Make sure to check the bench for needles before you take a seat. Some bullet points on the newest “Breaking Bad” titled “To’hajiilee”…

• The teaser – Todd, Lydia, Uncle Jack and Kenny are taking a look at the result of Todd’s recent cook. He’s up to 76% purity (up from Declan’s crew) but the meth is not blue. This is a problem for Lydia as she notes, “blue is our brand.” A lesser product in comparison to Heisenberg may fly over in Europe, but no blue is a no go. I’m really glad Heisenberg wasn’t in the building for the conversation that followed. Uncle Jack and Kenny may be able to live with a product that merely gets the job done, but they have no appreciation for the art and perfection Heisenberg would demand. You know, for as much as Todd is a child murderer and keeps company with neo-Nazis (even if they’re family) he sure is polite and eager to please. He even offers Lydia the opportunity to have Uncle Jack, “smooth things over” with her buyers. Lydia, smartly, passes on the offer. Then, as Lydia heads back to Houston presumably, Todd gets the call from Walt that we ended last episode on. The target (as we all knew): Jesse Pinkman.

• Hank and Gomie meet up after the Civic Plaza sting goes awry to regroup. Jesse’s idea: to go after Walt’s money. I suggested this was the route the show was going after last episode and it really was the only thing that made sense considering the Hank/Gomez/Jesse trifecta is 2/3 bound by the law (at least for the most part?). Also, money really is one of Walt’s biggest weaknesses. What has he said time and time again about why he started cooking crystal? He wanted to provide for his family.

• Jesse, knowing who would probably help Walt hide his money, gets Hank and Gomez to throw some bait at Huell to fish out some information. Sure, makes sense. But I had some real issues with how this scene played out. It felt like Huell, granted a character the show has not deepened a lot, spilled every piece of information he had rather easily and without being prompted all that much by Hank and Gomez. Yes, he resists for a period, but then the floodgates open. Considering Huell works for one of the slickest players on this show in Saul I think he would have sniffed out the setup more than he did. Let’s assume Huell isn’t the brightest guy out there (because someone who gave in this easily isn’t on par with our more major characters (or is he?)). I don’t buy that he would have given up all the information he had (with very little questioning) that quickly even with seeing the fake photo of a dead Jesse. Huell doesn’t ask to hear Walt’s call to Saul where Walt apparently says he’s going to take care of him. He also apparently believes everything Hank and Gomez tell him about not calling or taking any calls and staying in the safe house. This was not all that sharp for me. I wish Hank and Gomez would have siphoned the information they received from Huell in a way that would have made Huell not seem so dumb. I guess you could say Huell broke a little too easily. A little too convenient.

• Walt meets with Todd, Uncle Jack, and Kenny about the job of killing Jesse. From the get go you can see Walt’s regret over having to go down this route. He doesn’t want to have Jesse killed, but he needs to do it. He even sticks up for Jesse as not being a rat multiple times in the scene. And you have to give Mr. White some credit. He wants Jesse’s death to be quick and painless. The cost to have Jesse killed is quite expensive. No, not money. He must cook to assist in improving Todd’s skills. This is a total, “Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in,” moment. The bargain: Walt does one cook after Jesse offed, but not before. As Walt shakes Uncle Jack’s hand my immediate thought was that he had made a terrible bedfellow. And Walt knows it. Notice how he contemplates shaking Uncle Jack’s hand, then doesn’t extend his arm out all the way to shake it and wants to release his grip as quickly as he can.

• But where is Jesse? Just like how Jesse doesn’t know where Walt’s money is Walt doesn’t know where Jesse is. But, he does claim to know how to flush him out. The chess match is so very on. And what is one of Jesse’s biggest weaknesses? Brock and Andrea. Walt, knocking on Andrea’s front door, goes into full manipulation mode. He’s just good ole Mr. White. He wants to help Jesse, of course. Jesse screwed up yet again. Walt’s just concerned for him. Good, classic Walt stuff here. Of course he gets Andrea to call Jesse to flush him out. But Hank still is in possession of the Hello Kitty line and knows that Walt is just setting up Jesse. Chess match!

• Here we also get the information that the van Walt rented to move his money did not have a GPS. But as Hank notes, Walt doesn’t know this. It was at this pause in the episode I really figured something explosive was on the horizon. To this point it had been way too quiet. I’d also really started to swing back to Walt’s side of this. I don’t want any of these characters to die necessarily, but I want Walt to walk away with his money. I honestly had not felt this way in some time.

• Breaking News: This show is not reality. I’m not sure Hank and Gomez could run the schemes they’re running and have it all permissible in court in part because they appear to be doing this operation without any other assistance (other than the agent at the safe house with Huell). I’m not saying it wouldn’t, I’m just saying I’m a little dubious of all their tactics including bugging Walt’s phone, using a photo of a fake dead Jesse, running Jesse without any other law enforcement involvement, and taping Walt’s actual confession on the phone as I assume they were doing. I do appreciate that Gomez tells Hank directly that if Jesse “lawyers up” he’s going to have to put a stop to the operation.

• Saul visits the car wash. And it’s kind of funny because his car really did need some washing after Jesse took it for a spin. Saul breaks the news to Walt that Huell is “gone.” Saul is so much more cautious and forward thinking than Walt here and in many other instances. He also doesn’t have a blind spot when it comes to Jesse. You get how he could survive this long.

• I love the look and faint smile Walt has as he watches Skyler and Walt Jr. work the register at the car wash. Great subtlety in that moment.

• Then, Walt gets…the photo. A (dubious) re-creation of one of his barrels of money buried out in To’hajiilee. Oh no. A phone call. On the other line? Jesse, who has “found” Walt’s money. Without hesitation Walt scurries out of the car wash and into his car. I have some sizable issues with how the phone call during Walt’s car ride played. The dialogue is way too on the nose throughout the call. Jesse recites the exact way he finds Walt’s money. Walt thoroughly explains why he had to poison Brock. Walt had played this cat and mouse game with Jesse, gets the phone call and immediately believes every word coming out of Jesse’s mouth and further compounds his mistake by confessing to a ton of crimes over the phone? This scene came off sloppy to me. I totally buy the panic Walt would feel in that circumstance having his family’s future threatened, but to not take a beat and consider a setup is very stupid, very un-Walt. Jesse sounds very rehearsed on the other line too, I feel. I’m not sure if that was intended or if that’s simply my take on it, but it certainly makes Walt seem even dumber for falling for the call to me. It was plenty tense, but something was taken away too.

• Walt arrives where he buried his money. Jesse’s not in sight. There are no signs of his money being dug up. Walt realizes he was setup, but too late. An SUV approaches. Walt knows he’s in danger and calls Uncle Jack to get his help. All it takes is a simple thumbs up from Uncle Jack and his tactical unit begins to suit up. The SUV parks. It’s Jesse, Hank, and Gomez. Walt is shaken. He won’t have Uncle Jack take out Hank as he tells him to stay away. He can’t send Hank on a trip to Belize. He’d rather turn himself in. Walter Hartwell White has given up. We get a long shot of Walt realizing what comes next for him. It’s all over. Walt comes out from behind the rock and makes the slow walk of surrender towards Hank. Hank puts Walt in bracelets and tells him his rights. I’ve really hated Walt a lot at times, but the minute Hank gets cocky having caught him really made me want Walt to get away with it. Walt calls Jesse a coward and is rewarded with some spit. Walt and Jesse are separated. Mr. White is on his way to booking. Here’s where the flashforwards (I have been on record as loving them) are a detriment. We are fairly certain Walt will never make it to jail because he’s walking as a free man about nine months from now. Something is likely to prevent him from being behind bars. Really, there’s only one viable option for how he avoids jail (we’ll get there).

• Before driving off with Walt in handcuffs Hank must make a phone call. He respects the handheld cell phone law too much to make the call on the way to bringing Walt to jail and/or doesn’t have Bluetooth technology on his phone. So, Hank calls Marie to give her the news that he has caught Walt dead to rights. It was at this moment I thought there was about a 70% chance Hank’s brain was about to splatter all over the camera. You don’t have a speech like that without something bad happening immediately afterward. But something different was in store. Uncle Jack and the pseudo tactical unit are driving up. They need that cook out of Walt, dammit. Walt pleads for Jack to stand down, but these are some really messed up dudes we’re talking about here. Showdown time. Uncle Jack gives Kenny a little look. Shots fired! Many of them, in fact. Who is hit? Incredibly no one…it appears…yet. And by yet I mean the scene isn’t over because we go to black. My response to the end of the episode: “Are you f***ing kidding me?!”

• I laughed
  • As terrible as Uncle Jack and Kenny are their ease with violence is good for some chuckles. Uncle Jack after Walt insists on a quick/painless death for Jesse says, “I respect that. There’s too many savages out there.”
  • Seriously though, no one would be more enamored with seeing Saul Goodman, the man from the billboard, in the flesh than Walt Jr.

• The quotes…
  • Walt: “Just one target, not currently in jail. Jesse Pinkman.”
  • Walt: “Jesse is like family to me.”
  • Saul: “The kid is not as dumb as you think.”
  • Walt: “Don’t you touch my money!”
  • Walt: “You want me around to cook for you, you get here right now. As fast as you can.”
  • Walt: “Forget it. Don’t come.”
  • Walt: “Coward.”
  • Hank: “Hey baby, I got him. Dead to rights.”

• Overall – There was some flimsy business in this episode for me. Specifically, the Huell scene and the phone call/car ride. Not deal breakers by any means, but not “Breaking Bad” operating at its heights. Still a fine episode of television, but in the balance one of the weaker ones of this last batch for that reason. Whoa, what an ending though.

• What’s to come? – More bullet casings will be hitting the desert. And maybe someone will be hit by a bullet. Walt is getting out of this somehow, we know that. Hank, Gomez and Jesse on the other hand? I don’t know how they all walk away from this. I will say if the show was going to kill one of them (Gomez being the obvious one) I thought they would have done it in this episode, not the next (though it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if any of these characters not named Walter White fell in the next episode). The majority of television deaths take place at the end of episodes, not at the beginning. I presume the next episode is going to pick up where this left off. We shall see. Three more and it’s all over.