Episode Title: “Buried”
Writer: Thomas Schnauz
Director: Michelle MacLaren
Previously on “Breaking Bad”:
I have a theory about unsatisfying series finales on television. Unlike movies, TV audiences have years to process the events of a television series and come up with a conclusion about where a show is going and what will happen at the end. And it’s hard for anyone to come up with an ending that will top the one that fans have previously envisioned for themselves.
“Breaking Bad” may be one of the shows to escape that trap. Even though events are playing out in a logical (and almost predictable) way, it’s still very compelling. We’ve waited so long to see Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) go head-to-head that it’s almost enough to finally see it happening at an accelerated pace. The performances and the writing remain top notch. And there are two wildcards in the mix that may keep things from playing out as expected.
The first wildcard is Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), a young man who doesn’t even utter a word in this episode. And the second wildcard is Lydia (Laura Fraser), an outwardly meek woman who leaves violence and destruction in her wake.
There are full spoilers ahead for “Buried,” so if you missed last night’s episode of “Breaking Bad” then you should probably skip this review or else Walt will send you to Belize.
The thing to keep in mind about Lydia is that she has an alarming tendency to go for the most violent solution. Case in point, Lydia tried to put a hit out on Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and she advocated the murders of Mike’s associates long before Walt ordered their executions himself. However, Lydia has no appetite for the consequences of her actions. She even has the nerve to get Todd (Jesse Plemons) to lead her out of the bunker meth lab with her eyes closed so she doesn’t have to see the dead bodies of Declan (Louis Ferreira) and his men.
And why did Lydia engineer this massacre? Because of a mere 6% difference in the purity of the meth between Todd’s 74% cook and Declan’s 68% cook. Lydia also described it as a potential loss of $50 million from the Czech Republic. But then, she is prone to exaggeration.
Lydia only has a small role in this episode, but the coup she created could cause huge problems for Walt. Todd’s uncle and his Aryan Brotherhood are the crew behind the murder of Mike’s associates in prison. They also know far too much about Walt himself. If Walt needs a machine gun in the flashforward sequences that we’ve already seen, it’s a good bet that he’ll probably use it against the Brotherhood.
In the meantime, Walt has bigger problems with Hank. The opening moments had some amusing posturing from Walt as he maintained eye contact with Hank until the garage door went down. But as soon as Hank was out of sight, Walt went into full panic mode and he tried to call his wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn). The only problem is that Hank thought of it first and by the time that Walt reached the car wash, Skyler was gone.
Gunn had her best scene this season opposite Norris as Hank expressed sympathy towards Skyler before attempting to goad her into giving a sworn statement against Walt before she had a chance to speak with a lawyer. Skyler’s reaction here is perfectly reasonable. Hank doesn’t realize that Skyler has committed some major crimes of her own, both in laundering Walt’s money and in the debacle with Ted that left her former lover crippled. Hank’s only agenda seems to be getting Walt put away, regardless of the consequences for Skyler. Therefore, Skyler freaks out and leaves Hank behind.
In a much lighter scene, Kuby (Bill Burr) and Huell (Lavell Crawford) hilariously got in touch with their inner Scrooge McDuck before Huell suggested running off to Mexico with Walt’s money. Kuby’s response demonstrated that Walt’s 2 minute prison hit on Mike’s associates is still making people fear him. But it was the Brotherhood who carried out those murders. Without their support, Walt doesn’t have anything to back up that reputation.
“Buried” also brought Walt back to the level of desperation that he had in the first season of this series. Convinced that Skyler had already struck a deal with Hank, Walt personally took all of his money and buried it in the desert. The resulting heat stroke leaves Walt unconscious in the bathroom of his home. And it’s a good thing that Skyler isn’t murderous or else the money would have been lost forever.
Earlier in the episode, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) infers that Mike is dead by suggesting that Walt send Hank to Belize. Walt not only refuses, he threatens to send Saul “to Belize!” That’s really funny and very revealing. Even though Hank represents the destruction of everything that Walt has built, he refuses to have him killed. Hank is family, no matter what.
At the same time, Hank tried to use Skyler’s ties to her sister, Marie (Betsy Brandt) to goad her into action against Walt. Although Marie is initially unwilling to believe the extent of her sister’s lies, she is sharp enough to figure out that Skyler knew the truth about Walt even before Hank was shot. In addition to giving Skyler a vicious slap, Marie tries to snatch away the baby Holly.
Marie’s actions were probably compounded by the fact that she has no children and she had just spent several months acting as Holly’s surrogate mother while Skyler kept her children away from Walt. In Marie’s mind, the only sane course of action was to take Holly out of that environment once again.
However, even Hank realizes that taking Holly is a huge mistake and he intervenes in the fight between the two sisters. Walter Jr. (RJ Mitte) was strangely missing from this episode. Given the way that he idolizes both Walt and Hank, it should be interesting to see how he reacts to the truth.
Later with Walt recovering from his ordeal in the desert, Skyler listens to him offer to turn himself in if she will promise to ensure that their children get the money that he earned. More than anything else, Walt is afraid that he did it all for nothing. Perhaps moved by Walt’s selflessness and some lingering greed of her own, Skyler’s inner Lady MacBeth is reborn and she suggests that the best move to make is no move at all. Hank has no evidence against them.
It’s refreshing that Hank came to the same conclusion that the fans reached years ago: exposing Walt will destroy Hank’s career at the DEA. It’s a sacrifice that Hank is willing to make if it means that he can finally catch Walt. But he needs proof, not suspicions.
Which brings us back to Jesse, the other remaining wildcard in the story. At the top of the hour, an old man finds Jesse’s car crashed in a playground with most of the $5 million in cash inside while Jesse himself lies on a merry-go-round. When Hank hears that Jesse is in custody, he immediately knows that this may be his best chance to get something conclusive on Walt.
The pair of detectives interrogating Jesse, Kalanchoe (Gonzalo Menendez) and Munn (Jason Douglas) were hysterical in their second appearance on this show. Forget Saul Goodman, give these guys their own series!
“Buried” ends on the perfect note as Hank steps into the interrogation room with Jesse. Will Jesse flip on Walt? It’s possible, especially if he thinks or he knows that Walt killed Mike. But that would be too easy for this series. There are still six hours to go until “Breaking Bad” comes to an end. The players are finally in place and it’s time for the chips to start falling.
