“If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it’s not going to be fired, it shouldn’t be hanging there.”

There’s a ridiculous amount to discuss from “Gliding Over All,” the midseason finale of “Breaking Bad,” but for now we’ve just got to cut to it. What’s it? The chase. The ending. The cliffhanger. The biggest revelation by a fictional character since “Einhorn is Finkle.” That’s right, Walter White is Heisenberg, and Hank finally knows it, only Walt doesn’t know Hank knows. What else?

It was the single biggest Chekov’s Gun in a show full of seemingly nothing but. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click the link, or reread the quote up top. In any half decent piece of narrative art, there is no wasted space. When it comes to a show like “Breaking Bad,” that means not a single element is simply thrown in. Not a scene, not a line of dialogue, not a single shot, not a single piece of character background. When it comes to “Breaking Bad” specifically, that means the country’s best meth cook wasn’t going to not be found out by his DEA agent brother in-law. There was never not going to be a final confrontation between the two.

In case you missed any part of it, let’s recap: Just prior to the ending, Walt has more money than he knows what to do with and is finally out of the meth business. The family’s having a nice barbecue when Hank decides to drop a deuce. Once on the porcelain throne, he absentmindedly reaches back for some reading material to find a collection of Walt Whitman poems. Boring. Except that Walt was given this particular collection by one Gale Boetticher, his former partner, a man whose obsession with him bordered on religious.

You see, after he was killed, Hank was given Gale’s file to look over. What he found was enough to convince him that Gale was Heisenberg, a notion Walt helped back up with some insightful chemistry knowledge in the fourth episode of season four, “Bullet Points” (if you’ve got Netflix Instant, click this link and skip to the 20:50 mark). There was just one problem, the notebook included a dedication to “W.W.,” and for the life of him, Hank could not discern who it referred to. “Who do you figure that is,” Hank asks Walt, “Woodrow Wilson? Willy Wonka?” before jokingly adding, “Walter White?” Walt flipped the pages and found a spot where Gale had written down a poem, and told Hank that its author, Walt Whitman, was his W.W.

Fast forward to the finale. Hank finds a book of Walt Whitman poems, with an inscription from “G.B.” to “W.W.” in a handwriting he recognizes. Everything comes back to him as he suddenly recalls Walt’s response to his joking accusation, “You got me.” Hank realizes that not only has Heisenberg been staring him in the face this whole time, he’s made the same mistake his former boss did with Gus Fring. Recall what that supervisor had to say, “That whole night we were laughing, telling stories, drinking wine… and he’s somebody else completely… Right in front of me… right under my nose.”

This is heavy stuff, because for Hank, the “Heisenberg problem” is beyond personal. In “Bullet Points,” when Hank thought Gale was his man, the fact that he was dead still wasn’t enough. “God, I wanted to get this guy… I mean me, personally, you know?” he tells Walt. “I wanted to be the one to slap the handcuffs on him, that kind of shit. Popeye Doyle waving to Frog One.” Walt points out that in the first “French Connection” movie, Popeye never catches the bad guy, to which Hank responds “Yeah, I guess, me and old Popeye, huh? A day late and a dollar short.” Hank may have been a day late, but now his chance to come out more than a few dollars ahead, and we can be certain he’s not going to make the same mistake as his supervisor, not twice, not now that he sees the problem’s been hiding in plain sight this whole time. In so many words: Shit’s. Gon’. Go. Down.

“I’m out.”

It took Walt a long time to finally get where he wanted: a place that could satisfy his terrible arrogance, one where he was in total control, answering to no one, and making more money than Skyler could count, let alone launder. After Walt spent the first half of “Gliding Over All” tying up what he thought were his final loose ends, the second half showed him occupying the position he’d wanted so badly. But Walt finds that the “empire business” is just another grind, a feeling made more poignant by his conversation with Hank regarding a summer job the latter had back in high school. So when Skyler shows Walt the pile of green paper on the storage room floor, he’s ready to quit, and he returns to his original goals: family, security, stability.

As that first half rolled along, we all waited patiently for something to go wrong, for that arrogance to be Walt’s ultimate undoing. What we got was, well, nothing. It seemed Walt really was as good at running a criminal empire as he though he’d be. Lydia’s offer to make Walt the foremost methamphetamine supplier of the Czech Republic makes him a boatload of cash and allows him to put aside his plan to use ricin to poison her. He engineers a prison massacre, as the ten people with enough knowledge to put him behind bars are killed within two minutes. Walt even pays Jesse the $5 million he owes and stays a while to reminisce. Jesse is surprised as we are to find nothing but cash in the duffel bags left outside his door. A discovery which causes him to toss his gun and fall back against a wall, almost in tears. All the stars align and everything is right in the universe. Walt’s going to get out , arrogance in tow.

But he doesn’t. He can’t. As the Whites and the Schraders sat around the table in the backyard, we still knew that something was going to happen. It had to. The fucked-up mind this show has given me had me searching everywhere, would Walt Jr. slip and knock the baby in the pool? Was there poison in that sunscreen that Walt had forgotten about?

Nope. In the end, it wasn’t anything like the first half’s enormous displays of hubris that were Walt’s undoing. Instead, it was another, smaller event that occurred in the third episode of this season: As Walt unpacked his things after moving back into the house, he finds a Walt Whitman book, his lips curl into the tiniest of smiles, and he places it on his bedside table. After all that’s occurred, everything Walt’s done over the past four and a half seasons, it was this casual act that will lead to his downfall. As of yet, it seems the biggest tragedy of Walter White’s life has not been “flying to close to the sun and getting his throat cut,” but returning to Earth and realizing that he was his own loose end, that he couldn’t stick the comfortable landing he’d worked so hard to create, and that the lower you are, the harder you fall.

So that’s it, another ten months without “Breaking Bad” are before us. Since you’ve got all that time to spare, you might want to go back and watch the first four and a half seasons before returning to this last episode. “Gliding Over All” contained so much imagery and so many parallels that I couldn’t begin to list them here (let alone launder them). I also recommend checking out FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” (the first three seasons are on Netflix Instant if you need to catch up). Check back here on September 12, the day after the show’s fifth season premier, and you’ll find a post just like this one discussing it. “Sons” is no “Breaking Bad,” that much is certain, but it’ll help kill the time.

Watch the cast and crew go inside “Gliding Over All” below and follow the writer on Twitter @NateKreichman.

Regrettably, it’s unlikely that I’m going to be blogging each and every episode of this season I have over the course of the past couple of years, but that’s not to say that I won’t still be offering up the occasional piece about the show. I mean, after all, I meant it when I said – repeatedly – that it’s the best show on television, so I’m rarely without something to say about it. Indeed, having been fortunate enough to check out a screener of the Season 5 premiere, I thought I’d devote this week’s column to desperately avoiding saying too much about what goes on while still giving you as many reasons as possible to make you want to tune in.

But first, AMC’s official look at what’s ahead:

Now that you’ve watched that, prepare yourself for a list of 20 things that you probably won’t want to read if you want to go into the episode being as surprised as possible. Trust me, though: although arguably all 20 things qualify as spoilers on some level, I really haven’t told you much of anything…which you’ll realize after you’ve watched the Season 5 premiere on Sunday night. Once you have, I hope you’ll check back in. I’m curious to know what you think.

1. Walt spends the pre-credits teaser in a Denny’s, looking like he hasn’t had to deal with chemo in quite some time.

2. The only other familiar face in the pre-credits scene is someone we’ve only seen once before on “Breaking Bad,” but we’ve seen him plenty of times on other Bullz-Eye-friendly shows. Hint: during my chat with Cranston for the AV Club, I dropped this person’s name as someone who did outstanding work in Season 4, and Cranston admitted that we might be seeing him again in Season 5. I just didn’t expect it would be so fast!

3. Despite what our friend Mr. Cranston claims, the episode does not pick up right where we left off. Mostly it does, yes, but not entirely.

4. Walt, Jr. reflects on the death of Gus Fring.

5. At one point, Walt says, “Oh, shit.” And with good reason.

6. While exploring the rubble that once was the Super Lab, Gomez offers Hank the chance to say “I told you so.”

7. Mike probably isn’t completely back up to full strength after the season finale, but his reaction to the news of Gus’s death will absolutely have you believe otherwise.

8. Mike and Walt spend a fair amount of time arguing over semantics.

9. Jesse has a good idea.

10. We also see the return of a one-off guest star from Season 3.

11. The car wash is continuing to kick ass.

12. Saul gets Skyler riled up.

13. We find out Ted’s fate.

14. Walt executes Jesse’s aforementioned good idea with decidedly strong results.

15. There’s at least one moment where you will laugh even as your heart skips a beat…or, in another words, a good old-fashioned “holy shit” moment.

16. Jesse says, “Yeah, bitch!”

17. Gus might be gone, but his storyline nonetheless rages on.

18. At one point, Saul says to Walt, “I’m your Huckleberry.” He’s probably being sarcastic, though.

19. No, seriously, Walt really no longer needs the hat to channel Heisenberg.

20. Walt’s last line of the episode would’ve been poignant if he’d said it last season. Now it’ll just make you yell, “I can’t believe he just fucking said that!”

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t entirely coincidental. Look, I’ve been smitten with Natalie Zea since she first crossed my radar as part of the cast of ABC’s “Dirty Sexy Money,” and I had the chance to talk to her in a perfectly legitimate capacity. So sue me.

Also, just so it’s out there, I should probably also mention that I sound like a complete doofus a couple of times, responding to her responses by simply saying, “Really?” I’m not usually like that, but, hey, this is what happens when you’re blindsided by a beautiful woman…

Bullz-Eye: So what was it like when the cast gathered back together for the first table read of Season Three?

Natalie Zea: We, uh, don’t do table reads. [Laughs.]

BE: [Surprised.] Really?

NZ: Regretfully. I think they’re very handy. I think it’s that Graham (Yost) is not a fan of table reads. I’m not sure why. So, yeah, you kind of get thrown back into it on the first day. My first scene of Season Three was a love scene. And it’s, like, “Oh, hello, haven’t seen you in six months! How are you doing? Great! Let’s get into bed!” [Laughs.] And then, y’know, after the first 15 minutes, it’s like I never left.

BE: There’s at least a slightly different dynamic with your character this season, owing to her pregnancy, but you indicated during the panel that you’re not planning to play her a whole lot differently.

NZ: No, I’m not. Also, in regards to the pregnancy, what I realized but didn’t say is… We’re not really talking about the pregnancy as much as we are the baby. So I think probably Winona’s pregnancy is going quite well. [Laughs.] She’s having a really easy time of it. Which I like. I think…y’know, if there are concerns with viewers – and I think there would be, given the nature of this show – that it’s going to turn into this, like, “Baby? Pregnancy? I want ice cream and pickles! My feet hurt!” [Laughs.] It’s not happening. The pregnancy almost never gets addressed. But the issues…the outcome and the issues regarding the outcome, those are discussed. Because it’s life. And you have to discuss it.

BE: Speaking of ice cream, that was a great line Raylan had at the end of Season Two. As if anyone would ever believe that he’d settle down and sell ice cream. Ever.

NZ: It could happen… [Laughs.]

BE: Sure. Sure it could. [Laughs.] So when you first started “Justified,” did you get any indication about where your character was going to be going?

NZ: At the very beginning? No. And I was actually somewhat hesitant to take the job because of that, because I had run into a situation where I had been on a show and the character seemed to not quite find its feet, and I didn’t want a repeat of that. Graham was actually very honest with me, though. He said, “Look, I can’t make you any promises, but I can tell you that there’s a reason that we want you on permanently, so you can trust us or you can take a hike, but we really would like to have you.” So, uh, I was in escrow… [Laughs.] And I was, like, “Well, I’m not gonna say no to that!” So I really did sort of jump in quite blindly.

BE: That kind of parallels Anna Gunn’s experiences on “Breaking Bad,” where she wanted to make sure that Skyler White wasn’t just going to be the harried wife, and Vince Gilligan basically assured her, “She’s going to start off in the dark, but eventually she’ll be in on the crime.”

NZ: Right. Because, you know, it’s an archetype that has become… [Sighs.] …troublesome, playing the reactive significant other to the hero just because of the need for dramatic conflict. It happens a lot, and I think actresses – at least the ones who’ve been doing this for awhile – are concerned that they’re going to sort of become that trope. And it’s happened with Winona. At times. I mean, there’s no way for it not to have happened. But it’s something that you try to avoid at all costs, I think.

BE: Sure. But, like, for instance, when the series first kicked off, I think most viewers figured, “Oh, here’s his ex, she’s back in the picture, you just know they’re gonna get back together…”

NZ: Yeah, I mean, I assumed it as well. But I certainly didn’t think it was any kind of guarantee.

BE: I think the most surprising plot development with Winona came last season, when she stole the money.

NZ: And…that was a bit of a misstep, I thought.

BE: Really?

NZ: Yes, because the reason behind all that wasn’t fleshed out enough, only because there was so much else going on. I just think it kind of got lost. And I don’t think I’m telling tales out of school when I say that. I think it just didn’t resonate the way we had intended for it to, because the buildup was…not quite right.

BE: How quickly did you and Timothy Olyphant find your onscreen chemistry?

NZ: [Long pause.] I would say…I mean, I think it’s all subjective, but probably about halfway through the season. I would say “Hatless,” which was Episode Six of the first season, when we got to spend a lot of time together as our characters in the episode. I think that’s when we really locked into the rhythm and sort of began to understand the relationship.

BE: For a second, I thought you were trying to say, “I’d say we have more chemistry when he’s hatless.”

NZ: [Bursts out laughing.] Well, I have to say, I do enjoy him more without the hat. Just because I can see him, you know?

BE: “Justified” obviously has a ridiculously talented writing staff, but have you yourself brought anything specific to the character of Winona?

NZ: For me…as superficial as it might sound, I tend to work from the outside in. Nails are really important for me for any character. The voice is really important for me for any character. And, of course, the hair and the makeup. But I try to take care of what you see, and then I let them sort of take care of what I say and think and feel. [Laughs.] And hopefully the combination makes a fully realized person.

BE: How has it been working with Elmore Leonard?

NZ: I, uh, met him today.

BE: Really? For the first time…?

NZ: Yep. And he was wonderful. [Laughs.]

BE: I know we’re up against the wall, but I attended my first TCA tour when “Dirty Sexy Money” was being presented, so I was just wondering about your thoughts when you look back on that show.

NZ: I have such fond memories. You know, I get approached all the time on the street by such disparate, interesting people – just such a wide array of people – who really seriously lament the fact that that show went too soon. And I have to say, as much as I enjoyed it and as great an experience as it was, I sort of relish it in the fact that it went out on greatness. You know? I think we could’ve done another season. I think after that it would’ve… [Hesitates.] My fear is that it would’ve just gotten to be too much. It would’ve been too over the top, too campy, too ridiculous. So I sort of like that we went out in a blaze of glory. And I loved that character. But I was fine to let her go.

BE: How was the experience of working on “Hung”?

NZ: It was a challenge, I have to say. It was one of the more challenging projects that I’ve worked on. But, conversely, it was also the project that has gotten me the most acclaim in my career. So I guess it was worth it. [Laughs]

BE: Lastly, I can’t remember: did you and Walton Goggins ever have any scenes together during the brief period when you were both appearing on “The Shield”?

NZ: No. In fact, Walton and I have never in our lives ever acted together in the same scene. [Laughs.] We’ve been in the same scene, passing each other, but that’s it!

Ahem.

When we first see Walt this evening, he’s making a mad dash through the parking garage to remove the bomb from the underside of Gus’s car, which he promptly carries into the hospital and up to the waiting area. It’s an unabashedly slapstick moment when the magnet on the bomb sticks to the elevator door, followed by a hilarious back-and-forth between Walt and Jesse about the decision to bring the bomb with him (“What, was I supposed to leave it on his car?”), but things get serious immediately thereafter, with the ABQ police showing up and requesting an audience with Jesse about his statement. As the boys with badges walk away with Mr. Pinkman, Walt looks positively pale. Is it just from being in close proximity to the cops?

The conversation between Jesse and his new friends is predictably tense. “We’re just talking.” “So if I get tired of talking, I can get up and leave?” Sure, that’s how it always works. Jesse’s being seriously grilled over the fact that he offered up a very specific poison as what was causing Brock’s illness. His explanation? “I musta seen it on ‘House’ or something.” Awesome. Time to call Saul, but there’s so much shredding going on that his secretary can’t hear the phone when he calls…or when Walt calls, for that matter, as we discover when he busts through the bottom pane of the front door in a desperate effort to find Saul. It’s an unexpectedly hilarious scene between Walt and H.T. (as Saul dubbed her last week), particularly when Walt is initially completely oblivious to the fact that the $20K pricetag for the repairs ain’t nothing to do with repairs. Okay, so it was a little slapstick-y when Walt left the office the same way he came in, but that didn’t keep me from laughing, anyway.

Walt heads home to find the $20K, but he approaches slowly and cautiously (as one might when they think there’s a good chance that they’re being watched), checking out the joint with spyglasses first. I didn’t recognize the name Becky Simmons – is this the first time we’ve ever heard her name mentioned? – but once I realized she was his neighbor, I all but laughed out loud at his plan. As I’m watching, I was thinking, “Why do I feel like we’re going to see a gun go off from a distance? Or see the house blow up when she walks in the door?” But, no, it’s just a couple of goons who slip out the side door when Becky comes in. It was a potentially cruel tactic, but you can’t deny its effectiveness. Still, things go awry when Walt slips in to retrieve the money and the goons pop back in. (Nice shot of their feet gliding past the window, btw.) Thank God the crawl space offers an escape route, eh?

Jumping back to Jesse, our Mr. Pinkman still has nothing to say about his poison suggestion except that he was “trying to be helpful.” Amazingly, Saul comes through for his client, swooping in to save the day, and in their discussion, Saul tells Jesse about Walt’s near-miss, and in turn Jesse steers Walt toward Casa Tranquila, where Hector resides. “They’re enemies, not friends,” muses Walt, and, man, you can just hear the wheels turning…

Walt blows into Bingo to see Hector and offers him the opportunity for revenge. I’ve got to say, it’s a brilliant plan, and damned if Walt isn’t right: the odds are looking good that Hector hates Gus more than him…until, following Hector’s laborious process of getting a message through to his nurse, he offers up two words that I didn’t see coming: “Need DEA.” Seriously? Is he really going to play the narc? I don’t believe it…but with this show, you just never fucking know.

Time for the obligatory check-in call from the family, with Junior demanding to know when Walt’s going to join them and Marie continuing to pile on the guilt, but Hank’s oblivious to it all, and when Gomez pops by the safe house, we find out it’s because he’s been focusing on the excess electrical units at the laundry. But Hank’s mind goes elsewhere as soon as he learns that Hector’s suddenly of a mind to talk to him, and although Marie unsurprisingly views it as a ploy to get Hank out in the open, you knew damned well that as soon as she said, “There’s no way you’re going to do it, end of story,” there’d be a quick cut to Hank in the office…and so there was. What I didn’t expect was that Hector’s only reason to take a trip to the DEA was to ultimately lure Gus to Casa Tranquila…well, and perhaps to offer one final “fuck you” to Hank in the process.

Nice family portrait in Hector’s room, huh? Boy, those Cousins sure were cute once upon a time. It looked for a moment like Tyrus was going to do the dirty work and take out Hector himself, but, no, he’s only here to check the place for anything suspicious…and there isn’t, unless you count Walt, who’s hovering right outside the window and beats a hasty retreat.

Hey, what do you know? Brock wasn’t poisoned with Ricin. Jesse claims he isn’t surprised, but he clearly is. He’s even more surprised, however, when he walks out of the police station and is promptly tasered by a couple of Gus’s goons…as if anyone else’s goons would be quite so brazen. (Gus really gets off on his goons tasering people on his behalf, doesn’t he?) Whether Gus knows for a fact that Jesse is involved in this whole Hector mess or not, he’s clearly not taking any chances.

Tyrus gives Gus the go-ahead to come down to Casa Tranquila, and although he offers to take care of Hector himself, Gus unsurprisingly declines this kind offer (“I do this”) and gets all spiffed up to head over and take care of business. After one more sweep by Tyrus for good measure, Mr. Fring allows himself the tiniest bit of excitement that the time has finally come to extract his final revenge Hector…but will he even make it in the door? I really wasn’t sure. But, yes, he makes his way into Hector’s room, shuts the door, and immediately gets dramatic, asking, “What kind of man talks to the DEA? No man. No man at all.” Suddenly, it’s starting to look worse for Hector than it is for Gus, but we know something’s going to happen…and when Hector can no longer resist making final eye contact with Gus, we realize that the end has come for Gustavo Fring. Or has it? Damned if it didn’t look like he’d managed to survive for a second…until we saw the other side of his face. Biggest “holy shit” moment in “Breaking Bad” history? Certainly the most bad-ass, anyway. Leave it to the Chicken Man to spend his final moments of existence straightening his tie. Goodbye, Gus…

Walt, of course, cannot resist the opportunity to look smug when he hears the news on the radio. But there’s still five minutes left. What’s going to happen? Well, first of all, we’ve got to check in on Jesse, who’s back to making meth – someone’s got to do it, right? – and not looking at all happy about it. Fortunately, he’s moments away from being out of that line of work. Walt blows in, blows away Gus’s underling, and tells Jesse, “Gus is dead. We’ve got work to do.” So long, SuperLab. You’ll be missed.

I was convinced they were going to walk out of the laundry and right into Hank and/or Gomez, but, no, they got away scott free. It seemed like too happy an ending when Jesse found out that Brock was going to make it, but I admit that I was still convinced that the poison wasn’t Walt’s doing. The look on his face sold me as well as it did Jesse, as it implied to me that he wasn’t 100% certain that Gus actually did have to go. I was wrong wrong wrong. I admit it. But how long will it take Jesse to figure it out?

It’s always an excruciating wait between seasons of “Breaking Bad,” but while Season 4 doesn’t end with the sort of scream-inducing cliffhanger that we’ve been handed in the past, it does close with tremendous possibilities for what Season 5 might bring. As ever, Vince Gilligan delivered a fantastic 13-episode run this go-round. Only a few episodes ago, I was complaining about how the whole Mr.-Chips-to-Scarface transition seemed to have fallen apart, with Walt having become a pathetic mess, but damned if things didn’t turn around…as I should’ve suspected they would all along, obviously. So what can we expect from Season 5? For one, I have to believe that Gus’s Chilean connections will turn up to avenge his death. I don’t believe the destruction of the SuperLab is so complete as to negate the possibility of the DEA finding their way back to Walt…and if even if it is, then there’s certainly still his office at Los Pollos Hermanos to explore. And what of poor Mike, last seen recovering in Mexico? Bet on Jonathan Banks’ name in the credits of Season 5.

Damn, that was a good season. Hope you folks agree. See you back here next year, okay?

Wait, scratch that: Walt’s not going.

“All that matters is that the rest of you are safe,” Walt tells Skyler. “And that’s why I’m not going with you. I’m the real target.” Ever the naïve one, she can’t quite grasp that being under the watchful eye of the DEA isn’t enough to keep everyone protected, but Walt knows better, just as he knows that he and his family are only being included in the DEA’s protective of Hank because Marie has demanded it.

“There’s got to be another way,” sobs Skyler.

“There isn’t,” Walt says, matter-of-factly. “There was. But now there isn’t.”

And so Walt steps outside and calls Hank, playing his brother-in-law like a fiddle with the suggestion that Marie has a history of overreacting, and assures him that somebody’s got to keep the car wash up and running. Hank isn’t thrilled, but he doesn’t sound suspicious, even when Walt’s voice cracks with emotion as he tells him to keep his head down. The look on Walt’s face as he says goodbye to his infant daughter is heartbreaking, if only because we know that, in his mind, he believes this could well be the last time he ever sees her…but, y’know, you can’t really blame the guy for thinking that, can ya?

Walt sits poolside, a location where we’ve seen him more than a few times before, and when he’s there, it invariably results in a dramatic and/or traumatic moment, ranging anywhere from Walt Jr. puking from too many tequila shots to Walt digging an eyeball out of the drain or, lest we forget, Walt having to jump into the water to extinguish his flaming bathrobe. This time, however, we see a man who’s spinning both his firearm and his wheels, waiting to figure out how little future he has left. When the pistol spins toward one of the potted plants, however, it’s clear that Walt has gotten an idea. I’ll freely admit, however, that I didn’t know what the hell it was at the time.

Meanwhile, over at Casa de Schrader, Walt Jr. has quickly shifted out of the respect he’d started to give his father for being honest with him (or at least sounding like it, anyway) during their discussion at the apartment and has gotten pissed off at him again for ostensibly sticking with the car wash when his life could be in danger. Predictably, Marie’s pissed about it, too, and wants to know why they didn’t just haul Walt’s ass into custody. Hank briefly tries to calm everybody down, but then he proceeds to get everybody right back up in arms again when he starts up with his theories about Gus Fring. Gomez is still as skeptical as ever, but Hank finally talks Gomez into checking out the laundry by roughing up his ego, suggesting that he was never any good at the ol’ knock-and-talk routine.

What a surprise: the next shot is of Gomez at the laundry.

First and foremost, it’s nice to finally see Steven Michael Quezada get a nice, meaty scene for a change. The guy’s been a consistently dependable player, turning in solid work since the early days of the series, but he rarely gets the opportunity to be the star of a scene, so this was a pleasant treat…for us and for him, I’d expect. I can’t say as I really expected the dogs to find anything during their sweep of the facilities, but when the camera went between the machinery, down through the floor, and into the SuperLab, I admit that my pulse quickened a bit, and it only got quicker when Jesse got the phone call from Gus. “This is all the result of your former partner,” snaps Gus. “Do you understand now? Do you see why this can’t continue?” Jesse still isn’t willing to sign off on Walt’s death, however, and when he asks Gus what he plans to do as an alternative to killing Mr. White, Gus offers six painfully ambiguous words in response:

“There will be an appropriate response.”

Shuddering as we take in the possible ramifications of this statement, we see Gomez drive away without having found anything to back up Hank’s theories, followed by Jesse being dropped off at his car at a location which is, presumably, a significant distance away from the laundry. It’s a move which further shows how well prepared Gus is, but it also reminds us just how frustrated he must be with the way his empire now seems perpetually on the verge of collapse as a result of one man. (Well, you know, it’s technically two, but Gus clearly would’ve knocked off Hank by now if it wasn’t for Walt, so there’s little question that all of the blame lies first and foremost on Walt’s shoulders.) You know things are bad if Jesse’s actually trying to get in touch with Walt, but there’s a momentary bit of comic relief when, after failing to reach Walt, he checks his messages and receives a series of increasingly frantic voicemails from Saul Goodman, and the humor continues into Goodman’s office, particularly with the line, “‘Sugar tits’: I say it’s endearing.” But as their conversation continues, Saul’s dialogue becomes less punctuated with punch lines, and Bob Odenkirk’s delivery grows increasingly nervous. If Saul makes it out of Season 4 alive, I have to wonder just how much we’ll be seeing of him in Season 5, because this is clearly a man who fears for his life and has no intention of sticking around ABQ any longer than he absolutely has to.

As Hank continues to ponder Gus’s guilt, Skyler is, as one might expect of someone in her situation, increasingly twitchy. Like Jesse, she finds herself unable to get in touch with Walt, her anxiety reaching a point where she steps outside to enjoy the smooth, refreshing taste of smoldering tobacco. (I know we’ve seen Skyler smoke before, but I’m blanking on the last time it happened. Was it in 2.10, a.k.a. the same episode where Walt, Jr. puked in the pool?) Further emphasizing that she and Jesse are in the same boat, we get that nice cut to Jesse fiddling with his lighter, which in turn takes us into a development which I didn’t see coming in the slightest and which leaves us seriously wondering whether Gus is as evil here as we know he can be, if Walt’s being as paranoid as we know he can be, or if Walt’s reached such a point of desperation that he’s decided, “Well, if it takes the possible death of a child to get Jesse back on my side, then so be it”…and I’ll be damned if I can tell which it is.

Either way, I didn’t immediately think that someone had gone after Brock, but I did initially think, “Wow, this seems kind of out of nowhere,” and when Jesse pulled out his cigarette pack, I believe I actually did say out loud, “Oh, no…” But when Jesse showed up at Walt’s house, I didn’t expect him to suddenly turn on Walt the way he did. Frankly, when Jesse saw that the cigarette was missing, I figured he thought that Brock had decided to try a cigarette and accidentally picked the wild card in the pack, so from my point of view, it seemed like a hell of a leap of logic to think that Walt had somehow been involved in giving the poison to Brock. Even after Jesse explained away my theory, I still don’t think I would’ve figured, “Oh, Walt’s responsible.” I know Jesse isn’t exactly the Mr. Spock of “Breaking Bad,” but even after having survived the bloodbath down Mexico way with Gus and Mike, I still would’ve probably wondered if perhaps Tyrus might’ve had something to do with it…which, of course, is what Walt theorizes. I obviously didn’t believe for a second that Jesse was going to kill Walt, but given Jesse’s skewed theory of what had happened, nor did I necessarily know for sure if he was going to accept the possibility that Gus might be guilty of the charges Walt was making against him.

Quick side note that I was reminded of when Jesse made one more visit to see Brock in the hospital: this was a rare TV portrayal of a nurse who wasn’t being a complete and total bitch. You get so used to seeing nurses getting shitty about the whole “only spouse and family” rule that it was actually somewhat shocking earlier in the episode when this young lady seemed almost sympathetic about not being able to let Jesse go back with Andrea, and she kept her same general tone here even when threatening to call security. It’s the little things on this show that really stand out, and this – which had absolutely nothing to do with the plot – was one that really caught my eye.

Okay, back to business. I can’t believe Tyrus got so pissed off with Jesse for not going back to work that he actually committed a bit of laying-of-hands in the middle of a hospital. Dude ain’t no Mike, that’s for sure. Clearly, Gus knows that, too, or else he wouldn’t have deigned to come to the hospital himself and “suggest” that Jesse come back and finish up the batch of meth before it goes bad. After hearing about Brock, however, Gus assures Jesse that he needn’t come back until the boy’s situation is more stable…as long as he gets stable by next week. (That was a perfect Gus moment.) The fact that their meeting took place in a chapel cannot be ignored, though I’m not sure what we’re supposed to take from it.

Can you smell what Walt’s cooking? It’s an explosive of some sort, obviously, not entirely unlike a pipe bomb. I’ve no doubt that the chemistry of the explosive is spot-on, but as for the mechanics of blowing it up, that’s not Walt’s field, so when it took more than a few tries to get any sort of reaction from the detonator, I knew there was at least a 50% chance that it wouldn’t work when the time came. I did not, however, expect the hairs on the back of Gus’s neck to suddenly stand on end, as if he somehow sensed that Walt had placed a bomb on his vehicle, and send him out of the parking garage and out of harm’s way. Not that Gus doesn’t have the tendency to plan for every possible eventuality, and not that he wouldn’t be continuing to expect Walt to try and take him down, but if we’re really supposed to believe that he sensed a disturbance in the force or whatever, I’ll be really depressed, so here’s hoping that next week will reveal that he hesitated because he had a brainstorm and turned around so that he could put it into action.

So what of next week? Will Brock pull through? Will we see Mike make his triumphant return to some semblance of good health? Will we finally get definitive confirmation that Ted is dead? (Every other critic seems to think he is, but I need someone on the show to actually say it before I can believe it…and nobody’s actually said it.) Will Saul Goodman successfully make it out of town, or will he take his final bow on “Breaking Bad”? And will we want to scream at Vince Gilligan for offering up a flurry of cliffhangers that we’ll have to wait for many long months to see resolved? I think the only one we can definitively answer with a “yes” is that last one, but I’m resigned to that, so I’ll be back here next week no matter what…and here’s hoping you will be, too.

Ah, I’m just kidding. I know you’ll be here. Hell, if you’ve made it this far, there’s really no reason to think you’d be anywhere else. See you then!

I don’t mean that as a spoiler. Indeed, when I wrote that sentence, I didn’t know whether I was being facetious or not. I was just playing the odds, baby…and when the first thing we saw this week after the aforementioned warning was a broken pair of glasses and droplets of blood falling onto a hardwood floor and the toe of a shoe, you’ll forgive me if I felt relatively confident that those odds were in my favor. As it turned out, I was right: someone in Gus’s camp did bite the dust. It just wasn’t anyone we particularly cared about. But we’ll get to that in a minute.

Hank is positively giddy at the thought of heading over to Los Pollos Hermanos to pick up the tracking device and see where Gus has been driving for the past week…so giddy, in fact, that he’s crooning Survivor’s signature hit pretty much all the way to the restaurant. Walt, however, is more than a little bit antsy about being on the premises, refusing even to step inside the establishment, telling Hank, “We’ll grab something from the drive-thru.” When they get back to the house and check the device’s history, however, Hank is pissed at the “chicken-slinging son of a bitch,” dismissing Walt’s suggestion that maybe he might be innocent, declaring, “A guy this clean’s got to be dirty.”

Leaving Hank’s house, Walt runs into Gus’s right-hand man and makes the remarkably ballsy decision to call the cops on him right in front of him. Anyone think this is going to come back to bite Walt in the ass? Yeah, me, too. Then when Walt pulls up outside the SuperLab and gets into conversation with Jesse, he endeavors to make small talk, smoking cigarettes and talking “Ice Road Truckers,” though it’s clear the only thing he really wants to know is the status of Operation Fringdown. “Don’t you have enough cancer already?” snaps Jesse. “Look, I said I’d do it. I’ll do it.” “What does it matter?” asks Walt. “We’re both dead men, anyway.”

Skyler’s at the car wash late, doing the books and smiling at the realization that the business is actually on the verge of turning a profit. Calling Walt under the auspices of suggesting that they buy Junior a car for his birthday (this time one that fits more realistic into their present financial scenario), she suggests that maybe he might want to consider an “exit strategy” from his second job. “I’m working on it,” he says. End of conversation. Cue the glance at the tracking device sitting on his bedside table, which, come the morning, is out of its packaging and…well, we’ll get to that. For the moment, let’s just focus on the freakout Walt has when Hank calls him up and asks him to give him a ride over to Los Pollos Hermanos’ distribution center, a.k.a. the home of the SuperLab. It’s a testament to how thrown Walt is that the best excuse he can come up is to follow Hank’s theory and say that, yes, in fact, he is taking a dump. Explosive upset stomach, courtesy of Tex-Mex cuisine. “I get it, you don’t have to paint me a picture,” says Hank, with a cringe in his voice. Panicked, Walt nonetheless manages to talk Hank down from getting another ride, convincing him to wait until his stomach is in better shape, then calls Mike to warn him. He gets hung up on. So that’s how that relationship is going…

Jesse’s found himself on a new task: washing the chicken batter off bags of meth. “Where’s all this going?” he asks, uncertainly. “Elsewhere,” replies the ever-talkative Mike. Fair enough, then. But “elsewhere” is clearly “to the cartel.” Just sayin’.

Meanwhile, Skyler’s continuing to keep up the actual business as well as running through the payment of fake car washes, all the while providing the requisite dialogue as if there were actually customers coming through the line. Whether she’s doing it to make herself feel better or because she thinks she might be bugged, the end result is the same: her ass is more or less covered. But…who’s this walking in the door? Why, as I live and breathe: it’s Ted Beneke! Is this a social call? Far from it: dude’s being audited. Tomorrow. It’s a criminal affair, and he’s looking for help, so who better to ask than the woman whose signature is all over the cooked books? The way she handles the situation is – let’s face it – a little bit sitcom-y, but you can’t argue with success….or the way her breasts were popping out of that top. Where things started to get dodgy, though, was when she learned that Ted couldn’t possibly pay the money he owed the government. Yes, it might keep her out of court to give Ted her ill-begotten funds from the crawlspace, but it’s opening a whole other mess of potential problems.

Jesse’s trying to chat with Mike about whether or not Hank’s going to get whacked, but Jesse won’t shut his mouth and Mike’s just staring blankly at him from the shadows. It honestly sounds like Jesse wants to defend Walt, but in the end, he says, “Who really cares what I think?” As they step outside to start loading up the truck, shit suddenly starts to go down. Time stands still as Jesse realizes that one of his fellow employees has just been shot right in front of him, and he’s literally half a second away from getting shot himself when Mike saves his life with a hard and fast tackle. But just as Mike says, “Get comfortable, kid, we might be here awhile,” Fring steps into the fray, and with bullets zinging by him, he stands fast, staring down the sniper, his eyes ablaze and his arms outstretched, offering a look which can only be described as saying, “You gonna shoot me, motherfucker?” The answer to that question is “no.” The answer to the question that had been asked of Gus by the cartel, however, is “yes.” And what was the question? Well, I wasn’t 100% accurate when I thought that the cartel was after Walt. That was a bit too specific. All they want is the recipe to the meth…and Walt isn’t the only one who has it.

After the nasty incident outside, Mike and Jesse wheel in the body of their deceased co-worker. Walt sneers, “So, what, is this going to be a regular thing now? Meth cooking and corpse disposal?” Mike tells Walt to get a barrel for disposal purposes, adding, “If you ever plan on calling the cops of one of my men again, you go ahead and get two barrels.” D’oh! And Mike’s not done with dispensing advice: to Jesse, he suggests that the next time he’s under fire, he should “move your feet, run and so forth,” and when Jesse asks about Gus’s “Terminator shit” earlier and wants to know if there’s going to be further target practice, Mike’s straightforward response is, “You got questions? Ask ‘em yourself.” So he does, heading over to Gus’s house for dinner, fully prepared with his cigarette of doom. It’s a scene that’s knowingly reminiscent of Walt’s dinner with Gus not so very long ago, except that there is precious little cheer in Gus’s tone tonight. There’s really only one question that Gus has for Jesse: “Can you cook Walter’s formula?” Jesse’s initial claim is that he can’t do it without Walter, and that if he’s going to kill Walt, he’s going to have to kill him, too. That, however, wasn’t exactly what Gus was asking…

As usual, the last few minutes of the episode proved to be wracked with tension. Walt’s been tracking Jesse, so he knows that Jesse’s been to see Gus, and when Jesse calls and asks for a meeting, Walt’s clearly chomping at the bit to nail Jesse for his transgressions. As it happens, however, Jesse’s totally freaking out about this whole cartel situation, now that he’s learned that Gus wants him to go south of the border, down Mexico way, and teach the cartel how to make the meth. Why not send Walt? If you were Gus, would you send Walt? I didn’t think so. As Jesse begs Walt for some sort of assistance, Walt has no concern or remorse, instead just throwing it in Jesse’s face that he knows he’s been to see Gus and has unabashedly chosen not to kill him. Jesse gets pissed that Walt’s been tracking him. Tempers flare. Punches are thrown. It’s an epic battle, one that’s been shaping up all season, but tonight was the night that it finally went down.

“Can you walk?”
“Yeah.”
“Then get the fuck out of here and never come back.”

Is this really the end of the Walt / Jesse partnership? Hard to say with those guys. But the future isn’t exactly looking bright, that’s for sure.

We begin the proceedings with a flashback to Episode 3.8, which took place in the wake of the Cousins’ attack on Hank. What we didn’t see at the time, however, was Gus’s visit to see the Cousins’ uncle, Hector “Tio” Salamanca, and tell him of their fate, saying, “This is what comes of blood for blood, Hector.” And then we get a shot of the viscous red substance in question, floating through a swimming pool. If you’re like me, you were already thinking, “Oh, this is gonna be good,” and if so, then surely you weren’t disappointed by episode’s end.

Hey, what do you know? “Breaking Bad” finally takes time to acknowledge that Walt is still being treated for cancer. This scene really underlined how much he’s changed since his initial diagnosis, however. So Walt’s living his life as if he’s in charge, huh? Yeah, he talks big, instantly dismissing the fears and concerns of the poor bastard who’s sharing the waiting area with him, but the second we see him back in his usual environment, he looks completely lost and mostly hopeless…which is, at least momentarily, a look he shares with Gus when the latter gets a phone call to pop ’round the ABQ police department. With Walt, though, I have to wonder if he got a report on a cancer that he wasn’t expected. But we’ll get back to that.

If Gus looks mildly stricken when he first gets that phone call to come into the station, you can see something approximating horror when his eye lands on the poster of Victor posted on the bulletin board. It appears to be utterly gone from his system when he steps into the office with Hank and the gang, however, and he manages to prove highly convincing with his effortless responses to all of the questions and couched accusations thrown his way. It’s nonetheless an incredibly intense scene, however, because although we can’t really imagine that Gus won’t be able to keep himself afloat, we also know what a pitbull Hank can be, and having seen the way he kicked ass with the police work to place Gus at Gale’s place, it’s equally hard to imagine that he’s going to let this go until he gets his man. It isn’t until we see him in the elevator post-discussion and get the close-up of Gus’s fingers tapping / twitching and the look on his face that we get a feeling of just how upset and angry he is; that such a small gesture says so much about the man’s rage and fury is a testament both to the development of the character and the performance of the actor (Giancarlo Esposito). It’s no wonder that everyone but Hank bought Gus’s stories, but it’s also no surprise that Hank is refusing to accept Gus’s assurances at face value.

This must be the week for “Breaking Bad” to play catch-up with semi-dismissed storylines: in addition to revisiting Walt’s cancer, we also saw Saul pop in to check on the status of Andrea and Brock, who – as we soon discover – are living in a nice pad that Jesse is quietly paying for. In a slightly unexpected moment, Saul proves to have more emotion at the surface than Jesse, asking him why he doesn’t just go and talk to Andrea and Brock if he wants to know how they’re doing. In response, Jesse jumps out of the car to avoid any further discussion. He might be the hero, but that doesn’t mean he’s fully recovered from all of his recent emotional trauma.

Too funny: Skyler tries her best to “launder” the excess money by vacuum-sealing the cash inside some of her clothes and hanging them in the closet, only to find that the cumulative weight of the outfits breaks the bar in the closet. Instead, she throws the bags under the house, which feels like a spontaneous decision doomed to cause problems in the future. But maybe that’s just me. Either way, it’s pretty worth an additional smirk when, moments later, Marie casually says to Skyler, “You’ve really taken to this whole being-your-own-boss thing…” Speaking of “maybe it’s just me” moment, I’m just not entirely confident that Walt’s cancer scan came off as scott-free as he claims during dinner. He looked so hopeless during that first post-scan shot that I can’t just write it off as being the result of his situation at the SuperLab.

Time for another intense scene. Actually, make that several intense scenes back to back. When Hank had Walt pull up in front of Los Pollos Locos and said, “We’re not here for the chicken,” it was a heart-stopping moment, but then things got even crazier, with Hank asking Walt to put a tracking device on Gus’s Volvo station wagon. We can only imagine what sort of emotional storm was going on inside Walt’s head during all of this, first pretending to put the device on the car, then going inside to talk to Gus, only to have Gus tell him to put the device on for real. And to have Mike hovering in his line of sight while he’s trying to decide what he’s going to do? Awesome. But, oh, is Gus pissed…and, oh, is Walt scared shitless. After the speech to the camera, in which Walt desperately tries to save his own ass and avoid throwing Hank under the bus while backpedaling on every bad thing he’s said about Gus since the beginning of the season, Walt runs to Jesse’s place and immediately wants to know where they stand on the whole killing-Gus thing. It’s a rather sad scene, when you get right down to it, because it serves to finally confirm to Walt that Jesse, who he’s arguably done more for in the past few seasons than he’s done for his own son, is now more dedicated to Gus than he is to him. It’s not like it’s not warranted, but it’s still sad, because it’s painfully clear that Walt realizes he no longer has anyone on his side.

Time to jump back to Gus, who gets an update from Mike on the situation with Hank and the ABQ police department. Feeling confident (but not cocky) that Hank won’t be able to do anything if he finds and removes the tracking device from his car, Gus does so, driving off to visit Tio…and, oh, what a visit it turns out to be. Not the visit itself, of course, but the flashback that it inspires. “Is today the day?” Gus asks Tio. Cue the rippling of the water – itself a sly tribute to the rippling effect used as a typical TV trope before bouncing back in time – and a sepia-toned look into Gus’s past which features Steven Bauer, late of “Scarface.” (You know damned well he enjoyed getting to wear the track suit and the jewelry as an old-school coke boss.) Sure, the tension isn’t sky-high when Max gets taken out – given that we haven’t seen him in the present, it was semi-inevitable that he wouldn’t live through the scene – but the whole event helps to underline both how Gus became the man he is today and why there’s so much bad blood – no joke intended – between Gus and Tio. But who is Gus? What does the Don know about him that we don’t? I can’t wait to find out.

Best episode of the season to date? Your mileage may vary, but it’s certainly my favorite.

Yep, Junior’s new car is going back, as was only inevitable once Skyler stepped into the situation, but just because she’s being sensible about the financial goings-on within the White house doesn’t mean that Walt has to like it. The combination of having to pay an $800 restocking fee for the vehicle and his general annoyance at Skyler telling him not to “tangle” with anyone leaves him so pissed off that he decides to take it for a rapid-fire test drive before returning it, but when he manages to fuck up the car in the middle of a goddamned parking lot, he decides to blow the vehicle to kingdom come. A hysterical scene, to be sure, but with some seriously dark undertones: he’s quite literally got money to burn at this point, and he doesn’t care how wasteful he is with his material possessions.

Fortunately, after a quick trip to Saul Goodman’s office, any major charges against Walt for his big bang have been whittled down to “misdemeanor trash burning, but we see a particularly nasty side of Walt at this point, snapping at Saul, “Just tell me it’s done.” Walt remains convinced that Gus wants him dead, even though Jesse’s told Saul that Gus needs him too much to kill him. Saul refuses to help hook Walt up with a hit man, however, explaining that A) anyone he knows also knows Mike, and B) hiring anyone he doesn’t know is risking someone who might not get the job done, and when it comes to Gus, “just winging that guy is not gonna ameliorate your situation. Not by a damned sight.” Saul’s recommendation: talk to Jesse, who’s the only other person besides Mike who’s actually been around Gus recently.

The subsequent conversation between Walt and Jesse was, from an emotional standpoint, about as painful to watch as anything we’ve seen in recent weeks, with Walt unabashedly preying on Jesse’s recent psychological traumas to get him to kill Gus. But then Jesse waved it all away, simply saying, “I’ll do it. I’ll kill him first chance I get.” Maybe it’s because he’s convinced himself he’s got a handle on killing people now, but maybe it’s just to get Walt to shut the hell up. Hard to say.

The short conversation between Skyler and Marie served to show Marie’s excitement about helping Skyler advertise and market her newly-acquired business, but the best line was unquestionably Marie’s description of the car wash’s former owner as “the Eyebrows of Doom.” Best name for a backing band EVER. Marie also confirms that Hank’s suddenly started to get into the swing of getting better, which we saw coming at the end of last week’s episode. After Marie’s departure, Skyler finally gets a feel for just how much money Walt’s pulling in – $7.5 million before expenses – and she’s somewhat horrified about it, as it’s way more than she can explain from the car wash. It’s a double-edged sword of a situation: she says, ‘I never wanted any of this,” but when Walt gives her the opportunity to say, “I want out,” she’s stricken mute.

Walt mixes up a batch of poison in the lab, echoing the way they took down Tuco in Season 2, and hands it off to Jesse, telling him to take out Gus whenever the opportunity presents itself. Jesse promptly slips the poison into one of his cigarettes, and when Walt says, “Whatever you do, don’t smoke it,” there’s a moment when it seems all too likely that Jesse might well consider doing just that.

Junior takes Hank over to Los Pollos Hermanos for a little lunch, giving Junior the opportunity to moan about how his dad bought him an expensive car and had to give it back almost immediately. Typically, Hank rationalizes the situation rather than find it in any way suspicious, but maybe that’s because he’s too busy suspecting Gus’s involvement in Gale’s murder. Between Gus’s efforts to seem excited by Hank’s presence and Hank’s seeming appreciation of said efforts, we’re led to presume that Gus didn’t realize that Hank was less interested in a refill than he was in getting Gus’s prints on his cup. This seems quite possible: people tend to underestimate Hank almost as much as they underestimate Walt.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Jesse gets an opportunity to take out Gus almost immediately, courtesy of Mike’s decision – presumably endorsed by Gus – to bring him to a meeting between Gus and the Mexican cartel. Although Jesse’s clearly teetering on the precipice of whether or not to put the poison in the coffee, when Mike entrusts him with a loaded weapon and tells him that he’ll be serving as de facto back-up, it would seem that Jesse finds himself uncertain as to whether he’s chosen the right side in this battle…and reasonably so. As for the meeting itself, it would seem that Gus is no longer in the same position of power that he once found himself, as his offer of $50 million to end any further issues with the Mexican cartel is met with a shrug, a request for a “yes” or “no” answer (“You know what the cartel wants”) and the assurance that this is not in any way, shape, or form a negotiation. So what does the cartel want? Walt? That would seem the most likely. Whatever the case, the meeting ends with Gus offering his usual steely expression, and the drive back finds Mike suggesting to Jesse that what Gus sees in him is loyalty, albeit possibly for the wrong person.

It’s good to see Jere Burns turn up again as Jesse’s counselor, but, wow, what a rough scene this turned out to be. In the end, though, it may prove to be a good thing for Jesse, given how much he gets off his chest. First of all, he’s able to have a partial emotional catharsis, telling the group about having killed Gale while pretending his victim was a dog rather than a human, but then when he’s given shit about it by one of the other group members, he breaks down and admits that the biggest reason he joined the group was to sell meth to the members…which isn’t entirely true, but it’s close enough, especially he mostly says it to spit in Burns’s face, anyway.

We bounce back to the lab one last time, to see Walt ask Jesse the status of Operation Fringdown, but Jesse lies and says that he hasn’t seen Gus all week. So is Jesse really in Gus’s camp now, or is just playing it straight down the middle ‘til he figures out where he wants to land?

We close on a scene which, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I saw filmed when I went out to the “Breaking Bad” set earlier this year. Lemme tell ya, if you thought it was intense to watch on television, imagine how it was for me, given that I hadn’t seen or known anything about the six episodes leading up to it. The mere fact that Hank was in the office was a spoiler, and it was followed by the confirmation that Gale was, in fact, dead, which wasn’t 100% certain as of when the season opened. This was a fantastic scene for Dean Norris, who once again showed that he thoroughly deserves to pull a Best Supporting Actor nod this year, but it was fantastic for Hank Schrader, too, showing that he’s literally back on his feet and doing some of the best police work of his career. (And to think it all started with the serial number to an air cleaner…) It also leaves us chomping at the bit to find out what’s next…but, then, that’s what “Breaking Bad” does best.

After Walt’s wine-fueled eruption at dinner the night before, Skyler’s reflecting on Walt’s “I love you” message on the answering machine and realizing that the words were uttered more out of fear than anything else. He’s got a well-deserved hangover and claims limited recall on the previous evening’s goings-on, but she’s not going to let that stop her from getting some answers about the whole Gale situation. Moreover, she wonders if perhaps his outburst to Hank might not be some sort of subconscious cry for help. The mere idea that she sees him as unable to handle the situation infuriates him. “I am not in danger, Skyler,” he growls. “I am the danger.”

After he takes a quick shower to relax and, apparently, shave his head, Walt finds emerges to find Skyler gone, so he decides to head over to the car wash to take care of the final transition of ownership. The discussion between Walt and Bogdan felt a little heavy-handed, what with the unabashed parallel between being a boss at the car wash and being a boss in the meth operation (or, for that matter, in his own marriage), but the scene was worth it for two things: the nasty little comment by Bogdan to Walt about how “if you can’t be tough, you can always call your wife,” and the way Walt got his revenge by playing the hard-ass and not only refusing to let Bogdan keep the first dollar he ever earned from the car wash but, indeed, spitefully using it to buy a coke. That sucked…yet it was kind of awesome, too.

This week’s scenes with Mike and Jesse would seem to imply that Mike’s finally starting to come around a little bit when it comes to Jesse, seemingly almost like a surrogate father to the kid in their dinner together, asking Jesse if he was okay and then making him eat something. There’s still very much no semblance of equality between them, though, as Mike quickly left after receiving a phone call, telling Jesse that he didn’t need any help. As such, Jesse headed on to work at the SuperLab, where he was met by Walt, demanding clarification about the trips Jesse’s been taking with Mike. Jesse can’t offer much in the way of detail except to say that he’s kinda sorta serving as something between backup and protection, which annoys Walt to the point of asking rhetorical questions like, “Are you a Navy SEAL? Are your hands registered as lethal weapons?” Similarly, Jesse gets pissed when Walt dares to suggest that Jesse’s whole saving-the-day situation may have just been a set-up designed to put a wedge between the two of them. Still, it’s nothing compared to how pissed off Walt gets when Jesse steps out on cleanup duty after getting a call to duty from Mike…but we’ll get to that in a minute.

Let’s talk about the awesome scene with Mike and Jesse trying to get back some ill-begotten product…specifically, the stuff swiped off the truck at the beginning of the episode. Mike assures Jesse that waiting is 99% of the job, but Jesse ain’t having any of it, and he promptly pops up to the front door. The encounter with one of the resident meth heads of the house, a dude named Tucker, goes poorly, leading a smirking Mike to say, “Guess we’ll go with Plan A, then.” Nope, Jesse promptly reveals that when it comes to meth heads, he’s got way more first-hand knowledge of how their minds work, resulting in Jesse using the shovel in the trunk of Mike’s car in a manner I never expected: to dig. The whole bit with Tucker just continuing to dig and dig and dig was hysterical, but the scene inside the house was as intense as all get-out. Not that I really expected Jesse to be taken down by a shotgun blast, but I wouldn’t have put it past this show for him to get shot in some manner. But, no, he saved the day and helped Mike get the message left for them on the Los Pollos Hermanos container by the cartel.

Okay, back to Walt. Skyler’s still nowhere to be found, leaving Walt and Walt, Jr. to enjoy a leisurely meal while Junior once again launches into an attack about what an incredibly bitch his mother is, this time because she’s showing no compassion whatsoever for Walt’s “disease.” Somewhat surprisingly, Walt kinda sorta takes a bit of the blame for the situation, explaining that his situation was less about addiction than about choices. Unfortunately, he then follows this discussion by making a very, very poor choice: buying a car for Junior that’s absolutely, positively not in their income bracket. This may well be the stupidest thing we’ve seen Walt do without being under the influence of alcohol, and it will come back to bite him in the ass, mark my words. So, for that matter, will his decision to draft some of the women from the laundry to do the dirty work in the SuperLab that he usually delegates to Jesse. I have to say, I laughed out loud as he passed out big bills, saying, “Presidente Grant, very important man…” Still, maybe Skyler’s onto something with her suspicions that Walt’s subconscious is crying out for help. Why else would he do something stupid? Surely the desire to feel like he’s a boss to someone doesn’t equate to a death wish, does it?

All that’s clear is that Gus is watching everything that Walt does and keeping score, and based on the meeting between Gus, Mike, and, to a lesser extent, Jesse, it’s clear that, if we’re talking about who’s got the most brownie points, Jesse’s starting to catch up to Walt. Mike offers Gus a suggestion for how they might want to handle the situation with the cartel, but rather than instigating an attack, Gus would rather talk. Hey, it’s worked for him so far. Why mess with a good thing? On the way out the door, Gus tells Jesse, “I hear you can handle yourself,” then assures him, “I like to think I see things in people.” If he’s seen anything in Jesse, it has to have been way back when they had their close encounter about Gus’s guys using kids in their drug dealing. Maybe his work with Mike is showing him that he has more potential than he thought.

Lastly, let’s look at this Skyler situation. I didn’t quite get the whole Four Corners thing. Are we supposed to infer that she’s going to be taking the baby and heading to Colorado if things don’t work out? Either way, she’s pissed at Walt, and the only reason she didn’t tear him a new one in front of Junior about the car is that she didn’t want him to think of her as being an even bigger bitch than he already perceives her to be. She’s not trying to be a bitch, though. In her words, “Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family.” Ouch. But she’s right. Walt’s letting his emotions get the best of him, and not only is he putting himself in harm’s way, he’s endangering his family as well…and that ain’t cool.

The beats were still rockin’ when we came back, but once Walt parked and popped into Los Pollos Hermanos, it was time to ratchet up the tension. Is Gus there? Is he watching Walt on the surveillance cameras? Is he going to try and slip out of his office, into his car, and away from harm? Or is Gus going to stay safely ensconced in the back of the restaurant and send a bunch of hired goons (hired goons?) to whack Walt? We don’t find out the score right away, thanks to the ear-damaged yet ever sarcastic Mike calling up and confirming Jesse’s safety…well, more or less, anyway. It’s a hilariously frustrating conversation for Walt, and it doesn’t really offer us much more in the way of clarification than the last moments of last week. Yes, Jesse’s with Mike, but where are they going? The lack of answers coupled with the additional news that he’s going to have to cook a batch of meth without his usual assistant finally sends Walt over the edge and behind the counter, only to learn that – well, what do you know? – Gus’s right-hand woman was telling the truth all along: he really wasn’t back there. Still, give Walt credit for having the cajones to bust back there and find out for himself.

So, seriously, what the hell is Mike going to do with Jesse? When we last left Jesse, he didn’t seem to care. Now, though, he’s a little more interested, which seems to bemuse Mike a bit. I’d be surprised if any of us really thought that the drive was going to end with Mike popping Jesse – I mean, Vince Gilligan might not be afraid to blow his viewers’ minds, but he’s not going to take out one of the show’s main characters a mere five episodes into this new season – but I did start theorizing what the situation might be, and after their first stop, I found myself wondering, “Is it possible that Mike’s seeing a bit of himself in Jesse?” It hadn’t occurred to me prior to when Mike started digging up the booty, but at the moment he told him how many more stops they had to make, I thought, “Maybe he’s working his way up to telling Jesse, ‘Look, I’ve killed people, too, and it never gets any easier.’” Jesse, however, just looked confused…and I’m sure I looked the same way when Mike blew my theory out of the water a few scenes later.

Time for a quick detour over to Hank’s place, where he’s taking what is, as far as he’s concerned, his last shot at the Heisenberg case. Oh, sure, it seems like closure for him, what with the evidence pointing to Gale as the man beneath the hat. But we know better. This isn’t over.

Meanwhile, back at the Super Lab, Hank’s making with the meth, looking utterly exhausted as he struggles to pull together this batch all by his lonesome. For the first time in awhile, I found myself wondering, “Jesus, should a guy with cancer – even cancer that’s in remission – really be working himself this hard?” I’m guessing not, but it doesn’t really matter: just as he finishes up at the office (such as it is), he has to rush home to sign off on the purchase of the car wash.

Not unlike the way he said “absolutely!” a few episodes ago, the post-signing discussion between Walt and Skyler felt about as hollow as the discussions they used to have before she kinda sorta figured out that he was working in the illegal pharmaceutical industry. Sadly, Skyler seems oblivious to this fact, which is underlined by the hard and fast bedroom encounter that goes on after she hears his message on the answering machine, but while their coitus is based on a blend of lies and an “I love you” spoken whilst fearing his imminent death, I gotta say, it might’ve been worth it just for that shot of Junior saying, “Oh, God,” and walking back down the hallway. Hilarious. But moving back in…? It’s what Walt’s been dreaming of, but with all the danger he’s dealing with at the moment, he just can’t bring himself to make that dream come true.

Aaaaaaaand it’s back to the SuperLab, where Walt’s frustration at flying solo comes rushing to the surface when he sends a barrel spiraling off the forklift and across the floor. Drawing a line in the sand, he refuses to make any further meth until Jesse finds his way safely back to work. Instead, Gus’s new right-hand man hops behind the wheel and does the driving for Walt. Well, it’s something, anyway.

Returning to Mike’s faithful Fifth Avenue, Jesse sits sleepily in the passenger seat and waits for Mike to take care of the final pick-up, not noticing that a vehicle’s pulled up behind him. Fortunately, the shadowy figure – and his shotgun – catches his eye just in time for him to hop behind the wheel, throw the car into reverse, and take out both the gunman and his getaway man. Whipping out of the alleyway, Jesse’s off like…well, he is off like a shot, actually. Too bad it’s without Mike. I knew he’d come back for him, though, and so he did, which clearly surprised Mike a bit. Go on, don’t tell me you didn’t smile when he said, “Go ahead, kid. Smoke up.”

Ah, the father-son chat over coffee: a longstanding family tradition. Whether Skyler actually told Junior that Walt was moving back in on Tuesday or Junior’s playing Walt because he thinks he’ll believe that Skyler said it, the only certainty is that no matter how close Walt may have been to coming home, it all fell apart when his eye – and the camera’s – fell on the fact that Junior was drinking from a Beneke Fabricators mug.

Aaaaaaaand then it’s back to the SuperLab again, where Walt finds…Jesse? Yep, he’s back, and he’s proud to announce that not only has he been busy takin’ care of business with Mike, but as far as concerned, he’s now a two-job man…except – and, okay, I admit it: even though I shouldn’t have been, I was surprised by this – the whole day with Mike was actually an elaborate plan devised by Gus to reinvigorate Jesse’s psyche and make him feel like a hero.

To wrap things up, it’s off to another family dinner at Hank and Marie’s place, where everything seems normal except for Walt’s decidedly heroic intake of wine. When he walked into the kitchen and started trying to use the knife to peel off the wrapping around the cork of another bottle of vino, I cringed, presuming that blood was an inevitability, but, no, it was a smooth removal of both wrapper and cork, followed by the prompt refilling and emptying of his glass. But with that said, given what happened the last time Walt got rip-roaring drunk around Hank, I still felt on edge, fearing what might come out of his mouth at any moment…and then when Hank started praising Gale for all he was worth, the tension got even worse. Finally, Walt couldn’t resist any longer. He opened his big, fat mouth…and I think there’s little question that his foot going to end up smack dab in the middle of that wide open maw. Indeed, based on Hank’s change in mood and his sudden fascination with Los Pollos Hermanos, I hope you’ll forgive me if I suggest that we’re well on our way to seeing the chickens come home to roost.

A pair of closing comments:

* Given the sketch that Hank’s ABQ detective buddy passes him, I think we all have to admit that poor Victor’s demise was, in the grand scheme of things, exactly what needed to happen to keep Gus’s meth empire alive and kicking. Granted, it probably didn’t have to go down quite so violently, but…

* FYI, I’ve got one of those Beneke mugs, too…and they’re awesome.

Lastly, let’s wrap up with a song that I couldn’t get out of my head after I saw the official title to tonight’s episode. Take it away, Junior Walker…