Breaking Bad Recap: "Buried"

Chandler Kilgore-Parshall ’16/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
The race is on in Breaking Bad’s “Buried”.  Immediately after last week’s episode, Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Hank  (Dean Norris) spring into action, with Skyler in the middle. Hank tries to convince Skyler (Anna Gunn) to confess everything she knows about her husband’s criminal activity. Heartbroken with the walls closing in, Skyler cries out to Hank, “Am I under arrest?” and storms out on him. The line resonates how torn apart she is about being a witness to Walt’s corruption and how doing the just thing in giving a testimony would destroy her family.  Walt and his criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) discuss how to patch things up, including moving all of Walt’s money out of storage and bury it in the desert.

And Skyler once again, faces an emotional confrontation with her own sister, Marie (Betsy Brandt). The conversation is far from pleasant as questions about Skyler’s knowledge on Walt’s dark deeds come to light. Marie comes across a personally startling discovery that Hank’s paralysis was because of her husband. And cue the slap that echoed around the White household. The two sisters get into a heated argument over the kids with Hank coming in to cool the tension. It’s apparent that she’s not talking and is protecting her husband with her foot-dragging. As a result, Marie and Hank are determined to bring justice upon Walt. And poor Skyler’s on a downward spiral. No matter how you spin it, she’s not in a good place and it’s only a matter of time until she makes a move of her own. Every character in Breaking Bad has a motive of their own and they’ll do anything to achieve it.
Speaking of motives, Lydia (Laura Fraser) asserted her power with a “shaky iron fist” this week. Upon returning to the labs, Lydia insists that Todd, a meth cook taught by the legendary Heisenberg, takes over to produce better quality meth for her Czech Republic connections. Well, when she was denied, Lydia used her contacts to clean house with Todd arriving to assume control. It was humorous that Lydia was timid as a rabbit and had to close her eyes when passing the corpses of the “former employees.” I’m sure we haven’t seen the full depths of Lydia’s manipulative side. Could it result in Walt being dethroned from his drug empire for good?

The episode ends at a cliffhanger, with Jesse (Aaron Paul) in the hot seat! And guess who’s watching his every move? Hank! Apparently Walt’s former associate was taken into custody after throwing all of his “tainted money” out of his car last week. Now Hank has a score to settle with Jesse and with his efforts on catching Walt, he has a bigger fish to fry. Will Jesse take sides and help either Walt or Hank? But the bigger question is how will Walt bail his protégé out when Hank’s gunning for him?
Although I was disappointed about the lack of Heisenberg in this episode, I realized that “Buried” is more about the effect Walt has on others. Hank says it best, “The lives he’s (Walt) destroyed…he’s a monster.” The biggest example is Skyler, who has lost her moral compass and transformed into this “mafia wife-esque” character, standing by her husband and sticking to a code of silence about his actions. Meanwhile, Jesse has gone off the deep end and is now cornered by the law. Hopefully Walt will take center stage next episode, and that we see what happens in Jesse and Lydia’s storylines as they’re beginning to take off. Everything’s coming to a boil and so far; the final season has been real exciting!