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!

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.

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…