Breaking Bad Season 6, Episode 11 recap: Confessions
With only 6 episodes left till the series finale, nobody in Albuquerque is playing nice anymore – that is, nobody except for Todd, who manages a modicum of restraint in describing how he and Declan had a “difference of opinion.” Later, when recounting the story of the train heist, he omits the part where he killed a kid.
That’s where the pulled punches end.
The first person to call a spade a spade is Hank – standing over Jesse Pinkman in a holding cell, he calls out everything he sees wrong in their partnership. After all, what kind of a person rolls around tossing stacks of hundreds out of car windows? Hank reads Jesse like a book, he can see the fear written all over his face. With Jesse on his side, Hank will have everything he needs to push forward a case against Walt.
Hank’s nearly got Jesse wrapped up when Saul comes to the rescue. Acting on Walt’s orders, of course, Saul picks up Jesse and spirits him to the middle of nowhere for a private meeting with Walt.
His opportunity with Jesse gone, Hank’s bad luck has just begun. Walt and Skyler take drastic measures to keep the Schraders at bay. It’s straight out of the bad guy playbook – and for Walt, it’s amazing that he hasn’t used blackmail yet. But before dropping the bombshell on Hank and Marie (in public, over guacamole), Walt and Skyler make a last ditch effort to win over Hank and Marie.
This is pure Skyler – she wants one last shot at her sister and brother-in-law before she burns that bridge. She knows there is no coming back from what they have planned. She needs to convince them to let Walt go. But Hank and Marie aren’t playing any games – there is only one acceptable outcome, and that’s Walt behind bars (or in the ground, if Marie has her way). Skyler makes the best effort she can, but it’s too late. It’s time for her to choose sides , as Hank unequivocally informs her.
Once Hank draws his line in the sand, Walt looks at Skyler with possibly the most pitiful gaze in the history of time. It’s a glance of manipulative pathos, one Walt has spent countless hours mastering. It says simultaneously: “I told you so” and “we gave it our best shot.”
In this glance, we see everything we need to. Walt had no intention of playing nice with Hank in order to preserve the family relationship. The bomb he has to drop isn’t just a play to keep the DEA at bay – it’s a necessary next step. In reality, he’s there in the restaurant only to appease Skyler. Her ploy never stood a chance.
As they leave, Walt leaves a DVD on the table for Hank and Marie — a taped confession. In it, he hangs the whole game on Hank’s head. Walt names Hank as the mastermind of the meth operation, the kingpin, going way back to the first season and the ride-along that stated Walt down this path. Walt confesses paying Hank’s medical bills – a secret that Marie had strategically kept from her husband.
The confession is a masterstroke, containing enough factual information to make the fabricated bits seem plausible. It’s clear that once the DEA sees it, Hank’s career will be over.
Of course, there’s one thing that’s not explained: if Hank truly were the criminal mastermind, where are all his millions? Walt buried his out in the desert – he’ll have to split at least half with Hank, plant it somewhere and make sure Hank’s fingerprints are all over it for this to even have a prayer of working.
Luckily, Walt doesn’t seem that concerned over preserving his fortune. He virtually orders Saul to give Jesse another couple million to send on his way.
Jesse, meanwhile, is learning to put two and two together, and he’s figuring out that they don’t make five.
He knows Walt won’t hesitate to kill him if he makes one step out of line. He’s past the point of caring, he’s got absolutely nothing left to lose. He calls Walt out on every tiny manipulation, but in the end he agrees to do what Walt wants and go into hiding. He’s terrified.
With a generous donation from the bank of White, Saul makes the arrangements for Jesse to be picked up, provided with a new identity, and whisked away into anonymity.
There’s one caveat: no drugs. Saul makes this abundantly clear, but Jesse still has a bit of his rebellious heart intact. He tucks his dime bag into his pocket rather than turn it over. Later, standing by the side of the road, he goes through his pockets and discovers that Saul’s bodyguard Huell has lifted it off him.
In that moment, Jesse realizes what really happened at the end of season 4. He knows that he didn’t lose the vial of ricin – the vial that he and Walt turned over his house looking for, until finally Walt found it in the roomba. He knows that Walt poisoned Brock, that Saul was in on it.
It’s a catastrophic realization. From there on out, Jesse is on the warpath.
He makes one quick stop at Saul’s to deliver his message with a swift knuckle to the nose. The last shot is one of shocking euphoria: Jesse emptying a canister of gasoline all over the Whites’ house. We know the house never burned, but we’ll have to wait until next week to find out how this confrontation ends.
All the cats are out of the bag… and Walt’s running low on allies. Jesse’s gone rogue and he’s now very, very dangerous… and we know how Walt deals with people he finds dangerous.