Well, tonight was only slightly less dramatic than last week's fireworks, and certainly no less dark, but I figured it had to at least slow up a little from the shockwaves of what went down in the last episode. We kick things off with Saul's long mentioned "guy," the one who gives people new identities, finally showing his face to the audience and he turns out to be no less than the Oscar nominated Robert Forster (of Tarantino's highly underrated Jackie Brown), and since we don't get his name of course, I'm going to refer to him as RF. He pulls Saul out of a van at a vacuum cleaner store, and Saul's got luggage with him because since last week (it seems to have been a number of weeks on the show), Saul is going to need to disappear too. RF is sending him to Nebraska with a new ID, but first he's going to have to stay a while at the room underneath the store with his new roommate, who happens to be Walt himself, seen pacing intently in the little room from the store's upstairs monitor.
As Marie is driven home by the police, who promise her they're going to find Hank and Gomez, it turns out her house has been broken into and rampaged by the the Nazi crew, who are seen laughing and making fun of Jesse's taped confession that he'd given up last week. Jack turns sour though, when they get to the part where Jesse rats Todd out by name as having been the one who murdered Drew Sharpe, and Jack starts on his way to kill him before Todd prevents it, still wanting him around to cook. Jack immediately sees through Todd as having the hots for Lydia, which amuses the rest of the Nazi crew in their twisted little way. Meanwhile Jesse's in his cage, trying to wriggle out of his cuffs with a paper clip that was tied to the photo of Andrea and Brock (which seems like a pretty major oversight on the part of Todd, if you ask me, leaving him with that).
Walt and Saul are still sharing a room, with Walt plotting revenge against Jack and his guys for killing Hank and stealing his money, telling Saul to find five assassins to take them out. Saul is dubious about the whole thing though, telling Walt his best move is to stay and give himself up, because there's no way the feds won't go after Skyler, despite his phone call to her from last week. But Walt is determined not to give up his money and only wants to take revenge and get the rest of it back. He tries to threaten Saul into coming with him on the run, but Saul refuses, telling him it's over as Walt collapses into a coughing fit. Saul then picks up his bags and leaves, and something tells me that's probably the last we'll see of Saul, so farewell to Bob Odenkirk (until his upcoming spinoff that is).
Skyler is staring into space, in kind of a dazed funk as we see she's in a room with a bunch of lawyers, who are doing exactly as Saul said they would, telling her they're going to come after her with everything they've got unless she gives up Walt. But Skyler's in no position to do so, telling them she genuinely doesn't know where he is. Later than night, as the cops are staking out her house, she walks into Holly's room to find the Nazi crew in hooded masks, led by Todd, who hold her still and threaten her life and the baby's as Todd politely and very creepily asks her if she's told the police anything about Lydia. Skyler denies it and the crew sneaks away after making sure she's gotten the message to keep quiet.
Todd meets up with Lydia at a coffee shop to tell her he's made sure Skyler won't talk, but it's clear Lydia wants her dead, as we all know she's not hesitant to do away with any threats to her own safety. She wants to break away from their partnership but Todd tells her he's got the meth up to 92% and blue like she wanted, which peaks her interest and prolongs their association (for the time being).
RF now pulls Walt out of the bottom of a truck in the middle of a snowy woods that we're told is New Hampshire, where he's been procured a cabin with no access to phone, internet or TV, aside from two DVD copies of that all-time classic Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (RF drily notes he's not a "movie guy). With Walt the target of a nationwide manhunt and his face all over every television, RF can't do any better than this for him, and promises to show up once a month with newspapers and his medicine. He tells Walt not to leave the premises if he wants him to keep coming back, so of course it's the first thing Walt does when RF leaves- putting on his notorious Heisenberg hat before doing so. But at the last minute he coughs and thinks better of it, deciding to coop up in the cabin after all.
Jesse has finally gotten the cuffs off and is trying to get out of his cage when Todd comes over and drops him some ice cream ( Ben & Jerry's "Americone" - Colbert shout out!) through a bucket and rope. Jesse hides that he's gotten free and asks Todd to leave the tarp off at night so he can see the stars, but when Todd leaves Jesse uses the bucket as his last step to jump up and reach the bars, freeing himself and running off, right past the surveillance camera. He manages to make it all the way to the fence before the Nazis catch him, and here comes the most devastating part of the episode. Jesse tells them to kill him as he's not cooking for them anymore no matter what, so Todd drives over to Andrea's house, asks her to come out on the porch and shoots her through the head as Jesse cries and screams in despair, tied up in the car and being forced to watch. I say this every week, but poor, poor Jesse. Will his suffering ever end?
RF comes back to visit Walt and update him on his family as we find out it's now been months since he fled Albuquerque. He tells him Skyler moved and is now making money from taxi dispatch and using her maiden name, while the house has been trashed and fenced off from the public in light of all the graffiti we saw earlier. Walt has lost a lot of weight and has hair now, and he's feeling pretty lonely so cut off from the world, offering RF $10,000 dollars just to stay with him a little longer while he takes his chemo. Walt asks RF to give his family the money he has left when he's dead, but RF won't make such a risky promise. Later that night, Walt's wedding ring falls off as he sleeps and he ties it around his neck, then deciding to mail $100 grand to his family somehow, finally making the 8 mile trek to the village down the road.
While at a bar, Walt calls Junior's school and gets him on the phone in the principal's office, desperately telling him everything he did was for the family, trying to make him promise to get the money if he sends it to his friend's house, practically breaking down on the phone as he does so. Junior, as you can imagine, does not take this call very well, screaming at his father for killing his Uncle Hank and telling him to just die already. Walt seems to lose all hope at this point and calls the DEA, essentially turning himself in before sitting down at the bar for a drink. But of course (and rather conveniently, but it had to happen), as the bartender's channel surfing Walt sees Elliot and Gretchen Schwartz on Charlie Rose, talking about Gray Matter and Walt's involvement, and fully denying that Walt had any part in the creation of the company aside from the name. Gretchen even insists that no matter where "Heisenberg" is, the Walter White she knew is gone forever.
Upon hearing this, Walt experiences a visible surge of fury and realization. That old, stubborn pride comes roaring back, the root cause of Walter White's whole twisted journey in the first place. As this ugly pride makes its return appearance it's accompanied by the Breaking Bad theme music, and the scene is pretty awesome, as the cops surround the cabin and the bar, searching for Walt, but only finding the not quite empty glass on the bar- confirmation that Walter White is indeed, long gone and only Heisenberg remains, at large once again.
Wow, I can't believe it- the series finale is here next week and then it'll all be over. I have no real clue what to predict at this point, but my last stab in the dark is that Walt will succeed in getting the only thing he has left- his revenge. All the Nazis will be blown away and Jesse will live- I say that because after his endless suffering this season, I think that'll be the one slice of relief for the audience. I predict that Walt will go down in the struggle and die himself, but on his own terms, as Heisenberg. And if Todd in particular does not die a horrible, miserable death, I'll be pretty unhappy because I HATE him- but something tells me that's not going to be an issue. After what he did in this episode, he's really gotta go. What do you think?
