Breaking Bad Season 5, Episode 11 Recap: ‘Confessions’

Walt pulls off one of his slickest moves yet going head to head with Hank, but things all fall apart when Jesse finds out a hard truth…

By Curt Heinrichs — Staff Writer

Here we are on yet another football-less Sunday. Living in Cleveland, the next several months of Sundays will be filled with fleeting hope, unusual injuries, and waiting for next year for me. For the time being, I’ll have the last several episodes of Breaking Bad to enjoy before the work week kicks off.

This week’s episode kicks off with Todd (remember Todd? He was the guy that Walt brought in to replace Jesse when Jesse went M.I.A. for a while.) on the phone with Walt’s voicemail, leaving a thinly-veiled message about having a disagreement with a guy named Declan and now there’s been a change in management. Todd has apparently never heard the expression “loose lips sink ships” because he’s in a diner spilling his guts about the train heist and exactly how it went down to a pair of greasy guys with prominent swastika tattoos. When they leave the diner, the truck passes a sign welcoming them to New Mexico, implying that there’s about to be a land grab for Heisenberg’s turf.

Jesse is interrogated by Hank and doesn’t give Hank any information. Saul arrives and Jesse walks away. Hank hasn’t told the rest of the DEA that he suspects that his brother-in-law is Heisenberg because he knows the fallout will likely cause him to lose his career with the DEA.

For the first time in the last few episodes, Walt Jr. makes an appearance, albeit a brief one. Walt tells Walt Jr. that his cancer has returned and that he’s pursuing more treatment. Junior is asked to spend the evening with Hank and Marie under the guise of fixing their computer and staying for dinner. Walt’s revelation to his son makes Walt Jr. want to stay with his dad, and thus avoids Marie’s plot to keep the kids safe from Walt. In the wake of trying to get Walt Jr. and Holly away from Walt and Skyler, we see Skyler filming Walt give a confession.

Walt and Skyler then meet with Hank and Marie at a Mexican restaurant which features the most annoying waiter that I’ve seen since Office Space. Meeting in a public place allows the conversation to advance with all parties feeling secure. After some threats and accusations, Marie recommends Walt should kill himself to avoid his children finding out the truth about good ol’ dad. This comment brings the meeting to an end, and as Walt and Skyler are leaving, Walt slides a DVD across the table to Hank.

Hank and Marie return home and watch the DVD, which is Walt’s confession video. In the video, Walt implicates Hank and says that Hank was the puppet master behind the entire drug operation and pulled Walt’s strings throughout.  Walt even discloses that he paid Hank’s medical bills reaching $177,000.  Hank never knew that Marie used Walt’s money, and now he’s in even more trouble if this confession goes public.

For now it seems Walt has the upper hand on Hank.

Hank is accused of keeping his partner and the rest of the DEA in the dark about what he’s doing with his interest in Jesse, but knowing what Walt has over his head, he backs off from having officers follow him.  Hank ducks out of the office in a huff, and blows off another meeting, which once again alerts everyone that something is not quite right.

Jesse and Walt meet with Saul out in the desert, where Hank suggests Jesse should take off and start a new life while he’s young. Jesse tells Walt that if he wants Jesse to disappear, he doesn’t need to play games, he only needs to ask for a favor. Jesse also says that he believes Walt will kill him if he doesn’t comply, just like Walt did to Mike. Jesse and Walt share a charged hug that showed some vulnerability with Jesse.

Jesse meets with Saul in Saul’s office, where Saul puts a plan in motion where Jesse is able to change his identity and drop off of the map. Saul recommends Jesse to go to Florida, but Jesse inquires about Alaska. When Jesse is waiting at the pick-up point, he notices his bag of pot is gone. He quickly puts 2 and 2 together and realizes that Saul’s man Huell lifted it from him—the same way he lifted the ricin cigarette from Jesse back in season 4. This puts Jesse in a rage and he storms into Saul’s office and delivers a hellacious beatdown . The beating leads to Saul to admitting that he lifted the pot off of Jesse—and that’s when Jesse figures out that Walt was behind Brock’s poisoning a season ago.

Walt is acting sketchy at the car wash and gives some lame excuses to grab a hidden revolver from the vending machine before more excuses allow him to leave the car wash.

Jesse is seen whipping into a driveway, kicking in a door, and splashing gasoline all over Walt’s seemingly empty house in a fit of rage.

The monumental occurrences continue to add up this episode, and it was one that really set the table for the remainder of the season. Jesse is adding arson to his rap sheet, Walt is packing heat, Skyler appears on the brink of a breakdown, and Hank is between a rock and a hard place with the Heisenberg case.

Thanks for reading my recap and check back next week for yet another recap of one of the final episodes of Breaking Bad.