First off, sorry for the delay. Â It was a busy week.
I’ve been mulling this episode for a few days, and have a few scattered thoughts:
Lydia:  She is a surprisingly interesting character, considering her awkward start.  I enjoyed the scene with her and Todd and his odd crush, with the minor 1980s hit, “Oh, Sherrie” playing in the background.  And then we transition to Walt’s call, hearing Todd’s side and Walt’s decision to have Jesse killed.  It’s been overlooked a bit, because that was pretty obvious in the last episode, but hearing him say it was still a blow.  The cold opening continued this half-season’s pattern of cliffhangers.  I’m not in love with this trend, but it  is more of an annoyance than anything else.
Jesse and Hank’s plan: Â It’s remarkably effective, but worked almost too well. Â Part of it was the ease with which Huell fell for Hank’s story and was convinced Saul sold him out. Â This certainly isn’t totally implausible, as Huell has no great faith in Saul’s loyalty and he’s just muscle, but I had trouble buying it. Â The scene plays out reasonably well, with Huell’s tale of Walt’s barrels of cash.
Walt: Â He is a transformed man compared to the first half of the season. Â Now, perhaps because he is removed from the drug trade or because of the desire of the writers, he is vulnerable and shows it. Â Jack treats him like a fool during their meeting, and Walt deserves it. Â He’s playing from a position of weakness, and Jack recognizes that easily. Â He’s becoming as bad of a liar with others as he has become with Skyler. Â And at the end, he calls off Jack’s band of assassins because he sees that Hank is there. Â He just gives up, even if they don’t.
The Best Scene: Â After Walt tries to locate Jesse by going to his old girlfriend Andrea’s house, she agrees to call him after being persuaded by Walt. Â The message goes to Jesse’s new cell phone. Â But what Walt doesn’t know is that Hank has the phone and is monitoring it. Â He hears the message, says, “Nice try, asshole,” and then never tells Jesse about the call. Â As much as anything else that happens in the episode, this throwaway scene makes a good case for Hank’s law enforcement acumen.
Walt Gets Stupid: Â I haven’t decided how I feel about this. Â At the time, I was troubled by Walt getting outsmarted to such an extent. Â He didn’t know about GPS, or whether it was on the truck. Â He starts confessing every murder he’s commited on the phone while racing to the site of the cash burial site, and immediately believes that Jesse has the money. Â It’s an awful lot of foolish mistakes in a few minutes. Â But as smart as Walt is, he is still not an experienced criminal, not knowing even a basic detail such as how to find out if his car is being monitored – as we saw a couple of episodes ago. Â All along, the chemistry teacher has been making it up as he goes along, even as he has grown more heartless and deadly. Â He has no useful advisers left, except for Saul, and Walt ignores him. Â And he doesn’t know that Jesse and Hank are working together. Â Walt doesn’t see that coming. Â His panic at the thought that Jesse would burn up his money, and rage at what he sees as Jesse’s ungratefulness, is well-played by Bryan Cranston on the wild ride into the desert. Â And Cranston sells the critical moment, when he realizes Hank is behind the whole thing and that he is about to lose it all.
The Last Sequence: Â With the knowledge of the flash-forwards, we know Walt gets away somehow. Â And we know Jack’s gang is coming, which casts a shadow over everything that occurs. Â It seems like Hank’s moment of triumph, but we know it’s not. Â He taunts Walt with the fact that the barrel photo was taken in his back yard, figuring Walt wouldn’t even notice (he didn’t when it mattered). Â Jesse is joyous, even as Walt snarls, “Coward” at him. Â And then there’s the moment that went too far, and felt much too hackneyed for this show: Â the phone call to Marie. Â It signals that Hank must die, which we can deduce for a variety of reasons anyway. Â And while it gives Hank and Marie a final sweet goodbye, it felt too much like that. Â Frankly, the scene was like something out of a bad movie, and only our sympathy for Hank and Marie made me tolerate it. Â I had fewer problems, given the vehicles in the way, with the fact that no one was killed right away in the hail of gunfire. Â But unless Gomez called for backup off camera, he and Hank must die. Â Jesse probably survives somehow or another. Â Fade to black.
When you mention that Walt was so easily outsmarted, I think we’re seeing one of his fatal flaws; namely, his hubris. He just assumes that he’s always the smartest guy in the room. That’s the same reason he ignores Saul’s advice.
Now here’s a far-fetched idea. Hank and Gomez die. Probably Jesse too. Walt is forced to cook for Jack. In order to exact his revenge, he offers to help the DEA build a case against Jack in the killing of 2 agents in exchange for letting his family keep the money he’s earned. Jack and his crew get arrested, and then Hank gets the ricin to go after Lydia, who somehow escaped.
I don’t believe Jesse dies. Hank and/or Gomez have to. I suspect he blows up their meth lab when they force him to cook, then goes for the assault weapons to attach team Jack
I’m calling Gomez.
If Hank died, you’d loose most of the dramatic tension.
Just saying, if it’s neither (and I haven’t watched this week yet) they really lost some credibility.
I loved this episode, this show keeps pulling off incredible crescendos even when we know what’s coming.
The Huell scene bugged me though. The guy’s been working for Saul for years, it’s really hard for me to believe he caves to the cops so easily. I was OK with Walt getting duped, because it made sense in context. As you say, he has no one left to check his worst decisions against, and the the barrels full of cash are crowning testimony to his brilliance…any threat to those whatsoever, no matter how contrived, hits Walt’s so hard…right where he lives, as Jesse said…that the resulting impetuous, rash decisions are believable to me.
Totally disagree about the phone call to Marie, I thought it was brilliant. Set against us knowing that Uncle Jack and his army are coming, it made the drama of the moment perfectly excruciating. Hank is also falling prey to his hubris…Walt has become his White Whale, a blinding obsession, and as Hank perceives that he’s finally won it is believable that he takes a few minutes to revel in his success with Marie, the only other thing that matters to him in the world. Gilligan squeezed so much in to the last 15 minutes of this episode, it may have literally been the most edge-of-my-seat experience I’ve ever had watching TV, and knowing Hank’s bit of gloating were sealing his fate did not lessen the drama, it intensified it. This last half-season is completely blowing away any other contenders for the title of best TV drama ever.
Finally watched this episode last night. Man! I found the juxtaposition of Walt telling Jesse how he always has everything measured and under control while he (literally) speeds off in a series of reckless, panicked moves that burn his careful plans to the ground to be quite well done.
Walt makes several mistakes in believing that Jesse has found the money, but there’s no doubt that Jesse would burn it if he had found it. Jesse’s indifference to money and desire to burn Walt have been well established. Walt shows a critical lack of thought in not questioning how Jesse found his money, but in his mind, he’s the only one who knows that the money is buried in those barrels in the desert, so the pictures must be jarring enough. I had some questions about the Walt Gets Stupid stuff, but once the series of mistakes starts, it’s easy to see how it keeps spiraling out of control. Walt appears to have lost an edge with the return of his cancer (as shown visibly by his climbing about in the desert once he gets there).