Walt will be outed. That's the first major thing we learn in "Blood Money," the kickoff episode of the second half of Breaking Bad's fifth season, or as AMC is succinctly putting it: The final episodes. It's been nearly a year our time since Hank took that fateful trip to the shitter and discovered Walt's incriminating copy of Leaves of Grass, which had been given to him by his former meth-making assistant Gale Boetticher. Eleven long months for us to wonder and speculate how the end of Walter White's story will play out over these final eight hours. And just a few minutes into the first of those eight, we already know part of the answer: The world will know Walt White and and the drug kingpin they call Heisenberg are the same man.
It's written in spray paint — HEISENBERG — right there on the wall of his family home, which Future Walt visits in the flash-forward that opens the episode. It's the first we've seen of Future Walt since he was eating at a Denny's and procuring a very big machine gun way back in the season five premiere. This is where the Walt vs. Hank showdown is heading, and although Walt is alive, he sure doesn't look like a winner. The house is boarded, chained up and vandalized. Skater punks have scaled the fence and are popping ollies in the empty pool out back. The whole scene plays out like Walt's personal apocalypse. Why he's returned remains a mystery only momentarily before we see him retrieve the vial of ricin — Breaking Bad's eternally present Chekhov's gun — from behind the electrical outlet. Who it's meant for remains unanswered, but as he moves through the house like a ghost, it seems apparent that pre-Heisenberg Walt is now fully and forever lost. The terrified look on his neighbor's face as he leaves the house makes that clear.
The series' remaining seven episodes will now detail how Walt gets to this point and what, if any, options he has left once he arrives. The gun and the ricin suggest Walt is still looking for some type of final solution, although we might want to start preparing for the fact that the ricin could be meant for him. One thing's for sure, series creator and showrunner Vince Gilligan has no plans to drag things out back in Breaking Bad's proper timeline. The prospect of Walt and Hank playing some type of cat-and-mouse game spread out over the season is suitably crushed by the end of this first episode, when the two find themselves face to face in Hank's garage, with the truth of all matters filling the air around them.
"I don't know who you are," Hank tells Walt. "I don't know who I'm talking to."
"If that's true," Walt replies, "if you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly."
This isn't a particularly fast-paced episode of Breaking Bad. Between the opening flash-forward and the closing showdown in Hank's garage, there's more a growing sense of doom than any real action. What many had guessed — that Walt's cancer has returned — is confirmed to be true. ("In six months, you won't have someone to prosecute," he tells Hank, not long after we see him getting treatment. "I'm a dying man who runs a car wash. My right hand to god, that is all I am.") Jesse doesn't show up until about halfway through the episode, but when he does, it's clear the giant bags of money Walt gave him at the end of last year have only made his life worse. He spends his days getting high and listening to Badger and Skinny Pete ramble on like a couple of idiots. He calls the cash "blood money," echoing Walt's former words, and first tries to have Saul pass it to Mike's granddaughter and the family of the boy Todd killed before finally driving around a run-down part of Albuquerque and tossing fat stacks of bills into the front yards of random houses. Immense guilt is crushing Jesse Pinkman, and he shows no signs of escaping it. Jesse and Walt share only a single scene in the episode, and though Walt tenderly calls him "son" during their conversation, he also lies his ass off about what happened to Mike. One wonders if Walt will ever be fully truthful with Jesse again, even if only for a moment.
We also get a peek at Lydia this week, who stops by the car wash to beg Walt to come back into the fold, if only to offer a tutorial to the folks now running the meth-making arm of Madrigal Electromotive. Apparently, the meth purity is down to an unacceptable 68 percent since Walt quit cooking. Walt dismisses her, Skyler threatens her and she's gone. The scene is brief, but it does hint that Hank might not be the only one Walt needs to be worried about.
Overall, it would be hard to expect more from the first episode of these last eight. We got another glimpse of Walt's future. And that incredible scene in the garage — played brilliantly by Bryan Cranston and Dean Norris — provided a jolt of dramatic momentum that shows Gilligan and his writing staff don't intend to fuck around on the way to that future. The best show on TV is finally back, but there are only seven hours left. Try your best to savor them.
Some other thoughts on "Blood Money" …
– I had forgotten how amazing Hank's Schraderbrau logo is. I think I may use it for my fantasy football team logo this year.
– I don't want to say for certain that Badger's Star Trek idea would end up being better than Into Darkness, but I think it stands a good chance.
– I didn't catch any Chris Hardwick-infused promos for Talking Bad during the episode and THANK GOD FOR THAT. (Just ask any Walking Dead fan how annoying those can be.) Though I did notice AMC commit to the dumb hashtag thing with #LikeWhiteOnRicin. Sigh. Sometimes I don't think this network even deserves this show.
