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Well, first of all, Saul comes swooping in to interrupt the Hank/Jesse interrogation, but not before Hank tells Jesse that he knows Walt is Heisenberg and, noting that Walt really seems to have done a psychological number on Jesse, offers a deal if Jesse would roll over on Walt. Jesse declines but his wording is telling: “Not to you.” Old grudges die hard.
After hearing from Flynn that Marie wants him to come over for no reason, what, Walt hauls out the big guns and tells his son that the cancer is back. Subsequently, Walt and Skyler invite Hank and Marie to a sit-down dinner at the local tchotchke restaurant where they attempt to present a cease-fire option. Skyler doesn't say much, but her one contribution is to volunteer the information that Walt isn't even dealing drugs anymore not that he ever did, what, so what would prosecuting him even accomplish. They both try to make the case that it harms the children too much to proceed with this. Hank's not interested in letting up one bit, and Marie's one helpful suggestion is, if Walt seems to think that his impending cancer death is a reason not to push the investigation, maybe he ought to just kill himself and expedite the whole process.
Without having much success, Walt and Skyler excuse themselves, but they leave behind what at first seems like Walt's video confession but instead is video of Walt confessing that Hank is the drug lord and that he's been forcing Walt to work for him all this time. He lays out an elaborate and outrageously false claim against Hank, tying everything from the series up and hanging it around Hank's neck. This appears to be deterrent enough for Hank, at least for now, and especially once Marie admits that Walt and Skyler paid for his medical bills, meaning he's got dirty money in his finances too.
With Hank momentarily neutralized, Walt then moves on to Jesse. He drives out to the desert for a meet-up with Jesse and Saul, wherein he makes the case that maybe Jesse moving out of state, with a new name and identity, might be just what he needs. Jesse recognizes this for the transparent manipulation that this is and practically begs Walt to treat him like a person. Walt responds by hugging a broken-down Jesse, which is its own manipulation, really. But it seems to work, and Jesse appears to agree to the plan to get him out of town. Saul sets up the meeting with his guy, a guy so fastidious that Saul has to put his foot down about Jesse getting high for the meeting. But, just before Jesse's supposed to meet the guy, he realizes that Saul had Huell lift the baggie of dope from his pockets ... suspiciously like how Huell lifted the cigarettes from him before the Brock-poisoning incident. Jesse puts it all together in his head, then proceeds to storm back into Saul's office and beats the shit out of him for his role in what Walt did to Brock. He then takes Saul's gun and heads off to confront Walt. Saul calls Walt, who guns up, but Jesse's not headed for him. He's headed for the (empty) White home, which he begins to douse in gasoline.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously: Walt warned Hank to tread lightly and Skyler fled from his offer to shield her. But at least Jesse Pinkman’s in custody and thus cannot escape his plans for interrogation.
I’m going to be straight-up with you guys: I have no idea what the purpose of this cold open is. I have no idea when it is. I’m sure it will end up making much more sense in a few episodes and I’m certain it portends doom, but I have no idea how. Anyway. Todd and his uncle the Nazi and his uncle’s friend (who played Herc on Friday Night Lights and Devil on Justified and rather a lot of scummy-looking people for someone so handsome in real life) are all sharing a meal at a diner. The Route 66 Café, which I’m not sure we’ve seen before on this show, but I’m noting it for posterity. Anyway, before Todd heads inside, he places a call to Walt and leaves a voice-mail about how there was a difference of opinion with Declan and it got "messy" and now there’s been a "change in management" and he just thought Walt would like to be informed. So this is all happening relatively soon after last week’s massacre.
Inside, a short while later, we see Todd regaling his uncle and Herc with the tale of the Less-Than-Great Train Robbery. Although Todd tells it without the part about how he shot the unarmed child in cold blood, so the way he's framing it, it really was a Great Train Robbery. They’re eating it up, too, and Todd couldn’t be prouder, the little sociopath. Todd speaks glowingly of "Mr. White" and his perfect plan, while Uncle Nazi tries to make references to Hooper like that’s what the kids are into these days. They all clam up when the waitress comes by the table, and the camera makes sure this is when we get a good look at the swastika tattoos on Herc and Uncle Nazi’s necks, so I wonder if she’s supposed to be Jewish and they’re silently judging her or whatever. Moving on. After the silence, Uncle Nazi leans in and asks Todd if he really thinks he’s ready to be in charge of a cook. He solemnly says he is, and they all decide to get to the business of making money.
Herc and Uncle Nazi then excuse themselves to the restroom, wherein they proceed to bitch and complain about the Nanny State and bike helmets and soft children and no more smoking on planes. Uncle Nazi then spots some blood on his shoe and wipes it off. Scene. So that was either the most meandering bit of character work we’ve seen on the show in a while or else these three being at this diner at this time is going to end up meaning something. You flip a coin and decide.
After a very short commercial break we’re back in the interrogation room with Jesse. He’s dazed and dizzy from having to deal with the other cops’ questions, so you might think that a visit from Hank -- whom he loathes but is at least familiar with -- might be something of a relief. Or at least a welcome change of pace. Hank turns off the video recorder so he can get real. He wastes very little time in informing Jesse what he knows: that Heisenberg is his brother-in-law, Walt. This gets the biggest reaction out of Jesse in two whole episodes: a turn of the head and a widening of the eyes, and that’s satisfaction enough for Hank. He offers Jesse exactly the deal you might expect him to. Jesse tells Hank what he knows about Walt, and Hank makes the charges from the Albuquerque PD go away. Of course, if the Albuquerque really had anything on Jesse, they wouldn’t be leaning on him this hard to talk, so I’m not sure how much of an incentive that is. But I think Hank can sense something else -- something that tells him Jesse might be willing to talk anyway. He brings up this impression he has of "trouble in paradise" between Jesse and Walt. After all, happy partnerships don’t involve one of the partners chucking hard-earned drug money into run-down neighborhoods. "Eat me," is Jesse’s only verbal response, however. He offers that Hank could always try to beat it out of him, which: fair. Not Hank’s finest hour, for sure. Hank looks at Jesse’s dead eyes and defeated posture and it seems to dawn on him: "He really did a number on you, didn’t he?" Perceptive! Call me crazy, but I think Hank might actually be identifying with Jesse a bit here. Good cop-work or honest empathy? I think I’m siding with the latter. Hank tries to connect with Jesse on a spurned-by-Walt level. "Help me out here, Jesse," he asks. "I want to put him away. I know you want that. I think you want to talk." Jesse’s eyes are red and you think something might actually happen, but Jesse’s hurt has a lot of angles to it. "Not to you," he whispers, mere seconds before Saul Goodman bum-rushes the stage like [Insert Ancient Kanye West Joke Here].
Saul gives Hank quite the talking-to, and since Hank knows he missed his window, he kind of just slumps out of the room, past Saul and the two original cops. Once it’s just Saul and Jesse in the room again, Saul starts lecturing the kid on how stupid the whole money-toss thing was. It’s interesting to see Saul -- who was on the road to being just as ambivalent about all this as Jesse -- thrust into hyperactive self-protection mode now that he knows how close Hank is to busting them all. He makes sure Jesse is aware of that little wrinkle, so that when Jesse tells him to "chill," he knows that chilling is most certainly not an option.
Cut to Walt’s end of a phone conversation with Saul, wherein he tells him to use the money Walt left with him -- whatever it takes -- just get Jesse out of that police station. He hangs up angrily, just as Walter Jr. calls to him from elsewhere in the house. Junior inquires about his dad’s late night yesterday, at which point Walt looks at himself in the mirror -- his extreme sunburn from his day burying money in the desert; the cuts on his face from both the fight with Hank and then passing out on the bathroom tile -- and touches himself up with some of Skyler’s concealer. Junior, still out in the hall, says he’s headed over to Aunt Marie’s house. She asked him to come over and help her with some "computer stuff" and then stay for dinner.
Walt is immediately suspicious, as he obviously should be. He tells Junior to wait, then runs out to the living room. Suddenly, hiding the ravages of his face isn’t important anymore. In fact, he could use some of those ravages, as he sits Junior down to "explain" what’s been going on lately. He mentions passing out in the bathroom yesterday, because, as he says, "my latest scans show a shadow on my lung." Junior’s been through this before. He knows what that terminology means. Walt says he’s going through another round of chemo, and that he pushed himself too hard. He’s speaking in that Dad voice, where he’s apologizing for running himself ragged and promising he’ll take it easier going forward. Junior gingerly starts asking the appropriate question -- the "What now?" questions -- and he’s fairly well composed for a moment or two. Walt gives him a whole spiel about how he beat this before and how his doctor tells him that he’s responding very well to the chemo. Who knows what small percentage of anything he’s saying is true. He’s so rarely not working the people in his life, and this moment is no exception. After his whole revelation, he tells Junior to go on over to Marie’s and he’ll be fine. He’ll just, you know, hang out here. Alone. With his cancer. Obviously, Junior takes the bait and adorably refuses to leave his father’s side after such an announcement. Walt takes his son’s hands in his. Success… for the moment.
Back at the Purple Palace, Hank returns home, still in a daze and Marie, as you might imagine, is all up in his business immediately. Did he tell his bosses? How did it go? That bad? Did it go really bad? How bad? When Hank tells her that he didn’t say anything because he’s working on some leads, she’s back to it. What leads? Good leads? Are they gonna nail Walt? How soon? Hank just grumps at her not to tell him how to do his job, then shuffles on past her.
Back at the Whites’, Walt paces in his bedroom while Skyler asks him if he’s "sure [he] wants to do this." He tells her it’s the "only way." So he sits down at the edge of his bed, and Skyler turns on a video camera. Walt speaks directly into it: "My name is Walter Hartwell White." He gives his address. And then he states plainly, "This is my confession."
After the break, Walt and Skyler sit silently, nervously, at some tchotchke-ridden corporate Tex-Mex joint, which is crowded as hell. Their particular table is set for four and indeed, Hank and Marie show up, looking super-wary. Hank’s scowl is, I think, never leaving his face from now until the end of the series. After a protracted four-way silence, Walt begins to get to the point of this little summit, at which point goddamn Trent, their goddamn chipper little waiter, interrupts to ask if they’d like to start off with some drinks. Margaritas? Oh, and what about some of their famous tableside guacamole? Walt tells Trent they’d like a little time with the menu, and Trent straight-up finger-guns them and promises to return with some waters.
Hank initially asks Walt if he’s called them here to confess, but no, that’s not Walt’s style. It seems the primary objective of this summit is to get Marie to quit trying to "lure" Walter Junior into her home. Marie objects to "lure," but she does still adamantly believe Flynn and Holly should be living with them and out of danger. I like how with these four at an impasse, the Junior/Flynn name confusion has some thematic weight to it. Now it’s every bit emblematic of the divide between the Whites and the Schraders. Anyway, Walt manages to be all "think of the children!" about how Hank’s investigation will only end up harming them. He also manages to remind Hank that he has pretty much no evidence. Goddamn Trent returns with those waters and once again tries to pitch the guacamole. They make it right at the table! To his credit, he finally reads the temperature of the table and slinks off, hopefully to find a table that will end up tipping him well, because something tells me he’s not getting squat from this four-top.
Marie attempts to appeal directly to Skyler, though "appeal" tends to come out more like an accusation, as in how can Skyler allow her children to live with this man? She brings up how Skyler had the kids stay with her and Hank last year precisely because Skyler thought they were unsafe. Completely silent up until now, Skyler insists, "I brought them back!" Her argument -- one Walt isn’t wild about her making because it cedes more guilt than he wants her to -- is that there's no more danger s Walt’s out of the business. "It’s in the past," she says, near tears. "It’s over. There is nothing to go after here. There is nothing to accomplish." Walt tries to play a different, more sympathetic card. Junior just found out about Walt’s cancer; do they really want to upset that poor kid even more? "It’s not right." Hank nearly blows a gasket at Walt appealing to what’s "right," and if I were him, I might add how incredibly shitty it is to tell your kid about your cancer for the purpose of using him as a human shield for your criminal activities. Marie decides to escalate things a bit, though. She goes straight-up Miranda Richardson Oscar-clips and asks Walt why he doesn’t just kill himself, then? Skyler is aghast, but Marie kind of has a point. If Walt’s whole rationale is that it’s pointless to prosecute him because he’s going to be dead soon anyway, why doesn’t he just save them all a lot of time and aggravation and just kill himself now? If his death is such a solution and all. Hank’s not interested in that, though. He wants to take Walt down himself. So Walt can either make his confession or fuck off. And the same goes for Skyler, he says, if she sticks with Walt. Which I think it’s clear by now that she is. Seeing that Hank isn’t budging, Walt and Skyler share a look, then get up to leave. Pointedly, they leave behind a DVD for Hank and Marie.
Okay, are you ready? Because here’s where things get fucking crazy. We cut to Hank and Marie at home. They’re watching the DVD standing up. You know that thing? Where you’re so eager to watch a thing you don’t want to waste time sitting down? That. We get past the "this is my confession" part of Walt’s bedside speech, but then what follows… Walt says if you’re watching this, he’s probably dead, and he’s probably been killed by his brother-in-law Hank Schrader. Because, see, Hank has been forcing Walt to cook meth for his international drug ring that he’s been running right under the nose of the DEA. You know that thing where the bigger, more outrageous the lie, the more likely it will be believed, because who would make it up? That’s this video, writ large.
Walt manages to tie in everything, from his initial cancer diagnosis (which Hank preyed upon) to Gus Fring (Hank’s front and business partner) to the nursing-home bombing and Hector Salamanca (a bomb that Hank forced Walt to build). Certainly, a DEA officer makes more sense as a secret meth kingpin than a mild-mannered high-school teacher. He mentions the attack on Hank, which he chalks up to intra-cartel squabbling between Fring and Hank, and he says Hank forced him to pay for his medical bills. The masks of horror on Hank and Marie’s faces are tragic to the point of comedy. Walt really lays it on thick, saying he often contemplated suicide, but was afraid of what Hank would do to him. He frames last year’s stewardship of Flynn and Holly as Hank taking his kids away from him in order to keep him in line. Walt breaks down on camera as he talks about how his wife, Skyler, had no idea until recently. He even frames the recent garage beatdown as further evidence of Hank’s brutality. "I fear every day that he will kill me… or worse, hurt my family." He can only hope that, in the event of his death, the world will "finally see this man for what he really is." Just… I mean… the balls… the absolute moral bankruptcy… it’s almost hard to imagine. If Walter White weren’t the crappiest person on the planet, I might have to force out a “Well played” at this maneuver, because: honestly. There’s turning the tables and then there’s THAT.
So Hank and Marie are reeling. Marie says what I’m thinking, which is that Hank needs to bring this to the DEA immediately, to get ahead of it. It’s a big lie, and there have to be provable ways to expose it as a big lie. It can’t be this easy for a criminal to just point the finger back at the cop accusing him or else they’d all do it. But Hank knows what an irresistible story this is. The fast-rising DEA officer who’s secretly dirty. At the very least, he’d be suspected. But really, the nail in Hank’s coffin is that money that paid for his physical therapy and medical bills, which Hank never knew came from Skyler and Walt. Marie never said anything, because she thought Hank might refuse it. She comes clean now, tearfully saying that Skyler offered it and Hank needed a level of care that insurance wasn’t providing. He might not have ever walked again without it. She explains the gambling-money cover story, which would have been bad enough. But now? Now that his medical bills have been paid for with drug money? With a paper trail of $177,000 leading to Hanks front door? They’re fucked. This confession is a trump card in every way. Walt’s blocked them in. Walt won’t show it, of course. So long as Hank backs off. Which, now, it looks like he’ll have to.
Out in the desert, Saul and Jesse await Walt’s arrival, and Saul, for one, anticipates a not-very-pleasant meet-up. In the foreground, a tarantula crawls around… like, we get it. Jesse’s haunted by the dirt-bike kid at all times. "It’s always the desert," Saul muses, agitated, but resigned to his awful existence. Walt drives on up and immediately checks Saul’s car for a tracking device. Not sure if that’s distrust of the cops, of Jesse or of both, and Jesse’s aware of the ambiguity of the gesture. Walt turns to Jesse and asks what Walt knows. Jesse says he knows Walt’s Heisenberg but not much else, otherwise Walt would currently be locked up. He says Hank wants Jesse to inform on Walt, spill everything he knows. Jesse also doesn’t think -- based on body language and context clues -- that Hank has told the rest of the DEA about his suspicions. So that’s it. Everything Jesse knows. Everything Walt needs out of him. He honestly could kill him right now and tie up that loose end for good, but I think that’s the one bridge that remains too far for Walt. We saw evidence of it last week. He’s not sending Hank to Belize, and he’s not sending Jesse to Belize. Though he might actually send Jesse to Belize. After asking Saul to take a walk and leave them alone, Walt floats the idea that Jesse might be better off with a chance of scenery. I mean, this money-throwing business? He’s clearly not in a good way. Maybe if they go to Saul’s guy who provides new identities, he could have a fresh start in a new city, with a new name. No past. Nothing haunting him. Clean slate. Legitimate job. Meet a girl. Start a family. "I tell ya," Walt says, so folksy your teeth could rot, "if I could trade places with you, I would. Your whole life ahead of you, with a chance to hit the reset button. In a few years, this might all feel like nothing but a bad dream."
That last part was probably gilding the lily too much, because Jesse just turns and glares at Walt. He walks away from his old mentor and finally asks him, begs him, to quit trying to manipulate him. "Stop working me." Walt feigns innocence, but Jesse knows better. "Can you just drop the whole Concerned Dad thing and tell me the truth." As he speaks, he gets more emotional. "You’re acting like me leaving town is all about me and turning over a new leaf, but it’s really about you. You need me gone because your dickhead brother-in-law is never gonna let up. Just say so! Just ask me for a favor! Just tell me you don’t give a shit about me, and it’s either this or you’ll kill me the same way you killed Mike!" Jesse’s in tears now. He asks if that’s what this isolated desert meet-up isn’t really about. In case Jesse says no, it’s a quiet, safe place to kill Jesse and bury the body. Poor Saul is watching this from about 20 paces and maybe I’m reading too much emotion into Saul, but it’s gotta be heartbreaking, right? A little? Jesse again begs Walt to level with him. Walt just slowly approaches Jesse and without saying a word, pulls him into a hug. Jesse resists, but he breaks down. He cries into Mr. White’s shoulder. He’s so spent. He has so little fight left in him. It’s not entirely clear if Jesse knows that this is just one more instance of Walt working him. Of Walt giving him what he appears to want in order to secure his loyalty. At this point, Jesse doesn’t have the energy to fight it anyway. This poor broken-down kid.
After the break, Walt heads to the car wash to give Skyler an update before he heads to chemo. She’s sitting in her office, no lights on, staring into the middle distance. Maybe that’s how all of Walt’s associates end up looking before long. Obviously, she’s still dealing with her active choice to join the dark side. Once she hit "record" on that camera. Once she left that DVD behind at Señor Shenanigans. She made her choice. She still looks like she’s about half a step from complete nervous breakdown, despite Walt’s assurances that they’re fine. Perhaps "on the verge of breakdown" is just the fate of anybody who has the misfortune of crossing Walter White.
Back at the DEA, Hank’s going through paperwork when Gomez shows up, looking all sorts of perturbed. Did Hank really put a car outside Saul Goodman’s office? After being told repeatedly by his bosses to drop it? And given his history with Jesse? How much it opens them all up to a lawsuit. Hank’s mind is elsewhere, and obviously he is whistling a slightly different tune about the investigation. So he tells Gomie that he’s going to pull the car back without much argument. Then, annoyed, he asks what else Gomez wants of him. Gomez just glares and stalks off. Hank then leaves the office, cancelling his afternoon meeting. Not sure if he’s got a plan or if he just can’t bear to be on the job, reminded of the box he’s in.
At Saul’s office, Jesse is preparing to meet with Saul’s change-of-identity guy. Saul is being VERY pissy with him, like much more so than usual. Jesse’s un-responsiveness is clearly driving him bonkers and his ID Guy is very, very particular. He needs to make sure Jesse toes the line and follows procedure to the letter. Saul makes his coded phone call and then explains the broad strokes of his situation to ID Guy. In one hour, Jesse will meet this guy on the roadside and start his new life. Saul unloads a whole bunch of cash that Walt insisted Jesse take with him, a head start on a new life. Or a buyout. One or the other. Jesse still isn’t saying much. He looks defeated. All he can do is pull a joint out of the baggie in his pocket. At this, Saul freaks out, not so much about blazing up in his office, but about how Jesse can’t be arbitrarily high when he meets ID Guy. This guy sounds like a real piece of work and I really hope we get to meet him. Jesse reluctantly stubs out his joint, but when Saul tells him to hand over the entire baggie, Jesse just puts it back in his hoodie pocket. Saul’s just about had it with this kid, and he huffs off to find a bag for Jesse’s cash.
Left alone, Jesse seems to be having a change of heart, but his inertia keeps him on plan more than anything else. Saul brings Huell back to the office and tells Jesse that Huell will drop him off at the pick-up spot, then get the hell out of there since ID Guy won’t pick him up if he’s got company. Saul hands Jesse a burner phone for emergencies, and we see it’s a Hello Kitty-cased phone. Jesse objects, and Saul’s like, "beggars can’t be choosers," but Saul had a whole drawer full of nondescript phones and chose this one, so it’s at least a little bit of a fuck-you. After another lecture about Jesse staying put at the pick-up spot, Jesse’s ready to go. Saul suggests maybe picking Florida as his new destination, only to be puzzled anew by Jesse mentioning Alaska as a possibility. He really latches onto Alaska in the way that dying men often latch on to Jesus. Finally, finally, that compassion I know Saul has for Jesse sneaks out, and he tells him to take care of himself. Jesse has to squeeze past Huell in the doorway on his way out, and Huell doesn’t seem to have much inclination to move out of his way. Huell gives a nod to Saul, and they’re off.
Cut to Jesse, alone on a road side. The stretch of road is alongside a unique stone formation that serves as a wall to the desert or something. The additional effect is that look like gravestones rising out of the ground along the roadside. I can’t imagine that effect isn’t intentional. We have come to bury Jesse Pinkman before he’s reborn as Gary Alaska or whatever. Long shots of tiny Jesse amid the massive wall give way to a closer shot, showing Jesse nervous as hell. He pulls out his cigarette pack for comfort. I mean, Saul never said he couldn’t have a regular cigarette, right? As he pats his pockets to find the pack and pulls them out, he pauses. Maybe it’s sense memory, after Huell so recently brushed up against him. Maybe that’s what does it. Here’s my theory: ever since Brock got poisoned and Jesse thought it was his fault, he’s been going over those days in his memory pretty much non-stop. Every possibility. When he suspected Walt, he went through every possibility of that. Every way that Saul or Huell could have swiped that ricin cigarette off of him. I mean, he pretty much figured it out when he accused Walt. He only set it aside after Walt convinced him it was Gus (and he found the (fake) ricin cigarette in his Roomba. But as we found out today, Jesse can tell Walt that he believes he’s innocent (re: Mike) and still believe otherwise. Somewhere in Jesse’s mind, he’s always thought it still could have been Walt who poisoned Brock. And this flash of sense memory, a Huell brush-up, a look at his cigarettes -- it makes him wonder.
So he reaches for his baggie of weed and of course it’s gone. Almost instantly, Jesse sees the whole picture. How Huell swiped his weed at Saul’s request, just like he swiped the ricin at Saul’s request. How Saul’s request, in that case, was Walt’s request. How what he always somehow knew but pushed aside for what seemed like good reasons at the time is in fact still true. Walt poisoned Brock.
ID Guy’s car pulls up, but Jesse won’t get in it. After Jesse starts walking away, ID Guy drives on. He’s a professional. He don’t wait for no one.
Better Call Saul. Better call an ambulance, because as soon as the commercial is over, Jesse storms into Saul’s office, locks Huell out and just starts beating the holy hell out of Saul. Saul begs him to stop and calls out a "Code Red!" By the time Huell and the secretary show up, Jesse’s already gotten to the gun in Saul’s desk. He backs Huell off and points the gun at Saul. He accuses Huell of swiping his dope, which Saul’s like, "Yeah, sorry, why are you overreacting?" But it’s not about the weed, of course, and Jesse starts hollering about Brock and Mr. White, at which point Saul gets really scared. He finally admits that he had Huell swipe the cigarette, but only because Walt told him to, and he never knew what was going to happen with it. Interestingly, even in the midst of his murderous tirade, Jesse still refers to him as "that asshole Mr. White." Saul begs Jesse to believe him that he never wanted anything bad to happen -- Walt said he was saving Jesse, and Saul didn’t ask questions. Whether he sees reason or just loses interest in a small cog in the machine like Saul, Jesse decides to leave, swiping Saul’s car keys in the process. He keeps the gun, too, because: duh. Once he’s gone, Saul yells at Huell for being useless, then makes a quick call to Walt: "We got a big problem."
Back at the car wash, Skyler is working the register, mistaking fives for ones and generally not being on her A-game. The camera swivels so that we can see Walt speed into the lot in his car, then quickly try to compose himself before he enters. He is aggressively calm as he explains to Skyler that he needs to open up the soda machine to check a whoosit on the thingy, and Skyler’s like, “…Sure?” She’s totally not suspicious, even as Walt opens up the soda machine and retrieves a frosty handgun from therein. Seems like a REALLY inconvenient place to store your only gun, Walt. Anyway, he then makes an excuse about chemo for why he has to take off again. Like, calm down, Walt. He’s only coming to kill you.
But it’s not an armed standoff that Jesse is looking for. Oh no. Right now, Jesse is at Walt’s home, stalking from room to room, dousing the entire place in gasoline. I keep expecting Walter Junior to emerge from a room, leading to something truly awful, but it doesn’t happen. Yet. We go to the end credits before we see what happens . Of course, the flash-forward in 5.9 showed us that the White house doesn’t burn down. It’s abandoned and boarded up, but it’s still standing and unscorched. So that’s one bit of suspense that we got robbed from us, in any event. Not that week’s confrontation won’t be insane and amazing. Just not, you know, five-alarm.
Joe R is really impressed that a big guy like Huell has such catlike sleight-of-hand. He can be reached for lavish praise and nothing but at joseph.reid21@gmail.com.
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