Granite State: Walt Goes Off to Die, Then Goes Off to Kill People

Granite State was Breaking Bad's line-up behind the eight ball.  Walter White is now on his way back to New Mexico for his final showdown with Jack and Todd, and the lives of Brock, Jesse, and the rest of the White family hang in the balance.

Last night's episode was by far the bleakest and slowest paced of any of the new season.  Walt's cancer appears to be back with a vengeance, and as he wastes away on a cot in a cabin in New Hampshire, he realizes that unless he can get his money to his family, all of his crimes have been for nothing.  But his family wants nothing to do with him, and, for a minute, Walt gives up, calling the police to give away his position.

But everything that appears in Breaking Bad is guaranteed to reappear, even if it takes whole seasons for that to happen (see: ricin, the bear with the missing eye, Ted Benecke, etc), and, true to form, Gretchen and Elliot made a final appearance in tonight's show.  Elliot's underestimation of Walt was the inciting action for the entire story, and, though we haven't seen the Schwartz family for four seasons, was partially the fuel for Walt's hubris and need to prove himself by cooking blue sky meth.  To see Elliot once again dismiss him on television was the motivation Walt needed to return to New Mexico; Walt has always been underestimated, always suspected of being incapable of properly caring for his family, and his pride requires him to upend these assumptions in the final days of his life.

So what is the unfinished business Walt still has in ABQ?  Since Saul has disappeared into hiding for good, Walt's left with no hit men, and will have to take on Jack and Todd himself.  We know from the flash-forwards at the beginning and midpoint of season 5 that Walt goes back to Albuquerque with a gun, a car, and some ricin.  We assume the gun is to kill Jack and Todd, and hopefully to free Jesse.  Brock, now an orphan, deserves some restoration at the hands of the man who nearly killed him.  We'll hope that one of Walt's final acts will be to reunite Brock and Jesse for good.  And of course, Walt has to get his money back and return it to his family, or find some other way of providing for them.  Then, seeing as Walt has no one left to surreptitiously kill, perhaps the vial of ricin is for his own suicide.

Walter, after all, owes his family a complete and final exit from their lives.  Before he does, though, he-- and the audience-- need some assurance that they will get the money Walt has called "their birthright," even if Walt Jr. and Holly have both rejected him as their father.  Gustavo Fring's monologue at the beginning of season three, that a man should provide for his family, regardless of whether he is respected or loved by them, seems apt in the final moments of the show.  This is the driving ethic behind all of Walt's actions thus far, and will be the morality at play in next weeks' season finale.