: Hank suffers from severe panic attacks and post-traumatic stress after his shootout with Tuco. He is promoted but struggles privately, at one point mistaking the sound of his own popping Schraderbräu beer bottles for gunshots.
: During a street deal, Skinny Pete is robbed at knife-point by a pair of addicts (Spooge and "Skank"). Jesse tries to explain the loss to Walt as "breakage," but Walt insists that if they don't strike back, they will be viewed as an "easy mark". [S2E5] Breakage
: With Tuco dead, Walt and Jesse decide to become their own "Tuco"—handling manufacture, distribution, and supply. Jesse enlists his friends Skinny Pete, Badger, and Combo to sell their meth throughout Albuquerque. : Hank suffers from severe panic attacks and
: To cope with the mounting tension and Walt’s disappearances, Skyler begins smoking while pregnant. When Walt confronts her, she mocks his "fugue state" excuse from previous episodes. Key Character Milestones Jesse tries to explain the loss to Walt
serves as a pivotal turning point where Walt and Jesse transition from being mere "cooks" to active distributors in their own drug enterprise.
The title refers to the drug trade term for lost product or revenue—a concept Jesse accepts as "the cost of doing business" but Walt violently rejects.