Breaking Bad | Season 4 | Episode 13 | “Face Off”
It's all over - for now, at least.
Season four of Breaking Bad goes out with a bang and a hideous knife-twist, setting a new standard for serialised drama. To my knowledge, nobody has even thought about writing season five yet, so we may be in for a long wait until meth chemistry is back on the small screen again.
You can read more about this episode at AMC, IMDb and the A.V. Club.
Random thoughts
It’s hard to see what Jesse is pouring into the reaction tank (partly due to my low-definition broadcast) – it could be C3H4O3 or C2H4O2; the most likely candidate is acetic acid (H3CCOOH).
When the Hired Goon mentions CO2, Jesse turns a gas valve. I’m not sure what place this has in a methamphetamine cook – solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) might be used as a coolant, but the gas is fairly unreactive. One possibility is that CO2 is being produced and needs to be vented (this happens when neutralising the reaction products of methampetamine made from pseudoephedrine), though why this should happen when a hydrocarbon is added is unclear.
Elements in the credits
| Breaking | Bromine |
| Bad | Barium |
| Created | Chromium |
| Bryan Cranston | Bromine |
| AnNa Gunn | Sodium |
| AAron Paul | Argon |
| DeaN Norris | Nitrogen |
| Betsy Brandt | Beryllium |
| RJ MitTe | Tellurium |
| BOb Odenkirk | Oxygen |
| Giancarlo Esposito | Einsteinium |
| JonAthan Banks | Astatine |
| MArk Margolis | Argon |
| Steven MicHael Quezada | Hydrogen |
| Michael ShAmus Wiles | Americium |
| Ray CamPbell | Lead |
| MyRa Turley | Radium |
| Gonzalo MeneNdez | Neodymium |
| Skip MAcdonald | Actinium |
| Mark FreeboRn | Radon |
| MiChael Slovis | Carbon |
| Dave Porter | Polonium |
| Sharon Bialy | Sulfur |
| Sherry Thomas | Thorium |
| BrYan Cranston | Yttrium |
| Diane MerCer | Cerium |
| Moira Walley-Beckett | Molybdenum |
| Thomas SchnAuz | Gold |
| George Mastras | Germanium |
| PeTer Gould | Tellurium |
| Sam Catlin | Calcium |
| Melissa Bernstein | Beryllium |
| MicHelle MacLaren | Helium |
| Mark JOhnson | Oxygen |
| StewArt A. Lyons | Argon |
| Vince Gilligan | Vanadium |
Yes it was C2H4O2. Did you saw the Gale’s lab book? It’s on http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad/gale-boetticher-case-file. Do you know the hydrazine hydrate ‘option’? Was he referring maybe to hydrazine/I2 HI production?
Hmm, the interactive case file doesn’t seem to work on my browser. :/ In any case, a mention of hydrazine hydrate is probably a reference to the Huang-Minglon modification of the Wolff-Kishner reduction, which can be used to convert a ketone to an alkane. Gale might have tried to “freeze” this reaction at the intermediate stage, neatly converting phenylacetone into a methamphetamine precursor.
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