Previous Character Studies: Saul Goodman / Sklyer White / Hank Schrader/ Gus Fring
You guys…only two days left! TWO. DAYS. And then our beloved Breaking Bad will be back to make us all spontaneously scream “OH SH*T!” at televisions across the land. It’s going to be great. And FYI, I think we may open up a thread here Sunday night in the event any of you just can’t wait until Monday to talk about the show. So there.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about the one supporting character on the show that I’ve been endlessly mystified by from the beginning, though for all the wrong reasons: Gomie, Hank’s loyal but doltish DEA agent sidekick.
I’m not sure what the term is, but there has to be a name for a plot device in which a character perpetually exhibits gross incompetence for seemingly no other reason than to cast another character in a more favorable light. That’s what Steve Gomez, played by Albuquerque talk show host Steven Michael Quezada, is for Hank Schrader. I looked around but couldn’t find a name for such a plot device/character, so I’m going to go ahead and take the liberty of making one for him. Buttplug. Gomie is a buttplug.
Now, that’s not to say that Gomie’s not important, because he is. Think about it, how much of a doofus would Hank appear to be to go this long as a DEA agent tracking the meth kingpin of the Southwest and all this time have his target sit right under his nose. We’d all probably think he was a titanic fool. But toss Gomie — who has NEVER done anything remotely substantive to aid in the investigation of Heisenberg — in there and Hank looks like a regular Einstein. And not only has Gomie never done anything substantive to aid in the tracking of Heisenberg, he’s in turn tried to steer Hank in the wrong direction countless times. Most notably, remember what Gomie said when Hank, upon uncovering evidence that Gale had visited Los Pollos Hermanos, was starting to believe that local chicken mogul/friend of law enforcement Gus Fring might be involved in the meth trade?
“If your guy had his meeting at KFC, you wouldn’t immediately assume that he’s sitting down with Colonel Sanders.” — Stupid Gomie
Time after time over the course of the series Gomie has rejected and dismissed Hank’s hunches, only to be proven wrong in the end every time. Conversely, the only shining moments Gomie has had have come when he’s actually listened to Hank, like the time Hank suggested he trail Mike’s attorney, a suggestion that led to this, arguably Gomie’s single greatest triumph on the show…
So again, Gomie is a buttplug. But everyone needs a good buttplug every now and again, right? Sunday night cannot get here soon enough.
