We've seen -- or rather heard -- some pretty relevant phone calls made in the most recent episodes of Breaking Bad, and based on the preview for next Sunday night's "Ozymandias," it looks like there's another one coming up. Of course, this one's just a voicemail, but it's a suspenseful one when set over the hair-raising sight of gunfire as the anticipated conclusion to the shootout from last night's cliffhanger resumes. Will Walt make it home to Skyler and his kids?
Given that the start of the second half of Season 5 kicked off with a flash-forward featuring Walt, we know he gets out of this alive. And really, there are still a few episodes of the series left, so it would be incredibly surprising if he didn't survive to at least get to the finale. I want to say the same about Jesse. The optimist in me hopes he'll get out of this series alive, but the realist in me thinks he could go down in a blaze of something before this show ends. But I don't think that will happen during this shootout. His death -- should he end up dying -- will hopefully be bigger and better than merely catching some stray bullets as Uncle Jack and his band of neo-nazi thugs attempt to mow down Hank and Gomez.
And that brings us to Hank and Gomez. Either are fair game at this point, though I want to believe Hank will survive this. Like Jesse, he deserves a better death. As much as I want Hank to survive this series, or at least, achieve some measure of victory over his rival, if anyone should take him out, it should be Walt. With that said, if Hank dies during this shootout, it won't directly be Walt's fault, as he tried to call off Jack and his guys the moment he realized Hank was there. So maybe this was meant to be how Hank dies, as a casualty of Walt's crimes but not by Walt's hands directly. It would remove Hank from the equation without having to force Walt to cross that line -- a line he outright chose not to cross last night when he told Jack to back off. It's so hard to know! And that's likely why we were left to watch the screen go black in the middle of the gunfire.
Skyler's voicemail reminds us that Walt has a family waiting for him at home. And it seems kind of fitting that the preview should use a call from the wife as the voiceover, considering it was Hank calling Marie to celebrate his impending victory over Walt that left him vulnerable to Jack's attack. If he had left the scene right away, he might not be in this predicament. But Hank's overconfidence is sort of what's held him back through the entire series, hasn't it? And now it might cost him his life. Whether or not it does remains to be seen, and we have nearly a week to wait for it.
In the meantime, read our full breakdown of last night's "To'hajiilee" here and watch the making of the shootout scene here.
Breaking Bad airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET on AMC.
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