Spoilers for the episode and show follows
So, the beginning of the end begins, and it starts off well. After more than a year of anticipation after Hank's discovery sh**, it finally returns to us, and it is off to a very good start. Now, this blog won't act like a review, so don't expect any score or final opinion on the episode. This is just an analyzation of what happened, and some general thoughts on the episode. So, shall we begin?
We flash-forwarded again in the beginning, and it's pretty clear that some crazy crap goes down from now until the end. Seeing the White's house in complete abandonment, the Heisenberg spray painted on the wall, and poor Carol's reaction to Walt's mere presence tell us that some serious sh** has gone down in the span of the year. Also, we have to wonder as to the state of Walt's newly returned cancer at this point, but more on the cancer later. This show has always been great at giving us the smallest taste of future events so as to pique our interest, but not give anything serious away, and it certainly succeeds here.
Back in the present, Hank finally got off the crapper, and played it the best way I think he possibly could. It would have been completely unlike the show if Hank got outside and put Walt under arrest. Instead, he decided to continue his investigation after getting the small hint to who Heisenberg really is. Although it makes me wonder how Hank never saw that drawing of Heisenberg and thought that it didn't look like Walt, but I digress.
On the White's side of things, the car wash is going great, and I personally thought it was pretty awesome how differently Walt and Skyler handled Lydia's presence. Throughout the episode, I happened to notice how much Walt was behaving like Gus. Acting all businesslike with Lydia in the car wash, not denying but not confirming Hank's accusations at the end, hell, even puking in the toilet exactly like Gus. Could it be that he's going down the same road as Gus, including the same end? I have no idea, but it'll be interesting if he continues like this as the episodes go on.
Jesse didn't get much screen time in this episode, but some important things are left unspoken with him. I don't have a doubt that he knows Mike is dead, and he probably suspects Walt. He also doesn't know what to do with all of his money, trying to put it to good use by giving it to the family of the kid that Todd shot and Mike's granddaughter. Walt trying to intervene with Jesse's decisions shows how much Walt is still trying to use him, even though they both stopped cooking.
And finally, that last scene was just fantastic. I'm glad the show just got it all out there in this episode that Walt's cancer has come back, and that Hank clearly knows of Walt's secret identity. I think it would have been a cop out if at the very end it was revealed that Walt was going to die of his cancer even though it had been hinting at his cancer's return all season. Also, I'm sure we'd all been looking forward to the inevitable Hank/Walt confrontation the whole series, and this was a great scene to give a sample of what's sure to come with the conflict. Overall, I can't wait to see where the show goes after this, and I'll be sure to make new installments of my blog for each occasion.
If you feel like it, comment and let me know what you thought of the episode and the show in general! Thanks for reading!