"He really did a number on you, didn't he?"- Hank Schrader
After the slam shut ending of last week, we open with...Todd, smoking a cigarette outside a diner and leaving a message for Walter about the recent "change in management." Just after, he regales Uncle Jack and his minion, whom I know as Devil on Justified, but we apparently we know as Kenny, with the tale of the Great Methylamine Train Heist, and how he and Jesse barely escaped with their lives and their haul. I'm not sure what upsets me more, the fact that Todd conveniently leaves out the bit about shooting Drew Sharp, or that I'm not sure Jack and Kenny would care all that much. After shiftily eyeing the waitress and asking for the check, Jack and Kenny head into the bathroom and have a quick discussion about America's degradation into a "nanny state." Very socially conscious of Neo-Nazis, in all honestly. While washing, Jack notices some blood on his boot. He cleans it, they leave, and soon after cross the border into the Land of Opportunity.
After that, we get right back to the interrogation room, this time from Jesse's perspective. The door clacks shut. Hank turns off the camera, and tells Jesse that he wants to ask him about his partner, whom he now knows is Walt. Jesse's eyes light up, the first sign of life we've seen from him all season. Hank offers to make all Jesse's problems go away if he tells him everything he knows, correctly guessing that, given Jesse's recent activities, things aren't exactly smooth between Jesse and Heisenberg. Jesse sneers, and asks Hank why he doesn't just beat the information out him. Hank is unfazed, and begins to tries to reach Jesse, telling him how Walt's ruined both their lives, and how he knows Jesse wants to see Walt pay. That he wants to talk. "Not to you," Jesse whispers, and in busts the Saul Goodman-shaped cavalry.
At the White Estate, Walt fields a call from Saul while Walt Jr arrives. As Walt retreats into the bathroom in an attempt to apply makeup to his black eye, Junior tells him that Aunt Marie asked for his help with "some computer thing." Panicking that she's trying to take another of his children, Walt leaps into action, and confesses something to his son. That the wound on his face is from briefly passing out, and that's he back in treatment (although his doctor says that he's "doing great"). After requesting that everyone stays positive, he tells his son to go help his aunt and that they'll talk about it later. Junior flatly denies, saying that he's staying, and little smile crosses Walt's face as he grabs his son's hand. Hank and Marie might be against him, Skyler might be afraid of him, and Jesse might despise him, but at least Flynn's left under his sway. At least someone else still follows the Church of Heisenberg.
After a quick scene where Hank, drink in hand, tells Marie that he didn't bring his case to the DEA and that he's chasing down some leads, we cut to Walt, drink in hand, sitting down on his bed and responding to Skyler asking if he's "sure he wants to do this" by saying it's the only way. Cue a camera shift to reveal: a video camera set up on a tripod, which, after Skyler starts recording, Walt again speaks the first words he ever uttered on the show. "My name is Walter Hartwell White. I live at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane."
After the break, we pick up with Walt and Skyler in the blandest, most Middle American outfits they have, at a (very) tacky Mexican restaurant. Hank and Marie sidle in, each sitting across from their declared foe in the clandestine war launched when Hank found Leaves of Grass. "So you here to confess?" Hank grumbles, staring daggers into Walt, who rolls his eyes and says that there's nothing to confess. They're here to talk about the children, whom they want left out of this. "Hearing these things. You realize what it's going to do to him?" Walt muses, trying to an uncle's love for his nephew into precious time. "He's going to hear it when I kick in your front door and arrest you,*" Hank snarls. Walt recoils, and restates that Hank has no evidence. Poor Trent, their server, steps in and tries pushing guacamole, before wisely backing off upon seeing the general mood. The battle then shifts to Marie vs. Skyler, who insists that the children are safe. "You're the one who sent them out of the house" Marie cries. "And I brought them back," Skyler declares. She tries to nail home the fact that whatever might have happened is in the past. After Walter asks what it will take for them to believe him, Marie simply, almost matter of factly states that he should kill himself. Skyler states that that isn't a solution, and Hank agrees. "You're not gonna negotiate you way out of this thing," he barks, asking Walter to be a man and "step up." Walt sighs, shares a look with Skyler, gets out of his chair, grabs his coat, and slides a CD across the table to Hank. His confession.
*Someone kicking down the White's front door pays off a lot quicker than I expected it to*
We pick up in the Schrader's living room, where Hank and Marie stand, listening to Walter state that if they're watching this tape, then he's probably dead. "Murdered, by my brother in law Hank Schrader,
who according to Walt, has been building a Meth empire for the better part of a year. Walt then relates the major beats of his story, adding Hank in where it would incriminate him most, including his partnership with businessman Gustavo Fring, with whom Hank sold Walt into servitude, and with whom Hank had an eventual falling out that resulted in Hank being shot and Gus having half his face blown off. Walt admits that Hank gave him no option, and that he often contemplated suicide. On the verge of breaking down into tears, Walt relates that Hank put him in hell, and that he hopes the contents of this tape will help show the world how much of a monster Hank has become. What's most insidious about the confession is that so much of it is the truth. Hank took Walt on a ride along. Walt did pay Hank's medical bills. Walt did build the bomb that killed Gus Fring. Hank did punch Walt in the face. It's as masterful as it is horrible. The ultimate trump card. The video ends, and Marie asks who else Walt has shown it to. "No one, it's a threat," Hank correctly surmises, and after she demands that he show it to Ramey to "get ahead of it," he wonders what Walt is talking about with the medical bills, and Marie almost immediately shrinks into a chair and tries to hide. "They told me it was gambling money," she says, and Hank launches into the best "Jesus Christ Marie" of the entire series, wondering why he wasn't told, and why his insurance couldn't have paid. She replies that with the care their insurance was providing, he might not ever have been able to walk again. Hank, too, shrinks down. "You killed me," he says. That's it for him. There's no way he can prosecute Walt and not incriminate himself now, too. Marie asks him what they're going to do, and he doesn't answer.
After the break, we're treated to Jesse and Saul sitting next to Saul's car in the middle of the desert, waiting to meet someone. Saul bailed Jesse out with the money Walt left him, and sure enough, it's Walt they're waiting to meet. Walt meticulously checks Saul's car for bugs, and then asks Jesse what, if anything, Hank knows. Jesse states that he knows about Heisenberg, but not much else, and that he probably hasn't told any at the DEA. Saul chimes in and asks what they're going to do about Jesse's little breakdown, and Walt tells him to take a walk. Turning his attention to Jesse, he tells him that perhaps it's time for a change, and that Saul knows a guy who can make him disappear into a new life. "I really think that would be good for you. Clean slate," and the more he drones on, the more we realize that this is less about helping Jesse out of his rut and more about getting him out of the way. After he presents his case, Jesse slowly walks away and asks that Walt for once stop jerking him around. "Just drop the whole concerned dad thing, and tell me the truth." During last year's episodes, we saw Jesse start to realize just how Walt manipulates him. He started to see the strings. Now, he sees the fingers that operate them. "Just ask me for a favor," he cries. "Just tell me that you don't give a shit about me and that it's either this, or you kill me the same way you killed Mike." Walt is taken aback, seemingly dumbstruck that his old paternal bond with Jesse isn't enough to keep him wrapped around Heisenberg's little finger. Slowly, almost menacingly, he starts walking up to Jesse, before wrapping him in a hug that Jesse eventually collapses into. What's saddest about the abusive relationship they have (and it is, for all intents and purposes, just that) isn't that Jesse keeps coming back; it's that Walt does obviously care for him, at least a little. If that weren't true, then Walt would have buried him in that desert.
Back at the carwash, Walt, framed in a shadowy doorway like a monster of fable, asks Skyler to take over for him at the register while he goes to his chemo. When she doesn't respond, he steps forward, into the light, even more terrifying. "It worked," he says. "We're fine." All shall be sheltered under the watchful eye of Heisenberg and be saved. Back at the DEA, Hank is flipping through his daily papers when Gomez steps in and asks why two of his guys are sitting on Saul Goodman's place, waiting for Jesse Pinkman, who would be liable to sue if he knew the DEA was on him again. Hank acquiesces, and soon after leaves to "take a walk." In Saul's office, Jesse's criminal lawyer asks him if he's ready to make his escape, and calls up the vacuum repair man to make a pickup. Jesse lights up, to which Saul objects, as the guy apparently won't make the pickup if he's high. He demands the dope, which Jesse of course pockets. Saul leaves to get some "money sized bags" from Francesca, and returns, flanked by Huell, who's going to drop Jesse off at the spot. He hands Jesse one of his burner phones (the Hello Kitty one, of course) and gives Huell the directions, and tells Jesse not to move when he's at the drop off. Jesse asks if he gets a say in where he gets to go, and Saul suggests Florida. Jesse asks about Alaska, which seems to be about as far away from Heisenberg as the moon. They shake hands and Jesse goes to leave, bumping into Huell in the doorway on the way out.
Jesse stands at the drop off point, in front of what, from this angle, appear to be tombstones. Bored, he reaches into his pocket for his weed. He can't find it. Starting to panic, he reaches into another pocket, pulling out only a crumpled pack of cigarettes. Slowly, he starts to realize. Huell picked him clean, on Saul's orders. The more damaging realization is that this isn't the first time this has happened. His intial suspicion, at the end of Season 4, was correct. Huell swiped his ricin cigaratte. The Disappearing Man's van pulls up. Jesse stares in disbelief. He has a choice to make. He can walk away. He can be done with this, forever. He stares down at his pack of cigarettes, and starts shaking. He grabs his money and walks away. The van pulls away. When this episode started, Jesse was all but dead. Catatonic, with the world speeding and spinning in front of his eyes. Now, he's awake. And he is PISSED. Unlike the field of tombstones behind him, Jesse Pinkman will not stay buried.
After the break (which I really though was the end), we head back to Saul's office. Jesse, the Avenging Angel, bursts in, running past Huell and locking the door. When Saul gets up to greet him, worried that the guy was a no-show, Jesse clocks him, and when Saul tries to get a piece from his desk, Jesse takes it. As Huell bursts in, Jesse levels a gun at them both in succession, demanding that Saul tell him about Huell's thievery. Confused, Saul admits that he had him take Jesse's pot, but that's not what he means. Saul admits it, but states that that he didn't know what Walt had planned (which is essentially true, as we saw in the "we're done when I say we're done" scene from last summer's premiere). "I didn't want any of this" Saul shrieks, and Jesse gives pause. Taking Saul's car keys, he leaves, and Saul, sure as rain, immediately calls Walt.
Back at the carwash, Skyler flubs and gives a customer a $5 instead of a $1. He calls her on it, strangely, and she switches the bills (as an aside, I wonder if this Skyler's attempts to launder some of the unlaunderable money Walt accrued). In the background, Walt's car screeches to a stop, he gets out, and pauses for a moment to collect himself before casually walking in. Stopping to make smalltalk, he looks much older than he did the last time we saw him. His black eye looks sunken and the lines on his forehead look like gashes. Jesse's revolt has taken him from the all-powerful Heisenberg and thrown him back into the guise of the panicky, shell-shocked Walter White of the past. Just like that Walter White, he's not going to tell Skyler anything. Coming up with an excuse to fiddle with the Coke machine, Walt reaches in and retrieves a pistol, frozen over with ice and hidden away for emergencies. Making up another excuse, he leaves. The Heisenberg we saw in this episode is a masterful, calculating liar. The Walter White we see now is awful. Luckily for him, Skyler doesn't seem to notice.
During last year's excellent "51," Skyler told Walt that she wanted the kids out of the house because there might come a time when a man knocks on their door looking to hurt him or the kids. That time is now, and that man is Jesse Pinkman, burdened with glorious purpose and aflame with righteous fury. Screeching into the White's driveway, he opens Sauls' trunk and pulls out a gas tank (that I assume he bought on the way. Not like he's short on money). He kicks down Walt's door and starts spraying the gasoline all over the living room, and eventually all over the camera. Now, we know from the Mr. Lambert flashforwards that Jesse probably doesn't go through with burning down the entire house, but that doesn't really matter, in the moment. What matters is that after five seasons, we finally come to the point where Jesse cannot be convinced, or swayed away from killing Walt. There just ain't enough room in this town the both of them, anymore.
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