We open with Todd, who’s leaving a message for Walt very faintly outlining the events of last week’s shootout. He goes into a diner and recounts his train-related exploits with Mr. White to his uncle Jack and Jack’s cohort, Kenny. Jack’s various swastika tattoos are clearly visible as he ogles the waitress who brings their check and after asking Todd if he’s sure he can cook Heisenberg’s blue meth, he hits the bathroom, wipes some blood off of his shoe (they’ve presumably just come from digging up the meth supplies), and heads back to New Mexico in his truck with Todd, Kenny, and a giant container of methylamine.
After blearily cutting to Jesse’s interrogation, which we see time lapsed from his perspective, Hank enters the room as we saw at the end of the previous episode and starts talking with Jesse. He reveals his knowledge of Heisenberg’s identity and attempts to establish a bond, but Hank’s previous beating of Jesse and his still-lingering loyalty prevent him from opening up. Saul comes in, checks the camera (which Hank turned off), and nervously tries to get a read on Jesse’s state of mind. He calls Walt looking for more money, but is instructed to use the cash Walt gave him last week to get Jesse out of the precinct.
Walt Jr. gets home and is about to head off to Marie’s to help with “a computer thing” and stay for dinner (while Walt tries to quickly apply some concealer on his cut-up face, rather hilariously) when Walt stops him, sits him down, and lets him know that his cancer is back. Walt encourages him to go over to Marie’s (shock and astonishment, Jr. decides to stay with his dad), and we cut to Hank coming home. Marie gives him a hard time about not going to his colleagues and superiors, fearing it’ll be worse if they find out he knew, but Hank insists he needs to run down some leads first. With Skyler’s help, Walt starts to video record a confession, and we cut to commercial.
We open back up on perhaps the most awkward Tex-Mex dinner ever filmed, with Walt (light blue sweater, white shirt), Skyler (taupe sweater), Hank (dark blue shirt), and Marie (in black, not purple for once). After Walt does his best to use Walt Jr. (make that Flynn, to Marie at least) to get Hank to back off, and their perfectly flaired server finally stops pushing the guac, the anger on the Schrader side of the table builds to a boil, with Marie telling Walt he should fix the situation by committing suicide and Hank insisting he won’t get off that easily. Walt pushes a DVD across the table and we find out the confession we’d seen earlier was in fact a ploy- the video pins everything on Hank, with just enough truth sprinkled in to damn him. After finding out that Hank’s medical bills had been paid for by Walt’s drug money, Marie wonders what they can do and Hank realizes that for now at least, he’s utterly powerless.
We cut to Jesse and Saul, waiting by a car in the desert. Walt drives up, checks the car for bugs or trackers, and then talks with Jesse, finding out what Hank said and knows. Walt suggests Jesse get out of town, spinning a tale of starting over with the help of one of Saul’s guys. Jesse can see through Walt’s particular brand of bull though, and asks for a modicum of respect, that Walt stop trying to manipulate him by playing the concerned parent. He knows Walt will kill him if he poses a danger, as Hank is unlikely to stop for long and Jesse is the only person who can bring Walt down. Hearing this, Walt moves forward and hugs Jesse, who’s clearly distraught and slumps forward into the hug, perhaps just out of exhaustion.
At the car wash, Walt wishes a customer an A-1 day and then goes in to talk with Skyler, who is upset, sitting at her desk (bathed in light, wearing white). Walt defends the choice (as he stands by the door, shrouded in shadow), and we cut to Hank at work. Gomez comes in, asking why Hank’s having Jesse Pinkman watched, considering their past history. If Jesse finds out, he could sue the department. Through gritted teeth, Hank calls off the dogs and heads out for a walk, and we cut to Saul’s office. Jesse agrees to a new life, maybe in Alaska, Saul makes the call, and after Saul gives him a hard time for smoking a joint (Jesse puts the drugs back in his pocket), we hold close on Jesse’s face. Saul calls in Huell, says goodbye to Jesse, and brushing past Huell, Jesse walks out the door. While he’s waiting for Saul’s guy, he goes to get his drugs from his pocket, but they’re gone, replaced by cigarettes. He puts two and two together, realizing Huell made the swap as he brushed past him, as he must have with the ricin cigarette back when Brock was poisoned.
Jesse barges into Saul’s office, wide-eyed and more than a little crazed. He gets the truth out of Saul about Brock, and shaking with rage at Walt, he explodes out of the office with Saul’s gun. Saul immediately makes a call, and we cut to Skyler at the car wash. Walt frantically drives up, calms himself with a deep breath, then walks in. He makes up an excuse to Skyler for checking out the soda machine, gets a gun from its cooling area, closes it back up, makes another excuse for leaving, and tears out of there. Our final shot is Jesse, who pulls up to the White’s house with a container of gas, breaks in, and starts dousing the whole place.
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Kate Kulzick