AMC’s Breaking Bad
5×10: “Buried”
Directed by Michelle MacLaren
Written by Thomas Schnauz

* For a recap & review of 5×09, click here.
* For a recap & review of 5×11, click here.
The fallout of Jesse’s money-tossing spree continues when a quiet neighbourhood wakes up and realises there’s a bunch of cash bundles all over the place for them to find, like a random Christmas morning. Not a good look for secret meth dealers to have their earnings strewn all over Albuquerque. Also not a good look for Jesse to leave his car in a park with all that money sitting there while he’s on a merry-go-round looking up into the stars aimlessly.
At the Schrader home, Walt leaves with a newly busted face and Hank’s determined to keep an eye on his brother-in-law. The game has changed irreparably now. Walt rushes off and calls Skyler urgently but can’t get hold of her, as he sees Hank on the phone, surely making a call to her, too. Everything’s falling apart fast. Walt flies into the car wash but doesn’t find his wife, who’s already taken off. Oh, man. A shit show.

Skyler goes to meet Hank at a diner to talk. He gives her a hug, oblivious to the part she’s played in everything with her husband. He’s trying to make sense of things, saying that Walt is “a monster.” He believes Skyler was forced to keep Walt’s secrets, perhaps through abuse. He has no idea whatsoever that Skyler knows 85% of what Walt was up to, resolved to the fact she had to be “a victim.” He wants to move Skyler and the kids into his place with him and Marie. Then he takes out a recorder, asking Skyler to tell him everything she knows. A bit too much for her at the moment. Hank just wants something solid to bring to his colleagues. He also mentions Walt’s cancer coming back, which hits Skyler hard, seeing as how she didn’t know. She asks Hank whether she’s under arrest, causing a scene, then heads out, leaving Hank in the wind for now.
Saul and Walt are worried about the money Jesse’s tossing around, but they’re also worried about Hank and the Skyler situation, too. Lots to keep them busy and anxious. Walt knows Hank is going to keep pushing, and Saul suggests maybe sending Hank on “a trip to Belize,” like Mike. For him that isn’t an option; not when it comes to family, no matter the situation. They’re soon interrupted by the arrival of Huell and Kuby, who’ve gotten all Walt’s cash and put in barrels to make it easier for him to bury. Then Walt heads off for the desert to make a deposit.
Walt chooses a sentimental place to put the money. Probably NOT the best option. But he goes back to where he and Jesse first cooked, out near the Native American reservation. Walt finds the best spot and then he begins to dig a hole to bury all his millions. Not an easy task all alone, but, slowly, Walt gets the job done, using an inconspicuous lotto ticket on the family fridge to mark the coordinates of his money barrels.

At home, Skyler’s stressed out about where her husband might be after everything that’s gone on today. Awful time to get a visit from Marie, who’s been told the truth about Walt by her husband. She doesn’t want to believe Hank, but Skyler confirms it’s true. This puts yet another rift between the sisters, considering all of Hank’s issues with the cartel and everything else. Marie is furious that Skyler knew so long about what Walt was doing, that she was lied to about Walt’s gambling and all the rest of the elaborate backstory. A family mess. Now Marie wants to take the baby, and this makes things a whole lot more complicated. Skyler will not let go of her children. Even Hank tells Marie to put the child down. In the car, all Marie can say to Hank is: “You have to get him.”
After a day and night of burying barrels, Walt returns home and Skyler urges that she didn’t give anything to Hank. Suddenly Walt passes out and cracks his head on the floor. He wakes up later with Skyler looking after him. She asks him about the cancer, not needing a whole lot of confirmation at this point. He wonders if his death will make her happy, and Skyler says she can’t remember the last time she was happy. Walt says he’ll give himself up as long as Skyler keeps the money and never gives it up, wanting her to use it on their children as was intended. “Please don‘t let me have done all this for nothing,” he pleads. Skyler says that Hank has his suspicions “but not much else,” and she knows if Walt gives himself up there’ll be no money to pass onto the kids. She suggests they stay quiet.In the desert, Lydia’s gone to see Declan and check out their meth-cooking operation which happens to be in a bus buried below ground. Weird, but sneaky! Not quite the place you’d expect to see Lydia. Then again, she isn’t there to just take a look, she’s come around to clear the place out, using Todd and the neo-Nazis as firepower. She’s going to be using Uncle Jack’s gang for her meth now, hoping that turns out better for her than Declan and his men. Really, the whole operation with Lydia continues to get worse and more desperate as time goes on. So ridiculous and funny to see Lydia closing her eyes, led by Todd through a sea of bodies; she wants to be in the meth game but can’t face the reality of what’s doing, a wonderful visual metaphor from Breaking Bad.

Hank still hasn’t told anybody at the DEA about Walt being Heisenberg. He isn’t ready with his evidence. Marie urges him to go and do it today. But Hank is held back because he doesn’t want to face the end of his career. He knows that having a brother-in-law who’s a meth kingpin isn’t good, not to mention the fact he’s been chasing said kingpin and had no clue it was someone in his own family. “It‘s over for me,” Hank tells Marie. He also still wants to help Skyler if she changes her mind, and he can’t do that if he isn’t a DEA agent anymore. He needs to be the man who catches Walter White for this to come out okay in the end for him.
At work, Hank is welcomed back. He then hears about the “money thing” involving Jesse. Ole Pinkman’s in with the cops, being questioned about his money tossing. And after a while, Hank shows up, trying to get time with Jesse, hoping it’ll knock something about Heisenberg lose for his purposes. He manages to convinced the cops to let him in. Not a great look for Hank to be down there poking around solo while no one at the DEA knows what’s happening. Wonder what’ll go down next?