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Breaking Bad - Episode 5.09 Blood Money - Review: Tread Lightly

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The end has begun. Breaking Bad made its glorious return to our screens for its final run. Enjoy the ride while you can as the show will serenade its swan song seven weeks from today. Summers won't be the same without this show on my TV schedule.

Just like the premiere last summer, “Blood Money” opens with Walt on his 52nd birthday. He returns to his abandoned home but he didn't just come back to take a depressing trip down memory lane. He retrieves the ricin he has hidden. Why? Probably to kill someone. Who the lucky one will be, we have yet to find out.

The show then continues right where it left off with Hank finding out the truth about Walt. Completely horrified he leaves and gets himself in an accident because the fact that his brother-in-law is the man he has been searching for didn't quite sink in yet and triggered a panic attack similar to the ones he was suffering from back in Season 2. Once at home, he immediately takes out Gale's notebook to compare the handwriting. A part of Hank was still clinging on to the hope that it might not be Walt after all, part of him had to believe that this is not happening but all it did was remove any existing doubt and crush the little hope he had: Walter White is Heisenberg. The next day, he has some officers bring him the files of the Heisenberg case and he finally could put his finger on things that didn't make sense before.

Jesse eventually gets tired of Skinny Pete & Badger discussing Star Trek and decides to pay Saul a visit with his five million dollars. He feels guilty about all the people who suffered or even died because of him and the guilt is eating him from the inside. He wants to make amends by giving the money to the parents of Drew Sharp, the boy who was shot by Todd, and to Kaylee Ehrmanntraut, Mike's granddaughter. I sighed when Kaylee was mentioned because I started replaying the scene of Mike abandoning her at the park. It was just so heartbreaking.


Speaking of Mike, Jesse is convinced that Walt killed him and Walt does what he does best - tell lies and more lies on top of even more lies. Not only is he lying to Jesse but he is also lying to himself. Walt has to make himself believe that he will be able to move on from the past. It almost felt like he was talking to himself instead of Jesse. But Jesse wouldn't have any of it, he knows Walt killed Mike. Since Saul won't take care of the blood money, Jesse drives around a neighborhood and throws the money out the window because it is a direct reminder of all the horrible things he did. Everything that happened to him and everything he has done in the past year has accumulated and manifested in form of guilt, shame and fear and it is tormenting him. He is a shaky Jenga tower that is one piece away from falling apart and I believe that last piece will be the truth about Brock. It would be shame if the show ends without Jesse ever finding out the truth about him.

Meanwhile, Lydia shows up at the car wash and tries to get Walt back into cooking. It doesn't take long for Skyler to pick up on what is going on since Lydia was stupid enough to bring a rental car to the car wash. I appreciated the fact that Walt is being honest with Skyler. She immediately confronts Lydia and tells her to never come back. Her family is finally in a good place and she won't let anyone ruin that for her. Skyler has already made some tough choices to protect her family and I think in the upcoming episodes, Skyler herself will be surprised what measures she is willing to take to protect the people she loves.

We also learn that Walt's cancer is back but he is keeping it a secret. When he notices his book is missing, he suspects the worst and checks his car and finds a tracking device. The frightening realization that Hank knows starts to settle in. Wasting no time, he confronts him the following day and tells him that his cancer is back and that in six months there won't be anyone to prosecute but Hank has no intention of backing down and says that he doesn't even know who Walt is anymore to which Heisenberg simply utters the ominous threat:

"If that's true, if you don't know who I am, then maybe your best course would be to tread lightly."

The showdown between Hank and Walt has been inevitable and we just got to witness to first of many more collisions to come. I can't wait to see how it all plays out since the flashforward already revealed that Walt beats his cancer again and that he has been exposed as Heisenberg.

What do you think? Why did the White family completely abandon their house like that and why is it closed off with a fence? How will Jesse deal with the overwhelming guilt and will he find out the truth about Brock? How big will Lydia's role be in the upcoming episodes? Sound off in the comments below!

Rating: 4.5/5

Songs used in the episode:
Jim White – Worldmule (played while Hank is looking through the files)

Watch the promo for next week's episode "Buried" here!

Mark Ondo/LittleDreamer
19 y/o austrian high school graduate who is in the midst of figuring life out. Writer for SpoilerTV. Loves watching TV, cheesecake, meditation & music. For feedback/questions, write me on facebook or mail me.

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