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Breaking Bad Recap and Reaction, S05E10, “Buried”: The Ladies take Center Stage

Breaking Bad Recap and Reaction, S05E10, “Buried”: The Ladies take Center Stage

Breaking Bad, S05E10, "Buried" promo pic

We pick up this week with Jesse, rather than where we might expect after last week’s explosive conclusion. The cold open features one of the patented Breaking Bad scenes: a slow, patient, seemingly unrelated scene leading to a character moment. An elderly gentleman leaves his home and slowly walks to his car. When he turns on the headlights, he sees a bundle of cash in his driveway, the money Jesse threw out of his car last week. The man continues to pick up bundles, venturing further from his house, until he sees an abandoned car. He peers inside, sees the giant bag of cash, and then looks over to a merry-go-round in the park next to him. As the camera cuts to an overhead shot, Jesse lays on his back, rotating the merry-go-round with his feet and staring at the sky.

After the credits, we’re back where we left off last week. The door opens and Walt leaves Hank’s garage, almost immediately reverting from the bold Heisenberg of last week to the ever-weasley Walt. Both Hank and Walt try to reach Skyler, but Hank gets through first. He meets Skyler at a diner, consoling her and trying to reach out. She’s disoriented and unsure of how to respond, until Hank tries to get her to go on the record. He pushes too hard too quickly and rather than crumble, she rabbits, asking with increasing hysteria whether she’s under arrest, creating a scene and then rushing out of the diner.

After commercial, we open with Huell and Kuby staring at the Money Cube. After a brief moment, Huell, and then Kuby, shrug and Scrooge McDuck it, turning the giant stack in a bed of money. Who could blame them? Then we cut to Saul and Walt, sitting in Saul’s office and discussing their options. Saul suggests sending Hank to “Belize”, with Mike, but Walt immediately shoots this down, as he’s family. Huell and Kuby return, bringing the cash (or most of it) to the office in six giant plastic drums. Walt stashes some in a bag which he gives to Saul as a continuing retainer, should he need him again, and then drives off to the desert (looking gorgeous as ever), where he will spend the rest of the afternoon and evening burying it.

Breaking Bad, S05E10, "Buried" promo pic

Meanwhile, Marie and Hank are at the White’s, while Skyler paces inside, trying in vain to reach Walt, who’s been advised by Saul not to pick up. Skyler eventually opens to Marie, who comes in and over the course of a brief conversation, and without any help from Skyler, realizes not only that Hank’s theory is true, but that Skyler’s known for a very, very long time (at least in relation to the timeline of the show) and that her silence helped lead to Hank’s near-fatal shooting. She tries to take Holly with her as she leaves, after a well-earned slap to Skyler, and this leads to a shouting match between the two women until Hank intervenes and tells Marie to give her back. They sit out in the car, and Marie determinedly and stonefacedly tells Hank to bring Walt down.

Next up is the almost obligatory once-per-episode montage, this time showing Walt burying his money. He comes home exhausted and dirty, finally able to discuss the recent developments with Skyler. He offers to turn himself in, if Skyler will keep the money and eventually give it to Walt Jr. and Holly. She suggests laying low and keeping quiet, as it seems like Hank doesn’t have anything concrete yet. An interesting development, to say the least. Then we cut to Lydia, off to inspect the 68% pure meth operation that’s causing so many problems for her. After a brief tour, and an assertion from her new cook that he won’t work with Todd, due to Todd’s 1/3 record of fire while cooking, she hunkers down while Todd’s uncle’s crew takes out her former employees, opting for almost full-on ostrich as she comes out of the meth bunker- closing her eyes so as not to see the violence she’s instigated.

The final act opens with Hank and Marie. Marie pushes Hank to come clean immediately, but he’s unwilling, knowing that as soon as he speaks up, he’ll mostly likely be out of a job. If he can come in with the evidence to take Walt down, at least he’ll have that satisfaction before he’s let go. Then again, as Marie points out, if they catch Walt without him, and then found out Hank knew and didn’t speak up… Hank goes in to work, obviously uncomfortable, and arranges a potentially interesting conference call, but before we can see what he has to say, Hank finds out about Jesse’s exploits. He’s being held for questioning, after being discovered with at least a million dollars. Hank works his way in to the room, but before we can see what that unsupervised conversation will uncover, we cut to credits. Next week, it is.

What did you think of tonight’s episode? Post your thoughts, theories, and favorite moments below!

Kate Kulzick

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