Recap – Breaking Bad S05E13 To’hajiilee

By Justin Farris

With only three episodes left in the series, TV’s hit drama Breaking Bad leaves its viewers on the edge of their seats with yet another nail-baiting chapter.

The 59th episode kicks off with the familiar (and maybe too familiar) look of freshly cooked methamphetamine being emptied into a cooling pan. Todd, with the help of his Neo Nazi uncle Jack, has seized full reign over the international drug trade that Walter White has recently left behind. Unfortunately, with only 76% purity and a brownish hue, Todd’s product comes nowhere close.

It is at this moment that Walt comes on over the phone, repeating the line from last episode that gave Breaking Bad fans everywhere chills down their spine: “Todd. I think I might have another job for your uncle.”

Todd’s uncle was the man who carried out Walter’s prison sting, in which he killed 10 people in 3 different prisons within 2 minutes.  But this time, Walt is looking for a low-scale operation: “Just one target. Not currently in jail… Jesse Pinkman.”

Hence the chills. All of season 5 has shown Walt and Jesse’s relationship deteriorating, but now the all-star meth-cooking team that fans have come to know and love has reached what seems to be a fatal end.

Uncle Jack and his men, in need of a better cook, refuse to help Walter unless he pays in the form of one training cook with Todd. He agrees.

Walt is not the only one with a plan, however. Just as he is sealing Jesse’s fate in a touching conversation with Uncle Jack and the Aryan Brotherhood, Hank is setting up a trap for Walt. For much of the series we have seen Walt’s genius at play, but this episode leaves him down and beaten.

By luring him into the desert, Hank, Jesse, and Gomez hoped to trick Walter into uncovering his money. Using a cell phone to pinpoint his exact location, they cornered him, and one of the biggest scenes in Breaking Bad history began.

Walt steps out of hiding, drops his gun, and puts his hands in the air. Face wrought out of an expression of pure exhaustion and acceptance all at once. All three express their own form of appreciation as Hank pulls out a pair of silver cuffs and slaps them on the wrists of a kneeling Walter.  Walter then stares Jesse down while being read his Miranda rights, to which his only response is: “Coward.”

Jesse spits in his eye.

Hank then calls home to tell of his victory, and he and Marie share a more intimate moment then they’ve ever had on the show. There are tears of joy, followed by an extremely heartfelt “I love you.” But could this personal moment really just be Hank saying goodbye, forever?

You see…you remember the Aryan Brotherhood hit on Jesse? Well Walt tried to call it off, but they still come for him after he is arrested. Upon finding two DEA agents, Jack and his men hesitate, guns drawn. An intense moment follows, which builds up into a gunfight with shotguns in slow motion. Outnumbered and out-armed, what is to happen to Steven Gomez and Hank Schrader?

Plenty of fans personally like to see Walt suffer. He is a fresh new sociopath who is extremely manipulative, and rarely seems to experience guilt. In this episode, however, we see a lot of Walt’s “human” side. His passion when driving as fast as possible to reach his money, showing he’d risk his life just to provide for his daughter. The water in his eye when he realizes in the desert that this is the end. His inability to even discuss killing Jesse for more than a few minutes. After nearly 5 seasons of breaking bad, Walter still has some good in him.

 

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