On this week’s episode of Breaking Bad, titled “Buried,” Hank continues to frantically get answers, Skyler continues to become her own Heisenberg, and Jesse continues to stare into space and die on the inside. As for Walt? It’s the first time we see him act like a human being since the early seasons. We’re breaking down all the good stuff on Breaking Bad, here.
The episode opens with Walt exiting Hank’s garage desperately trying to reach Skyler on his phone, but Hank has gotten to her first on his cell, and as Walt catches Hank’s eye it’s clear that Hank is on the phone with his wife. The showdown between Hank and Skyler at the diner is almost a continuation of the final scene of the last episode, maybe because Skyler is now an extension of Walt? Hank tries to recruit Skyler in his mission to bring Walt down, and in the process, reveals to her that Walt’s cancer is back, which catches her by surprise. It seems that Hank is expecting a much different outcome than the one that Skyler delivers. Instead of complying like one would expect the long-suffering wife of a murderous meth kingpin to do, Skyler stays quiet. When Hank brings out his tape recorder to get her statement, she starts to panic and says maybe she should get a lawyer. Hank, who is visibly frantic and sleep-deprived, opposes the lawyer idea and says that he’s here to help her. When that fails to spur any information from her, he subtly threatens that if she doesn’t talk and prove she’s got nothing to hide, the DEA will look at her differently. What happens next clearly shows that she does have something to hide. Skyler starts frantically asking “Am I under arrest?” as her volume increases. The showdown ends with her abruptly exiting the diner, leaving Hank with one less abettor in his plan to bring down Walt. Could Skyler be indirectly sending the message, “If you want Walt, you’re going to have to go through me?”
Too bad Walt is screening her calls. As he sits in Saul’s office, she calls and Walt ignores it for the umpteenth time. He can’t believe Skyler went to Hank without talking to him first. Saul reassures him that Hank has nothing on him, but for Walt, Hank’s mere knowing could unravel everything. Then it’s evident that Heisenberg has rubbed off on Saul as well, when he suggests that Walt send Hank “on a trip to Belize . . . you know, Belize? Like where Mike went?” And in a very un-Heisenberg move, Walt is offended that Saul would even suggest harming Hank, who is still Walt’s family, after all. “Send him to Belize,” he mocks Saul. “I’ll send you to Belize.” Is this joking or foreshadowing??
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When Kuby and Huell come back with Walt’s countless millions in barrels, Walt separates out their cut and Saul’s cut and sends them on their way, telling Saul to find Jesse. Then Walt drives to the middle of the desert and starts digging a new home for his fortune.
For me, this episode was Marie’s chance to shine. Last episode highlighted Dean Norris’s impressive abilities as an actor, and this week we get to see Betsy Brandt express volumes in her trembling eyes. The scene between Marie and Skyler is a masterpiece in peeling back the layers until nothing but the raw center is left. At first Marie is in denial of what Hank suspects, but when she starts grilling her sister, Skyler’s silence says it all. After Marie realizes that it is true, her next natural question is how long Skyler’s known, and that’s when the sisterly love dissolves and the tension fills the room. When Marie realizes that Skyler’s basically known all along, since before Hank was almost assassinated, it makes Skyler an accomplice in Hank’s attempted murder in Marie’s eyes. So it’s not completely unwarranted when she slaps Skyler out of her silence. Marie storms out of the room, but not before she shouts, “And you won’t talk! You won’t talk to Hank because you think Walt will get away with this.” Basically. The next thing that happens is hands-down the tensest scene between the two sisters since the show started. Marie starts leaving the house with Holly, feeling entitled to take over responsibility for the infant after finding out Skyler’s involvement in Walt’s criminal career. Skyler goes from quietly crying to shouting at her sister. Marie refuses to give Holly back for uncomfortably long, and finally Hank bursts in and talks some sense into Marie and she finally gives the baby back. It’s a tiny human, Marie, not a chess pawn! As Marie and Hank leave, the anger and betrayal and hurt in Hank’s eyes tells me a poolside lunch with the Whites will not be in his future anytime soon.
The next scene cements the new division of the Whites vs. the Schraders, and we see the first tender moment between Walt and Skyler in I don’t even know how long. After Walt comes back from long hours of digging in the desert and memorizing the coordinates, he’s tired and dazed. She’s relieved to see him (I barely recognized that sentiment coming from her) and concerned over his dirty appearance (that sentiment, too). As she reassures him that she said nothing to Hank, Walt drops to the bathroom floor and passes out. When he awakes, it’s a symbolic reemerging of the old Walt from season one. His number one priority is the family again, not proving that he can be the baddest kid on the playground. Not only does he admit that he messed up, but he even offers to turn himself in and pleads to Skyler that she promise to take the money and pass it onto the kids. “Please don’t let me have done all this for nothing.” In true solidarity, and the first instance where Skyler does not put their kids first, she argues that if Walt turns himself in, they’d be giving up the money, so maybe the best tactic is to stay quiet. For the first time in five seasons, these two look like a loving husband and wife.
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Oh and guess who’s back? Todd, the sociopath! Lydia makes a visit to Declan and his crew, her new meth cooks, to give them a piece of her Louboutined mind. Their product is not meeting the standards of their predecessors, and she insists that they hire Todd back. When they refuse, she sends a text and shows them that she’s not playing around. Her team of assassins show up and kill everyone on site, and it turns out to be Todd and his uncle Jack, who had helped Walt off Mike’s lawyer and legacy men in the first half of season five. They then proceed to take everything from the meth lab.
After Marie urges Hank to get the DEA involved in catching Walt, Hank says he’s still missing one piece, and without it he can’t prove anything. (Could this piece be Jesse Pinkman??) And he points out that the day he goes to the DEA about Walt would be the last day of his career, as his own brother-in-law, who’s been under his nose the entire time, has been the infamous Heisenberg all along. But Marie then asks what if the DEA catch Walt first and find out that Hank knew but didn’t say anything? And that’s when Hank goes back to the office.
In the final scene, we see Jesse still lifeless and hollow with a dead expression in his eyes, as he’s being interrogated for the money-throwing incident. Hank shows up and asks if he can have a few minutes with him, convinced that he may be able to get Jesse to talk. The evidence is mounting that Jesse no longer has the will to live, but the burning question is: will he succumb to the guilt over everything he and Walt have done or will he snap out of it and be the key to seeing justice served? And what does that mean ultimately? A victory for Hank or a victory for Walt? And where does Walt’s family figure in all of this? What we do know is that the next Hank showdown — between him and his smallest fan, Jesse — will bring us closer to some answers.
