Breaking Bad airs Sundays at 9/8C on AMC, available through Comcast Cable!
The show opens at a skate park. A grizzled, bearded Walt opens his trunk to receive a crowbar and walks into an abandoned house. He sees “Heisenberg” spray painted on the wall. Walt walks through the house and finds a wall socket; he unscrews the socket and takes out what might be a vial of ricin poison. It turns out that we’re back in Walt’s old house, which is revealed when he encounters a flabbergasted neighbor outside.
Next, we return to where Season 8 left off: Hank emerges from the bathroom, having realized that the “WW” in Gale’s book is actually Walter White. Stunned, Hank walks through the house at a loss. He watches Walt through a window before rejoining the family and saying that he feels sick and needs to leave. Walt says hi to Carol, the same neighbor mentioned above. On the way home, Hank is disoriented and then furious as he thinks about the implications of Walt = Heisenberg. He crashes the car and begins to have some kind of panic attack or breakdown. Later on, Hank has returned from the hospital and is in better shape. He tells Marie not to tell Skylar about the attack. Back at the police station, Hank compares handwriting to confirm his suspicion about Walt.
At the car wash, Walt talks with Skylar about their cover story. He suggests that to maintain their story of being a successful car wash, they need to invest in another car wash. Walt’s associate who established the Czech operation shows up to talk to Walt, though Skylar doesn’t know who she is. She is upset that the quality of the meth is only 68% (and not in the upper 90%’s as Walt’s had been); Walt says that he left her a viable operation, and that he’s not responsible for the decline in quality under her watch. She says that he is putting her in a box with this issue, but he says that it’s none of his concern, maintaining the façade of a car wash owner interacting with a customer. Skylar figures out that she’s not an ordinary customer, and Walt reveals that she is a former business associate who wants her to go back, and that he won’t go back. Skylar goes out and confronts her, telling her never to come back.
At Hank’s house, police officers deliver boxes of case material to Hank for him to work on at home. He goes through information about Gus Fring, Gale, and others–basically, everything having to do with Heisenberg. Hank takes a long look at a drawing of Heisenberg in his sunglasses and hat, perhaps noticing the resemblance to Walt.
Jesse sits in his house, listening to his friends get stoned and talk about Star Trek and looking generally unhappy. After a while, Jesse leaves and goes to Saul Goodman’s office, where he waits around and is again generally unhappy. When he begins to smoke marijuana, that gets the receptionist’s attention to send him back to see Saul. Jesse reveals that he hasn’t seen Walt in a while. Jesse has brought two huge bags of his money, one that he wants Saul to give to Mike’s grand-daughter, and the other to the parents of Andrew Sharp, the child that was shot and killed in the desert (but who is still listed as missing). Saul is confused why Jesse is giving charity money to Mike’s grand-daughter, because it would be too obvious to the authorities after Mike fled from town. Saul places a call to Walt, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy, who tells him to hold onto the money and that he will handle it.
Walt shows up at Jesse’s with the bags of money, and tries to plea with Jesse that they have to go on living “ordinary, decent lives.” Jesse is upset because he thinks that Mike’s grand-daughter needs someone to look after her; Walt says that Mike can look after her, but Jesse is skeptical. Jesse deduces that Walt killed Mike, because otherwise he’d be paranoid about Mike, who would have been upset about Walt killing all of his informants in jail. Walt lies to Jesse that he did not kill Mike, but Jesse doesn’t seem to believe him.
At dinner, Skylar reveals that Hank is still not feeling well and won’t be able to join them. Walt is sick, possibly from his chemotherapy. Looking up from his toilet, he realizes that his copy of Leaves of Grass, with the message from Gale, isn’t there anymore, and vomits again. When Skylar doesn’t know where the book is, Hank asks if Junior has it. Then he asks about what’s wrong with Hank, and lays awake in concern. He leaves the house in the middle of the night, then begins to search under the cars for any tracking devices. After finding one, he stands in stunned silence, realizing that Hank may be on to him.
Jesse wakes up in his car when a homeless person knocks on his window. When the homeless person asks for change, he gives the man a stack of money. Jesse begins driving around poor areas of town, throwing stacks of money to houses like they’re newspapers.
Back at Hank’s, some of his police associates show up to check on him. Walt shows up and Hank hides all of his Heisenberg material. Walt sees that although Hank isn’t going to work, he’s having work delivered to him. Walt asks how Hank is doing, and points out that no one else got sick from any food. After some awkward conversation, Walt says that he is willing to help out with anything, and tells Hank to feel better. Right before leaving, Walt turns and reveals that he found the GPS tracker on his car. When Walt asks if Hank knows anything about this, Hank closes the garage door so that they are in private. Hank punches Walt across the mouth and reveals that he knows Walt is Heisenberg. Hank knows that Walt drove him into traffic; killed all the witnesses in jail; and bombed the nursing home to kill Gus Fring. Hank vows that he will put Walt in jail, while Walt denies the allegations and says that this will destroy the family. When Walt reveals that his cancer is back, Hank tells him to rot. Walt suggests that in six months, Hank won’t have someone to prosecute. Walt swears to God that all he does is run a car wash, and that there’s no point to persecuting him. Hank proposes that Skylar bring the kids to his house, and that they’ll talk. At his, Walt warns Hank that his best course may be to tread lightly… setting the stage for the final confrontation between Heisenberg and the agent who has been tracking him for so long.