Breaking Bad: "To'hajiilee"

Spoilers for all episodes that have aired so far.

I was a little worried for the first half of this episode, which seemed to be taking its sweet time deciding where it wanted to go. After some table-setting exposition scenes with Lydia and the Aryan Brotherhood, Hank and Gomez pumping Huell for information was a bright spot, but then Walt pays an awkward visit to Andrea and Brock. This encounter is especially problematic because it only serves to underscore how awfully underwritten Andrea has been. She's a little too obliging when Walt comes to visit - surely she's not that naive considering her history. So much time was spent on these little set-up and establishing moments, even though I knew that "Breaking Bad" didn't have many episodes left, I expected this one would end uneventfully, having maneuvered all the characters a little closer to the positions they would need to be in for the big showdown we all knew was coming.

And then Jesse makes a phone call.

There are apparent dead ends all over this hour, but they aren't dead ends at all. Huell doesn't know where the barrels are, but he does provide enough information for Hank and Jesse to fake out Walt and get him to lead them to the money. Walt decides to call off the hit on Jesse, but Uncle Jack shows up anyway because he needs Walt to cook for him. The only move that was really foiled was Walt's visit to Andrea, because Hank intercepted the call, but I'm not sure if that one might come back next week in some form or another. This was a really smartly plotted episode, where it looks like we're only getting smaller developments at first: Walt agreeing to cook meth again, Hank taking Huell out of the picture, and the money barrels becoming important. But like so many previous episodes, suddenly the situation changes in an instant and we're in the desert with Walt getting arrested. And then the Aryan brotherhood shows up armed to the teeth.

Hank has apparently learned his lesson after getting outplayed by Walt so badly in the last few episodes. Here he and Gomez and Jesse pull off two elaborate fake-outs, the first to fool Huell into thinking he's on Walt's hit list, and the second to find Walt's stash. And it goes so beautifully that I knew something had to be up. Being able to handcuff and Mirandize Walt was a moment of glory that was hard won, but also comes much too early in the season to have any finality. When Hank called Marie to tell her the news, I had the sinking feeling that he was already dead, his arc played out and his usefulness to the story ended. Of course we won't know for sure until next week, thanks to the boldest cliffhanger the show has probably ever done. I've seen a few TV shows end mid-gunfight like this, but never so abruptly.

Walt's actions were the most fascinating this week though. He knows he's defeated in the desert, and gives up without a fight, with hardly a word of protest. Did he call off the hit when he saw that it was Hank driving up with Jesse? Or did seeing Jesse face to face make Walt realize that he didn't want to be responsible for his death? Earlier, he spells out for Jack that he considers Jesse family and wants him taken out painlessly, but fumbles as he tries to explain why he's ordering the hit. Should he have realized that the barrel photo was a fake? Possibly, but Walt in panic mode has always been prone to making mistakes, and he's still berating Jesse on the phone for being stupid, underestimating him again. It was a nice irony that Jesse's acting skills and Walt's emotionally manipulative appeals, surely caught on tape Hank and Gomez, will likely be what puts Walt away in the end.

And then there's Todd, creepily crushing on Lydia and making "marginally" better meth than Declan that still fails to live up the the Heisenberg brand. (Branding also comes up with Skyler and Walt Jr., working at the car wash.) Todd's utter nonchalance when he gets the call from Walt is chilling. And when he learns that it's Jesse who's the next target, someone he's worked with in the Vamanos scheme, still nothing. In fact, he's right there at the end, behind one of the cars, blasting away at Hank and Gomez.

So the question remains, who survives next week? Walt, definitely, because Jack and Todd still need him to cook. Jesse still has a lot of unfinished business with Walt, so he'll get away too. We got a taste of their inevitable final confrontation tonight - Walt calls Jesse a coward, Jesse spits on Walt, and passions are running high. Hank - I give him a 50/50 chance. You could still do a lot with Hank, but that phone call felt an awful lot like a goodbye. That leaves Gomez as the most likely casualty.

Next week Rian Johnson's back in the directing chair. Boy, oh boy.
---