After Math

Last week's Breaking Bad ended with a big moment: Walt kills Mike.  Much of this week's episode--that last till next year!--"Gliding Over All," deals with the repercussions.   But then it moves on, quite a bit ahead, in fact, taking us to another moment we've all known was going to happen, we just didn't know when.

We start with Walt at HQ watching a fly.  Walt's dealt with flies before.  Now, Todd (his Victor) comes in after his latest assignment, getting rid of Mike's car (with Old Joe's help).  Only thing left to do is dissolve Mike's body, now lying in the trunk.  In other words, business as usual.  Walt says "It had to be done" but we know it didn't.  Does Walt?

Jesse picks this moment to drop by.  He wouldn't take kindly to Mike's death.  Walt fake assures him that Mike made it out, which leads to their latest pressing problem--Mike's nine lieutenants who have no reason any more not to talk.  (I suppose Walt could try to pay them, but that's not his style.) Walt freezes Jesse out.  You're not a partner any more, I'll deal with this.  And he shuts the door. Walt being cold to Jesse is maybe more painful than anything else in this show.  They've had their ups and down, but their relationship is central to this show, more so than Walt and Skyler's. Walt and Jesse's divorce is harder to take.

While Walt takes a shower (in his bathroom where he keeps his copy of Leaves Of Grass) Hank is talking to the one of the Nine, trying to see who'll sell out cheapest.  Each of them wants to make a deal, which will go to the lowest bidder.  Luckily for Walt, this gives him a little time to make his move.

Walt, in full Heisenberg mode, meets Lydia in a restaurant.  He's there to pick up the list of names that only she has.  But she fears once she gives it to him she'll be of no more use and be added to the list. (Mike's lawyer has also been added.) Walt mocks her--the idea that he'd kill her right there and now in a public place.  She goes on to explain how she helped Fring with distribution and can make millions more for him, especially with her international connections through Madrigal, particularly in the Czech Republic. (I'd think his product would be big in Iceland.) Walt listens and is actually convinced.  This is the move Fring was going to make.  Assured, Lydia writes down the names and leaves, and we discover Walt brought along the ricin vial.  Lydia had him pegged.  She also says "we're going to make a lot of money together." Just what Tuco said not long before he beat an assistant to death.  Walt's in quite a different place now. Or is he?

Walt returns the ricin to behind the wall socket.  It's been around almost since the beginning, and been pulled out more than once, but never used.  Hard to believe it won't eventually come into play.  Who will be the target? Skyler? Jesse? Hank? Walt?

Anyway, on to business.  Todd (aka smashed-in Matt Damon) has lovely relatives--white supremacists with tons of prison connections.  They question if they can kill all those people within a two-minute window.  Heisenberg, almost contemptuous, tells them to figure it out.  That's what he's paying for.  And this is what Heisenberg lives for.

So the next day, as Walt counts down the time, we get a beautiful Breaking Bad montage of numerous deaths, while Nat King Cole sings Jerome Kern.  This is the most deadly Walt has ever been.  Okay, more people died in the plane crash, but that was fallout, Walt didn't plan it, whereas Walt paid for this.

The plan works.  Why?  Because Heisenberg desired it.  The news soon gets to ASAC Hank, who's none too pleased.  They thought they were carrying the aces, but the deck has been reshuffled.

At Hank's place, Walt plays with Holly as the news of the prison killings is on TV.  Marie turns it off as depressed Hank comes home.  Hank takes a long look at Walt.  They've had a lot of these moments in the show, where you can read it either way, but they're always misdirection--so far.  Once Hank knows, we're in the endgame.  Anyway, Hanks tells Walt a story about an old job he had marking trees in the woods for destruction.  Very symbolic, no doubt.  But mostly Hank is tired of his present job.  It's no fun to chase monsters.

This leads into a second montage to "Crystal Blue Persuasion"--about time they used that song.  Lots of clever cuts, as we watch Walt's empire thrive.  This is what he always dreamed, and damned if he isn't pulling it off big like Fring.  Todd is doing a good job, Skyler seems to have accepted her lot and is laundering as best she can, Lydia is making sure she's still needed, and Saul is taking his cut (bet he's glad he's still in business with Walt). The blue stuff rolls out and the money rolls in so fast they can't count it. By the end, even Walt is exhausted.

Now Skyler is at Hank's place, hanging out with Holly and Flynn. After her son leaves, Marie notes that Skyler seems to be over her depression.  So it's been three months, maybe it's time to take the kids back. Even Marie didn't think they'd be staying this long. Skyler returns home and sees tired Walt sitting out by the pool. She asks him to take a drive.

They go out to a storage space.  Inside is a pile of money so big you'd need a truck to haul it around.  (How much?  Depends on the denominations of the bills, but it could be more than 100 million).  She can't possibly launder everything he's been giving her, even with a hundred car washes.  She says isn't it enough now?  Let's have the kids back, let's have our lives back.  Three months ago, Heisenberg would have said no, but maybe Walt is coming back, and the shock of seeing all that money in one place helps wake him up.

Walt goes for his latest cancer screening.  Is the news there also waking him up?  He thinks about his life as he washes his hands in the bathroom where he first hit the paper towel dispenser when he discovered he wasn't about to die just yet.

At Jesse's place, he's just hanging out--it feels like he's out of the show, but they couldn't possibly allow that. Then there's a knock.  Jesse looks out the window and it's Walt--the one who knocks..  He goes to get something--presumably a gun--and then opens the door. He invites Walt in and puts away his bong.  It's an awkward meeting of two people who have been through so much but had a tough break-up. They talk about old times, cooking in the RV. (They tell stories, though oddly don't bting up the one about being stuck in the desert with seemingly no way out--that's a lot better than Walt's story about running out of gas so Jesse had to walk three miles to a station.)  They also discuss killing the Nine, which Walt insists had to be done.  Jesse's not coming back, and Walt understands.  This does seem to be a different Walt.  We know this for sure when Walt says he's left something on the porch. It's a whole lot of money--presumably the five million he owes Jesse.  So Walt has done right by his boy.  Jesse takes it inside, leans back and puts away the gun he brought out just in case.

New Walt goes home and talks to Skyler.  He's out.  It may seem hard to believe, but he's telling the truth. (I wouldn't think this makes him absolutely safe, but certainly things have got to be safer.)  Next thing you know, the kids are back home and Hank and Marie are there to.  Everyone is having a  good time. Happy endings all around.  Except this is Breaking Bad, which doesn't do happy endings.  We watch the scene with dread, knowing some shoe is about drop. Will Todd make a move?  Will Lydia decide maybe Heisenberg isn't necessary?  Will some other associate thinks it's not yet time for Walt to quit?  Then Hank excuses himself and we know what's going to happen.

He sits on the can and, looking for reading material, picks up Leaves Of Grass.  And there's Gale Boettichet's inscription to Walt.  Oh Hank, everything was going fine--not just for Walt and Skyler, but you and Marie.  Close the book, this can lead to no good.

Anyway, the final showdown is in place.  We've been waiting from the first show for Hank to realize who his brother-in-law is.  It's a chilling moment. How does Hank play this?  He's got to go after Heisenberg, but it's a relation, one he loves and has accepted money from.  It won't be good, no matter how it works out.  And that's what we have to wait another year to find out.