Breaking Bad episode review — 5.13 — To’hajiilee

Original air date: September 8, 2013
Director: Michelle MacLaren
Writer: George Mastras

Rating: 10/10

The episode starts with Lydia watching Todd’s cook. He has improved the purity significantly, thanks to his past training by Walt, but he is still missing the blue color, which Lydia insists is necessary for her buyers in Europe.

She’s rather harsh on him, but he’s polite as usual.

Jesse shares his plan with the DEA. He doesn’t know where Walt’s money is, but he knows who might. Hank meets with Huell at a DEA safe house, telling him that he’s next on Walt’s list, after Jesse’s been killed. He uses a staged photo to sell this.

Huell says he doesn’t know where the money is, but he does share valuable information that he had rented a truck and when he got it back, it was filled with dirt and a shovel.

Walt meets with Jack and Todd to discuss having a hit on Jesse. He insists that it must be quick and painless. In exchange, Jack doesn’t want money, but instead wants Walt to cook for them, to further train Todd.

Walt agrees to one cook, but only after Jesse’s killed.

Walt tries to draw Jesse out by visiting Andrea and Brock, and having Andrea call him. Meanwhile Hank finds that the van rental company does not have GPS installed, but he thinks he can bluff, since Walt wouldn’t know that.

Saul shows up to the car wash in a panic and tells Walt that Huell is missing, and not answering his phone.

Walt is then sent a photo of a barrel full of cash buried in the desert, and he panics. He then receives a call from Jesse, who says he’ll burn it all. Walt rushes from the car wash, and drives out to the desert, where he doesn’ t find Jesse.

During the phone call, he admits to poisoning Brock, but says that he did it carefully so that he would be okay, and it was all for Jesse. He admits to other things, again insisting that he was protecting Jesse.

He makes a phone call to Jack and tells him the coordinates of where he is, and that Jesse is here. He then sees Hank and Gomez arrive with Jesse, and tries to call it all off.

He reluctantly gives himself up, calls Jesse a coward, and he’s arrested and read his Miranda rights. With Walt in the back of his car, Hank calls Marie and tells her that he’s got Walt.

Before he can call for backup or even a search party (for the money), though, Jack and his gang arrive, drawing their guns.

After neither sides back down, a shootout ensues.

This episode is fantastic. Walt’s finally made a bunch of mistakes that he won’t be able to come back from, but it’s understandable, because he’s driven by greed at this point. To be honest, greed never seemed to be his main motivating factor. It was always pride. So I think this would have resonated more if his downfall was driven more by that, but that’s a minor complaint.

I like how we see Hank being extremely competent and clever here. You can complain that it took him forever to figure out that Walt was behind it all, but once he knew, he acted swiftly and intelligently.