Cancer Man (Breaking Bad)

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"Cancer Man"
Breaking Bad episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 4
Directed byJim McKay
Written byVince Gilligan
Featured music
Cinematography byRey Villalobos
Editing byLynne Willingham
Original air dateFebruary 17, 2008 (2008-02-17)
Running time48 minutes
Guest appearances
  • Diane Pinkman
  • Steven Gomez
  • Michael Bofshever as
    Adam Pinkman
  • Kyle Bornheimer as Ken
  • Ben Petry as
    Jake Pinkman
  • David House as
    Dr. Delcavoli
  • Skinny Pete
  • Rodney Rush as
    Combo Ortega
Episode chronology
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"...And the Bag's in the River" 		Next →
"Gray Matter"
Breaking Bad season 1
List of episodes

"Cancer Man" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American television drama series Breaking Bad. Written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Jim McKay, it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on February 17, 2008.

Plot

Albuquerque's new meth kingpin. Meanwhile, Walt tells Hank, Marie Schrader, and Walt Jr. about his cancer; Skyler White has already been told. Jesse Pinkman smokes Walt's meth with two friends, Skinny Pete and Combo, and flees his house the next morning when he hallucinates that two Mormon missionaries at his door are armed bikers
.

Skyler makes an appointment with one of the top

oncologists in the country, Dr. Delcavoli, even though the family cannot afford him. Walt says he will take the money out from his pension, but in fact uses some of the money taken from Krazy-8 in the desert, which he keeps hidden in an air-conditioning duct at his house. Walt Jr. berates his father for his attitude towards his cancer. When Walt goes to his credit union to put the cash in a cashier's check
, his parking spot is stolen by an obnoxious man named Ken. Ken annoys Walt and the rest of the customers with his loud and socially inappropriate cell phone conversation.

Jesse ends up fleeing to his affluent

lymph nodes, but there is a chance it is still treatable with chemotherapy
.

At the Pinkman residence, a housekeeper finds a joint in Jesse's room, resulting in his parents kicking him out. The joint belonged to Jake, who thanks Jesse for taking the blame for him. While Jesse is waiting for a taxi outside the house, Jake asks for his joint back, which Jesse throws away saying it was of poor quality.

At home, Walt expresses his doubts about the chemotherapy since it will cost $90,000 and if he still dies, he will leave his family with all the

car battery
with it. The battery subsequently overheats and explodes as Walt walks back to his car.

Production

The episode was written by Vince Gilligan and directed by Jim McKay; it aired on AMC in the United States and Canada on February 17, 2008.

The title "Cancer Man" is a reference to The X-Files character Cigarette Smoking Man, whom Mulder first called Cancer Man. Vince Gilligan was previously a writer and producer for that series.[1]

Critical reception

Seth Amitin of IGN gave the episode a rating of 8.6 out of 10, commenting: "This seemed like an ordinary episode, but a lot of subversive plot and character development happened and if you've been watching the previous episodes, you probably know why this episode was so good. There's a lot to extrapolate."[2] Donna Bowman of The A.V. Club gave the episode a "B−", saying: "This episode doesn't have the wow factor that the series has had so far -- it's about moving the pieces into place for long-term strategy."[3]

In 2019 The Ringer ranked "Cancer Man" 43rd out of the 62 total Breaking Bad episodes.[4] Vulture.com ranked it 56th overall.[5]

References

  1. ^ Nick de Semlyen (2013). "The five best X-Files references in Breaking Bad". Empire.
  2. ^ Amitin, Seth (February 19, 2008). "Breaking Bad: "Cancer Man" Review". IGN. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  3. ^ Bowman, Donna (February 17, 2008). "Breaking Bad: "Cancer Man"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  4. ^ Micah Peters (September 30, 2019). "The Ringer's Definitive 'Breaking Bad' Episodes Ranking". The Ringer.
  5. Vulture.com
    .

External links

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