Well, thanks a lot, Breaking Bad writers. If your plan was to make sure I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else for the next six-plus days, well, then mission accomplished. It would have been bad enough had we actually seen Hank die, had we watched as a hail of bullets from Todd and his uncle's crew cut through Hank just moments after Hank finally was able to put the cuffs on Walt and declare the Heisenberg case as good as closed. But, no, as hard as that would be, Vince Gilligan and company decided even that would be too easy. So what we're left with is obstensively a cliffhanger, although honestly it's hard for me to see any way Hank and Gomez make it out of that desert alive. Jesse, maybe. Jesse was grabbing that door handle, readying to sneak away while the rest traded gunfire. But for Hank and Gomez, outgunned and with no place to hide, this seems like the end, especially since "To'hajiilee" gave Hank and Hank fans everything they could want from this episode. He got his man. He read him his rights. And he even called Marie to share the good news. But any savvy TV viewer knows what it means when too much goes right for a character too quickly — bad news is coming. And that bad news is usually fatal.
Still, we won't know with 100 percent certainty what happens next until next week. God knows Gilligan and his writers have piled twists upon twists before, delivering outcomes we could never possibly suspect. But I'd guess the confirmation of the inevitable was delayed only because Gilligan knew the dramatic power of ending it there, of making us wait a week to learn what we dread is actually true. I hope I'm wrong. The next six-plus days are going to be excruciating.
"To'hajiilee" was directed by the great Michelle MacLaren, who has been one of the show's most important guiding hands behind the camera. In total, she helmed 11 hours of Breaking Bad, including last summer's finale (where Hank discovered Walt was Heisenberg) and "Salud," the incredible fourth-season episode where Gus poisons and kills the leaders of the Mexican drug cartel. (She's also done episodes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead.) It's hard to say exactly what's written on the page and what we should credit the director for, but I'd guess MacLaren's biggest contribution to this episode was the slow zoom into Walt's face as he hid behind that rock while Hank, Gomez and Jesse called out for him. Walt knew this was it, that there was no wiggling out of this one, no "illegal search" card to play to stop Hank from entering the Winnebago. The camera inched ever so slowly in as a look of defeat and then possibly acceptance crossed Walt's face. It was a wonderful moment of television, predicated entirely on the acting ability of one Bryan Cranston and our knowledge of everything Walt has done to make sure this moment never arrived, and MacLaren nailed it.
It's this moment this episode was largely building up to, with Hank and Gomez tricking Huell into giving up key information about Walt's buried money that they could use to draw Walt out into the desert. We got another great Walt/Jesse scene, even if they weren't physically together, just yelling at each other back and forth over the phone. "I ran over those gang-bangers!" Walt shouts, trying desperately to reason with Jesse. (Well, Walt considers it reasoning anyway.) "I killed Emilio and Krazy 8! Why? I did all of those things to save your life as much as mine, only you're too stupid to know it." What's great about that line is Walt utters it while in the very process of being outsmarted by Jesse.
Then, finally, the two stare each other down when Walt comes out from behind that rock, hands in the air. "Coward," he hisses at Jesse, who promptly responds by spitting in Walt's face. So much finality in the last 10 minutes of this episode, so many great payoffs. And then Todd, his uncle and a couple of truckloads full of guys show up and start blasting away. There are three episodes of Breaking Bad left, so there are still a seemingly impossible number of turns this story has time to take. (And don't forget, Future Walt is out there with the ricin and the machine gun.) Honestly, I just hope my heart can take it.
Some more thoughts on "To'hajiilee" …
– Even after arranging Jesse's murder at the beginning of the episode, Walt remained terribly conflicted about killing his surrogate son. "He's just angry," he tells Todd's uncle. "He's not a rat. Jesse is like family to me … I want what you do to be quick and painless."
– Todd is just the nicest meth-cooking kid murderer ever. I even think he's got a cute little crush on Lydia!
– Aaron Paul dropped a couple of great "bitches" tonight including at the end of this little exchange …
Walt: "Don't you touch my money!"
Jesse: "Fire in the hole, bitch!"
– Walt using Brock and Andrea in an attempt to flush out Jesse was the latest in a long line of despicable Walt moves. He was right about one thing, though. Froot Loops are good stuff.
– How great was that little car wash scene, with Walt Jr. grinning like a loon because the "Better Call Saul" guy was standing right there in his parent's car wash? Answer: Pretty darn great. "Don't drink and drive," Saul tells Junior. "But if you do, call me."
