One Minute (Breaking Bad)

A flashback in Mexico shows a young Leonel Salamanca complaining to his uncle, Hector, about a broken toy. In response, Hector shoves Marco's head in a tub of icy water despite Leonel's objections, and finally releases him while proclaiming "la familia es todo" (family is everything). In the present, Leonel and Marco light candles at a makeshift Santa Muerte shrine. In the center, they place a photo of Hank Schrader.

Furious that he was tricked into believing that his wife was in the hospital, Hank goes to Jesse Pinkman's house and attacks him as he opens the door. He knocks Jesse out cold before realizing that he has gone too far. Paramedics come and wheel Jesse away to the hospital as Hank stares in awe. Walt and Saul arrive at the hospital and meet Jesse. Walt notes that they would be in jail if they had not tricked Hank, after Jesse blames him for his predicament. Jesse also claims that he will make Hank's life miserable, and, despite Saul's objections, threatens to hand Walt to the DEA if he or Saul intervenes. At the DEA, Hank makes a statement about what happened at the junkyard, but pleads the Fifth when it comes to his actions at Jesse's house. He is then informed that Jesse is filing charges for his actions.

Skyler visits Walt at his condo. He initially believes she is mocking him, but she pleads with him to pacify Jesse so that Hank does not face charges. Walt refuses despite Skyler's assertion that Hank is his family and asks her to leave.

Later, at the lab, Gale attempts to be friendly with Walt, but he gives him the cold shoulder. He forces a disagreement with Gale and later convinces a reluctant Gus to make Jesse his partner again. At the hospital, Walt pitches the job to Jesse, who mocks it as a ploy to save Hank. He initially refuses, citing Walter's previous wrongdoings of him, but he eventually calls Walt and says he agrees to the partnership.

In the desert, Leonel and Marco meet with a trucker hawking an array of weapons. He gives them a free hollow point bullet and shows off his bulletproof vest, which Leonel and Marco test by shooting him point blank. When he survives, they purchase two vests and leave him on the floor complaining about possible broken ribs.

At the DEA office, Hank admits to assaulting Jesse, and is suspended without pay and has his gun confiscated. As Hank departs, he learns Jesse is not pressing charges after all. Later, Hank is in an SUV in a parking lot when he gets a phone call and an electronically disguised voice tells Hank that he has one minute to leave before two men show up to kill him. At first, he wonders if it is a prank call, but after one minute Leonel and Marco arrive and ambush Hank. He reverses, wounding Leonel, but Marco catches Hank on the ground. As Marco reloads, he drops the hollow point bullet and decides to kill Hank using an axe. Hank reaches for Leonel's gun and shoots Marco in the head, as the axe lands right next to him.

"One Minute" originally aired on AMC on Sunday, May 2, 2010. The episode was viewed by an estimated 1.519 million American viewers, and received a 0.6 Nielsen rating among adults between the ages of 18 and 49.[2] This means that it was seen by 0.6% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast.[3]

The episode was acclaimed by critics and is considered to be one of the best in the series. Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club praised the suspense and tension of the episode, giving it an "A" and writing that "I doubt you needed the threat of imminent natural disaster for this episode to put you on edge".[4] Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a 10/10 ("Masterpiece") rating, saying that "'One Minute' was this show's finest hour, and maybe one of the best episodes of anything we've seen on TV in the last 20 years."[5]

Maclaren was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for this episode.[6]

In 2019 The Ringer ranked "One Minute" as the 4th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[7]