URSULA COYOTE/ AMC
Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) discuss their future on Sunday night’s ‘Breaking Bad.’
All those who had Hank busting Walt on opening night of the Final Eight episodes for “Breaking Bad,” congratulations. You win a free car wash.
To be technically correct, Walt busted Hank busting Walt Sunday night as the long-awaited countdown began.
Walt checked his wheel wells and discovered that sure enough, Hank had slapped the same tracking device on Walt’s car that they once slapped on the car of the late Gus Fring back when Hank thought busting Gus would get rid of the bad guys.
It didn’t, of course, and when Walt confronted Hank about the tracking device Sunday night, it didn’t take long for both of them to realize that Hank now knew the bad guy was Walt.
“I’ve gotta say I don’t like the way you’re looking at me right now,” Walt said.
Hank, who we knew from earlier seasons has a grumpy side, grabbed Walt by the throat and called him some very hostile names.
Since Hank is the closest thing on “Breaking Bad” to an honest man, the show could have ended right there.
Hank busts Walt, game over.
Except Walt is one of the great escape artists in television history.
When his wife Skyler figured out his game, he finessed her back into the fold. When Jesse started to unravel, Walt coaxed him back into silence. When nasty boys like Gus Fring decided to kill him, he bobbed and weaved until they ended up dead themselves.
Sunday night he dusted off those skills and applied them to Hank.
Look, man, Walt said, my cancer is back. I’m on chemo and on borrowed time.
“In six months you won’t have anyone to prosecute,” Walt says. “You and I both know I’d never see the inside of a jail cell.
“Your best course will be to tread lightly.”
The exchange ended on that note, leaving a wide range of options on both sides.
Few of them legal, moral or pleasant.
Moreover, that long-simmering confrontation wasn’t even the ominous scene in Sunday’s episode.
The most ominous scene was the first, where Walt drives up to his house, the familiar nondescript ranch at 308 Negra Arroyo Lane.
“Familiar” except in this scene, no one lives there. It’s abandoned. Cordoned off.
Walt gets out of the car and says hello to the nice lady next door. She sees him, recoils and drops her bag of groceries.
