Skyler organizes a family gathering and invites her old boss and former admirer Ted Beneke, which makes Walt uncomfortable and jealous. Walt overcompensates by drinking too much and forces Walter Jr. to drink tequila until the boy vomits, provoking a confrontation with Hank, who takes the bottle away. The incident reveals Walt's simmering resentment toward Hank's alpha-male confidence and his own sense of inadequacy. Skyler is appalled by Walt's behavior and demands to know what is wrong with him beyond the cancer. Walt offers no explanation. Jesse, struggling to build a distribution network, learns about a mid-level distributor named Tuco Salamanca who controls a significant portion of the local meth trade. Jesse approaches Tuco's associate Skinny Pete, an old friend from rehab, and asks for an introduction. Skinny Pete warns Jesse that Tuco is dangerously unpredictable, but Jesse insists. Skinny Pete arranges a meeting. Jesse goes to Tuco's headquarters — a fortified building in a rough neighborhood — and presents a sample of Walt's blue meth. Tuco tests it and is impressed by the quality. Jesse proposes a deal: he will supply Tuco with product in exchange for distribution. Tuco agrees to buy an initial quantity but then suddenly beats Jesse severely, hospitalizing him, and takes the meth without paying. Jesse calls Walt from the hospital, battered and humiliated, and tells him what happened. Walt visits Jesse in the hospital and sees the extent of his injuries. Hank and Gomez process the beating as a drug-related assault but Jesse refuses to cooperate with the police. Walt realizes that if they are going to operate in this world, they cannot be victims. He resolves to confront Tuco himself, recognizing that the partnership cannot survive if they can be robbed and beaten without consequence. Walt takes the remaining meth and quietly prepares for a direct meeting with Tuco.