, which would be out of character for Gus, who was otherwise completely calm and in control. A costume designer quickly procured the right-sized boots for him.[16]

In writing the script, the Breaking Bad staff decided early on that Gus would not speak much during the scene because they felt it was more dramatic that way and more appropriate for his character.[17] Esposito felt the scene was a pivotal moment not only for his character, but for Gus' relationship with Walter, and a warning that Walter should continue to operate Gus' way or risk death. Regarding his character's murder of Victor, Esposito said: "This had to be done. Someone did something, they got seen. ... It was about survival. This had to be done, but I could do it in a way that also sent a message to the people who weren't listening."[12] Bryan Cranston said he was not expecting the episode to take the direction it did.[18] He called the scene "painful, but beautifully crafted, and reasonably so", and commented on the contrast between Gus' calm demeanor and Walter's "tap-dancing to stay alive". Cranston said of Esposito's performance, "When he plays that bad character, his eyes go dead, and all it takes is to look into his eyes."[19] Gilligan said although Gus' actions in the scene were scripted, "You'd be surprised how little I talked to Giancarlo about how he played that part ... This is a man with amazing instincts."[7]

A major theme of "Box Cutter" involves Walter's gradual change from an unwitting participant in a drug-dealing enterprise into a man more comfortable with a life of crime who embraces his darker side and becomes more proactively violent and dangerous. This development began during the latter episodes of the third season and would continue to be a major theme throughout the fourth season.[18][20][21] The episode also introduced the ongoing theme of Jesse's moral decline and self guilt over his killing of Gale.[22][23][24] Aaron Paul said of this, "Jesse's much more raw this season. He's very distant, and he's turned to just utter chaos and destruction to keep his mind busy. When he's left alone in his own thoughts, that's when things can get kind of dangerous and scary for Jesse."[25]

The scene when Walter pleads with Gus demonstrates the paternal sense of protectiveness Walter has developed for Jesse.[26] During that scene, Walter tells Gus, "You kill me, you have nothing. You kill Jesse, you don't have me." Jesse is visibly moved by the statement, which Aaron Paul described as "the first moment that Jesse realizes that Walt's loyalty is to Jesse."[27] "Box Cutter" also illustrated Skyler's growing involvement in Walter's illegal activities through the subplot in which she lies to a locksmith to break into Walter's house, going so far as to use her baby as a prop in her facade.[1][20][28] After Skyler breaks into Walter's apartment, she finds the plastic eyeball of a teddy bear that has been part of the series since the second season. The eye has long been used as a symbol to identify Walter's gradual descent into a life of crime, and Skyler's discovery of it symbolizes her own similar descent.[8][29]

Jeremiah Bitsui sprained his ankle during filming of the scene when Walter and Jesse shoved his corpse into a barrel to dispose of it with hydrofluoric acid.[30] Following that scene, Jesse lifts the barrel with a forklift and it is lit in a way that the barrel can be seen through. This was accomplished by back-lighting the barrel and tying monofilament to the bottom of it, which staff members then moved and twisted outside of the view of the camera to create the lighting effect.[31]

During a scene when Gale's neighbor calls police to report his murder, a clock in Gale's apartment reads 10:13. This is a deliberate reference to the number 1013, which frequently appeared in The X-Files, where Vince Gilligan worked as a writer and producer and Bryan Cranston as an actor. It refers to the name of X-Files creator Chris Carter's production company Ten Thirteen Productions, which in turn is a reference to Chris Carter's birthday, October 13.[8] A copy of Everything's Eventual, a collection of short stories by Stephen King, can be seen in Gale's apartment.[32] After Walter and Jesse are released by Gus, they eat lunch at Denny's, a coffee shop and family restaurant chain.[9][33] During this scene, they are wearing matching T-shirts with country music singer Kenny Rogers on them.[11][28] The T-shirts are deliberately not explained in the episode, but Vince Gilligan said he believed Mike simply bought the first articles of clean clothing he could find for Walter and Jesse after their clothes were soaked with Victor's blood.[7] During the final scene of "Box Cutter", when Walter walks back to his car, the Alex Ebert song "Truth" plays in the background.[1][8]

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