"One Minute" is the seventh episode of the third season of Breaking Bad and the twenty-seventh episode altogether.

Summary

Teaser

In a flashback to 1988 in Mexico, two young boys fight over a toy while their uncle, Hector Salamanca, disparages the "chicken man" during a phone call. When Hector finishes the call, one of the boys, Leonel, complains that his brother Marco broke the toy. When Leonel says that he wishes his brother dead, Hector calls Marco over, then dunks his head in a tub of icy water, intent on drowning him. Leonel feebly gets Hector to stop, only for Hector to keep a firm grasp until Leonel slaps him in the face. Hector tells them that "family is all." In 2009, the now-grown Cousins light candles at a makeshift Santa Muerte shrine. In the center, they place a photo of Hank.

Act I

Furious that he was tricked into believing that his wife was in hospital, Hank violently attacks Jesse at his house, knocking him to the floor and punching him in the face until he's unconscious and bleeding. Realizing he's gone too far, Hank stops himself and calls for an ambulance. As Jesse is being taken away by paramedics, ASAC Merkert approaches Hank and advises that he should talk to a lawyer.

At the hospital, Walt visits Jesse's hospital room, only to find Saul already there and eager to get Jesse off on grounds of police brutality. When Walt asks what Jesse plans to do next, Jesse says he will set about to destroy Hank's life. Further, Jesse plans to start cooking on his own again and will give up Walt if he gets caught. Outside the patient room, Walt tells Saul that Jesse will eventually "come around", but Saul warns that they will have to discuss "options" for dealing with Jesse if he doesn't.

Act II

At the DEA field office, Hank makes a statement about what happened at the junkyard, but invokes the Fifth Amendment when it comes to his actions at Jesse's house. With Jesse filing charges, the detectives interviewing Hank ask to photograph his bruised knuckles for the record. After he leaves the office, Hank meets Marie at the elevator. She holds Hank as he sobs on the ride down, but they compose themselves before they reach the lobby. There, Hank asks Marie not to tell anyone about what happened, but realizes quickly that she already told someone. He then asks her who she told.

Skyler, having been informed of Hank's predicament by Marie, visits Walt at his new condo. She asks if the situation between Hank and Jesse will blow back on him, then pleads with Walt to convince Jesse not to press charges. Walt maintains that he and Jesse have no relationship and that they're not even friends. Later, at the superlab, Walt arrives at work to discover that Gale has already performed several preliminary tasks for the day's cook. "This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship," as Gale jokes.

In the desert, the Cousins meet with a talkative arms dealer who is selling a wide array of weapons from the back of a semi-truck trailer. He gives them a free hollow point bullet, nicknamed "Black Death." The twins ask for bulletproof vests, and the arms dealer shows them a top-of-the-line version. After showing them the vest and displaying that he wears one himself, the Cousins test it by shooting him. When the arms dealer survives, they pay him the two vests and leave him on the floor complaining about possible broken ribs.

Act III

In the superlab, Walt angrily chastises Gale for supposedly making an error. While Gale insists that he followed Walt's instructions, Walt says that he entered the incorrect temperature and that the batch needs to be dumped. Later, Walt calls Gus and tells him that Gale isn't working out, requesting that he be replaced with Jesse. When Walt reminds Gus that he promised to give him the full run of the lab, Gus allows for Jesse to return.

At the Schrader residence, Hank rejects Marie's suggestion to lie about his confrontation with Jesse. When she asserts that Jesse is just a lowlife and Hank's more deserving, he replies that he is supposed to be "better than that." Hank admits that he has been unravelling since he shot Tuco and witnessed the El Paso bombing, and intimates that he thinks he is "done as a cop."

Walt visits Jesse in the hospital and pitches the job in the superlab, but Jesse initially rejects the proposal as a ploy to save Hank. Walt says he just wants to be equal partners again, reminding Jesse that he will be earning $1.5 million. Jesse angrily states that it isn't the money he is rejecting, but Walt himself, stating that his life has been ruined ever since the two of them started cooking together. Jesse then reminds Walt that he told him that his meth was inferior and questions why Walt would want him as a partner. Right before exiting the room, Walt admits that the meth Jesse cooked alone is as good as his own. When he drives back to his condo, Walt receives a phone call from Jesse, who agrees to reestablish their partnership; in doing so, Jesse chooses not to pursue legal action against Hank.

Act IV

At the DEA office, Hank admits to assaulting Jesse. When he refuses to amend his statement fraudulently to place him, and by extension the agency, in a better light, Merkert has no other choice but suspend him without pay, forcing him to surrender his gun and badge. As Hank leaves, he learns from Merkert that Jesse is not pressing charges after all. When a surprised Hank asks why, Merkert muses that he might have a guardian angel.

Later, Hank visits a mall, purchasing gifts for Marie. As he's about to leave in his SUV, Hank receives a phone call in which an electronically disguised voice warns that he has one minute before two men show up to kill him. Hank does not leave the parking lot, believing it to be a prank. Defenseless without his gun, he scans the parking lot instead of driving away. After one minute passes, Leonel appears and shoots through the rear window, hitting Hank in the arm. Hank throws his SUV into reverse and pins Leonel against the car behind him, who drops his gun into Hank's SUV. Marco, striding toward Hank's driver-side window, fires multiple shots and hits Hank in the side as Hank escapes through a rear door, taking Leonel's gun with him. Marco shifts Hank's car into neutral, releasing Leonel. A badly wounded Leonel tells his brother to "finish him".

Marco starts searching for Hank, shooting a passerby along the way. Running out of bullets, Marco stops to reload and accidentally drops the "Black Death" bullet on the ground. Hank then surprises him from behind and shoots him with Leonel's gun, unaware that he's wearing a bulletproof vest. Marco shoots Hank twice in the chest. Marco approaches the badly injured Hank and prepares to shoot him in the head, but then states that shooting him is too easy and goes to the trunk of his car to retrieve the axe. Hank notices the "Black Death" bullet and manages to load the round into Leonel's gun as Marco returns. At the last second, Hank chambers the round and shoots Marco in the head, killing him. The falling axe lodges itself in the pavement right next to a bleeding Hank.

Official Photos

Trivia

• Walter White Jr., Gustavo Fring, and Mike Ehrmantraut do not appear in this episode.
• The wooden chair on which Hector Salamanca is sitting resembles a wheelchair, foreshadowing his future handicap.
• Hector is on the phone with someone in the Cartel, talking about the "Chicken Man" (Gus). During the phone call he expresses a dislike for him.
• "Sudaca" is a derogatory term used in Spain for all Latin Americans. In México it refers to South Americans.
• The title refers to Hector Salamanca's question as to how much longer Marco has to live under water. "One minute?" It also refers to how much time Hank has until the Salamanca brothers attack.
  • After Jesse has a conversation with Walt on the phone about becoming partners again, the clock on his phone is shown to pass one minute from 1:57pm to 1:58pm.
  • When Hank receives the call regarding the attempt on his life, the clock reads "3:07." This episode is number 3x07.
    • One minute later, the time is 3:08 - Walt's address is 308 Negra Arroyo, a reminder of how Walt is inextricably connected to all events, even the phone call which ultimately saves Hank as family and prevents the heat Gus would experience if Hank was killed, seen in "I See You".
• Gale's line "This might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship" is a reference to the 1942 film Casablanca.
• The trucker that the cousins purchase the vests from drives a replica of the Kenworth K-100 Aerodyne that appeared on the show B. J. and the Bear.
• Walt and Jesse's conversation in the hospital has some resemblance to a conversation in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. Walt remarks "So... what happens now?" to which Jesse responds with "What now? I'll tell you what happens now." and lists out how he plans on getting revenge.
  • Compared to Butch and Marcellus's conversation in Pulp Fiction: "What now?" "What now? Let me tell you what now. I'ma call a couple of hard, pipe-hittin' *iggers, who'll go to work on the homes here with a pair of pliers and a blow torch."
• It's not clear who called Hank to tip him off to the hit, since the caller uses an electronic filter to disguise his voice. Thomas Schnauz has mentioned in a tweet that the best guess is that it was Mike or one of Gus's henchman.^[1] Schnauz has also suggested that in an early draft of the script, there was a scene showing Gus making the call himself, but it had to be cut because it would put actor Giancarlo Esposito over the limit of episode appearances in his contract. It was also suggested that Gus' voice, even through a filter, would be too recognizable.
  • According to Jeremiah Bitsui, Victor was the one who called Hank, and also was the one who texted POLLOS to the Cousins to prevent them from killing Walter in "Caballo Sin Nombre".^[2]
• While looking at people around him right after the mysterious call, Hank tries to reach out for his gun, not remembering that he is suspended at work. Earlier in the episode, Marie told him that his actions are the result of his muscle memory, after doing work for years, his body reacts before the brain.
• When Saul Goodman takes a picture of Jesse's injuries and shows him the photo, he makes a reference to the character Rocky from the Rocky series, a professional boxer portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. He also refers to Jesse as "Adrian", who is the spouse of Rocky and is portrayed by Talia Shire.
• When Saul Goodman is showing Jesse a picture that he took of his injuries for a brief moment, the image on the phone is actually in an incorrect orientation and is facing upside down.
• This is the only episode in series in which Saul is shown wearing a tracksuit.
• The final scene between Hank and Marco is replicated in the finale cutscene of the video game 9mm.
• Dean Norris said the scene where Hank is talking to Marie and tells her basically he isn't the man she thinks he is was the most affectionate scene for him, because he almost had his head chopped off by an axe afterwards.
• Ironically, Marco was killed with the hollow point bullet which the Arms Dealer gave him as a 'freebie courtesy'.
  • The bullet is described to have "razor claws that expand upon impact". When Marco is killed, said effects can be seen.
• Filming of the Cousins' ambush of Hank took two days. Some inserts were later added in, like Hank lying on the ground after Marco shoots him in the chest. Dean Norris said in a 2013 interview that filming those inserts entailed lying down on pavement in freezing cold temperatures due to it being shot during the winter time.
• This episode is the only time that the Cousins speak English. When meeting with the arms dealer Leonel says "Vests" while Marco asks "They work?"
• There is a deleted scene where Hank calls 911 shortly after he beats up Jesse.

Production

Credits

Featured Music

• "The Cousins" by Dave Porter (as the cousins place the picture of Hank on the shrine)
• "Hank in Pursuit" by Dave Porter (as Hank beats up Jesse)
• "Black Night" by Badar Ali Khan (playing in the lab as Walt arrives)

Errors

• On the final shot of the episode, at least ten people can be seen standing in and around the parking lot where Hank and the Cousins are lying injured. This would be an extremely odd scenario considering the intense shootout that would have occurred moments prior.
  • The final wide shot of the parking lot doesn't match what happened in the fight. When Hank hits Leonel with his car, it is shown that he crosses from one aisle of lots to another but the shot doesn't have an empty lot for Hank.
  • Hank's car pushing the second car that Leonel is stuck between wouldn't be possible as the car would've had its brakes engaged from having it in park for an automatic transmission (the car is identified as a sixth generation Cadillac DeVille which only had an automatic).
  • When Hank shoots Marco, he is seen falling to the right. However, in the next shot, his body is shown to have fallen to the left.
  • When the axe is dropped, the head lands in the asphalt parallel to where Hank's head is. In the wide shot, the axe is shown embedded further forwards.
• The number of shots fired in Hank's fight with the Cousins is incorrect for the guns used. As both Leonel and Marco use a Colt Gold Cup National Match (an M1911A1) they would've only had 8 shots each at most (7 in the magazine and 1 in the chamber). In the scene, Leonel's gun is fired 14 times between Leonel and Hank before it is empty while Marco fires his 11 times in a single magazine.
• When Hank leaves his office, the outside light makes it appear to be at late morning or early afternoon. However, when Hank and Marie exit the elevator, the lighting is much darker in the lobby and makes it appear to be at dawn or dusk.
• Hank is advised by his lawyer to invoke the 5th amendment, which he does with his testimony about the events with Jesse, but neither him nor the lawyer object when he's asked to present his abrased knuckles for a photo, which would also be protected under the 5th amendment.

Memorable Quotes

"La familia es todo."

―Hector Salamanca to the Cousins.

Marie: "It’s some lowlife degenerate versus you doing the job you’re supposed to. Why should you be the one who pays for doing the right thing?"

Hank: "Oh baby, it wasn’t the right thing. It’s not what the job is. I’m supposed to be better than that."

Marie: "And you made one mistake."

Hank: "No, it wasn’t one mistake. I’ve been–I’ve been–unraveling, you know? I don’t sleep at night anymore. I freeze. I freeze up. My chest gets all tight. I can’t breathe. I panic. Ever since that Salamanca thing. I mean, Tuco Salamanca. If ever a scumbag deserved a bullet between the eyes... It changed me. And I can’t seem to control it. I tried to fight it. But then El Paso. And it’s just gotten worse. What I did to Pinkman–that’s not who I’m supposed to be. That’s not me. All this–everything that’s happened, I swear to God, Marie, I think the universe is trying to tell me something, and I’m finally ready to listen. I’m just not the man I thought I was. I think I’m done as a cop."

―Hank, explaining to Marie that it is time for him to assume the consequences of his actions.

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Walter: "Let me understand this. You’re turning down $1.5 million dollars."

Jesse: "I am not turning down the money. I am turning down you! You get it? I want nothing to do with you! Ever since I met you, everything I’ve ever cared about is gone, ruined, turned to shit, dead, ever since I hooked up with the great Heisenberg! I have never been more alone. I have NOTHING! No one! All right?! It’s all gone! Get it? No, no, no. Why would you get it? What do you even care, as long as you get what you want? Right? You don’t give a shit about me. You said I was no good. I’m nothing! Why would you want me, huh? You said my meth is inferior, right? Right? Hey, you said my cook was garbage! Hey, screw you, man! Screw you!"

Walter: "Your meth is good, Jesse. As good as mine."

―Jesse and Walt in Jesse’s hospital room.

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Notes