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"After last week&amp;#039;s wonderfully tense premiere, &amp;#039;Thirty-Eight Snub&amp;#039; slows things down a touch to focus on the aftermath of the show&amp;#039;s recent shocking events. The episode begins with Walt (Bryan Cranston) buying a gun from Lawson (a welcome guest appearance from Supernatural&amp;#039;s Jim Beaver, after popping up on Justified a few months ago). More specifically, the piece is a snubnosed .38 Special and allows Walt to hide the weapon discreetly under his jacket. Walt tells the seller that it&amp;#039;s simply for &amp;quot;defence&amp;quot;. Jesse (Aaron Paul), fresh from shooting Gale in the head, has Badger (Matt Jones) and Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) over at his place to show off his new &amp;quot;bodacious&amp;quot; sound system and take meth. Jesse is understandably trying to distract himself from the murder he committed, but he edges closer to self-destructing when he impulsively invites perhaps around 50 people to start an almighty party full of booze. Meanwhile, on the same night, Walt practises drawing his newly-bought gun as fast as he can on advice from Lawson. At one point, he draws the gun straight at the camera - at us - much like the cliffhanger from the epic season three finale with Jesse. Only this time, Walt has a steely determined look about him - a truly effective scene.  Elsewhere, Hank (Dean Norris) is staying awake at night looking at his collection of rocks minerals. He seems to be pretty into his newfound hobby, spouting off several facts about the blue corundum in his hand to a worried Marie (Betsy Brandt), who is doing her best to remain optimistic at her husband&amp;#039;s unfortunate paralysis. Things are tense between the pair, and this is only made more obvious when Hank makes decent progress on his rehabilitation the following day. Not long after giving Marie a feeble, half-hearted high-five in celebration, and clearly tired of her constantly positive outlook, Hank yells at her to get out of the room. Skyler (Anna Gunn), on the other hand, spends most of her time obsessing about buying the car wash to help with hiding Walt&amp;#039;s drug-dealing profession. Remember in the very first episode when Walt in a fury swore at the owner and quit working there without notice? That comes to screw Skyler over when the owner, still holding an unhealthy grudge over her husband, demands $20 million to sell the car wash.  Walt and Jesse resume cooking meth at work, when a man enters the super-lab. Walt readies his gun thinking it&amp;#039;s Gus, but it turns out to be his new henchman. Mike (Jonathan Banks) arrives, telling the henchman to re-weigh the latest batch of meth before Walt demands to speak to Gus. Mike informs the cook that he&amp;#039;ll never see Gus again. So what does Walt do? He turns up against his better judgment at Gus&amp;#039;s fancy home at night. As he walks towards the front door, his phone rings. Three chilling words from Gus: &amp;quot;Go home, Walter.&amp;quot; The camera pans to an eerie bird&amp;#039;s-eye view showing Walt completely alone in the dark. Walt was planning to take Gus by surprise, but Gus has the drop on him, one step ahead and refusing to underestimate him. Never one to give up, Walt talks with Mike and tries to plant doubt in his mind that, after what happened with Victor, neither of them are safe. He asks Mike again to let him speak with Gus, but Mike punches Walt to the ground for his troubles, perhaps knocking some sense into him. If Walt wants to take down Gus, surely he&amp;#039;ll need to use all of his wits rather than being reckless.  On the second night of Jesse&amp;#039;s wild party, the writers wrap up a loose end from last season. Andrea - remember her? - turns up at his door seemingly putting two and two together and figuring out Jesse had at least a part in the deaths of her son&amp;#039;s killers (in the episode &amp;#039;Half Measures&amp;#039;). She also received a huge wad of cash in the post. Jesse doesn&amp;#039;t say anything about what happened to the killers, but does tell her to take the money and provide a better life for her and Brock, her remaining son. He&amp;#039;s cutting her from his own life, and as she leaves, Brock sweetly gives Jesse a wave. When the three-day party eventually comes to an end and he&amp;#039;s alone once again in the house, he breaks down, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Aaron Paul absolutely nails this scene - he could be on his way to another Emmy. Breaking It Down... * Gus (Giancarlo Esposito) and Saul (Bob Odenkirk) barely feature this week. Gus&amp;#039;s presence was felt in just three words, but Saul was sorely missed, only appearing in a television advert in a pub. * Did you notice Mike coughing in the pub just moments before Walt arrives? * Funniest conversation of the episode goes to Badger and Skinny Pete debating the superiority of zombie video games. Badger on Resident Evil 4: &amp;quot;That chick - the one you&amp;#039;ve gotta rescue - is smoking, bro. And then you&amp;#039;re the last undead dude on earth, so how can you not be dipping into that?&amp;quot; Then, Badger on the Nazi zombies in Call of Duty: World at War: &amp;quot;They&amp;#039;re the Talibans of the zombie world!&amp;quot; Skinny Pete fully advocates the Left 4 Dead games. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/breaking-bad/review/a331478/breaking-bad-thirty-eight-snub-recap/>