Picking up from last year’s midseason finale, Hank rises from the toilet with a newfound and panic-stricken realization that Walt is indeed the Heisenberg he’s been hunting all this time. After making an excuse, hightailing it with Marie and having a fairly significant panic attack on the ride home, Hank re-opens the investigation in his own garage, and the sheer scope of the entire Heisenberg operation is fairly staggering.

Meanwhile, Walt tries to persuade Skyler to agree to expand their car-wash empire in order to better launder their giant brick o’ cash. Of course, as anyone could have predicted, extricating himself from Madrigal’s lucrative Czech-centric meth operation is not proving to be the cleanest of breaks. Lydia Rodart-Quayle, reigning Miss America and Joe’s Favorite Human, shows up at the car wash to bitch to Walt about plummeting purity standards in the meth (possibly because Todd the kid-killing fuckup is the new cook? I’m guessing). She wants Walt to come back for a week’s tutorial, but he turns her down, and when he tells Skyler that the jittery woman getting her rental car washed is an old business associate, Skyler makes it even plainer: never come back.

Jesse, for like the third time in six season premieres, is in a bad way, reeling from his guilt over the death of the dirt bike kid and the (probable) death of Mike at (most likely) Walt’s hand. After trying to get Saul to disburse his share of the meth money to Kaylee Ehrmantraut and the parents of Dirtbike Boy, Saul calls up Walt, who shows up at Jesse’s house to try to talk him out of giving everything away. He also makes a remarkably convincing case that Mike is perfectly alive and on the run somewhere. Jesse says he believes him and agrees to keep the money, but his face tells a different story. Indeed, by episode’s end, Jesse is driving through the impoverished neighborhoods of Albuquerque, tossing stacks of cash onto lawns like they’re copies of the morning news.

Finally, Walt discovers a tracking device on his car and, the next day, pays Hank a visit. Hank can barely speak to Walt, he’s shaking so much with a combination of fear and rage. When Walt tries to Columbo his way into asking about the tracking device, Hank shuts the garage door and confronts his enemy. Walt doesn’t deny being Heisenberg, and he gets a punch in the face from Hank for his trouble. Walt’s non-defense defense is this: he’s dying. His cancer is back. Even if Hank could prove his accusations, Walt will be dead before he’d ever see the inside of a jail cell. Is Hank willing to destroy his family for that? And moreover, is Hank willing to mess with crouching-tiger Walt?

Oh, and in the bearded-Walt flash forward, his home is abandoned and boarded up, a virtual crime scene, infested with skateboarders. Walt breaks in and retrieves his secret vial of ricin. Can’t imagine how that ends well.