Episode Title: “To’hajiilee“
Writer: George Mastras
Director: Michelle MacLaren
Previously on “Breaking Bad”:
With just a few alterations, “To’hajiilee” could have been the final episode or the penultimate episode of “Breaking Bad.” We’ve waited years to see the final showdown between Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his DEA agent brother-in-law, Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) with a definitive winner. It was also oddly satisfying to see Hank read Walt his rights and slap the handcuffs on him.
Walt loses… but Hank is the one who may not be walking away from this confrontation. Even though the guys with the big guns have worse aim than the animated Cobra soldiers on “G.I. Joe.”
There are full spoilers ahead for “To’hajiilee,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Breaking Bad” then you should probably skip this review or else you’ll have an “A1 Day.”
I think that this is the end of the road for Hank and Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada). The DEA agents are severely outnumbered and outgunned in their shootout with Uncle Jack (Michael Bowen), Kenny (Kevin Rankin) and their Neo-Nazi followers. We’ve already seen some of Walt’s future and he wasn’t behind bars; which implies that Hank never got to put him away. The only possible way for Walt to get out of this jam was if Hank and Gomez were to be permanently silenced.
The biggest kiss of doom for Hank is that he got a few moments on the phone with his wife, Marie (Betsy Brandt) to gloat about finally taking Walt down. If Hank dies, that was their final conversation… and I fully expect Marie to be feeling vengeful if Hank never comes home.
Through all of this, the surprising takeaway is that Walt still loves Hank like a brother. Walt not only calls off the rescue attempt when he sees Hank arrive with Jesse (Aaron Paul) and Gomez, he also shouts out a warning to Hank and tells Jack to stand down. Not that Jack listens to Walt, he only sees Walt’s value to his new meth business and two unfortunate DEA agents that happen to be in the way of his ambitions.
I’ve been saying for weeks that “Ricky Hitler” aka Todd (Jesse Plemons) and his Neo-Nazi family are the biggest lingering threat to Walt because they know far too much about him and they aren’t shy about killing people. If Jack saves Walt from being arrested, then it might be his view that they own Walt now. Or if Walt is feeling particularly dark, he could tell them that Jesse is the second best meth cook in America… and he’s all theirs.
The thing is, Walt still harbored some affection towards Jesse, but only in the form of asking that Jesse’s death to be painless. Now that Walt knows that Jesse betrayed him to Hank, he might be feeling less generous. Who betrayed whom? There are actually “Breaking Bad” fans on twitter complaining about Jesse ratting Walt out. Seriously?! What will it take for the audience to finally turn on Walt? Does Walt have to bite off Brock’s (Ian Posada) head in front of Andrea (Emily Rios) to get any heel heat? Come on, people… wake up! Walt is a villain. To be sure, he’s a very intelligent and compelling villain, but Walt is definitely not a good man. He hasn’t even begun to pay for his crimes on this show, unless you count his cancer as divine retribution.
One of Walt’s biggest dick moves to date was to once again drag Andrea and Brock into his mind games with Jesse. Hank wisely declined to pass the message on to Jesse, although that was pretty dickish of him too. Hank also proved to be a bit of a criminal mastermind himself when he came up with the scheme to fake Jesse’s death to fool Huell (Lavell Crawford) into revealing what he knew about Walt’s money. But then Hank outdid himself with the con that fooled Walt into thinking that Jesse had found his money and he was on the verge of burning it.
I loved the sequence in the car in which Walt angrily confessed his numerous crimes to Jesse not in remorse, but as a reminder of what he did to protect Jesse and himself. It’s such a damning confession that Hank and Gomez probably could have put him away just with that recording. Although considering some of their recent tactics, I suppose the argument could be made that Walt’s confession was inadmissible. Maybe Hank and Gomez just needed to link Walt to the money regardless of what he said on the phone.
The opening scene of the episode gave us a taste of what the show would be like if Todd and Lydia (Laura Fraser) were the main characters. Lydia and Todd are almost the bizarro versions of Walt and Jesse, but less competent than their counterparts. Lydia has so little power in her relationship with the Neo-Nazis that she doesn’t push them too hard when Todd can’t even make the meth blue. Todd’s admission that he burned the cook was pretty funny too.
But the insane thing is that Todd seems to be very attracted to Lydia. He basically flirts with her by offering to use his Uncle’s resources to work out Lydia’s issues with her buyers in the Czech Republic. Todd even has a creeper moment when he drinks from Lydia’s coffee cup directly over lipstick stains. I highly doubt that his lip placement was an accident, considering that Todd was fixated on her lip marks a few moments before. What a weird romantic pairing that would be. Although I don’t think that romance is the right word for Todd’s one way infatuation.
Because Walter White is the center of the “Breaking Bad’ universe, there are still a few characters who have never shared screentime with each other on this show. This week, Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) finally met Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) and he recognized him as a local celebrity because of his ubiquitous TV ads and billboards. I love that Saul is Albuquerque famous and the awe on Walt Jr.’s face during their scene was hysterical.
We’re still overdue for Walt Jr. to meet Jesse. And I still want to see Walt Jr. react to who and what his dad really is. I’ll bet that if Hank doesn’t survive the shootout, Marie will break it to Walt Jr. herself just to spite Walt. And if Marie needs something to make the crimes stick to Walt, she does have his fake confession. Even though Walt used that video to implicate Hank as Heisenberg, he confessed to a few huge crimes that he actually committed, including the fact that he built the bomb that killed Gus Fring. So, Walt’s masterstroke could come back to haunt him.
The closing scene of this episode was among the most intense cliffhangers that “Breaking Bad” has ever delivered. For a show this consistently good, that is an amazing accomplishment. There’s only three episodes left and the creative team has yet to stumble. At this point, I think it’s safe to assume that “Breaking Bad” is going to close out on a high note.
