"Breaking Bad" recap: Walt's self-serving "Confessions"
"My name is Walter Hartwell White...This is my confession..."
It was a time of revelations for the characters in this week's episode of "Breaking Bad," aptly titled "Confessions."
Just as Hank (Dean Norris) had realized in the mid-season opener "Blood Money," Jesse (Aaron Paul) so too came to understand just how sinister of a force Walter White (Bryan Cranston) can truly be.
The episode picked up where last week's installment, "Buried," had left off -- with Hank entering Jesse's interrogation room to try and squeeze some information out of White's former protege. But Mr. Pinkman was having none of it. Fans who predicted last week that Jesse wouldn't squeal were proven right (for the time being).
"Eat me," he tells the DEA agent.
While Jesse wasn't talking, Walt meanwhile was busy making a revelation of his own. When he finds out that Marie (Betsey Brandt) is trying to lure Walt Jr. (R.J. Mitte) over to the Schrader household, Walt once again shows off his true colors of manipulation by playing the cancer card, ensuring that his son will stay at their house.
The White residence was the scene of another one of Walt's admissions, one that was far from truthful.
"It's the only way," the former chemistry teacher tells his wife Skyler (Anna Gun), before recording a fabricated confession pointing the finger at Hank as the true identity of Heisenberg.
Walt and Skyler then meet with Hank and Marie at a taqueria in one of this season's most suspenseful (and also somehow comedic) scenes. The tension between the two couples is contrasted with their overzealous waiter (is this the same guy from "Office Space"?) delivering one of the best lines of the night, "So how about that guacamole?"
The confessional theme gets played up even further after Hank and Marie become horrified while watching Walt's DVD. Hank, who earlier in the episode had been unable to come clean to his DEA colleagues, gets a big reveal from Marie, as she admits that Walt and Skyler paid over $177,000 for Hank's medical expenses. Even if the DEA doesn't believe Walt's phony confession, Hank is now in too deep.
Walt's manipulation is shown off even more when dealing with Jesse in the desert. Playing the part of a concerned father figure, White tries to make it seem like he's looking out for Jesse's best interests by suggesting he permanently ship out of town. But it's clear to Jesse and the audience that Walt is just looking out for himself. Walt's push to get Jesse away forever ends up leading to the biggest epiphany of the episode.
As Jesse waits for one of Saul's (Bob Odenkirk) associates to come pick him up and take him away to a new life and identity, he realizes that henchman Huell stole his marijuana and a ricin-laced cigarette he had been carrying. Jesse then puts the pieces together and realizes that Walt did in fact try to poison Brock back in season 4.
All bets are off now, as Walt faces yet another big problem during the upcoming final five episodes of the series.
Some media outlets, including, Entertainment Weekly and The Atlantic, have said that Jesse's ricin revelation comes off as a little too far-fetched. Would he have really been able to make sense of the clues?
And what did you think of the episode's opening scene with Todd and company at the diner?
Let us know below in the comments section.
"Breaking Bad" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.
