It seems to me that part of what makes the phone call at the end so fascinating is that it isn't uniformly obvious where the line is between sincere Walt and calculating Walt. Some of the things he said that were intended to make Skyler look less complicit were also skewed expressions of actual resentments he's long felt toward her. And when he cautions her to toe the line or she'll end up like Hank, some of that could be just more bluster and smokescreen and anger, and some of it could be a sincere word of caution to Skyler about just how much she wants to continue working with the cops beyond the missing child/Amber alert stuff. At this point, I'm not sure Walt knows exactly what's going on in his own head, where these demarcations are. He's doing a lot of desperate improvisation lately.

It is pretty cool how the episode is bookended with the phone calls. In the first Skyler is totally clueless, and in the second she knows what's up. Both times Walt appears to have little dignity—he's lying his ass off (pantsless) and then at rock-bottom, on the run.

Yeah, "Ozymandias" was pretty uneventful, huh?

After this episode, it's even more clear that the relevance of Shelley's sonnet is two-fold. Not only has Walt's meth-based empire crumbled, but so has the "empire" of his family. All this time he'd been able to maintain both empires, and now the one crumbling down has toppled over the other. If Walt does get away, it's possible he could build another drug empire, but he can't repair what's been broken at home. From the fam's point of view, Walt is Hank's murderer, Skyler's attempted murderer, and Holly's kidnapper. Clearly Thanksgivings at the White household would be awkward.

When Walt told Jesse about Jane, it almost felt like there was a missing line there. Walt's logic seems to be that he blames Jesse for causing the chain of events that led to Hank's death. I expected Jesse's retort to be something like "Well now we're even, I guess." But it's more realistic the way the writers had it. Jesse was hysterical, not in any state of mind to deliver a snappy comeback.   

There was no levity whatsoever in this episode. From here on out, that's the way it might be. The rational, calculating Walt is being consumed by emotions. It made no sense to take Holly with him when he fled the house. But it made emotional sense in that Walt begged his wife and son to come with him, and when they refused, he grabbed the only family member he could carry. (Leaving his own kid at the firehouse was, for me, one of the most fucked up things WW has ever done. Btw, did Walt turn the fire truck's lights on, or did Holly? Clever girl...)

Cranston has said that the series ends in a way that's utterly unrelenting and brutal. It feels like we're already there, but apparently it gets more savage. You let that sink in.

I was surprised at how surprised Junior was. When his aunt and mom told him what was up (hey, who was working the register at that time?), he was incredulous. It would have been funny if he'd said "Yeah, um, I figured dad was a meth cook!" All this time I guess I've imagined that Junior was quietly suspicious that something weird was up with dear old dad. Maybe I figured the writers would at some point do the old someone-with-a-disability-is-actually-sharp-as-a-tack trope with Junior, but once again they did something way better than I expected.

The phone conversation with Skyler reveals Walt's true feelings. Skyler's crime, in his mind, was "disrespect" and not believing in him. Hank crossed me, and you toe the line or you'll end up like him, he tells her. I think he's serious.

Part of the reason Gus Fring was better at this whole drug kingpin thing was because he had no family to protect, no reputation to maintain except as the manager of Los Pollos Hermanos. And he had no ego, no wish that others would recognize and appreciate his brilliance. And of course there's the fact that he was ruthless in ways that Walt even now can't bring himself to be. Gus would have shot his DEA brother-in-law himself, or probably killed him long before things came down to a showdown in the desert.

Hot damn did I dig that episode.

Haha, well, they're that crazy, no doubt. I think all they know is that Walt—who has value to them as a cook—summoned them there because he was in distress and because Jesse's there too. They have an interest in keeping Walt alive, whacking Jesse so Walt will honor the agreement and do a cook for them, and not getting arrested themselves. Once Hank and Gomez showed that they had no intention of surrendering, that's when the white-power posse opened fire. That much makes sense to me, in that six(?) guys with guns aren't taking orders from two guys with guns. People that crazy might well feel up for a shootout from time to time, but they're also lawless thugs who are motivated by their own raw self-interest—and right now they view Walt as a cash cow. Anyone who gets in the way is, by definition, expendable.

Btw: The whole bit about Todd's uncle not wanting to wear a mask in the meth lab—that stuck out to me on second viewing as something that will be paid off later somehow.

That image is my new desktop wallpaper!

The glass-half-full spin on it would be that the rest of us now look eminently reasonable!

Seriously though, I feel like sometimes someone does something that's so ridiculous, so idiosyncratic and unrepresentative of everyone else in that group, that reasonable people just kind of recognize it as a wacky, one-off event. What Billington did is noteworthy precisely because it's so anomalous. It'd be different if there were a whole rash of bloggers and/or anti-phones-in-theaters people doing the same thing. That would be a pattern. This is one douchebag who did an astoundingly silly thing this one time. They shouldn't hold this guy against us anymore than they should hold John Wilkes Booth against all actors.

...That said, they'll probably hold this guy against us. Damn.

"You're the math whiz. Add two-plus-two."

Is there any way in hell Hank and Gomez walk away from that showdown? They're literally out-gunned. From a trying-to-read-the-writers'-moves standpoint, it would make Hank's final phone call with Marie all the more tragic. That celebratory phone call also allows Marie to know that Walt was present—albeit in handcuffs—when Hank died and/or "went missing." But who says that's going to happen. The reservation police might show up next for all we know. Hell, a spectral Mike Ehrmantrout might show up as a Jedi ghost to tell everyone that Walt's only guilty "from a particular point of view." This show loves its surprises.

Again, Walt's desperation and stress levels seem to have dampened his intelligence. Jesse's whole If you end this phone call, I'm torching your money ploy seemed like the kind of weird detail that would have raised Walt's suspicions once upon a time. But it makes sense—when emotions run high, rationality can run low.

And poor Huell. The guy's a brilliant pickpocket, and they make him fall for Hank's bullshit interrogation ruse. (My nephew asked me: "Can the authorities really lie to people like that?!" Yes.) It was pretty clever of Hank/Jesse, though. Just seeing Hank use the Hello Kitty phone made my night.

Actually, what really made my night was seeing Todd trying to put the moves on Lydia! Oh man have I been waiting for that shoe to drop. Neither character is easy to read. I think Todd's just a young horny dude and Lydia's literally the only woman in his circle of felons. (Not that I blame him. Lydia's pretty hot, if a little high strung. And, I suppose, she's a murderer, but nobody's perfect amirite?)  And Lydia? I honestly can't tell if she just looks down on Todd, is disgusted by him, doesn't like to mix business with... whatever it is she would do with Todd, or if she was actually momentarily flattered by the attention from this young ruffian and was therefore somehow disgusted with herself. But that whole moment they had—the lipstick!—has to be significant down the road, right? If Todd ever has to choose, maybe he'll surprise his racist uncle by showing allegiance to she who wears the high heels. They do make a cute couple (of murderers).

How bizarro a reality does young Todd inhabit. though?—it's a reality where the ultimate way to woo a high-class gal like Lydia is to give her some shitty tea and promise you'll do everything in your power to improve your meth-lab skills. Also, if you can throw in that your racist uncle can muscle people across the globe, that'll also help impress her.

How great would it have been to have Jesse Pinkman onboard the Prometheus? Hey yo, what's say we don't try to pet the serpentine creature that's clearly making a threat display, and instead we turn around and leave this bitch?

When considering Jesse's aimlessness, erratic behavior, and ability to hang out with moronic dipshits who he's clearly smarter than*, it's worth remembering that he's an addict. I've always thought the writers have been fairly savvy when it comes to this aspect of the character. A lot of the stuff Jesse's done, like a lot of the facts about how his life has gone, sometimes make a little more sense when you remind yourself that he's had full-blown addict software running on his brain for years. Add that to the relentlessly stressful and dangerous life he's lead, and you realize he was probably way overdue for a nervous breakdown in which he tries to torch someone's house. (Throwing lots of money out of your car is, I admit, not typical druggie behavior...)

* Dave Chappelle used to have a joke about how, when you do drugs, you end up hanging out with certain people, and often the only thing you have in common with them is drugs. He does this whole bit about how he'd be sitting there with a bunch of klansmen, passing a joint around, politely asking them if they could please stop all the name-calling.

A friend of mine made a similar point—that Walt's DVD confession/attempt to implicate Hank in a mutually assured destruction-type scenario arguably limits Walt's options more than Hank's. It was a total hail-mary pass, one with which Walt has maybe bought himself a little time. But he's also locked himself into a very specific account of the events before anyone has even formally charged him with anything. This is less than ideal if your Walt's lawyer.

Moreover, Hank would not have a crazy-difficult time establishing his innocence—though doing so won't be pleasant. Outside a courtroom Hank could submit to a lie detector test to boost his credibility with the investigators. Couple that with the fact that the only person claiming Hank is a meth mastermind will be Walt (the defendant) and the fact that there's scant evidence, that other witnesses (like Jesse) could contradict Walt's story, and that it just looks like a craven attempt to implicate your brother-in-law who is a DEA agent just as the walls are closing in on you. ...But it has bought Walt a little time, it seems. Time enough to grow a beard and get out of Dodge?

I badly want to know precisely what Jesse gave them on tape! It's implied that he gave them the whole story, indeed enough to fill an SD card, but afterward Gomez tells Hank that without physical evidence and considering the fact that Walt has left the Meth business, it's not enough. Assuming Jesse's account was mostly truthful, then there's some good circumstantial evidence against Walt. If the feds are making a case that Walt is a ruthless drug kingpin, then the Whites' crooked car wash finances, alone, are huge.

Jesse stands to get some leniency for his cooperation, but they could still go after him for any number of things. The killing of little Drew Sharp in cold blood, for example. Jesse's an accomplice after the fact. Todd pulled the trigger (he could claim it was under Walt's orders, and they could charge Walt), but they all got rid of the body together and conspired to cover it up. Has Jesse become okay with going to prison? We know Walt hasn't...

Also, something I didn't know until just now but everyone else probably knows: the episode after next, "Ozymandias," was directed by Rian Johnson.

I was all for Hank after the garage episode, but then he had that creepy diner encounter with Skyler. If I had to root for someone, it would be him, though, for sure.

If I'm Walt, the people I'd be worried about most—in terms of tying Walt to Heisenberg—is Todd and Lydia. Saul is Walt and Jesse's lawyer, so their conversations probably fall under attorney-client privilege. But I betcha Todd would sing like a canary. The longer Hank waits, the more incriminating he will appear. It's quite cleverly plotted.

When I was a little boy I would mutilate the TV Guide. Each week, it would be totally dog-eared because I would repeatedly scour it to see if any channel was broadcasting one of my favorite movies. (My dad said I was acting like a rabbi transcribing the Talmud and if I wanted to do something why don't I get my ass outside and wash his goddamn car. He had an El Camino, big-block.)  Then the video rental stores never had any of the movies I was so obsessed with. They were always rented by someone else. The three main ones were Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi.