Breaking Bad Episode 56: Buried

After a tense garage standoff where Hank Schrader confronts Walter White, Walt flees and frantically tries to call his wife, Skyler, but Hank is already on the line with her. Walt rushes to the car wash, but Skyler has already left to meet Hank at a diner. At the diner, Hank, believing Skyler is a victim, reveals that Walt’s cancer has returned and asks her to help build a case against Walt. Skyler suspects Hank is making this a personal mission to convict Walt and worries he may not have her best interests at heart; she panics, screams “Am I under arrest?” to expose Hank’s lack of authority, and storms out of the diner.

Later, Marie Schrader confronts Skyler at the White residence about Walt’s criminality. Marie tells Skyler that Hank “has to get” Walt, and Skyler breaks down, apologizing to Marie before receiving a hard slap from her. Meanwhile, Walt visits Saul Goodman’s office, angry that Skyler went to Hank first; when Saul suggests killing Hank (“sending him to Belize like Mike”), Walt rebukes him, insisting Hank is family. To hide his money, Walt hires Patrick Kuby and Huell Babineaux to deliver the laundered cash in seven large container drums to him. Walt drives to the Tohajiilee Indian Reservation and spends the entire day and night digging a pit and burying the drums in the desert. He memorizes the GPS coordinates of the burial site and disguises them as lottery ticket numbers, which he posts on the refrigerator door upon returning home.

When Walt arrives home late, an exhausted and disheveled Walt strips down to his underwear and collapses on the bathroom floor. After waking five hours later, Skyler is sitting beside him; she reveals she knows his cancer is back, and Walt asks if that makes her happy. Skyler heartbreaking replies, “I can’t remember the last time I was happy”. Walt offers to surrender himself if the money is kept for their children, but Skyler insists they keep quiet, noting Hank has no evidence.

Elsewhere, Lydia Rodarte-Quayle visits Declan’s desert meth lab, criticizing the poor quality of the product and the working conditions. She demands Declan hire Todd, Walt’s former protégé, but Declan refuses. Lydia then orders Declan and all his men to be murdered for their substandard product and refusal to work with Todd. Todd arrives with members of the Aryan Brotherhood, who gun down the lab crew and escort Lydia to safety.

In a separate scene, Jesse Pinkman, depressed and tossing millions of dollars around Albuquerque streets, is arrested by police. Hank, realizing his law enforcement career may end soon and wanting a perfect case, sees Jesse’s erratic behavior as an opportunity to use him to rat out Walt. The episode ends with Hank entering Jesse’s interrogation room alone and slamming the door.