We left off in last week’s episode with Jesse dousing Walt’s house in gasoline after finally discovering Walt had poisoned Brock.
*Fade to black; Executive Producer: Vince Gilligan*
This week’s episode begins with Walter pulling up to 308 Negra Aroya Lane to find Saul Goodman’s car in haphazardly parked in his driveway. He enters the house, revolver in hand, only to find a vacant house, complete with gasoline soaked carpeting. He rationalizes the state of the house to his bewildered family as a gas pump mishap (spoiler alert: they don’t buy it).
The White family proceeds to check into a hotel where Walt meets with his lawyer and the idea of offing Jesse is floated, and is summarily dismissed by Walt.
A contentious meeting ensues between Walter and Skyler. She calls Walt out on his BS gas pump story. She coldly echoes Saul’s plan of taking Jesse out of the equation, saying “We’ve come this far, for us, what’s one more?”
Flashback to last week’s ending. Why did Jesse stop? Why didn’t he torch the White house? Well, Hank, Walt’s DEA brother-in-law, happens upon the home just as Jesse is about to scorch the place and recruits Jesse as a witness against Walter. Jesse is convinced to meet with Walt and wear a wire in order to coax a confession from his former father figure. As he’s about to make the meet with Walt, he’s scared off by a burly looking man at the discussed meeting place.
After getting a call from Jesse saying “I’m coming for you…I’m going to get you where you really live,” Walt proceeds to call his murderous Aryan friends, saying he “may have another job” for them.
Now at this point, we’re led to believe that Walt is setting up a hit job on Jesse, as Saul and Skyler have previously pitched. However, given the two cold opens of the last two season premieres (5A and 5B), where Walter has a new identity and his neighbor is floored by his mere existence, I don’t think it’s any kind of leap of faith to assume Walt has faked his own death at this point.
My bold prediction for the next episode is that Walt is not arranging a hit on Jesse, but is in fact arranging a (felonious) hit on himself in order to alleviate the scrutiny surrounding his family.
While this episode was a departure from the action packed, revelation riddled fiasco that was last week’s episode, I would argue that there was just as much story development and in the coming four episodes, the ball is really going to start rolling toward the Walter we saw in the season premiere cold opens.