Walt has just greeted a petrified neighbor Carol, gotten into his car, and pulled away after retrieving a small vial from his abandoned house.

Walt’s face shows his wheels are turning. He is concerned. He knows that Jesse is alive, or at least that Uncle Jack and his crew didn’t follow his instructions exactly.

And he knows Jesse has been to his house recently.

A teacher recognizes his student’s handwriting. “HEiSENBERG.” I’m thinking maybe Jesse used to be fond to some kind of odd CamelCase, signing his papers as “PiNKMAN.” Maybe a self-esteem issue, with the lower-cased “i.” But Walt knows who conducted this bit of vandalism. He just has no idea why.

(But we do. Territorial pissings.)

Next we see him knocking on a door. He is at Andrea Cantillo’s house. Her Abuela answers.

He asks after Andrea and the grandmother breaks down and tells him what happened; says that she takes care of Brock now and works the rest of the time to sort through the home’s items. It is clear she is managing. But just barely.

Walt asks about Jesse but is told he has not been heard from. He thanks her for her time. He offers her a $100 bill. She tries to decline, but he insists. He leaves.

As soon as she sees him leave, she opens a clam-style cell phone and places a call.

“Hey,” she says. “It’s me.”

*

In the meantime, Skyler White has become obsessed with one Lydia Rodarte-Quayle.

Her encounters with and regarding Lydia have been brief but poignant. The only time she lays eyes on Lydia, she represents a force trying to drag Walt back in. The next time the name comes up, she and her fam are being threatened by a masked goon squad, in her own home, no less.

We find her in her study, presumably in some sort halfway home, building a file on Lydia, compiling information about Madrigal Electromotive GmbH, which she’s discovered is Lydia’s employer.

She comes across a story on the Internet about a train robbery. She pauses, her eyes look leftward, she scrunches up her nose. “Nah,” she says audibly.

She comes across another story she’s more interested in. “Madrigal Partners With Smaller Firm for Drug Abuse Outreach.” The smaller firm being a little pharmaceutical firm based in Santa Fe known as Gray Matter.

Flynn enters. Of course he’s full-time calling himself Flynn now. Hey, Mom, he says. When’s breakfast?

*

Walt’s next stab at finding Jesse leads him to a place he never thought he’d venture again: The Crossroads Motel.

He drives up to the little dump in his big brown dump of a car and, as if she’d never left, there’s Wendy S. with her big beautiful smile, making her way to his passenger window.

“Hi, honey. What can I do for you,” she says, recognizing neither the car nor the driver.

“Jesse Pinkman,” he says. “Where is he?”

“Who?”

“Jesse Pinkman.”

Wendy wrinkles her nose at Walt.

“You mean Heisenberg?”

Understandably, Walt reacts with a double take.

“What?”

“Yeah, Heisenberg. Jesse is called ‘Heisenberg’ now.”

Walt laughs hysterically for about a minute. He very nearly requires an inhaler.

“Seriously?” he asks.

Wendy nods. Walter White pulls a big roll of bills out of his jacket pocket.

“Get in the car.”

*

Cut to the desert.

Three gentlemen with guitars dressed in cowboy hats are seen as performing yet another song in the narcocorrido style. They are identified via MTV-type chyron as Los Cuates de Sinaloa. The music might be the same or different as in S2E7, but the lyrics are updated to reflect the current story, but the refrain does not change:

“But that homie’s dead; he just doesn’t know it yet.”

*

Lydia falls to the floor unconscious. Her small daughter screams, mommy, mommy. The nanny rushes in, picks up the telephone, and calls for help.

*

Walt returns to the motel with Wendy. He thanks her for the information; she’s apparently been helpful. She exits the car. Then from nearly nowhere comes Jesse “Heisenberg” Pinkman. He is carrying a large, heavy gun. He is shoving Wendy into the back seat and helping himself to the shotgun spot. He is directing Walt to drive, then in a few hundred yards, he is directing Walt to stop.

Todd gets in the back seat.

Again at Jesse’s direction, Walt drives off.

*

(I don’t know if this gets finished or not. But it’s fun to think about and keeps me from going crazy until I can see the finale.)