Fanboys Anonymous

After that flash forward, we rewind back to where the midseason finale left off; after finding Walt's copy of Leaves of Grass, Hank knows that Walt is Heisenberg, and in a state of complete shock, he tells the family he isn't feeling well and quickly flees their little party with Marie. I especially loved Marie's joking little "You're the devil" to Walt as Hank walked outside. If only you knew, Marie.

Then in a great scene at the car wash, Lydia shows up and starts begging Walt to return to the meth business he left behind because the quality of meth being produced is falling rapidly. Walt refuses and in one of Skyler's best moments in awhile and almost mirroring her husband's "Stay out of my territory" scene back in season 2, she tells Lydia to leave and never come back. But we all know she'll be back soon.

Which leads us to poor Jesse. He wants nothing to do with the $5 million Walt left him near the end of the last episode. He tries to enlist Saul's help in giving half of that money to Kaylee Ehrmantraut and the other half to the parents of Drew Sharp, the boy that Todd gunned down in the desert. Saul doesn't like it and calls Walt, who immediately grabs the money and returns it to Jesse, who tells Walt he doesn't want the blood money. Walt tries to convince Jesse that he earned that money and now that Walt is out of the business as well, there's nothing left for the two of them to do but try to live decent, normal lives. Jesse also believes that Mike is dead, and in one of Walt's biggest lies yet, he swears he did not kill Mike and pleads with Jesse to believe him. Jesse goes along with it but the look on his face makes it clear he doesn't believe one word of Walt's bullshit. Later on Jesse literally throws his money out the window- his car window, one stack at a time as he drives through a poor neighborhood. I really hope Jesse can somehow pull himself out of this spiral of depression and guilt because the poor guy has been through way too much. When not even the fun scene with Badger's Star Trek script can put a smile on Jesse's face, clearly he's really going through something.

And finally the core of the episode: Walt and Hank. It's revealed to the audience that Walt's cancer has returned but he's keeping it a secret from the family. While in the bathroom secretly vomiting, he discovers that Leaves of Grass is missing, and after Skyler mentions that Hank is still sick and hasn't been to work all week, Walt THINKS Hank is on to him. When he discovers a GPS tracker on his car, he KNOWS that Hank is on to him.

Walt drives over to Hank's to find him in his garage, and you could cut the tension with a knife. At first Walt strikes up a cheerful conversation and it seems like nothing will come of it; he even begins to leave! Then he turns around, pulls out the GPS tracker and, still cheerfully but with a slight hint of aggression, asks Hank if he knows about it. Once Hank closed his garage door, my palms literally started sweating, and then BAM! Hank throws a punch and then throws Walt up against the garage door and calls him on everything. Walt finally admits to someone that his cancer's back, and when that fails to win Hank's sympathy he still tries to play dumb, swearing that he is nothing more than a dying car wash owner and that soon Hank won't have anyone to prosecute because the cancer will take him. Then it all ends with the best exchange in the episode.

And so the cat and mouse game begins. This episode was a fantastic return and I cannot wait to see where this story goes, especially now that people are seeing right through Walt and his once genius lies are becoming more desperate and less believable. Any thoughts on "Blood Money?" Feel free to sound off in the comments, and until next week, remember to tread lightly!