Mike may be out of the picture, but the guys he was paying still need to be dealt with. After all, they aren't getting paid anymore and it's only a matter of time before one of them flips and endangers the operation.
As such, Walt meets with Lydia to get the names on the list. Lydia is reluctant, as she doesn't want to become a loose end, but she does give up the names. Walt scoffs at the idea that he would kill her, but her fears turn out to be legitimate as we see that Walt did have the Ricin with him. Fortunately, for her, she found a new purpose, distributing his product internationally. It'll allow for greater sales and it is what she does. It was good to see her more confident and in her element. It was a refreshing change of pace from the constantly panic-stricken person we usually saw.
With the names, Walt needs people to do the dirty work. As such, he calls in Todd's uncle and it is here where the Nazis come into play. Sadly, they don't live up to the hype. They're just thugs with swastika tattoos. There's no thick German accents, no Herr Doktor type character, and no one yells "schnell" or even goes "jawohl". It's like these people don't even know how to Nazi.
They do get the job done as we get a montage of shankings. They make it sound like some elaborate operation, but it seems like you could have just paid some inmates to do it. Oh well. It was pretty gruesome in any event and delivers one of the episode's more jaw dropping moments as one guy even gets set on fire. Where are the guards? Some of the attacks happen too quickly to stop, but you'd think that there would be some repercussions. They all just walk off and nothing is made of it; it was weird.
On other fronts, Marie tries to coax Skyler into taking the kids back. It's been 3 months and she says that she and Hank feel like they're being enablers. Marie does clarify that they love having the kids there, but one of the major selling points of being an aunt or uncle is that the kids eventually go back to the parents. You get all the perks without the downsides, though I guess you can't exactly tell her that.
This causes Skyler to take Walt out to a storage unit to show just how much money they've made. I noted before that I was amazed at how much money was moved around. To wit, this episode features another montage where we see large piles of cash move back and forth. That was all just build up to the money shot featured here. Get it?
Seriously, that pile of cash was freaking huge. That $600,000 loss wasn't really that big a setback all things considered. Skyler notes that she doesn't even know how much there is and that it's more than they could spend in their lifetime (I could spend it!) With this, she tells Walt that she wants her family back and asks how much is enough. It seems to work as Walt later says that he's out.
Considering Walt's desire for an empire, it's a pretty surprising turn. One might think he's lying (I do have the slightest suspicion that it's not going to stick) but at the same time, Skyler does appeal to Walt in the most effective way possible, so you never know.
From what we see here, Walt was on the up and up, as we get some nice scenes of the family together having a good time. It was reminiscent of scenes in early episodes and implies that things may finally be calming down.
In true 'Breaking Bad' fashion, the episode ends on a wham moment as Hank finds another clue about Heisenburg's identity. I wasn't expecting him to make the discovery until closer to the end of the series, but it makes for a great way to close out the first half of the season. It is especially surprising as the episode, by and large, is pretty calm. There isn't much in the way of tension or intensity, but it could just be the prelude to a storm.
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