Crawl Space (Breaking Bad)

Making their escape after killing off Don Eladio (Steven Bauer) and the Cartel's leadership, Jesse (Aaron Paul) drives Gus (Giancarlo Esposito), who is weakened, and Mike (Jonathan Banks), who is wounded, to a makeshift emergency room that Gus earlier prepared. Gus recovers quickly, but Mike has to stay another week before he can safely travel, so he is left behind in Mexico. Jesse is told that he will take over cooking meth for Walter (Bryan Cranston), but Jesse insists that Walter must not be harmed. Gus later visits Hector (Mark Margolis), who is confined to a wheelchair in a nursing home. Hector is in the nursing home's day room, watching the climactic scene of Bridge on the River Kwai. Gustavo tells Hector that all of the cartel's leaders are dead and that the henchman Jesse shot during the escape was Joaquin Salamanca, Hector's grandson, and the last of Hector's relatives; with Joaquin's death, Jesse has wiped out the Salamanca line.

Hank (Dean Norris) continues to investigate Gus on his own, while Walter drives him, and decides to inspect the industrial laundry that hides the meth lab. Hoping to stop Hank's investigation, Walter gets into a car crash, injuring himself and Hank. Although he stops asking for Walter's help, Hank remains undeterred and buys a car made for disabled drivers. Meanwhile, Ted (Christopher Cousins) attempts to return Skyler's (Anna Gunn) money after learning it was hers, which Walter had won by gambling (the cover story that she uses for the meth profits). Ted says the money will only pay off the IRS and not help his business or pay bills, which Skyler views as an attempt to blackmail her for more money. She calls Saul (Bob Odenkirk), who has his bodyguard Huell (Lavell Crawford) and con artist Kuby (Bill Burr) scare Ted into paying the IRS. He does, but slips and hits his head while trying to escape from them, knocking himself out as a result.[1]

Walter realizes that Jesse has also been cooking in the lab. Walter pleads for them to stick together to thwart Gus, but Jesse, still bitter after their fight, turns his back on Walter. Walter is suddenly paralyzed with an electric cattle prod by Tyrus (Ray Campbell) and brought to the desert where Gus confronts him. Gus fires Walter, warning him to stay away from Jesse. Although he will not kill Walter because of Jesse's loyalty to him, Walter assures Gus that Jesse will prove disloyalty and side with Gus, effectively eliminating the little protection Walter still enjoys. Gus also says that, because Walter failed to stop Hank's investigation, Hank will also be killed; if Walter interferes, Gus will kill Walter's entire family.

Panicked, Walter barges into Saul's office and takes Saul up on an earlier offer to go into hiding. The man who will do it needs $500,000 in cash immediately, which Skyler has stored in a crawl space in the house. Walter also asks Saul to anonymously warn the DEA that Hank is being targeted. Saul initially refuses but agrees if Gus' name isn't mentioned. Walter rushes home and is perplexed when there is not enough money; Skyler tells him about the money she gave to Ted. Horrified, Walter screams, suffering a breakdown, and laughs maniacally. As Skyler backs away, Marie (Betsy Brandt), crying, calls to say that the DEA has received an anonymous tip that Hank is a target again, and the DEA is sending many agents to guard him.

Due to his nomination, Bryan Cranston submitted this episode for consideration for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for the 64th Primetime Emmy Awards.[2]

The episode received laudatory reviews from television critics and has been cited by many as one of the best in the series. Noel Murray of The A.V. Club awarded the episode an "A" describing it as being "intense and terrifying".[3] Seth Amitin of IGN awarded the episode 9 out of 10 praising Bryan Cranston's performance calling it "an amazing piece of acting" and further described the episode as "shocking and eye-brow-raising and fascinating".[4]

In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Crawl Space" as the 9th best out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[5]

• "Crawl Space" at the official Breaking Bad site
• "Crawl Space" on IMDb
• "Crawl Space" at TV.com