HOLY SHIT.

Holy Shit.

Holy shit.

HOLY SHIT!!!

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Holy shit.

Seriously you guys, Holy Shit.

The fucking flashback open to the first cook, and the way it fades to the desert before the opening credits?

HOLY SHIT.

Nice fucking work, Rian Johnson. That shit was like one of those photos where people super impose old timey things that happened over a new timey photo of that same location, and you look at the final photo and think, "Damn. A lot of crazy shit has happened right here. It's like we're all just part of some larger narrative that's too big to really grasp. Holy shit."

And then when the scene faded in with the blank desert shot and had the cars from the shoot out that's happening on the show today right after that commercial break?

Holy Fucking Shit, right??

And then the rest of that entire scene in the desert!!!

Holy

Holy

Holy

Holy

Holy

Holy

Shit.

Fucking Hank getting to go out like a man while Walt is a helpless prick who can't do shit about it.

Holy shit.

Walt has 80 MILLION DOLLARS IN THOSE BARRELS.

80 million holy shits.

Fucking Walt coming out of his coma just to show the Nazis where Jesse is hiding and make sure that he gets caught, and then letting Todd take him back to presumably torture him before killing him.

Holy shit.

"I watched Jane die."

Holy shit.

Marie confronting Skyler.

Well, okay. That was probably going to happen.

Marie confronting Skyler while NOT WEARING PURPLE. Well maybe it's purple, but it looks pretty black, like, mostly black, with maybe just a hint of purple in the sunlight, but maybe that's my mind placing expectations when I see Marie's skintone, and anyway, who cares, it's a really, really, really dark purple if it's purple, so

Holy shit.

Todd forces Jesse to cook. They fucking tell Flynn all about what Walt really is. Walt buys a Native American's truck.

THE KNIVES FROM THE FLASHBACK ARE BACK AND NOW ONE OF THEM IS IN SKYLER'S HAND AND SHE FUCKING CUTS WALT.

HOLY MOTHERFUCKING SHIT.

"We're a family!" And then this:

AAAHH! HOLY SHIT!!

And then, okay, Walt snaps. Clearly my theory from a few weeks ago about Walt getting the ricin to use for himself and being a basically good person was flat out not what Vince Gilligan wanted to have happen. And I could have a different piece on this blog that goes into more of those feelings - the flashback to the first cook reminded me of the Walt we could identify with, and as motherfucking brilliant and entertaining as this episode was, there's a part of me that still thinks that it's less than what the show COULD have been if it didn't need to have the Scarface ending it seemed so intent on rushing toward in the moment when Walt snaps and takes Holly and freaks the fuck out on the phone to Skyler.

It's not really worth getting into before the show is really over and we have the complete text to refer to, but those moments reminded me of the way I felt when Stringer Bell was becoming a businessman. Yeah, on TV the guys who make bad, selfish decisions keep having to get their comeuppance. But while it's one thing to examine a white man who comes from privilege and then is unhappy because he had expected more from life and thought he was worthy of having that and it's another to look at the story of a poor black kid who comes from the projects and learns to play the game well enough to graduate from being a corner boy to owning the motherfucking block, it's still interesting to think about those power dynamics and wonder how many of them in the real world thrive when they don't have to have their fate handed to them by a team of screenwriters who tell each other, "The audience would never forgive us if we let him just get away with it."

I imagine that's how you become Rupert Murdoch and OWN the networks that air all of these stories, though, so of course they can't allow their minions to provide us all with a roadmap to their success...

But anyway, yeah. That's for another conversation.

For tonight, let's go back to

HOLY SHIT.

Walt takes Holly! What a fucking dick!!

Also, this guy? Really?

I just didn't buy his performance as a fireman. It's such an advertisement for his Twitter handle, @kidblue, when he wears a blue T-shirt like that.

So next week's episode happens during Fantastic Fest, and for anyone joining us here in Austin for all that crazinesss, know that I will be hosting the Nerd Rap event next Sunday night. Obviously the theater will be empty because all of the nerds will be watching that night's episode of Breaking Bad instead of listening to me rap about how that's what I wish I was doing. But if anyone tells me anything before i have a chance to sprint home from the theater with speeds that rival the President of the United State (in Saints Row IV), I will make sure you end up like Hank. Don't fucking cross me.