This episode was a roller coaster ride from start to finish, probably the most dramatic episode in Breaking Bad's history. We open on a flashback to Walt and Jesse's first cook ever that he'd mentioned last week, the old trailer making a comeback and everything. As Walt and Jesse step outside, Walt calls a still pregnant Skyler, telling her he'll be home late and promising to pick up a pizza as she suggests "Holly" for the baby's name. These few minutes are by far the quietest in the episode, as Walt hangs up and we see him, Jesse and the trailer slowly fade out of the desert.
When we get back, the epic shootout from last week is still in progress, when suddenly it ends very abruptly and the Nazis are staring at the damage they've done to their victims. Gomez is lying on the ground dead, while Hank is crouched behind the car, only shot in the leg. For a second I was thinking cop-out, as I fully expected both Hank and Gomez to be long gone when we got back to this scene, but those fears last only minutes as Uncle Jack comes over to finish the task. Walt cries out for him not to kill Hank, doing his best to save him, even giving up his $80 million for them to spare his life, but Hank won't play ball. He tells Walt he won't beg, and then, just like that, Jack shoots Hank through the head. It's a pretty shocking moment- I have to give them credit as anyone who saw Hank survive from last week immediately assumes he'll live for at least the rest of the episode, but no- he's gone. Walt collapses in shock and sadness as the rest of the crew go out to dig up Walt's cash with shovels. They can't find Jesse, who's apparently taken off, having got out of the car before the shooting started, but it doesn't matter too much at the moment, while the Nazis help themselves to Walt's barrels and bury Hank and Gomez in the now conveniently empty hole in the ground.
As the crew starts to load up, Todd tells Walt he's sorry for his loss in his typical indifferent fashion and uncuffs him while Jack tells him he's letting him go, and because he's in a good mood, he's decided to leave him a barrel, leaving Walt with just $10 million. Walt is staring into space but suddenly he realizes Jesse had been hiding under the car this whole time and gives him up to Jack, telling them they owe him one more kill. The Nazis haul Jesse out and prepare to pull the trigger on him despite Jesse's despair and pleading looks at Walt, but at the very last second Todd suggests keeping him around to tell them what he told the feds first. Walt agrees and as Jesse is hauled away, Walt stops them one more time to tell Jesse to his face that he watched Jane die and didn't save her. Walt appears to blame Jesse for everything that's just happened and wants to rub the nail in further, and these are, for me anyway, some of the darkest moments ever on the show, as we see poor Jesse taken away to be held prisoner by the Nazis.
As Walt gets in his car to take off, it starts leaking fuel from all the bullet holes and of course runs out of gas, leaving Walt to push his lone barrel through the desert and offer money to an old Native American man for his truck. Meanwhile, Marie pulls up at the car wash and confronts Skyler with her phone call from Hank, telling her to hand over all the copies of the incriminating tape she and Walt made and ordering her to tell Walter Jr. the truth, as everything has changed now, and Walt will (as far as she knows of course) be going to jail.
We then find that Jesse has been badly beaten and locked up in a ground cell, as Todd comes in and pulls him out, ignoring Jesse's cries to leave him alone, having already told them about the taped confession he made to Hank. But of course, as everyone has suspected by now, that was not the only reason Todd wanted Jesse alive, and it certainly comes as no surprise to me when Jesse is locked to the ceiling of the meth lab by a cord, and ordered to cook for Todd. As incentive, there's a picture of Andrea and Brock taped to the wall for Jesse to stare at every day and our hearts sink in despair, along with Jesse's, whose future is looking decidedly grim.
At long last, Walter Jr. finally finds out the truth about his dad from Skyler and Marie, and he is of course, upset and disturbed, lashing out at Skyler for collaborating with Walt this whole time, telling her she's just as bad as him. But when Skyler and Jr. get home they come face to face with Walt, who's dashed back and started throwing all their clothes into suitcases, telling them they have to leave town right away. He's so frantic he doesn't even care about Jr. now knowing what he's done, and Skyler correctly surmises that Hank is dead, since she'd just been told Walt was in custody. This is the last straw for Skyler, who holds a kitchen knife up to Walt, telling him to get out, and even slashes him across the hand. Walt then attacks Skyler and the two of them get into a physical brawl. When Walt gets the upper hand and holds the knife up to Skyler's face, Jr. throws him off of her, shielding his mom and calling the police for help. Walt seems to be in momentary despair, but then quickly reacts by taking Holly and driving away as Skyler chases him down the street, crying out for him to stop. And for the second time in one episode, I have to say that this is probably the darkest scene in Breaking Bad's history. I genuinely wasn't even following Walt's logic there, as taking the baby seemed like nothing but some sort of impulse reaction to punish Skyler, maybe even his most evil moment (aside from all the murders of course).
As Walt is changing Holly's diaper in a restroom, he seems to have a slight change of heart at her repeated cries for "mama." Skyler has called the police and when Walt calls the house, the cops are there, listening and tracking the call. But when Walt gets Skyler on the phone he starts berating her and calling her all kinds of names, blaming her for everything going wrong and claiming all the credit for the empire he built. We and Skyler know immediately that this is his attempt to absolve her of any of the blame or collaboration with him, which Skyler plays along with as Walt even takes the credit for Hank's death, while Marie falls to the floor in grief in the background. When Walt hangs up, he destroys his phone and drops Baby Holly off at a fire station before taking off with nothing but his money, and getting in the car with Saul's "guy" that we still haven't seen, the one who specializes in new identities.
Whew. That was one traumatic hour, and it pains me to say it but there's only two left! We now know how Walt lost everything; his family, and most of his money is gone, which brings us up to speed on the future scenes of him from last year, where he's a lone traveler with hair and it's 6 months later. I have to figure that next week is going to be all about that gap, as we see what Walt does with his new identity, and what's going to eventually bring him back to Albuquerque.
And on that score, my Pointless Prediction of the week is actually a bit easier tonight. Things are coming into focus now, and I'm almost sure that what's going to happen is that Walt will somehow come across his famous blue meth and realize that Jesse is in fact, still alive and being forced to cook for the Nazis, which sends Walt back to gun them all down, and save Jesse's life once and for all. I know he nearly had him killed tonight, but I do think Walt's change of heart will come as he's now lost everything he worked for in the first place, and he'll decide to go out in a blaze of glory, setting Jesse free in the process. What do you think?
