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Lots of ground covered in this midseason finale: Walt (with Landry's help) disposes of Mike's body and then gives Jesse the brush-off so he can do what he needs to do about Mike's nine guys, all of whom are most definitely going to testify. Walt meets Lydia to get the names, and she smartly makes a counter-offer: work with her and Madrigal to begin exporting meth to the Czech Republic (where, seriously, EVERYBODY is doing meth). Walt agrees, and so begins The Great Meth-Producing Montage of 2012. Which is, of course, preceded by the Great Snitch-Killing Montage of 2012 (Walt uses Landry's uncle's prison connections to take out all nine within two minutes, Godfather-style).
So business is booming. Enter Skyler, who is seriously feeling the pangs of the weeks and weeks away from her children. She invites Walt to the storage locker where she reveals a pile of bundled cash the side of a washer-dryer set (an industrial washer-dryer set). It's too much for her to even count -- it's more money than they'll be able to spend in ten lifetimes. She asks him when is enough; when does she get her family back? The thing we see, Walt is delivering Jesse the money he's owed, and he's telling Skyler that he's out of the business. How does he manage to extricate himself now that he's in so deep with Madrigal? Who knows?! Who cares?! This episode has a place it needs to be before we hit the hour mark!
At the end of the episode, the newly reunited Whites and the Schraders are enjoying themselves lawfully in the Whites' backyard. No one but the audience can sense the dread. So we can't be all that surprised when Hank excuses himself to take a #2 and while on the toilet, picks up Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass. The inscription "to W.W." jogs Hank's memory of going through Gale's things with Walt last year. Wasn't there a mysterious "W.W." there too? And so, with a blue flash of stone-cold realization, Hank finally figures it out: Walt's the guy he's been looking for. Now get off that crapper and do something about it!
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Mike met his end at the hands of -- oh, the indignity -- Walter White.
As the episode opens, Walt's sitting in the office at Vamonos, staring at a fly that's perched on a lamp. Oh, hell, not this again. Despite my expectations, the fly does not get squashed, but Walt's focus remains on the insect as Landry get dropped off by a taxi and calls out for Walt. Finally, Walt addresses him, though he doesn't turn around. He asked if Landry disposed of the car like they talked about -- no one tailed him? Junkyard Joe didn't ask any questions? Nope. And Landry thought it was pretty cool, watching a car get crushed into a cube. So now it's time to do "this other thing." The fly buzzes by, but Walt's finally able to tear himself away. Does this count as progress? Walt finally able to quit obsessing about something?
Walt and Landry open the trunk of Walt's car, and of course there's poor Mike's body. "I don't want to talk about this," Walt says, with seemingly honest regret in his voice. "It had to be done." Landry is as agreeable as ever. So out comes the barrel and out comes the solvent. They're about to get to work when the garage door starts to open. It's Jesse. Trunk goes down. Jesse tersely sends Landry away so he can talk to Walt. What's the story? Did Mike get away? Walt diplomatically skirts the issue and says, "He's gone." Jesse doesn't tweak to anything weird about that, so he changes the subject to Mike's nine guys. "What are we gonna do?"
Any possible feelings of guilt or shame on Walt's part instantly evaporate at the opportunity to be shitty, so Walt turns cold and sarcastic to Jesse: "We? There is no 'we' anymore. I'm the only vote left, and I'll handle it." Jesse stares him down a bit, all "I guess that's how it is?" Walt lowers the garage door on his old partner, and then gets to the work of dismembering his old partner's mentor's corpse.
After the credits, Walt is showering (G-rated, thank goodness). As he reaches for a towel, he brushes past his copy of Leaves of Grass, and I'm sorry, this is just too much. Leaves of Grass is NOT a bathroom book. Somebody get Walt a "Best of Ziggy" immediately.
Up in the hoosegow, Prisoner Dennis (if you recall) is sitting at a table with his lawyer, opposite Hank Schrader and the DEA attorney, working out some kind of plea deal. Dennis's lawyer wants charges dropped and blanket immunity in exchange for his testimony about Fring's operation. The DEA lawyer haggles, and it's all very insidery. I would VERY much like to know what this "Queen for a Day" stipulation they're talking about pertains to. What if it's just an actual day in jail where everybody treats you super nice? Sure, you're still in jail, but it must be a pretty good day, as far as jail goes. [Note: Apparently, it's another word for a 'proffer agreement' which is an agreement between prosecutors and individuals under criminal investigation which allows the imprisoned person some assurances that they'll be protected against prosecution... thought Dennis is already in jail, so who even knows? -- Rachel.]
Frustrated, Hank gets up from the table to leave. He's "going shopping" for someone who can tell him something he doesn't already know. Dennis pipes up that he knows a LOT Hank doesn't already know. Yeah, Dennis! Way to not walk directly into the bad-cop scenario Hank was setting up! Hank's not letting up, though. He says he's in a "buyer's market," with eight other guys all looking to get the same deal PLUS "Dan the douchebag lawyer" who's already giving him the money trail AND Ehrmantraut. Hank storms out to go "rattle some cages."
At a diner, (same diner? I think different diner), Lydia is putting her damn stevia into her tea when Walt comes in. This fool is wearing his Heisenberg hat and sunglasses like he's at your hipster Halloween party dressed as Walt from Breaking Bad. There are posters of you looking like that, fool! And even if there weren't, if you're trying to not get noticed by anybody, you're doing the exact opposite of that. Oh, Walt. Always -- ALWAYS -- putting ego before all.
As per her style, Lydia has very specific ideas about what a faux-casual meeting to discuss criminal activity should look like, so she urges Walt to order something, but just like Mike, he's all "cut the shit and let's get to it." He wants the names of the nine. She tells him they're not written down but in her head. Walt's all, pick up a pen, then. After all, isn't this what Lydia wanted? Loose ends tied up for their mutual benefit? She allows that he IS tying up loose ends, only she doesn't want to be one of them. Once she gives him the list, she's expendable. Walt's all, "Who? Me? Kill someone?" After he's done being sarcastic and offended, he brings up how she made him promise on his children that he'd keep her safe. Lydia's like, "From Mike. You said you'd keep me safe from Mike." And by the way, where is he? He was adamant about not killing the nine; Walt wouldn't be making this move if Mike were still in the picture. Walt's silence confirms it for her: Mike's no longer in the picture.
Walt just wants the list from her, but Lydia has a counterproposal, one that will help him grow his business. Two words: Czech Republic. She makes her presentation: Five percent of the Czech population are using meth -- a huge marketplace about the size of the American Southwest, all waiting to be sold to. They're used to meth that's like 60 percent pure at best. Heisenberg's 99 (market that name for your special top-end reserve, Walt) will "blow their hair back." He'll more than double his current profits. He worries that shipping internationally seems like courting disaster, especially if her solution to that problem is under-investigation Madrigal. Lydia's answer is basically that Madrigal is so massive and diversified a company that the Feds can't possible keep tabs on the whole behemoth. "This is what I do," she says, with that sense of unearned confidence that occasionally possesses her body. "I move things from point A to point B all around the globe." She assures him the people in the Czech Republic are pros she's worked with for years. Walt asks the pertinent question why she never offered this to Fring. Oh, but she did. She says she and Fring were in the late stages of development when "somebody killed him." Oh right. That. She imagines that at 25 pounds a week, Walt will gross about $2 million, but let's start slow with ten pounds. Walt says "okay." As for her cut, with Fring, they had agreed to 30 percent, which was more than fair. Walt says okay again, but Lydia keeps going, so he stops her: learn to take "yes" for an answer, lady!
First things first, though: Walt pushes the paper to her -- he wants the names. She gets to writing. He looks at her warily -- where does this woman come from? She offers her hand -- shake on it? To making money off of misery in Eastern Europe! So Lydia leaves, and back at the table, Walt lifts his hat to reveal his handy ricin vial. Well look whose paranoia was justified! Good show, Lydia. Way to make a deal and spare your own life.
After the break, Walt returns his ricin vial to its hiding place behind the wall outlet. Sorry, Walt! Maybe time you can kill someone! He makes a phone call to Landry, saying "I think it's time I meet your uncle." Cut to one of the stranger scenes we've seen on this show, as we're in a filthy motel room, where Walt and Todd are both on the absolute periphery of a conversation between (we assume) Todd's uncle and his criminal pals, as they plan what is going to be a simultaneous execution of all nine guys, all within two minutes of one another, across three different prisons. Lord knows how you could get the timing down for something like this when you're in a place with such a regimented schedules and you don't have any timepieces, but hey, it's a Godfather homage, so let's just watch it play out.
Randomly, Kevin Rankin (Friday Night Lights; Justified) is one of the criminals, and just as was the case when Landry was introduced so modestly, I have to wonder if something will happen to make his part more important in the episodes ahead. So the criminals weigh the pros and cons of inciting a riot or sabotaging someone in the shower, and what C.O.s they have in their pockets. The conversation is so wonky and insider and jargon-laden, and no attempt is made to clarify things to Walt or us. It's fun to watch Walt be on the outside of impenetrable knowledge of something. The leader (I assume this is Todd's uncle) tells Walt that the task is do-able, but incredibly complex. "Offing Bin Laden wasn't this hard," he says. [Note: A rare reference to what year it is, which Vince Gilligan interestingly responded to in this interview.] Walt decides to get passive aggressive and talk about the artwork in the room and Uncle of Todd is like, "Look, I didn't say we couldn't do it, I said we can't do it the way you want." Walt says, in fact, they CAN do it the way he wants, or else he can go shopping for another crew that can. The macho gauntlet having been thrown down, obviously Uncle of Todd is going to make this happen.
Back at the White house, which at this point is just one ever-expanding shadow, Walt checks his watch and then starts the countdown. Now, come on, WALT having a watch isn't going to help matters, you crooks. Some plan this is. ...Actually, okay, it's a pretty impressive plan. We see it carried out via one of the more memorable montages on this show that has enjoyed its fair share of montages. It's set to characteristically uncharacteristic music ("Pick Yourself Up" by Nat King Cole), as we take a tour through the New Mexico prison system and watch a succession of stoolies get taken care of. It's prison, and there aren't a lot of options, so it's not like there's a ton of diversity in the kills. One happens in the showers, one by the pay phones. Most meet their end via a furious series of stabbings with tiny little shivs; those are pretty brutal to watch but also kind of hypnotic in their swift repetitions. The centerpiece act of violence is reserved for poor Dennis, who's in solitary after his plea meeting; he gets doused with lighter fluid or alcohol or whatever and then set ablaze inside his cell. [Note: There's an awesome "making of" video here.]
All the while, Walt is pacing in front of his bay window, the light from outside casting a severe shadow; it's an image lifted wholesale from Godfather II, but I guess steal from the best. The montage ends with Hank getting interrupted during a photo op with a school cheerleading team with the news; he and Gomez go running off in a tizzy. Within two minutes, Walt gets the call: "It's done."
After the break, Walt plays with baby Holly in the Purple Palace (I am COVETING that purple shag carpet) as the news broadcast talks about "what appears to be a carefully coordinated sequence of attacks" in prison. Marie greets Hank, who returns home QUITE pissed, as you might imagine. Walt tries to stay relatively quiet as Hank fixes them each a bourbon on the rocks, then limps off to his chair. Walt joins him, the architect of his bad mood. After sitting in silence for a moment, Hank begins a rambly story about having a summer job during college, marking trees in the woods for cutting down. He makes it sound dull and repetitive, if you can imagine that. Walt, who I think is being intentionally a dick, albeit reeeally subtly, because he resents having to feel like the bad guy here, says it "sounds nice, being in the woods all day." Hank's been thinking about that job a lot -- maybe he should've enjoyed it more. "Tagging trees is a lot better than chasing monsters," he says. "Monsters," of course, is a dig at Walt, though Hank doesn't know it. So with a barely perceptible smirk, Walt remarks, "I used to love going camping as a kid." He finishes his drink.
After a seamless cut to Walt sitting on another couch, in another home, this time suited up for a new cook, we get yet another meth montage. There has been way more montages per capita this season, yes? Anyway, this one is dedicated to Walt's new Czech venture. He cooks, Landry helps, Lydia sends his product out, Walt bundles up a lot of money. A LOT of money. All set to the customarily chirpy tune, this time the one-the-nose "Crystal Blue Persuasion" from the '60s. More money. More product. Skyler keeping the books while Walt dollies more cases of pop into her office at the car wash, which are, as you recall, the car wash's preferred method of smuggling cash. Walt walking around in broad daylight in his Heisenberg costume; making a payment to Saul; Saul looking not-untroubled by how much money is suddenly being thrown around. Bags of blue meth. Stacks of cash. Cases of soda. On and on, into infinity. Aerial shot across Albuquerque. Green-and-yellow striped tents popping up everywhere like McDonald's franchises.
At the Purple Palace, Skyler is walking Holly across that sweet, sweet shag, over to Flynn on the couch. Skyler is genuinely smiling and laughing as she tells Flynn he's really good with his sister. She asks Flynn to watch a movie, but he gets a call -- from a giiiirl, it seems, though he claims it's Louis -- and is out of the room like a typical teenager. Marie reflects the feeling in the room saying how good it is to see Skyler smiling and laughing again. Such an improvement, right? So Hank and Marie have been thinking maybe it's time Skyler and Walt took the kids home? Skyler can't really respond to this, so Marie just goes on. It's been almost three months, after all. Finally, Skyler starts to ask, "Does Hank not want...?" Marie's like, oh no! They love the kids and want to help, but "we're starting to worry that maybe we're enabling you." Maybe that's true, actually. Maybe having the kids there is keeping Skyler and Walt's conflict from coming to a head. Anyway. Marie continues to push therapy, but maybe at this point, the best way to repair the family would be to repair the family.
Later on, Skyler arrives at home, which is dark as ever. That glowing blue abyss is calling to her from the yard, but when she heads back, she sees Walt in a deck chair, staring into its shimmering reflection. She heads out and looks at him, desperate as ever. Strangely, he looks almost as desperate. She asks him to take a drive with her.
Skyler takes Walt to a storage facility, where Skyler opens their unit. Inside (once Walt has closed the door), a blanket covers a square surface about thigh high and the width of about two pool tables, side-by-side. She uncovers it to reveal a giant stack of cash, all bundled, somewhat messily piled into a cube. Walt is aghast, either at the amount of money or the fact that Skyler has it chilling here in a storage unit or both. "This is what you've been working for," she tells him. She started bringing it here when she gave up counting it; so much, so fast, no point. She tried weighing it, but there's a variety of denominations so who knows what the tonnage would signify. Walt finally asks, "How much is this?" Skyler: "I have no earthly idea." She says she just stacks it up, keeps it dry, sprays it for silverfish. It's more money than they can spend in ten lifetimes; more than can be laundered by 100 car washes. "I want my kids back," she finally tells him. I want my life back. Please tell me, how much is enough? How big does this pile have to be?"
After the break, we return to find Walt in the familiar position of preparing for a CAT scan. His periodic cancer screening, we assume. It's the last we see of it for the entire episode, which has to make you wonder. Particularly in light of all that coughing in the season premiere. And the change of heart we're about to see. It would make sense, of course. A cancer diagnosis spurred Walt to get into the business -- why couldn't a cancer relapse spur him to get out? But I'm getting ahead of myself. [Note: There's also a shot of the metal paper towel dispense that Walt beat the crap out of back in Season 2's "4 Days Out."]
thing we see is a hand holding a cigarette burning down to the filter. Oh, Jesse, don't fall asleep smoking. That's how people die! The burning of his fingers wakes him up, just in time to hear a knock at the door. Jesse peeks out the window and looks freaked. He leaves the room, comes back, and answers the door. It's Walt. It's awkward. Walt says he tried to call, but Jesse says all his phones have either been thrown away or unplugged. But Walt was in the neighborhood, so... Jesse warily invites him in, and Walt can't help but looking smug at the bong on the table; Jesse hides it behind a chair.
He says Saul told him what Walt did about the Nine, so he guesses they don't have to worry anymore. Walt assures Jesse there was no other option, which has to sound awfully familiar to Jesse by now. Preemptively, he tells Walt he's not coming back, and Walt knows. So why's he here? Walt says he saw a Bounder the other day. Same model as their old RV. He starts to reminisce about what a heap that thing was. Jesse starts walking down memory lane too, about all the ways they had to beg and cajole that RV not to break down on them. Or the time they ran out of gas in the middle of the desert. Jesse's like, "We had money. Why didn't we get something new? Why'd we have to have the world's shittiest RV?" Walt: "Inertia, I guess." Boy, that says a mouthful.
After an awkward silence, and then they both do the "I gotta get going" thing. At the door, Walt turns back. "I left something for you." And he's gone. Jesse tiptoes out to the door and peers out to the bag on the front step. The music gets intense as he slowly opens it. It's the money, of course. The $5 million that Walt owed him. Jesse obviously was expecting much worse. Cut to back inside, where Jesse is floored -- literally, he's sitting on the floor, trying to compose himself. From his back waistband, he pulls out his gun (nice parallel to Walt and the ricin earlier) -- the thing he went into the other room to retrieve. The thing he thought he might need when he saw Walter White darkening his doorway. The thing he's maybe ashamed of thinking he needed, in hindsight.
Back at home, Skyler is washing the dishes when Walt comes in. He speaks to her in a soft voice, he turns off the water, and he says simply: "I'm out." They both look like they're about to cry, but there's no embrace. He leaves the kitchen and she looks out the window with hope for the first time in months. It's surely a sweet moment, but let's hold up a second. Walt's just... out? Sue me for being dubious, but how does THAT just happen? Sure, he's got the money, but he's in bed with Madrigal on a wildly lucrative scheme, exporting to the Czech Republic. As we saw when he maybe wanted to get out from the Fring operation, a gravy train like that doesn't just stop. Has he trained Landry well enough to replace him? I can't imagine he's picked it up this quickly. Not a dim bulb like that. I'm sure this will all be dealt with in the final eight episodes, but... I'm not fully buying such a tidy "I'm out." Not yet.
Time-lapse footage -- this show's second-favorite trope, just behind the montage with the faux-cheery music, just ahead of the POV shots from weird objects. Speaking of which, can I interest you in a POV shot from baby Holly's little plastic roll-around car? Flynn's pushing her in it around the backyard, as we see a reunited and happy Walt and Skyler celebrating with Hank and Marie. The family's back together! Of course, the air is positively thick with ominous doom, but they can't feel it. I keep expecting someone to take a sniper shot at Walt and hit Flynn instead, but that never happens. Just chitchat. Innocuous chitchat. One snippet of conversation involves Marie musing to Skyler that she was told to take prenatal vitamins to help with her hair, which I have to wonder is maybe foreshadowing a development for Marie in the final episodes? I need one more powerhouse Marie episode in the final eight, guys. That's all. After a bit on conversation that involves Hank considering brewing up a new batch of Schraderbrau, Hank takes a powder to go to the bathroom...
And it's a deuce! I'm impressed, Hank -- not too many people would take a shit while not on the home turf. And as one does while on the toilet, Hank begins to search for reading material. And what does he find? That copy of Leaves of Grass on the back of the toilet tank. After flipping through the pages, Hank settles on the title page, where there's an inscription: To my other favorite W.W. It's an honour working with you. Fondly, G.B. Hank flashes back to last season, the last time he saw a dedication to a W.W., in Gale Boeddicher's chemistry notebook. Maybe he remembers a moment of panic on Walt's face when he floated "Walter White" as a joke possibility back then. Maybe he remembers Walt showing him a place in the notebook where Gale had expressed an affinity for Walt Whitman. Maybe he remembers the way Gale's handwriting looked -- he certainly pored over Gale's materials enough. Maybe he's connecting the dots: the chemistry connection, Walt and Skyler's marital troubles, that second cell phone. Maybe he just figured it all out.
Now, again, to be a nitpicker, I can't imagine after the very close call we just flashed back to that Walt wouldn't have gone right home and trashed his copy of Leaves of Grass with the NEAR-IDENTICAL INSCRIPTION. I can imagine Season 5 Walt being brash enough to want to display a trophy of his dominance, but back then? He was scared shitless about getting caught. So that doesn't entirely hold up to scrutiny, BUT! The important part is that Hank knows, and now he's got eight episodes to prove it and to take his brother-in-law down. See you year!
Joe R will say it again: keep a Ziggy as your bathroom reader and all of this could have been avoided. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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