Welcome to the Breaking Bad season-two finale! Quickly, let’s recap what happened last week, when we were off for Memorial Day (and meth overdoses were far from our minds). We learned that Walt actually did complete the $1.2 million drug deal with Gustavo, while also missing the birth of his daughter — whoops. Instead of immediately splitting the profits with Jesse, Walt decided to hold the money until Jesse got clean. Jane wasn’t into that plan, so she called Walt at his house and threatened to out him if he didn’t give them Jesse’s money, which Walt did, reluctantly. Meanwhile, Walt Jr. started a website soliciting donations to help pay for Walt’s surgery — Saul decided this was the perfect front for Walt’s drug money, so he helped create a system that would anonymously donate Walt’s dirty money to Walt Jr.’s site. Walt had second thoughts about cutting Jesse off, so he went back to his apartment to try to convince him again to get clean. There, Walt found Jesse and Jane passed out in bed after a drug binge. Walt stood over them and watched as Jane choked on her own vomit … and died. Yikes. Now, on with this week’s recap.
Walt and his family:
The drug money continues to trickle into Walt Jr.’s website, which bothers Walt, since the whole point of his drug endeavor was to earn money independently. A TV station picks up on the story, and Walt Jr. says on camera, “My dad is just decent, he always does the right thing.” Um, well, not really. Walt goes ahead with the risky surgery, and while he’s under slight sedation, he has a crucial exchange with Skylar. “Where’s your cell phone?” she asks him. “Which one?” he groggily replies. Uh-oh, now Skylar knows that Walt was lying about not having two cell phones. We return seven weeks later, when the doctor is telling Walt and Skylar that things look good for his prognosis. Back home, Skylar starts packing a suitcase, telling Walt she’s going to Hank and Marie’s for the weekend, and she wants him out of the house by Monday. He’s taken aback and asks why. It turns out that since the cell-phone slipup, Skylar’s discovered two key pieces of evidence against him. First, that he never took money from Gretchen, and second, that he never went to visit his mother. “Lies, on top of lies, on top of lies,” she yells at him. Walt asks for a chance to explain, but she refuses. “I’m afraid to know,” she says.
Walt and the drugs:
Saul’s cleanup man comes to Jesse’s house to get rid of all the drug paraphernalia before he calls an ambulance for Jane (who’s totally dead at this point, despite Jesse’s attempts to revive her). Jane’s dad arrives — the look on his face is heartbreakingly sad when he sees the ambulance outside of the apartment. Jesse’s guilt is overwhelming, and he takes refuge in a frightening meth den. Walt finds him there, and they have a touching scene in which Jesse cries on Walt like a baby — “I killed her! I loved her!” Aw, poor Jesse. Walt checks him into a rehab center where he’s left to brood alone. Over at the DEA, Hank assures his colleagues that Heisenberg (a.k.a. Walt) is still at large. The Blue Sky supply has spread out to surrounding states, indicating that Heisenberg’s wise to the fact that the DEA’s on his trail. A group of local businessmen tour the precinct, including Gustavo (who owns that chicken chain in which Walt met him). Gustavo sees a donation bucket with Walt’s picture on it, and ironically donates a few dollars to it.
What’s next?
Jane’s father returns to work as a flight-control operator, clearly still shaken by her death. He slowly melts down on the job, causing an in-air collision over Albuquerque, which Walt witnesses while standing at his pool after Skylar has left him. All season we’ve seen flash-forwards of this moment, and were mistakenly led to believe it had something to do with methmaking. The episode ends at that moment, but we still don’t know who the two dead bodies belong to (also part of the earlier flash-forwards). And now that Skylar knows Walt was lying, will he finally tell her the truth? Will Jesse return to the drug trade? Will Hank connect Heisenberg with Walt? We have to wait till next season to find out! Darn.
