When we last saw Walter White we were left with indistinguishable evidence that he had truly departed from being the cancer-ridden high school chemistry teacher who began selling methamphetamine to raise his funds for his family’s future well-being.

Walter White has officially transformed into his alter ego: Heisenberg.

Gone is any ambivalence or apprehension about what or who Walter White has become through four seasons of exceedingly unethical and unwarranted acts.

The huge reveal at the end of season four was not the death of Walt’s longtime adversary and boss Gustavo “Gus” Fring, but his willingness to risk a child’s life in his unbridled quest to win and survive.

If you had still been one of the few people left rooting for Walt’s continued ascension toward becoming an unwaveringly callous  antihero, season four left no doubt that the sheepish underachiever we all had empathy for is long gone.

With Gus now out of the way, Walt has taken up the mantle as the drug kingpin of New Mexico. His demeanor and words throughout the episode are that of a man that has taken—I stress taken—a position of power.

When his wife, Skylar,  questions him about the deaths of Fring, his henchman and former-nemesis-turned-accomplice Tio Salamanca he replies, “I won.”

This then led to another awkward exchange with Skylar when he asks her if she is relieved he is not dead, to which she replies: ”I am relieved, Walt, and scared.” When asked what she was scared of, “You.”

In the world of Breaking Bad there’s never a dull moment, so what was the major point of crisis for the premiere of the fifth and final season of the show?

Destruction of evidence.

Along with the murder of Gus, Walt and his trusty sidekick Jesse Pinkman made sure to destroy the lab where they had cooked so many batches of the highest quality meth the world has seen.

One oversight in the matter, however, was Gus’ use of cameras to record all the goings on of his lucrative lab. All the recording from the lab are saved to Gus’ laptop now in a police evidence lockup.

Walt and Jesse align themselves with Gus’ former triggerman Mike Sunday, despite his hatred for Walt, under the guise of the common goal of self-preservation. White seems to have a real knack for turning enemies into pawns for his bidding.

Jesse shows his value to the team by ultimately coming up with the clever idea of using magnets to solve their problems. While Mike and Walt bicker among themselves, Jesse sits comfortably in the background with these almost ignored interjections:

“What about a magnet?”

“Yo, what about like a magnet?”

“A magnet though maybe like …”

“Or what about a magnet?!”

Here’s the plan in a nutshell: load a truck with magnets, drive it up to the outer wall of police lockup and fry the computer. The idea seems maybe a little far-fetched, but I’ll take it.

As the police sort through the damaged evidence, they see that one of Gus’s home photos has shifted in its frame exposing a bank account routing number.

One could only expect that this will be a possible downfall for Heisenberg and the gang.

When asked by Mike—still angered by the death of Gus—why he should believe that their plan went off without a hitch, Walt replies: “Because I said so.”

If there’s one point that show runner Vince Gilligan wanted to get across in this episode, it is that Walt is an unfettered criminal giddy with the potential of his now unchecked dominance.

Breaking Bad