Oh hey look, a fly begins this episode of Breaking Bad’s cold open. Is it the fly from season three’s bottle episode “Fly”…surely this cannot be the same fly? Landry stops by the HQ looking for Walt, who’s in the office with the son or daughter of bottle episode fly, just lounging around. Looks like Landry’s dealt with Mike’s car with what appears like no loose ends. And he seems to be super impressed with the way a compactor smooshes a car in to cubes. The bottle episode fly voices his objections, but is ignored by Walt. Mike is yet another recipient of Walt’s patented Barrels Full of Acid™, looks like another banner year for the acid and barrel community. Jesse drops by the HQ as well, and starts talking all this “We” nonsense. Walter balks at all this “We” business and tells Jesse he will handle it. The he slowly closes the garage door Jesse’s face.

The beginnings of Mike’s men flipping looks to have begun in earnest with the DEA refusing to budge on bargaining with any of them. Although the DEA seems to be in the business of granting queen for the day passes or princess wishes. Aww.

Walt and Lydia meet up to discuss business. She insists that he order something and make the meeting look casual, to which Walt says he’s not thirsty, in fact he’s hungry…hungry for getting down to business. The nine names suddenly turn to ten with the addition of a lawyer. Lydia is still cagey about being murdered, especially now that Mike is out of the picture, she’s assuming that Walt is now going to kill her. Lydia’s use of the list as leverage belies an intelligence and higher level wizardry that I don’t believe that Walt is capable of. She’s also speaking to his hubris and ego when she discusses going global with the blue meth in the Czech Republic. It’s more to save her life or perhaps to buy herself some time to work on a plan on her own. Dubious, Lydia brings up the fact that Fring was going to do this…but then he was exploded by Walt. This is where I’m more than assured that she’s bluffing and honestly, she could just be pulling these names out of her ass and getting Walt in a whole mess of trouble. Meeting adjourned Walt now has his names, and the beginnings of a global empire. He put’s his Heisenberg suit on, picks up the tiny vial of ricin he had planed to use on Lydia and the scene ends.  

Putting the ricin back in it’s hiding place Walt calls Landry and asks to meet his uncle. With this uncle’s jailhouse connections, he  wants to instigate riots to get to the men on the list. The plan is solid, it just won’t go down the way Walt would want it. Undeterred, Walt starts talking about some painting on the wall and then tells the uncle to figure out how to get it done Walt’s way. The vanquishing of the hit list goes off without a hitch and a DEA photo op for Hank is ruined when he gets the news of said hits set to the nice little slow jam diddy “Pick Yourself Up” by Nat King Cole.

The jail killings hit’s the news and doesn’t sit too well with Hank who comes home shell-shocked, but attempting to play it off. What I’ve really enjoyed about this series so far is just how close Hank is to knowing that Walt has been behind it the entire events of the series, and Walt just SITS there, right under his nose. Hank recalls a summer job spent marking trees with spray paint. Everyday Hank would return to the forest and continue marking from the previous days marked trees that had been cut down. He wishes to return to those halogen days of just marking trees which is easier than chasing monsters. Walt remembers he used to like going camping.

This scene transitions awesomely in to a Walt/Landry/Lydia meth making,  fat stacks stacking, drug operation montage, Skyler even shows up to stare blankly at some accounting papers and fat stacks of soft drinks disguising fat stacks to be landau red by her! I really enjoy how this season hasn’t wasted much time propelling the growth of Walt’s empire without a bunch of narrative weight. This should make the back eight of the rest of the season really good television in terms of narrative stakes and the like.

Skyler’s seen hanging out at the purple palace that is the Schrader’s trying not to talk to Marie about the fact that it’s been three months and they think it’s time for the kids to go back. Skyler attempts to emote, but the scene ends before anything happens.

Back at the White house, Skyler attempts to find some facial expressions that she may have misplaced, but instead discovers Walt sitting outside by the pool. They go for a drive to a storage unit facility which houses a supreme stack of fat stacks, lovingly placed on a piece of red carpet. The immense amount of money is too much for Skyler to add, even though she supposed to be an accountant, so she jus stacks it up and tends to it. She uses this opportunity to ask Walt if she can have her life back now, and how big does the fat stacks have to stack before he’ll stop.

Oh yeah, just in case the viewers forgot, Walt still has cancer as he’s seen being rotated around in a hospital gown. He’s also punched the shit out of a paper towel dispenser…so good news I suppose? He then pays a visit to Jesse to say hello. The awkwardness is palpable as Jesse invites him in and hides his bong. He reaffirms his “I’m not coming back” stance and wonders why Walt has even dropped by. Walt talks about seeing a similar RV to the one they had when they first started cooking together. They commiserate on the epic shittyness of the RV and the tales of woe that entailed…good times! Walt tells Jesse he left something for him, bags and bags full of money.

Skyler is seen washing dishes when Walt comes home, only to be ignored. He tells Skyler that he’s out, and she stares back at him, expressionless to the end. Attempting a smile, perhaps to mock Skyler, he walks away from her.

At a family gathering at the White house, everyone is seen hanging out. Hank talks about getting in to home brewing beer. Skyler makes a face, I think it’s a smile…I can’t tell. Hank excuses himself to go to the bathroom to lay down the law...so to speak. He picks up a copy of Walt Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass to read when he notices the front page it’s addressed to “W.W.” from “G.B.” suddenly the last piece of the puzzle clicks in to place for Hank.

This front eight of this final season has been a nice slow crawl, and not really full of any surprises. Which, after the explosive finale of last season it’s next to impossible to outdo that on any sane level and maintain the reality that Breaking Bad tries to adhere to. I am really excited for the tail end of this season when it premieres next summer, and wonder how Hank is going to pull all these desperate threads together and what Walt is going to do. However, if what we are lead to believe is true then Walt’s out of time anyway, and what good would it be to put away someone for life who’s already terminal to begin with?