Our Breaking Bad season 5, episode 14 recap looks back at the events that unfolded during the episode titled “Ozymandias.”

Last week’s episode ended on a huge cliffhanger: Hank found himself in a middle of a shootout versus men who came to kill Jesse. Walt sat helplessly in the car trying to avoid bullets that were heading straight into the car he was locked in.

The show opened with a flashback to the first time that Walt and Jesse cooked together. It’s the location of where last episode’s shoot out took place.

When taking a break during their very first cook in season 1, Walt walks away to make a call to his wife. He adorably has to rehearse his excuse – it was just the first of many times he would be lying deeply to his wife. He and Skyler discuss what to have for dinner – a beautiful, simple moment from the glory days – and in a side comment Skyler suggests the baby name Holly for their forthcoming newborn. Walt also proposes a family weekend. As Aaron Paul live tweeted tonight, it was the “lie that started it all.”

Cross-fade to the future, and innocent Walt and their cooking van are gone.

Now we see the shoot out, post firing. Steven is dead. Hank is shot in the leg and makes an attempt to go grab his deceased partner’s rifle. Jack stops him from grabbing the gun.

Walt tries to stop Jack from killing Hank but it’s of no use. Hank knows there’s no stopping Jack from killing him, and the cop acknowledges that to Walt. Hank tells Jack to do what he’s got to do, and Jack makes no hesitation in killing Hank with a bullet to the head.

A search doesn’t find Jesse, who seemed to have escaped during the shoot out. Meanwhile, Jack orders his crew to dig up the $80 million that Walt has buried. The cook lies there in defeat, having just watched his brother in law die. The money is dug up, and Jack’s crew is celebrating.

Hours later with the money dug up, Walt is still lying on the ground in utter depression. Jack tells him that he’s going to leave a barrel of money for him.

Still hesitant to make any comments, Walt reminds him that he still has to kill Jesse, and Jack says once they find him they’ll kill him. Walt has already found him though. He’s hiding under Walt’s car.

Jack’s team pulls him out and Jack is about to pull the trigger after Walt gives permission, but Todd says to hold off because they want to question Jesse about what he told the DEA. Jack and Walt are okay with the idea, and they take him away in one of their vehicles.

… But right before that happens, Walt has a final (?) message for Jesse: He watched Jane, his old girlfriend, die. He said that he chose to let her die. Walt clearly wanted to get that off of his chest before saying goodbye and it offers another blow to Jesse, but he’s too destroyed to react this time.

With everyone gone, Walt hops into his car. He starts driving but doesn’t go far because a bullet hit his gas tank and thus sprang a leak. So, Walt grabs his barrel of money and starts rolling away. Overtop the montage, “Times Are Getting Hard, Boys” (in this version performed by Glen Yarborough and the Limeliters, but originally penned by a Pete Seeger band member) is playing. One particular part of the lyrics that stood out to us:

Take my true love by the hand
Lead her thru the town
Saying good-bye to everyone
Good-bye to everyone

After endless rolling, he comes across a Native American’s home. He buys the truck he sees at the property off the man for a stack of money from the barrel, after the man initially said it wasn’t for sale.

At the car wash, Skyler is leaving a voicemail for Walt when Marie comes in. Disappointed in her sister in law’s appearance, they go privately to the office and leave Walt Jr. at the cash register. Marie tells Skyler that Walt has been arrested. She begins giving Mrs. White a talk about how she can break free of Walt’s reign. She offers sisterly support. “Everything changes now, and you have got to prepare yourself. Hank will help you as much as he can, I know he will,” Marie tells her assuringly. Little does she know what the reality is, but she continues: She wants every copy of the false Hank accusations handed over, and Skyler agrees. Then Marie asks that Walt Jr. know everything. Skyler resists.

We cut to a holding cell where Jesse is tied up. He’s deeply bruised on half of his face (just like Gus, just like that pink bear) and lies on the ground in wrist and ankle cuffs. Now knowing the location of the tapes Jesse recorded with the DEA, Todd pulls him out of the cell and brings him into his uncle’s meth lab. He locks Jesse onto a wire which is attached to his backside. It lets Jesse move freely around the lab but won’t let him leave. At the far end of the lab is a photo of Brock and his mother – a threatening reminder of why Jesse needs to cook with Todd.

Back at the car wash, Walt Jr. is being told everything by Marie and a tearful Skyler. Marie encourages Skyler to go back home. They do so just as Walt is packing up frantically at the same location. Skyler and Walt Jr. pull up and see Walt on his way out. All three go in the house, and Walt fends off questions from his family.

The next few scenes are fast moving. Walt continues to pack and starts moving out suitcases, promising he’ll explain everything later. Skyler grabs a knife (on the same counter where the old telephone lies that we saw in the flashback at the beginning) and tells Walt he must leave straight away. Walt is stunned and tries to grab the knife from her, but Skyler swipes at him and cuts his hand. They start wrestling on the floor for control of the knife, and Walt Jr. jumps in on the insane situation to support his mother. Skyler and Walt Jr. regain control, and the latter starts calling the cops on his father.

Walt then grabs his bags and grabs Holly on his way out the door. Skyler quickly notices and goes after Walt, but he’s already in the locked truck and in reverse, pushing Skyler’s car so he can make a getaway. Skyler runs after the truck, but it’s no use. He’s gone.

In the next scene we cut to Walt changing Holly in a public restroom. Holly starts saying the words ‘Mama’ over and over, which makes Walt tear up.

At the White house, cops are there issuing an Amber Alert for Holly when Walt calls. She answers while the cops record the call, and Walt belittles her incredulously. He goes so far as to call her a bitch. He makes her feel like absolute crap, and Skyler apologizes. When Skyler asks where Hank is, Walt says she’ll never see him again. Marie hears this and starts to break down, and Walt reminds Skyler that this is what happens when people cross him. But Walt is also breaking down – he’s making himself an even larger threat and rewriting the history of how Hank died to make him look like a big shot to the police and to place the blame on himself. By doing so, this former meth cook was doing a favor for his family and taking any potential blame off of Skyler.

Cut to the Albuquerque Fire Station, where firefighters notice that a firetruck has its lights blinking. They discover Holly inside. Walt left her there, perhaps because Holly was obviously very tied to her mother (as evidenced by the ‘mama’ calls).

We cut quickly to Walt, who’s at the place where Jesse was about to be picked up to start a new life. He has his barrel of money and a couple of bags. He hops in the van and heads out onto a new life.

This episode is easily one of the best in series history and was a landmark television event. We cannot even begin to imagine what happens next week, but we do know that Walt will be starting a new life on his own. We’re finally just starting to see how the flashforwards with a bearded Walt connect to the storyline, but we still don’t know why the White home has been destroyed like we saw at the start of the midseason premiere.